Yes folks I’m talking about the Angola Prison Rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, LA. I had never heard of such a thing until a couple of years ago when the GF Casey attended and could not stop talking about how great a show it was. Though she talked it up something fierce, I still wanted to hold on to my disdain for most things related to livestock and country music. Fast forward a couple of years and Casey was dead set on attending again. I decided that now was the time to branch out and try something new, and boy am I glad I did.

For the uninitiated Angola Prison holds a prison rodeo one weekend in April and every weekend in October. This is a full fledged rodeo with the inmates competing in the events. Angola is a maximum security prison with the majority of the prisoners serving life sentences. This creates an environment where the prisoners are looking for excitement without a whole lot of regard for their individual safety. They compete for the adventure and for the chance to win money for their prison bank account. For spectators this means lots of excitement and daring feats.

Tickets to the rodeo can be purchased online (they currently use Tickets.com but they really should switch over and use Birmingham’s TicketBiscuit) or via telephone, but they sell out almost immediately after going on sale. So if you think you might like to go, you really need to plan ahead and get your tickets. The rodeo takes place in a very nice covered facility built by the inmates and all seats are assigned (the best seats are in the upper sections opposite the shoots since these keep the sun out of your face).

A couple of things to be clear about, the rodeo takes place inside of a state maximum security prison. It is one of the few times people are allowed to roam freely around. By attending the event you agree to have your car or person searched if they so desire. Also, no cellphones or cameras are allowed into the prison (as well as weapons and drugs of course). I was expecting to be wanded or patted down but during our time there we were not searched. If you leave your car unlocked, they will search it (got to make sure no inmates are hiding in there). Approved media personnel can bring cameras and film the event.

That said my experience was completely pleasant. I was a bit uneasy about giving up my privacy rights while inside the prison but there were no incidents and I would definitely go again. While the rodeo is the main event, there is also an arts and crafts show that is equally amazing. The prisoners create all kinds of crafts for sale. From t-shirts to leather goods to drink cozies to fantastic wood-working projects, they have something for everyone. The level of craftsmanship is really incredible. It is obvious these guys have lots of time to spend perfecting their creations.

The prison facility itself is a sight to see. It encompasses 18,000 acres of land in Angola, LA (about 50 miles from Baton Rouge) and is bordered on 3 sides by the mighty Mississippi River. It is a full working farm with the inmates growing much of the food they consume. In the warden’s words related to running a peaceful maximum security prison “you’ve got to keep the inmates working all day so they’re tired at night.” I like the concept of the inmates being able to work and create while incarcerated versus just spending 23 hours per day in isolation. It seems like a model facility though it does cost $98 million/year to house around 5,000 inmates. That works out to about $20,000/year per inmate. At least for that $20k/year the good people get entertainment value from the Rodeo.

When it comes to the rodeo itself, the inmates compete in a range of events that go from mildly amusing to downright life threatening. They ride the bucking bulls, they wrestle calves to the ground, ride horses bareback, and even try to play tug of war against wild horses. But where it really gets crazy are in events like Convict Poker. In this event they seat 4 inmates around a poker table each holding cards. Then they release the angry bull into the arena. Last man still sitting and holding his cards wins. What we saw in this event was a bull running full speed ahead ramming into the back of one of the players and knocking the entire table and everyone seated at it into the air. Amazingly no one was injured.

We did see one poor prisoner get knocked out when trying to wrestle a calf to the ground (an event called Bull-Dogging). He must have taken a stray hoof to the head because he went completely limp. The medical staff immediately sprang to action and got him to an ambulance for attention.

In another event they placed nine hula hoops on the ground and placed one inmate in each hula hoop. They then released the angry bull with the last man still standing in his hula hoop winning the event. Apparently the bulls trigger off of any movement so the prisoners tried to remain as still as possible. Unfortunately when the bull would get to close, someone would invariably lose their nerve and flinch causing the bull to charge full speed ahead sending those poor fellas flying.

