First Annual Fall Beer Festival
First off, I’ve got to rail a little against the title. It’s not an annual event unless it’s happened a second time. It’s a journalism thing. That’s the only thing I didn’t like about this little Saturday “daycation” I took.
Nashville holds two annual beer festivals that I’m aware of. The first, the Music City Brewer’s Festival, is held in the oppressive July heat and is pretty pricey if I remember correctly. The second is the Tennessee Beer Festival. It’s held at Two Rivers Mansion and is easier on the wallet, but the selection isn’t as attractive.
Now my favorite watering hole, The Flying Saucer, is attempting to put on their own little shindig.
This grand event was held in front of the Saucer’s 10th Avenue location. The reserved parking spaces and a bit of the street were closed off to accommodate the entry tent, five beer tents strung together, a small food tent, a DJ tent (music provided by a couple of DJs from Lightning 100), and a few rows of picnic tables and folding chairs under a larger tent. All in all, not a ton of room for a big crowd, but I guess it was a good thing that there wasn’t a huge crowd, at least not while I was there.
My plan was to get there at noon, when it began, and leave at 10 p.m., when it ended. Things happened beforehand that caused me to show up about 45 minutes later than planned, and, well, nothing happened that caused me to leave early, I just couldn’t drink anymore beer. I gave it my best shot, but I guess I was found lacking. It was for the best, though, what with having to get up at 5:15 the next morning when all three kids decided they needed to be awake.
Now, I’m going to just admit that I can’t recall why I liked the beers I liked. Ditto for the ones I didn’t like. I had 13 high alcohol content brews, and they took a bit of a toll on me (don’t worry, I stopped drinking about an hour and a half to two hours before I went home…no problems there). I can remember that there wasn’t a one that I didn’t supremely dislike, and there were quite a few that I’d like to sample more of.
Here’s my tally for the day:
- Terrapin Side Project Hopzilla Imperial IPA
- Left Hand Twin Sister’s IPA
- BBC Hell Fer Certain
- Fritz & Ken
- Dogfish Head Punkin
- He’brew Rejewvenator ‘10
- Stone Smoked Porter
- Rogue XS McRogue Scotch Ale
- Dogfish Head Sah’tea
- Left Hand 400lb. Monkey
- Yazoo Hop Project
- Stoudt’s IPA
- Terrapin India Brown Ale
I also filled my belly with a Space Club (my personal favorite sandwich on their menu) and fries during a trip inside and two brats on buns outside.
I also walked away with a nice Schlafly key chain/bottle opener. And I don’t even feel bad about not having their Oktoberfest.
Attendance was sparse for most of my time there. I think it was most crowded between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00. The bar inside was full each time I went in, though, and with the ability to travel in and out at will, it’s a bit difficult to say exactly how well attended the festival was. I hope it was well enough received for this to actually become an annual event. I ended up sampling 12 beers (I’d had the Yazoo Hop Project before) that I’d never had before. And although I was by myself for half my time there (a big thanks to Katie V. for hanging with me for a few hours!), I think if I properly pestered enough people sooner than I did this time, I’d be able to drag a decent crowd along.
No comments:
Post a Comment