Brewz Crewz Newz

I thought chaos was about to break out when they ran out of Magic Hat Number 9. It all started with a flyer. Pretty much everyone at work knows about my quest for the love of beer, so when the flyer was put up in the break room for the Brewz Crewz Craft Beer Festival it was made a point to be brought to my attention. So what is Brewz Crewz? Its a craft beer festival held in downtown lakeland in the park. They have about 25 different craft beer vendors come out with a few different selections and tasters pay a fee to get in and they get a 2oz tasting cup to go around and try them all out. Because I am new to the beer world, this was my first ever beer festival of any sort, and I was extremely excited.
Prior to the event, Eric Pera printed an article about it in the Lakeland Ledger. The article's opening lines made the event more appealing than it already was. It reached out to me and the cause of this blog, and it just seemed like the perfect event to attend:

Pera wrote, "The Brewz Crewz craft beer festival, featuring some of the nation's finest artisinal brewers, is notable for its brazen attempt to steer beer drinkers deep
in the heart of Anheuser-Busch country to an alternative universe, where
Budweiser and other bland, light lagers made for the masses are forbidden."

Pera's introduction spoke to me because it was as if the event was made for this blog. That sounds ridiculous but true beer lovers are not content drinking Budweiser or Michelob Ultra, their palates are better suited for a fine craft beer, one with more flavor to boast: more than flavored water. To better understand the festival and its purpose it is imperative to know what a craft beer is. To be considered a craft beer, Pera wrote, that "according to the Brewer's Association, [a true craft beer] must have annual production of less than 2 million barrels, half of which must be an all-product." In lamens terms, it means that craft beers are rarer than your average Anheuser-Busch product; they are sometimes difficult to find.



So this past weekend, I took the night off from work and attended the festival. It was definitely an experience. First of all the event started at 6, but I didn't get there until 6:30 because, it was the same day as my best friend's birthday party and I spent the day getting stuff for the party, that was after the festival, and ended up running late. When me and my fiance finally arrived there was no parking, so I parked at the bank, even though there were signs about towing cars that were non-banking customers, but the bank was closed. We purchased our tickets at the entrance, even though they did offer advance ticket sales online, but because I was broke and I procrastinated, we waited to buy ours last minute. Two types of tickets were sold, general admission and VIP. VIP ticket holders recieved a t-shirt, 5 fast passes to cut ahead of lines for beers, and access to an indoor venue with an indoor restroom; the difference in price between the general admission and VIP 35 vs. 50. We got general admission, but my friends got VIP. VIP wasn't worth the extra money. I enjoyed myself just as much as they did, and I didn't have to use the restroom till we were leaving so i just used the ice cream shoppe restroom by buying a soda. Thanks to my fiance, I tried a lot of different beers. We would both get different beers and then try each others. I tried all different types: ciders, IPAs, ales, lagers, bocks, and even a porter.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the festival. Not only was there plenty of beer to sample, but there were free food samples, which included GrillSmiths who had a delicious lemon feta chicken Mmmm, and live music. Tons of people attended and I got to see all kinds of characters of people. Beer drinkers are happy people, and they are especially happy when they are drinking beer. I only ran into a couple of belligerent drunks, which was way less than what I expected. The cons were that the lines were semi-long, it was cold, the map wasn't very explanatory, and it was dark out so i couldn't really see the colors of the beers I was trying. The worst con was that an hour into the festival, approximately 7pm, a few vendors ran out of beer and food, they just were not prepared for the amount of people who showed up.

I am very glad I attended the Brewz Crewz craft beer festival. It was highly enjoyable and I experienced a lot. I also learned quite a bit. First of all i learned I really don't like hoppy beers. I don't enjoy the flowery bitter tasted, but on the contrary I did learn that I'm taking a liking to darker beers, especially those with a caramelly, coffee-ish, or chocolate-y flavor. I learned to really savor each taste of beer and try to taste the different flavors.

I had two highlights of the evening. the first was at the second to the last beer vendor I went to. As I walked up to the table, I asked my fiance which beer I should try to which he responded, the porter. So I said ok and requested it. The pourer looked at me with an odd face and said why don't I give you a small taste first because most people don't like the porter. As I tried the beer everyone around me was grinning waiting for me to be digusted. WRONG! to their surprise, I liked the porter and so he filled my tasting cup up. My last highlight was at the very last table we went to: Magic Hat. Magic Hat was only serving #9, and it was draft. Apparently, #9 was a hit, that night so the line was very long, but we waited patiently and then it happened. A man at the table shouted that they were all out. I thought chaos was about to break out. You don't tell beer drinkers who have been waiting a while for a 2 oz. pour of beer that there isn't any left. Thank goodness they found another mini keg. the day was saved! O and the beer was pretty tasty.