I don't think I had a chance to try yours! Time got away from me and I was only able to walk around towards the end of the night and didn't try nearly as many beers as I had hoped.
Thanks for the kind words! They told me I came 3 votes short of 1st place but it was nice that they did the "brewer's choice" because in my mind that is more of a compliment than the popular vote anyway...
I believe it was your wife who came over to get a sample while you tended the table. I'm not sure if it made it back to your or not. I didn't make it around much either, but I had friends getting samples for me the whole time.
Yours was one of very few beers there, that I thought was brewed well.
I hear you on the popular vote. Most seemed like they were there to get hammered and/or fed. The amount of pensive individuals who were clearly focused on choosing a good beer ...
Yeah, those were few and far between. Those are the folks I had some great conversations with, so I'm glad to walk away with their respects.
I was a bit disappointed in how the event was organized. Not sure why pro brewers had tables there. Upstairs there was a decent Session IPA, but the Weyerbacher Tart beer right next to it was pretty awesome. I feel like he got short changed.
I also felt like some of the food vendors brought offerings that did not compliment the homebrews within their proximity.
I was lucky enough to be next to a bacon, cheddar, chipotle dip ... which was decent with my beer. I could see some thinking that was unfair.
And Keystone with the Hop Rocket, that was nice and all ... but anyone who tried that first was coming close to torching their palate right off the bat.
I had fun, and got excellent feedback for my beer. Even though I had a good time, no way I'll be back next year. It's clearly not an event to bolster the art of brewing, seemed more like a money grab to me.
Call me crazy, but only home brewers with no skin in the game should have been allowed to provide beer for this event.
I suppose they needed to justify ticket sales, so maybe from a business perspective this made sense to them. I simply cannot respect it.