In addition to the untrained inmates, they had professionals on hand as well. The Girl’s Rodeo Association performed an event of barrel racing. It was an incredible sight to see extremely young girls riding with such skill. A professional MC, rodeo clowns, and cowboys are on hand to ensure the safety of the inmates (as much as possible). The rodeo clowns and cowboys make sure that after someone has been dismounted from a bucking animal they are able to get to safety and the animal is corralled out of the arena. I had never really seen cowboys work livestock before, but the way they maneuvered their horses and used their lassos was unbelievable. I never realized the amount of skill required for such a thing. They really blew me away. The rodeo clowns showed an remarkable speed and agility. To be able to taunt a bull and then out maneuver him takes serious guts.

One of my favorite events was put on by Team Ghostriders. This was a demonstration of dogs working sheep into a corral. But it was not just any dogs, they were beautiful Border Collies (considered by many to be the most intelligent dog breed). Oh, and these dogs were not working solo. Oh no, they were being ridden by monkeys. Did you hear me? Dogs wearing saddles being ridden by monkeys dressed in full cowboy gear (hats, vests, chaps). Now that is my kind of entertainment. The monkeys rode their faithful steeds with acumen and corralled the sheep into their pen with no problems. That is worth the drive over to attend all by itself.

Oh, but wait there is more. The last event of the show is called Guts & Glory. In this event, they place a poker chip onto the forehead of the meanest bull they have. Then they release a group of inmates to try to take the chip off of the bull’s forehead. Definitely guts required for that one. Apparently it usually takes quite a while for the inmates to finally get the chip, but during our show someone must have been looking out for these guys. The bull got distracted by one group of inmates and another was able to rush in and grab it within 60 seconds of the start of the event. He was a very happy camper indeed winning $500 into his prison bank account.

I can’t speak highly enough about the Angola Prison Rodeo. It was an incredible experience. The inmates we talked with were all polite and courteous. The prison staff were extremely organized and efficient, and I felt completely safe at all times within the facility. It is definitely a first-rate event. I would have to say that everyone should attend at least once. Careful though you may get hooked and make it an annual thing.

*Pics from Frank3.0′s Flickr set. Click the pics to view the details or see the whole set here: Angola Prison Rodeo, 18 October, 2009 (Set)

The Jimi Wallet is a hard plastic front pocket wallet made from 100% recycled/recyclable plastic. Their motto is “The Wallet for people that hate wallets”. Its simplicity is its hallmark. There really isn’t much to this wallet. It has almost no moving parts (only a couple of plastic hinges and a removable money clip insert).

Another “feature” of the wallet is that it doesn’t hold very much. It only claims to holds 5 credit card sized items and 3 double folded bills. That may sound like a lot till you think about all of the various cards you may have. Driver’s License, Health Insurance Card, Dental Insurance Card, Car Insurance Card, ATM Card, Credit Card, Backup Credit Card, etc. They add up quickly. Luckily this wallet is more than willing to take the abuse of holding a little extra stuff thanks to the tough plastic hinges and the solid closing mechanism.

I initially started carrying it just to see if it would be something I could use when I travel and don’t need access to as many wallet related items. I laid out all of the cards and inserts that I was carrying in my wallet and tried to narrow it down to the essentials. It was a very cathartic process getting rid of many of the old unused cards that I had accumulated over time (a 5 year expired Delta frequent flyer card, really??, must have gotten lost in the cavern of my wallet).

Once I narrowed it down to the essentials, I loaded up the wallet, threw a slick sticker on it for style and started carrying it, And what I found was that I really liked carrying it. I never went back to my old wallet. The Jimi suits my needs perfectly. Check out this Jimi Wallet Flash Demo while I extol the virtues of this wonderfully simple gadget:

Front Pocket Wallet – Since it is so small (2 5/8″ x 4 1/4″ x 9/16″), carrying it in your front pocket is easy. No back pain from sitting on a thick wallet in your back pocket. No worries about pick pockets in crowded places.

Hard Plastic – Since it is made of plastic, it can take some wonderful abuse. Drop it, hit it, spill liquids on it, sit things on it, you can’t phase it.

