Firestone walker beer fest

Plans are already in the works for next year, folks. The BA community should book the Adelaide Inn early and often once the second annual Firestone Invitational is announced. The hotel management was A-OK with our outdoor cornhole/bottleshare extravaganza. I'm already working on booking Meg Myers for the main stage.

 

We already had a celebrity sighting this year as well.

 

I'm not THAT famous

 

Who was the celebrity sighting?

 

Wow, what a festival! In all seriousness, could it have been any better?

The event went off without a hitch and was super smooth all day. No lines to Narnia, no WWE wrestling, no douchbaggery whatsoever. With the exception of the funny initial body shaking speed walk/ semi-jog to the 3 Floyds booth that some did, it was easy peazy all day.

Really impressed with:
Knock on Wood (what a great beer, surprised no one else is trumpeting it) - well done SN.
VB BA DL - very nice, had about half a pitcher of it....think Nick calls it Marshmellow Handjob, hella good!
ZD - worth the hype, very very tasty.
Wild One - damn good.
Melange a trois - Yum
Bad Boy - could drink all day, all y'all drink up the Pliny over there while I hammer down on BB!
BA KS - only a little of it to go around, but glad I got some.
Port - rolled hard with something like 6 beers! Awesome showing.
Mo Betta Bretta - young, but nice.
Stone - Ruin 10 is freggin' hard core, what a treat, like the old man coming back to the ring for another go around and knocking young bucks out!
Founders - nice couple of beers, glad they came out.
Golden Road - great bw beer...had it after the festival on tap, killer.
Taps - remember liking their beers, but dont recall how much

Can't see how this invitational doesn't go down again, the brewers were in heaven, mixing it up with their brethren, camping, sharing, partying, etc...the fans, from what I could see had a helluva time and there was no one complaining whatsoever. The food was off the hook too!

I can say that it was the best festival I've ever been too, looking forward to the 2nd one! Tickets will probably sell out even faster next time, which is hard to imagine, but certainly true!

 

My buddies and I cannot stop talking about how good of a time we had. It's just like you said, no douchebags (That I saw) good music, tasty food and plenty of booths. We were kicking back by Alpine & Kern River tossing back BadBoy and Dirtie Hippie while the RR line was out of control. Had a couple glasses of VB DL and Brewers Blend BBA Speedway was damn tasty too. Best Brew Fest I've been to as well. Cheers!

 

Yeah, Knock On Wood was very well done.

This was probably the most fun I've had at a festival. There wasn't a single beer that I wanted to try that kicked before I got a chance, and I was really just moving along at slow pace. There were also quite a few beers that took me by surprise. The addition of the brewer interviews in the covered area was a perfect way to keep grabbing the fantastic beers in that horseshoe and be entertained while taking a load off. Was a bit worried when lines seemed to get long, but they moved with the quickness.

Firestone always seems to do a great job with their events, and they nailed it again on the biggest stage yet.

 

Yea, that's what I forgot to mention, the biggest/best thing about the day was that nobody left "wanting" or felt they missed out on anything... Provided you didn't arrive two hours late you could've had everything in the festival your heart desired. Hell, even BA DL lasted to nearly 3 pm!

 

This beer never made it uphill in my opinion. More like started in a valley and stayed there

 

Haha, there's the ol' Dark Lord hate I'm looking for!

 

Well it wouldn't get any hate if it were a good beer...

 

I personally like the regular Dark Lord, but I can see why some (seems like most on these forums) don't like it.

If you didn't like that Bourbon Vanilla Dark Lord though, you are crazy.

 

DL is a mess, yet their BA stuff seems to be mind bogglingly good. How is that?

 

-bals man, -bals...

 

Great fest, great times- will definitely be grabbing a ticket for next year. Will second the applause for the BA Keyser Soze from Triple Rock, a Berkeley brewpub that was underneath my radar. I appreciate the breweries that schlepped out bottles to augment their line-up. The Bruery showed nicely in this area but many waited in line for Black Tuesday and apparently not much went around (but plenty of Fruet to go around).
Next year can we do without the combustion engines? Exhaust fumes don't mix well with floral hoppy notes.

 

How many times did you guys hear someone drop a glass, followed by the crowd around them yelling and hooting?. It was 4 or 5 times for me.

 

One Beer I have not seen get any love that I thought was awesome was the Revolution Dos Osos. Just a standard IPA but there was never a line and it was good every time. My buddies that like the lighter stuff thought their Coup D'Etat was top notch too. Another one I loved was Hop Ninja By Beachwood Brewing company, and also St. Lupilin which I have never tried. Those were the big surprises for me. I knew Pliny, the BA VB DL, Black Tuesday, Alpine were all good. But those two were big surprises and I am glad I got to try them. Pizza Port really showed up too A bourbon Barrel and Brandy Barrel aged Wee Heavy, the Middle Man, Able, Pure A game stuff.

 

I didn't sample the IPA, but did have the Revolution saison and it was terrific.

 

Just chiming in to echo all the other senitments. Got plenty of everything I wanted to try, 2nds of what I loved, and just an all around great fest. Looking forward to next years.

 

What an absolutely incredible event. I truly cannot wait to go back next year. I really do not know what else to say since my mind was so blown. I think our little group will be requesting the same exact room at the Adelaide Inn next year so that the 2nd Annual Pre/Post Festival Bottleshare & Cornhole Tournament can take place.

Whales, bro