Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet??

That is about how many times I said that in the drive from Crandon to Eagle River!! BP is driving and our designated driver, Mrs. BP, is paying attention to the route so that she can return us home safely!

Sadness... This is the last picture to post in the 2006 Eagle River Beer Festival blog. All pictures taken with my Motorola V400 camera phone, with the exception of the pics taken by Bill. Yes, it will be very obvious which ones they are! I wish I had taken more pictures, but hey, it's all about the beer!!!

Until 2007... Keep a tight one! 

Screwing with the camera guy!!

Bill was trying to take pictures of the crowd. BP and I could not resist screwing around with him:) This picture is out of order for the day, but I forgot to post it earlier, DOH! It was fun! You can see the people behind us probably saying, "hey, get the hell outta the way, we wanna be in the 2006 Slideshow". Well, I might be able to help you out with that... 

LET ME IN!!!!!

COME ON!! I can see the beer!! I can even smell the beer!! But yet I am still on the outside!! HURRY!! hahahaha. The gang at the ERBF did a really good job getting people in, VaLynda is seen here checking ID's and getting the wrist bands on. Eventually they got some help and Bill came to put wristbands on. Good job guys! 

Bagpipers!

This was neat! I always liked the way bagpipes sound and these ladies did an awesome job playing! They walked around playing, it was cool! 

That Fuggled Up IPA is gonna be a star!!

This camera crew was around for a while taking some video. Here they are checking out the Falls Brewing table. No doubt they are interested in the new packaging and label changes that Falls Brewing is going through. By the way, good call on changing you labels and packaging, Falls Brewing! The old stuff was UGLY, better yet, FUGLY!!

The Fuggled Up IPA was a really good beer! I love those hoppy beers, but this one didn't seem so jacked up, for being an IPA. The nice gentleman pouring said that it was brewed in the English style, not the American style, and so it was not quite so hoppy as you might expect if you were used to American IPA's. Cool, I learned something today!! The Honey Blonde and Nut Brown Ales were also some very tasty beers! 

Kind of busy, but not bad!!

This was taken about 3 PM. You can see that it is kind of crowded, but the waiting time was minimal. People seemed to be real good about stepping back after getting something to sample. Every now and then you would come across the foursome that had to stand and talk about the beer about 2 feet from the table. But, for the most part, everyone was real nice and if you asked to be let past they would make room. 

Cruzin Cooler® Matches my shirt!!

I tracked down Bill and had him get his camera so that he could take a couple of pictures of BP and I riding the coolers. These things were fun! Thanks a bunch to Bill Summers for the high quality pictures! Beats the crap out of the cell phone images!! 

More Cruzin Cooler®

These things were cool as hell!! Nic, a guy I work with suggested that we get these for the ERBF this year. I passed the info along to Bill and he contacted the local distributor, well, about as local you get for being in the Northwoods!! The local distributor is Danielle Babino from Clintonville, WI (120 miles away). She agreed to come up and bring the Cruzin Coolers for demo rides and hopefully to sell a couple. You can see that I am sitting on one and yes, it did go with my fat arse on it!!

Check out Danielle's website, http://www.ridesomethingcooler.com . We had a blast hanging around with them and trying them out! I sure wish I could have bought one, it would have been fun! Some day! While we were hanging around one lady did buy one! 

Tyranena!

This is probably the one brewery I was happiest to see come!! I really had hoped they would have brought draught beer, but bottles are good:) They did bring growlers of the Fargo Brothers Hefeweizen. That was some awesome stuff! The Three Beaches Honey Blonde was good too; I haven't had either of those before! The Hefeweizen is a seasonal beer and you could definitely get the hit of banana, very subtle, but there. The Blonde was a refreshing type beer, good for a hot summer day, which is exactly what I wrote in the book. They didn't bring the Bitter Woman From Hell IPA, but that was ok, we can finally get it in Eagle River in the 4-pack. In the last couple weeks I have had the pleasure of sampling 3 new beers from these guys.

A HUGE thanks to Rob and Stacey from Tyranena for arranging to have Joe come up with the product. Next year, Rob and Stacey, you better come up yourselves! Haha! Thanks again!