Stylish – It comes in a variety of colors and looks great in all of them. I chose the Stealth color and adorned mine with a sticker to add some pizazz. It frequently prompts questions about what it is when I take it out to pay for something.

Doesn’t Hold Much – This wonderful feature forced me to really trim down the contents of my wallet which was long overdue. As my better half would say, “Let go of the clutter”.

Here are the current contents of my Jimi (it tends to bulge a bit when I have some extra cash on hand, but it works out fine):

Money Clip Side:

• 0-3 Bills depending on my level of broke
• Visa Credit Card
• Driver’s License
• ATM Card
• Paper car insurance card

Credit Card Side:

• Check Card
• Health Insurance Card
• Paper Dental Insurance Card
• $2 Bill for Luck
• Laminated paper contact list for work
• Mastercard Credit Card
• Key chain sized gym membership card

I could trim it down further by getting rid of either the check card or ATM card and one of the credit cards, but I still like the extra security of having a backup. Even with all that, my Jimi keeps going strong.

Here is a picture of my Jimi with my PlayHard Peace sticker attached.

I’m not the only one out there smitten by this wallet either. If you look on Flickr you will see quite a few folks posting pictures of their Jimi’s – Jimi Wallet Flickr Search

Go checkout the Jimi if you are interested in a great travel or front pocket wallet.

After an incredible Friday, we arose for our last full day in Denver. We had tickets for the Saturday Members-Only session at the GABF which ran from 12:30pm-4:30pm. We figured a bit of grease might be a good way to start the day (though I’m sure the grease from the previous night’s Pete’s Kitchen run was still there). We decided to drop by a place we had seen on our daily walks through the city, Pete’s Cafe (or is it called Pete’s Steak House, there seems to be some confusion as to its name). This was a tiny little old school diner on Colfax. We had some good old fashioned breakfast food (eggs, sausage, and hash browns) that would get us through the upcoming tasting session.

Because we bought tickets to the Saturday session, we were given VIP entrance tickets to the Thursday session. Since this was the Saturday members-only session everyone was VIP. That meant we all had the privilege of standing in the same line outside. We unfortunately did not arrive very early (about 10 minutes early) and were treated to a line that wrapped almost entirely around the convention center. And unfortunately for us we followed the line around to the right instead of going left around the convention center (which would have saved us a ton of walking, it must have taken 5 minutes to find the end of the line). With the incredibly long line, it took us 30 minutes to actually get into the tasting session.

Finally at 1pm we made it into the Saturday tasting session. The big thing we wanted to try on Saturday was Sam Adams Utopias which would not be available till after the awards were handed out. Since we had a couple hours before we could queue up for the Utopias, we began another round of tasting. We tried to explore the smaller, unknown breweries and beers that we did not hit on Thursday.

For this tasting session, Rob donned the USA Jaguars gear that I had brought for him from Alabama. This prompted another Alabama encounter from one of the volunteers at the event. She was from Grand Bay but apparently had been gone a long time since she didn’t know what college South Alabama was (it was started in 1964!!).

We saw the X-Communicated Mormon Drinking Team:

The event was not limited to only microbrews. Coors had a cool booth that would shoot snow out from the mountains. They also had a Pre-Pro (Pre-Prohibition) beer that was quite nice.

Blue Moon was there (owned by Coors) and brought a Peanut Butter Ale that was out of this world. The peanut flavor was so incredible I can’t believe they don’t sell this one year around. It is apparently only made for the GABF.

I snapped pics of various breweries that I must have been impressed with though it is hard to make out the brewery information from these high quality iPhone pics I took.

Those were Beaver St. Brewery, Chicago Brewing Company (which is in Las Vegas), and Bison Brewing respectively.

