Day 4 Beer Bloggers Conference Asheville, NC

Well day 4 didn’t start out quite as bad as day 2, but it was up there. I decided to take it easy and just walk around downtown prior to my 4 pm flight. I found lots of cool stores and bought a few little souvenirs to take home. I did try one brewery– basically because I was hungry and it seemed like I could squeeze one more in.

Lexington Ave Brewery was conveniently located downtown and had pretty diverse menu– so I said why not? The beer list was pretty dismal after the weekend so I only got to try 6 beers.

All of the beers here were pretty good but I was very impressed with the 1st Gear Cream Ale. I am not generally a fan of cream ales as many taste like Budweiser but watered down. This one was fantastic with lots of malt flavor.

I also tried Waves of Grain (a red ale), Hop Burst (pale ale), Eleanor Rye, Big Country (double IPA), and The Knuckle (oatmeal stout). After a few days of drinking some of the best beers imaginable, they didn’t seem anything special. Maybe I will get a chance one day to go back and try them on their own merit.

Hope to see you again sometime– Asheville!

Day 3 Beer Bloggers Conference Asheville, NC

Day 3 turned out to be another really great day and my first real opportunity to explore the beer scene in Asheville. After a morning of lectures, including a panel entitled “From Blog to X” where I was a panelist speaking about how I used my blog to leverage a weekly newspaper article, I headed out on the Asheville excursion.

This was a bargain at just $15 for a tour/sampling at 5 breweries and a lunch.

The first stop was Asheville Brewing Company. I actually thought this was the worst stop on the trip as they didn’t really seem to know that we were coming. Eventually, they provided us with two samples– Shiva IPA and Ninja Porter. Both beers were quite good and very representative to style.

Following Asheville was Burial Beer Company. We got a first hand tour from the brewer and tried some really great beers. The Pollination Honey Saison was a nice refreshing sweet beer. The Scythe Rye IPA was very true to style (hard to find in a rye) and reminded me a lot of Ryeght Angle from Fat Point. I am a big fan of the ryes if they are done correctly. We also tried the Winnower which was a chocolate raspberry porter. I wanted more from this beer, although it was quite tasty. I was hoping for the illusive one from DuClaw.

After Burial, we headed to Catawba Brewing. My understanding is that the main brewery is somewhere near Salem, NC, and that this is kind of a satellite tasting room. If it was or not, it had some pretty great beers. We were given a full flight with the REDiculous Red IPA, Sour and Sexxxy Saison, Brewtal Double IPA, and the Barrel Aged Black Dome Stout. The stout is a do not miss– fantastic with great bourbon flavors.

Next stop was Twin Leaf Brewery. Here we tried the Uproot ESB and 144 (Code Name: Juicy Fruit). Yes it did taste like juicy fruit gum.

Off to the next stop– Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium where we had a fantastic selection of sours–White Angel, Gold Angel, and Red Angel. I really am learning to love this style of beer.

That officially ended the tour but none of us were done. I had to head over to the famous Wicked Weed to try some of their other styles of beer. I found some friends and split a flight that contained– Coolcumber, Currant Raspberry IPA, Tropic Most Gose, XLVII Pineapple Guava Saison, Black Angel Cherry Sour, and XLVI Salted Chocolate Black Saison.

After the flight it was back up the street to find Green Man Brewery. Another flight awaited me there of Wayfarer, IPPA, Oakey Lafarge, and Paint it Black IPA. I also got to taste a guest tap from Pisgah Brewing, Pisgah Pale Ale.

After that everyone had to grab some dinner and I found myself at Farmhouse Burger where I had the #2, a seitan burger with beets. I would have thought it would be horrible but it was actually great.

We headed around the corner to the Thirsty Monk but at this point, I had to cut myself off or I would have been way to drunk to function! And there was still almost a full day tomorrow…

Day 2 Beer Bloggers Conference in Asheville

So day 1 had so much beer I took it easy the second day. I needed a bit of aspirin to get through the morning but was better by the afternoon. This day started a bit late for me too.

The afternoon started with session by Budweiser talking about how they make their beer. The interesting part of this was that they had some real wort flown in overnight from their Williamsburg brewer. However, I really didn’t think a Budweiser presentation fit with the rest of the agenda.

The keynote speaker followed, Kim Jordan, CEO of New Belgium, which is opening a new brewery in Asheville. She gave a great speech with some really funny moments. In addition, she brought beer, including Eric’s Ale, a peach sour that hasn’t been made in a couple of years. Great beer– I am really starting to like sours more than I used to.

For the speed blogging session, brewers from several local breweries (part of the NC Brewer’s Alliance) brought beer to sample and told us about the different brews. The idea was to do one beer from each brewery in 50 minutes and blog about them in real time.

Well, most of the breweries brought more than one beer and there were about 10 breweries so it turned more into 30 beers in that short period of time. I actually am a sipper and I like to savor the taste of my beer and in this instance I could not do that. Basically, all I was able to do was put a score and picture into Untapped for each beer. This really wasn’t my style of beer appreciation. I would loved to have been able to savor some of the beers, not rush through them. For many of the beers, I wasn’t able to take more than one or two sips. Here are just a few that we tasted.

The evening ended with an event at the Millroom in downtown Asheville. I decided to sit this one out. I wanted to be able to enjoy my beer tour the next afternoon and I needed some healthy detox food. I found myself enjoying a delicious vegetarian meal at the Laughing Seed instead.

I also got to see a bit of Saturday night in Asheville, including a woman who was walking her goat on a leash

Day 1 Beer Bloggers Conference in Asheville

Well I have finally gotten a chance to sit down and write about this awesome experience. If you are looking to have a great time and meet some beer lovers like me, then I highly suggest the Beer Bloggers Conference. Next year is Tampa and, since I don’t know where I am going to be, I am not sure I will attend. This one in Asheville sold out so I suggest that if you do want to go that you book now. You can click here for information on how to register.

So what was so special about this year’s conference in Asheville??? Everything. You got VIP treatment, lots of great beer from breweries all over the country, and met a lot of great people.

Day 1 was probably the best day of the trip. We started out at the conference hotel with a couple of talks but then traveled to two of the largest breweries in the Asheville area– Oskar Blues and Sierra Nevada.

To get there we took the Oskar Blues trolley, which didn’t have air but was a great time (and who needs air conditioning when travelling down the highway at 65 mph).

At Oskar Blues, we were treated to picnic tables filled with swag and coolers filled with beer. I am a big fan of Pinner so I had a couple. We also got some samples of a Mango Habanero Dales Pale ale. I really liked the Death by Coconut, as it was reminiscent of Maui Coconut Porter (one of my favs). I went upstairs to the tap room and tried a couple of saisons and a barrel aged G’Knight that was spectacular.

After all that, we traveled to Sierra Nevada’s brewery. I had seen a feature on CBS regarding the brewery but it didn’t do it justice. It is spectacular! It is like a ski chalet with a huge flagstone patio and sited in a big park! It is worth the trip just to see this!

We were treated to a brewery tour by the Grossmans themselves!

After the tour, we headed down into the woods for a great pig roast cookout and the first of this year’s Oktoberfest beer in big steins (which we got to take home)! The German brewers that collaborated on the beer were also there with their beer.

And after all that– we still weren’t done. We were treated to a huge beer tasting event with beers from throughout the United States but particularly represented were breweries from throughout the state of North Carolina. For a list of all the beers I tried, you’ll have to check out my untapped account (terezam)

Finally the night ended with a bottle share. By this time, I really couldn’t drink much more but I had to try to elusive Pliny the Elder.