CBC Days 3 & 4

I just realized that these posts may not be super interesting, so decided on wrapping up the whole Craft Brewers Conference thing in one last post.  If you really want to know more, then I will be happy to tell you all about it over some pints.

The early seminars were sparsely attended to say the least (I didn't miss anything, so the under won), free beer can do that to people.  Like the first day, seminars were hit or miss, but looking back I was able to take something from everything I sat in. 

Spent a good amount of time wandering the trade show talking with many of the various vendors.  I was able to meet a lot of good people and have a few things going now in terms of equipment and raw material suppliers.  Not that I have been to a trade show before, but this is probably the best one around.  Why you ask? Beer, plain and simple.  There was at least one "beer station" in every aisle of the show.  It made perfect sense, like right next to the Cask Systems booth (canning lines) they were serving a variety of craft beers that come in cans.  Even if you didn't want a beer, you were constantly asked if you wanted one.  Rough life I know.

That night there was a rare beer tour around the city, which proved to be a total Charlie Foxtrot.  It resulted in some great beer samples, but was a horribly managed event.  At the first bar, I was really hoping to get to try the Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32% ABV beer), but had to settle for Brew Dog's Tokyo and a few other offerings.  That beer was fantastic.  I did get to talk with the guy who started Brew Dog, and got some great advice about getting started.  Another highlight of that night was trying all the 2005 vintages of Dogfish Head's beers, the 120 min is tasty after 5 years of aging.

Day 4 was really uneventful as I did not attend the World Beer Cup Gala and Dinner.  That day was just seminars and then the conference was over for me.  All in all, if I can make it work I will attend the CBC every year and hopefully have some beers entered in the WBC.

Back to work, but never back to reality