After much tasting, we finally were ready to line up and await the tapping of the Sam Adams Utopias. Utopias has the distinction of being the strongest beer every created. It comes in at around 27% alcohol by volume and sells for $120 for a small 20 ounce or so bottle. They actually had to engineer yeast that could survive at such concentrated alcohol levels in order to create this beer. They only brew it every couple of years and do a limited release of a set number of bottles. Of course even with our law change, this is still not going to be available in Alabama. While we were waiting in line, we did see the creator of Sam Adams, Jim Koch, cruise through their booth. We had a really good spot in line so, though the wait was kind of long, we didn’t want to move and lose our spot. It also didn’t hurt that while we were standing there, we got to continually sample the other beers in their lineup (the Imperial Stout is incredible).

Finally the Utopias was tapped and furious pouring began. The normal GABF tasting sample is 1 ounce, but this high-octane brew was only offered as a 1/2 ounce sample.

Once we had our sample, we moved off to the side so we could truly savor the experience. The color of this beer was incredible. It had an amazing aroma with vanilla and caramel notes. We immortalized the moment with a pic of our samples before tasting them.

The Utopias was amazing. It if course tasted more like a liquor with no discernible carbonation. The vanilla and caramel flavor was very apparent and oh so wonderful. It is an expensive, rare and unique beer, but I could see having one of these around for special occasions. It is not available where I can purchase it (and it always sells out) but I really enjoyed this beer. Kudos Sam Adams for making something very special!

At long last we had to say goodbye to our GABF experience. 4:30pm came around it all had to come to an end. We enjoyed our time there and highly recommend attending if you like beer.

After leaving we had a few hours to kill before our next event, so we did some souvenir shopping at the 16th Street Mall. I picked up some gifts for the girlfriend, Casey, (since she was very clear about the fact that no gifts equals no ride home from the airport), and then headed back over to Katie Mullen’s to salute Arthur Guinness once more.

The next item on our agenda was the Flying Dog Beer Dinner at 6:30pm over at Brauns Bar and Grill. This would be a 5 course gourmet dinner with different beer pairings from the Flying Dog lineup.

We had and appetizer of shredded German pot roast set on mini bread topped with pan gravy and seared red cabbage, paired with Horn Dog Barley Wine:

Spinach salad tossed with roasted pear vinaigrette, candied walnuts and red onion, paired with Kerberos Tripel:

Golden mushroom soup finished with sharp cheddar cheese and a good splash of beer, paired with Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale:

Beer mustard chicken and bangers, sauteed carrots and green beans buttered demi spetzel paired with Double Dog Double Pale Ale:

Chocolate Porter Fondue served with sour cream pound cake and sweet beer bread paired with Gonzo Imperial Porter:

End to end this beer dinner was amazing. The food was incredible. The company was great. One of our dining companions at our table, David, was an avid homebrewer so I got to pick his brain about the subject. He even gave me his contact info in case I had any questions if I decided to give brewing a try. Of course the big surprise of the night was when the Flying Dog folks were doing their final announcements about the dinner and asked where Doug Porter was. They somehow had found out that it was my birthday and had the whole place sing me Happy Birthday. Thanks Rob for being sneaky and making that happen! I had no clue he had arranged that. What a great dinner this turned out to be!

After dinner we made our way back to our hotel. Now I was expecting to head straight to bed since it was around 11pm and I had to be up at 6:30am to catch my shuttle to the airport. Rob had a flight out at 7pm the next evening so he had other ideas. He convinced me to head over to the Irish Snug for a nightcap. It turned out that there was a fellow playing Irish diddies and a great crowd participating in the sing-a-longs which turned out to be very fun. The musician that night was Brian Clancy. He has a live CD available online that really captures the atmosphere we got to experience that night.

While there we met a group of ladies that were celebrating their friend’s birthday come midnight that night. Since it was already my birthday, we were invited to join their group for the birthday festivities. They were a fun group. One of the gals works for Live Nation so we got to talk bands and music. Turns out that one of her friends, Todd Roeth, photograpphed my favorite musician Butch Walker when he was in town. Todd’s pictures of bands are amazing. Check out his site here. She was also the one that clued us into the fact that the Ramada on Colfax is referred to as the RockMada. Apparently it is close to the clubs and cheap, so all of the bands end up staying there. And sure enough later that night as we got back to the hotel, there was a band unloading their van to check in.

