Not very full right now

One of two tents at ER Beer Fest. This was pretty early in the event and not that many people were here yet. Temps were hot, humidity was high, and beer was going down good, so far...

Best Bock and Most Personable Servers!

The Gleuk (pronounced like glick) from Cold Spring, MN. This crew gets my award for being the most personable! The Bell's dude could take some lessons from them! It was very nice chatting with him and enjoing the great beverages he brought along.

I would have to say that while I really enjoy the bitter follow on a tasty bock. Their Honey Bock was very good! No overly sweet taste at all, but finished nicely. The Golden Pilsner was another one of their beers that I liked. I am not a fan of Black and Tan beers, so I did not sample that. BP will have to weigh in on his comments, when he does, I'll include them here.

They also brought along some cool packaging for their Stite beers! An aluminium bottle! Very strong, weighs less than a bottle, and overall cool:-) You can read more info about it here. I was able to walk away with one of the bottles.

Ah Heck B About To Toss One Back!

BP enjoying the day!! BP? What does that stand for? If you scroll down near the bottom you might say it stands for Bathroom Patrolman...

Local news covering the event

Channel 12 news dude on location! Capturing the event for all to see at 6 and 10.

Come on in!!

The entrance to the Eagle RIver Beer Festival!

Hardest Miles Traveled to Attend!!

Bobby!! He is one beer lovin dude!! Rode his bicycle 20 miles or so, in the heat and humidity, to enjoy this day!! I cannot believe it! He is the man!! He plotted out the route using his GPS software and used that as his guide. I can't wait to follow up with him on Monday and see if he made it back, or if he called for a ride.

Most Interesting Beer

South Shore Brewery from Ashland, WI. They brought with them a Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout. Now, personally, I did not want to try it. But, in the spirit of the event, decided to give it a try. It was very different. And not in a bad way! You really could not taste mint, but it was in the bouquet. Bob, BP, and I discussed this one for a while. Poor BP could not smell too good due to a cold, but Bob and I both came to the same conclusion, it would be a good after dinner beer. They don't make this for production, they brewed up a barrel a year or so ago and he brought this along. The gentleman serving said that it had lost some of its minty appeal while sitting. They also droght a Nut Brown Ale, which is their "flagship" beer. That was very good beer!

Check them out on the web.

Lookin around

More of the tent scene. I didn't know it until I was posting this, but there go Jennifer and her Dad. If I recall right, she got her Dad a ticket for Father's Day. WOW! What a kid, eh? Sammi, Mikey, are you reading this??

More lookin

My little cell phone camera isn't a great camera at getting the whole shot, but this pretty much shows the two tents from which the brewers served their beers. A really nice place to have any event!

4, 3, 2, 1... We're here at the Eagle River Beer Festival and I am plowed...

Messing with the local news crew:-) Just before he started his take, I said "don't screw this up", and snapped this picture. As I was walking away, I heard him restart his take, "4, 3, 2, 1...". I never got to watch the news and check out his report, but he seemed like he was having some fun!! I mean who wouldn't, right? It's a Beer Festival!!

Biggest Disappointment

All I can say is major disappointment by their representative. He seemed to have been having a bad day and that left a sour taste in my mouth where their beer normally leaves a great taste. Good God, they didn't even bring their Porter. I tried to engage him in meaningful, beer related conversation, and he just omitted a bad vibe. He was also very stingy on the pour. I mean, come on, a finger width? I had to get 3 or 4 miniscule shots of Oberon to get the taste. If it had not been for the Oberon Ale, I would not even acknowledge their presence at this great event. Come on Bells Brewing, you can do BETTER!

[EDIT] I have learned that this server was NOT a representative of Bells Brewing. My apologies to Bells Brewing. Maybe next year will be different. We can only hope!

Best Damned Porter, Period!

I would say that Red Hook Brewing Company was the overall winner of the Best Damned Porter Award for Black Hook Porter. Of course they get nothing, other than our pledge to drink more of their beer as we find it and to encourage others to do so as well!! They also brought their Red Hook ESB, another dandy beer!! Way to go Red Hook!!

Hmmm, Honey!!

BP could not get enough of that Honey Bock, wink-wink... I think he's trying to broker a deal with the Gluek people to get a couple cases hidden in the woods for later.

Bathroom Patrolman

I spotted this dude lurking in the men's room, not that that is a bad thing! Well, technically, I guess it is. But, he likes beer and, given his appearance in this photo, has enjoyed a whole lot of them!!

Word also has it that he runs a popular Vintage Snowmobile website too!!

Best Beer Tub Award!

Leinie's wins the best beer tub award!! The rest brought traditional coolers or waterproof cardboard boxes filled with ice. Not these guys! They brought a friggin canoe!! :-) The brought the following beers:
Honey Weiss
Berry Weiss
Leinie's Light
Northwoods Lager
Creamy Dark
I liked the Leinie's Light! This is not something we had been able to get around our area. They have been serving it up in their local town of Chippewa Falls, WI. Now it is being served to the masses. This might be a daily drinker!

We gravitated to this area near the end of the day. Mostly because the canoe was manned by nobody:-) Well, not really nobody, but word has it that this guy had to leave and one of the guys who works at the local boozer, Liquor Spot, was serving beers. He's a real nice dude!

Go visit the Leinie Lodge!!

Fillin up!

Tents are starting to get full. It was pretty warm inside of the tents. Most people would grab their sample and step back into the breeze.

Comfortable Sized Crowd

More of the crowd... The place was not overly full at all. A perfect sized area for the event. They have room to expand in the coming years! I for one hope this is the start of a great yearly event!

BP is getting reacquainted with an old friend. See, beer fests are good!

New Glarus Brewery

Some kind gents serving up New Glarus beer! They had the following beers:
Edel Pils
Native Ale
Spotted Cow
Totally Naked
Hop Hearty IPA (One of my favs)
Fat Squirrel
I thought they may have had another beer not accounted for on this list, but I cannot recall, maybe someone will post a comment and I can revise this listing. They really should have brought their Uf-Da Bock. That is some good beer!
New Glarus Brewing Web Site

Hey... What's that on your toes?

Jennifer had some toe rings on:-) I tried to see what the hell they were. But, soon realized I couldn't make them out, as my eyes would cross the instant I tried to focus on anything smaller than my beer glass. I took a picture, cuz they last longer. My eyes still cross trying to see what they are:-)

It's getting late, party is almost over :-(

We got together a little posse of drinkers later in the event. I used to work at the same place that Jennifer, the one on the right, works for now. It was fun talking about who is there and who is not. Sounds like they got rid of some peeps. BP snuck in the backside:-) Hard to get three peeps in a camera phone shot.

Look ma! I'm at beer fest with some guy and his camera phone

Some happy Beer Festers! Once ya bring out a camera, they start showing up to have their picture taken. Hope we told them this would wind up on the web... Hmmm...

Stop lights? We don't need no steenking stop lights!

Our designated driver insisted on stopping for red lights!! But, we made it home safely, that's all that is important:-)