Plenty Of Room To Roam!

Snapped a shot of the grassy area outside of the tents. Such a perfect day! You can see that there is plenty of room. While this year there were more people attending, we still had plenty of elbow room. This is not the Gitchee Gummee where you are packed in and basically follow the herd past the brewers sticking out your glass for a shot as you walk by. 

A nice crowd!

This picture was taken at about 5:15, with only 45 minutes to go. You can see there is plenty of room to mill about. It appeared that some people were trickling out a little bit earlier this year. Could be my imagination as the beer induced tunnel vision was setting in. Props to the ERBF committee on the tent arrangement this year! Although I never saw any food, I heard it was around, somewhere.

Brewery Ommegang

Awesome beer! This brewery is located in Cooperstown, NY and was represented by a friend of the brewmaster or owner (I forgot the details, hehe, probably both). I give them an A+ on the packaging of their product, 750 ML bottles with a cork and cork cage, cool! I've only seen it at the Trig's in Eagle River, I gotta check the Rhiney Trig's and see if they have it there.

I really fell in love with the Three Philosophers Quadrupel! My only note in my book was "interesting". It had a really cool taste! The taste was surprising because you could not smell what you tasted. Kinda like a coffee stout, sometimes you can smell it and taste it, other times you can't smell it, but do taste it. The Quadruple was the same way... The taste was a fruity taste, but not overly so. I could not put my finger on it and didn't have the book open at the time, but the gentleman serving said it was cherries. And it was! Weird how you can't quite put your finger on the flavor until someone gives you a hint. I guess this is why I will never be a professional beer taster:) We spent a lot of time around this booth at the end of the night. A few other guys we had run into from time to time throughout the event were there too. A couple of dudes from Muskego, WI who had a cabin near Conover and happened to hear about the event on the radio. They were pretty cool and fun to talk with.

I sampled all of their beer, but the only ones that really impressed me was the Quadrupel and the Hennepin Farmhouse Saison. The Hennepin was like drinking a fine champagne! Itty bitty bubbles and a fruity hit. I was blown away! These two beers will find a place in my bar again and again, provided Trig's in Rhinelander has them. :) 

Minocqua Brewing

I've not had their beer in a while, even though their brewery is only 60 miles or so away from the house, last time I did was when I ate at their restaurant. They brought 4 beers and 6 growlers. As you can see from the picture above, I have a growler sitting in my bar. Thanks to BP for the early birthday present!! He's a good man, I don't care what his wife says about him!!

I had the Scotch Ale, which was a nice surprise because it was not listed in the book. Ya gotta love it when the brewers bring last minute beers! It is a win-win for everyone!! I thought the scotch ale was very tasty! I eventually sampled all of their beers, good stuff! Love having a local brewery at the event! We lost two local breweries this year, Log Jam (Tomahawk) and Nicolet (Florence) are gone...

Beers:
Scotch Ale
Wheat
Red Ale
Nut Brown 

Most beers brought!

Sprecher brought an insane amount of beer! They even brought their root beer. The total, according to the book was 10 plus the root beer and Ravin Red cherry juice!

By far, my favorite beer was the Abbey Tripple, until, they opened up the big bottles of Pipers Scotch Ale! They had smaller bottles of the Pipers, but the big boys, as seen on my bartop the following morning, was much better! It is a brewmaster limited release beer that is aged a little longer to bump up the alchy content, I think he said 10% or so. BP and I were lucky enough to score a bottle! It will have a special place on the wall behind my bar.

Beers:
Abbey Tripple - ABV 8.41%
Pipers Scotch Ale - ABV 8.27% Plus the big bottles, 10% woohoo!
Mai Bock - ABV 6.0%
Hefe Weis - ABV 4.2%
India Pale Ale - ABV 7.5%
Micro Light - ABV 4.16%
Doppel Bock - ABV 7.85%
Generation Porter - ABV 5.73%
Pub Brown Ale - ABV 4.5%
Black Bavarian - ABV 5.86%

Not Beers:
Root Beer (If Michelle had come with me, she would have consumed all their root beer)
Ravin Red