Somehow this group convinced us to leave the Irish Snug and head over to RockBar (Rockbar’s Myspace). This place was sort of like an old-school dark, hot dance club. I remember lots of early nineties hip-hop and rap being played and cold cans of PBR being provided by Rob. Definitely an interesting place. After RockBar winded down, we made our third and final trip over to Pete’s Kitchen for late night grub (and of course I had the Gyros Breakfast Sandwich again). If we had stayed in town a few more days, they probably would have named a booth after us since we just kept coming back night after night. Amazing food at that place and a great time with our new Denver friends. Thanks for making us feel like locals!

At long last (and one of glass of water later accidentally spilled by me into Rob’s lap) we headed back to the RockMada to bring an end to the Denver fun. When it was all said and done it was 3:30am when we finally went to sleep.

6:30am came awfully early, but somehow I managed to get up, get packed and dressed, and make it to my airport shuttle (Rob, of course, didn’t even hear me leave). The trip back to Mobile was very uneventful and unusually pleasant (probably mainly because I was in a daze thanks to only getting 3 hours of sleep).

The GABF trip turned out to be an incredible experience that I highly recommend. Rob and I had a blast. Here is my full picture gallery from the trip. So let’s wrap up with the final tally.

6 days, 5 nights, 1 brews cruise, 4 brewery tours, 2 GABF tasting sessions, 1 beer dinner, 1 Rockies game, ~250 GABF beers sampled, 0.5 ounces of Utopias, 4 airline flights, 14 days before I wanted to drink any beer after I got back to Mobile, lots of new Denver friends, and a grand total of 7,814 words across 6 blog entries detailing the trip.

Thanks GABF! Thanks Denver! Thanks Rob! Cheers to all!

Friday was another fun filled day. Our plan was to meet Rob’s friend Melissa and her gang at 11:30 down at the unofficial GABF headquarters, the Falling Rock Tap House. Falling Rock had plans to tap a series of special kegs throughout the day, and we wanted to be a part of it. The first keg that gets tapped at noon is the Sierra Nevada Kill-A-Keg. The goal is to empty a Sierra Nevada keg (get it poured into glasses and get them off to tables) as fast as possible. The previous year the time to empty it was 15 minutes and 4 seconds.

To get down to Falling Rock, which is located near the baseball stadium, Rob and I had a nice 2 mile morning walk from the Ramada/RockMada down to the Tap House. We got there around 11 and were treated to a nice inside table. After a couple of warm-up brews (they don’t have a beer list online, so I can’t recall what we had) and some lunch, high noon had finally arrived. As everyone gathered around the bar for the tappeagerly awaiting the frothy goodness, you could feel the energy all around you. Finally the bell rang out and the proprietor went to work pouring as fast as possible. It was a whirlwind of amber nectar and foam as he filled glass after glass. When the dust cleared and the last bit of liquid poured forth from the keg, the timer was stopped and we all gasped at the new record of 12 minutes. Congrats Falling Rock! That was some serious pouring. Of course that really sets the bar high for next year.

As part of the keg tapping, Sierra Nevada brought some wonderful souvenir pint glasses to distribute. Unfortunately our waiter was not able to snag any of them for us before they ran out but that would be rectified before the day was over. We enjoyed our wonderful speed-poured noon Sierra Nevada brew and awaited the next keg tapping.

At 12:30pm they tapped a keg of Sierra Nevada Estate Ale. This beer was brewed with hops and barley grown on the Sierra Nevada brewery’s estate. This was a wonderful beer. Rob fell hard for this beer. I believe he was ready to give up all other beers and swear his allegiance to this one. Unfortunately it was a special edition and not available year around. The Estate Ale was followed up with a wet-hopped Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale that I really enjoyed though it could not sway Rob from his new found devotion to the Estate Ale.

Somewhere in here the fine owner of Brasserie La Chouffe from Belgium handed out some nice red La Chouffe elf hats to us. Once we had donned our hats, we went out front to be part of a big group picture for the brewery.

