It is easy to write an Invitational recap. Talk about the heat. Talk about your favorite beers. Talk about the lines. Talk about how well this event is run and voila, word count is hit.
I will instead focus on a different tack…
Each
FWIBF is safe, structured and similar.
That may seem like faint praise but it is not. I know that everything will run
smoothly. They will be ready with
information weeks before the event, they will follow up, badges will be handed
out, the BBQ will start on time and the festival, well, the festival will have
too much. I would like to spend three
days going through the beers.
What
is great is that there are the in-between times where you can explore Paso Robles
and you had best explore it because for a smaller, out of the way town, there
is a lot of beverages to check out and food to eat. I have my own schedule of visiting Silva
Brewing, Twisted and Glazed Donuts and Tin City but you can do the new Field of
Light exhibit now or hit up Templeton and their quaint Main Street. Or head to the other side of the 101 and all
the wineries there. Firestone also has a
morning after wine brunch to ease you back into Sunday and to be able to talk
about the beers from the day before.
This
year, my wife and I stayed in an airstream trailer outside of town that
overlooked a vineyard and had a friendly pit bull named Ladybug along with
chickens and rabbits and a beautiful night sky.
Next year, I might stay in a different part of town (if I go of course,
let’s not get ahead of ourselves). Who
knows, I might go up next year even if I don’t go to the festival. I might head north just to visit all the breweries
that I can’t get to like Tent City or in SLO.
As
far as the festival itself, it is all just nitpicking but I have come up with some
quick greater than – less than notes from the 28+ samples that I tasted on the
day.
Great
Leap from China > Balter from Australia
Green
Cheek booth display = Alvarado Street booth display
Side
Project line > Garage Project line (due to The Bruery doing ½ of the beer
presentation of one Garage Project beer)
Pils
as Festival collab beer > barrel-aged collab
Not
following my own set festival rules because I am easily distracted >
following my own set festival rules
Oh,
and my favorite brewery was Rare Barrel.
They have seriously dialed into my taste buds. Sadly, I did not like the two Hair of the Dog
beers that I sampled even though I was really pumped for them to be there. I also missed Sante Adairus and Russian River
which is very, very bad of me.
