Brewvival!

That one is definitely on my list... Gotta. Tick. Them. All.

 

You a tall guy, 6'3"-ish, with ancient beers in your cellar? I may have been standing right beside you at the Green Flash tasting at The Community Tap and not even known it. (I mentioned moving a pickup full of beer from Portland.)

 

No, that would be an extremely attractive imposter, but unfortunately I am about 5'11". :-)

 

Lots of great stuff to try this year, a badass lineup all around. I'll be the guy in a worn-out Lucky Labrador t-shirt, faded red short-sleeve or raggedy blue long-sleeve depending on how the temps are looking.

 

I am wearing cargos and a blue plaid shirt. We should have name tags with our BA names on them, because "Hi, I'm Joseph" means nothing to you, but "Hi, I'm kai-az-muss" might... oh well.

 

On the way

 

I really think that the stand out was Funky Buddha. Their beers were awesome!

 

Lowlights of this year's Brewvival:
Guy rinsing his tasting glass in the porta-john handwashing station. Gross!
Assorted guys pissing behind the one big tree by the water.
Shockingly shitty BBQ sammich from Ted's.
Line for Bell's. Didn't even bother.

Highlights:
Just about everything else. Tried a ton of great beers today. Raspberry Yeti cask, Stone Calypso Ruination, Funky Buddha Last Snow, BA Blackbeerd, so many more. The lines got a little crazy at times, but Brewvival continues to be a badass beer fest.

 

Agree

 

Raspberry yeti was good as well

 

I agree the lines were generally long but fast. It did get out of hand though with the Funky Buddha line. Lots of people cut to the front. Numerous people refused to sink to that level and missed out on the Maple bacon Coffee Porter.
We tried to get food, but at that point it was 45 minutes in line and then 25 minutes after you ordered.
BUT the people who do the Brewvival saw and will adjust accordingly. It is just the 3rd Year and already one of the Best.

 

I did cut in line for the maple bacon because up front under tent there was madness
But it was a awesome beer

 

I could be wrong here, but it seemed to me like there were way more people this year than last. I feel like I waited in line a lot more this year.

I can't complain too much though, Funky Buddha was worth the cost of admission. I only wish Cigar City would've brought out some of their more limited offerings.

 

Ouch. Of the 6 beers we brought 4 were brewery only beers. El Murcielago hasn't actually been released yet to anyone except for the people who went to Brewvival, another of the four was SMaSH Galaxy from an 80 gallon pilot batch which admittedly means there was a whole 15, 5.17 gallon kegs, but I suspect I drank three of those kegs myself so that took some of it out of rotation, another was our celebratory 1,000th batch Baltic Porter available only in the Tasting Room and then only to people that have the secret word and are able to pay in South African Rands (the third most colorful currency, I think most will agree) or barter for it with bushels of heirloom tomatoes (I'm pretty sure that is how we sell that one anyway). Lastly there was the 15 bbl batch of English Barleywine we brewed with Swamphead that was mostly bottled so there were roughly about 4 kegs of it on planet earth. However, that does mean there are only three now so if there is an impromptu Brewvival 3.5 tomorrow and we brought one of the remaining kegs it would be like 25,000,000% more limited. Or not I really suck at math.

Seriously though thanks to everyone at CBX and all the guys at Coast for letting us attend. It was a really great event and I regret having missed last year after experiencing this year. I can say without jest that it was the most polite crowd I have ever seen at any beerfest and I am very much looking forward to next year (especially Westbrook IPA and short ribs at Mac Intosh, tres yummy!). Provided we are allowed back after the insanity sauce escapades. If we do come next year we will brew all the beer on site exclusively for the fest in 16 oz mason jar batches.

 

For once, I was smart enough to eat plenty so I didn't get stoopid drunk this year. I thought it was another spectacular event, and huge props to Jaime, David, Michael, Scott, Rich, Old Time (sorry I missed you, old buddy), and all who organized it.
The Funky Buddah was the hit of the day, IMO. My favorite was the Hopslam cask, which was worth the wait (they got smart and brought a pitcher out to the line to help it go quicker!). It was so good to see some old faces that I only get to see at Brewvival! Thanks to Zehner for inviting me to the Friday night pre-tasting - I had a good time.
Already looking forward to next year!!

Oh yeah, the kielbasa samitch from Ted's was rockin'!

 

Great festival as always, huge props to the CBX crew and COAST! Highlights were definitely Funky Budda (had everything but the Key Lime Berliner) and everything from Westbrook (Hot Garbage and Mexican Coffee Cake were ridiculous). The CBX guys confirmed that they did indeed let in about 500 more people this year (2500, up from around 2000) which certainly accounts for some of the wait times, but it was a smooth operation overall! I overheard Scott saying something to the tune of "...IF we do this again next year", which I hope was just the stress of the day talking. Can't wait for next year!

 

I wish I could have gone.

 

Had an absolute blast yesterday. Really enjoyed just about everything I tried. Very well organized and put together. Was great seeing some of you guys out there as it had been far too long. Cheers!

 

Thanks for coming. I had the Baltic Porter and it was quite nice.

 

I really enjoyed the El Murcielago. Nice lime undertone. Beautiful. Get that production up so we can enjoy your tasty beverages here in SC!!!
PS...I think you have some George Bush math up in this post!!