California Trip (Part 2) - The Firestone Walker Inaugural Fest

That is 3 Floyds Dark Lord Vanilla Bean. Really. Suck it.

The whole plan for this trip started when Firestone Walker announced that they were planning the Invitation Festival this winter. Ashley (being the loyal Facebook devotee) caught the post the day they put it up. We recruited Eric and bought the regular tickets the first day they went on sale.

And then we planned a trip around the fest and the easiest days to fly from ORD to SFO.

They've gotten a ton of great press about the event already so there's no need for me to go into a ton of detail about it. But I'd be doing the event and those responsible for organizing it a huge disservice if I didn't say that it was simply the best fest I've been to thus far. The selection of beers, the organization of the festival grounds themselves, and the concept behind it were all phenomenal.

I had the chance to revisit some of my favorites, try a ton of beers you just can't get here in Chicago (Russian River, Pizza Port, etc) and to sample more than a few super-rare specialties.

They just announced June 1st, 2013 the date for next year's fest. I'll be shocked if I have any trouble convincing my partners in crime to do a second round... (Well, other than the fact that Ashley and I will likely have just gotten back from our honeymoon.)

Firestone Invitational Beer Fest

I just bought tickets for the first Firestone Invitational Beer Fest for the fiance, a buddy (who lived in San Luis Obispo and introduced me to their beer) and myself. I'm stoked.

Depending on how the flights work out we might hit up some of the other breweries in the northern California / San Fran area. Russian River and 21st amendment are on the list. More details to follow.

A Little Bit of Beer Porn

Happy Hannukah to me.

(Sorry about the slight blurriness in the picture - I took it on my phone because I wanted to get all of this properly stashed away in the fridge.)