Even though I did not go to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver or the Holiday Ale Festival in Portland and missed many, many events in the Southland area, 2011 was still a busy beer year for me.
Here is what I will remember most from the year that was(in no particular order):
1. CANFEST
There are good days and bad but when you get an e-mail that says that you have won a free trip to a beer festival. That is a great day times twenty. And getting a limo ride was cool, a tour of Reno beer spots from Doug at Buckbean was cool and best of all. The actual festival exceeded my expectations. I was floored by the geographic variety of breweries that can from across the country.
2. LA BEER WEEK
This year, I was not sick during the festival and I needed to be in peak condition. I was at an event almost every night. But the best of the two week fest was the Firestone-Walker Deconstructed party. One of my craft beer bucket list items was having a Sean Paxton special beer dinner. Check that off. The idea of trying all the components of the XV was brilliant.
3. GOLDEN ROAD
I have been lucky enough to be here in Los Angeles as craft beer has finally gotten off the ground. I got to walk around Eagle Rock Brewery before it became the beer destination that it is today and this year, I got to do the same thing with Golden Road Brewing. I had the honor of being at several media days at the brewery and to see the rapid growth is amazing. I am a lucky camper to have both ERB and Golden Road within 10 minutes of my apartment.
4. BEER BLOGGERS CONFERENCE
Any time I can get to Portland for beer is a good time and would make a year end list. But what really vaults this trip to the 2nd Beer Bloggers Conference into the top tier was a traffic ridden trip to the farm, the hop farm. I really loved touring through the in production Goschie Farms. The scent of hops in the air. Little green snowflakes flying. Seeing the hop bines. Just tremendous. Not to diss the rest of the conference, but those little green cones are scene stealers.
5. Stone Brewing
2011 will go down for me as the year where I truly felt like a member of the L.A. craft beer media. And when did I know this? When I and quite a few others in the beer trade are being squired around the San Diego area with Greg Koch and the Stone gang (including the awesome Randy Clemens). I got to visit Stone Farms and eat awesome food that was grown steps away, went to the Liberty Station site, learned about the Stone store in South Park and have Stone beer at each stop. A great way to spend a day.