A long, strange (and wonderful) trip

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

We had an amazing meal and an amazing time at our beer dinner at The Kitchen in Boulder, CO last night.  This is the event at which we kick off GABF every year. 

The Isabelle Proximus crew at The Kitchen 

The Isabella Proximus crew at The Kitchen

Here's a photo of us drinking a rare and wonderful bottle of Isabella Proximus,  a sour ale we brewed together six years after returning from a trip to Belgium to do "research" for my book Extreme Brewing.  Each of these brewers and many others were kind enough to share homebrew recipes for that book. Left to right that's Rob Todd of Allagash, me, Adam Avery of Avery Brewing, Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/Lost Abbey, and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River. 

This afternoon at The Cheeky Monk I'm doing an event with my pals Greg Koch of Stone Brewery and Bill Covaleski of Victory Brewing serving our three versions Saison Du BUFF. Then, I meet my co-workers to set up and host our booth at GABF - the worlds greatest beer festival. There's so much good karma spending time and energy on collaboration over completion. It's great to see my friends who own breweries and congratulate them on their beers & businesses as we catch up and talk shop at these events. We've grown up together as more and more beer enthusiasts have chosen to support small indie American breweries. What a long strange (and wonderful) trip it is.