We came back to our table and Rob began to notice that many of the people that had received the wonderful souvenir Sierra Nevada pint glasses had decided not to take them with them when they left. He then became a man on a mission to get everyone at our table a souvenir glass. And succeed at his mission he did. All 6 of us ended up with a nice souvenir glass (which Melissa kindly enough said she would take by our hotel since we had plans later and couldn’t carry them around).

At 2pm the next keg was a cask ale. This turned out to be the wonderful Left Hand/Terrapin Brewing Depth Charge Espresso Milk Stout that we had during the Brews Cruise on Wednesday. I loved this beer so I was very pleased to get to try it again (in a bigger glass no less).

Come 3pm we had to say goodbye to our wonderful Falling Rock Tap House because we had other plans to attend to. Thanks for the good times Falling Rock!

Why would we willingly leave such a fun place you may ask? Well we had a party to go to. The Flying Dog Brewery was throwing their F.B.A.G (Flying Dog Brats & Gonzo) party. Free beer, brats, and live music. How could we turn that down? Plus this party was a just a short walk from the Falling Rock. On our way we had to pass by the baseball stadium, so we thought we might try to get some scalped tickets for the sold out Friday night game. The first scalper we ran into balked at my price range when I said cheap, but as I was halfway across the street another scalper started yelling at me, “I got cheap, I got cheap!”. I went back over and picked up some deep right field tickets for $20/each ($10 face value). I couldn’t complain because it was a sold out game. Tickets scored, we kept on walking till we found the party (of course how could it be a party till we showed up?).

This was a really nice setup. Brats, chips, and other assorted finger foods. Free beer from the entire Flying Dog lineup, and live music. Here is a great review of the Flying Dog Brats and Gonzo party from another attendee. And that guy even managed to catch me in one of his FBAG pictures on Flickr. Do you see me? I’m the guy with the beer . Seriously though, I am in the first picture of his set. There is a sliver of Rob and Melissa and her friend as well. They all look really enthralled about whatever I’m going on about in that pic. Must have been some good conversation I was spewing. Either that or they are just being polite.

The musical entertainment was provided by Rob Drabkin. He is a very talented artist, and he has the kind of awesome hair that I dream about having. If I can’t have Elvis’s hair, I want Rob Drabkin’s. Check out his music online.

After getting our Gonzo on for a couple of hours, it was time for Rob and I to head over to the baseball game and see what $20 in scalped tickets gets us.

The right-field upper deck. That is what it gets you. This game was a very exciting one though. Even from the upper deck. The Rockies were up 1-0 over the Cardinals most of the game. St. Louis tied it up in the 7th and then in the bottom of the ninth, the Rockies won on a sacrifice fly (USA Today Game Recap). Go Rockies! Not only did we get to see the hometown team win, but since it was Friday night, it was a fireworks game. We were treated to an incredible 20 minute fireworks show.

After the game we caught the bus back towards the hotel. We had taken the bus a couple of times, but this Friday evening it was a bit more interesting than usual. There were guys panhandling from on the bus to everyone that would get on board. I can’t believe the bus driver allowed this. Especially because any time someone wouldn’t give the panhandlers any money they went into a rant about 400 years of oppression, slave trade, Thomas Jefferson, etc, etc. Rob decided we were done with Denver public transportation after this little adventure. Come on Denver, that is ridiculous. Panhandlers should be tossed onto the street if they harass passengers.

After getting off near our hotel, we decided why not make another run to the wonderful late night 24 hour diner of Pete’s Kitchen. Another Pita Breakfast Sandwich later, we were on our way back to the Ramada/RockMada.

Upon arriving back at the hotel and picking up our souvenir glasses from the front desk that Melissa had dropped by, we were pleasantly surprised to find that she had given me an early birthday gift (the next day was my birthday, of course it was after midnight, so it really was my birthday then). She gave us a bottle of champagne. So what were we to do after a long day of the Falling Rock Tap House, the Brats and Gonzo party, the baseball game, and Pete’s Kitchen. Well we cracked open the champagne and had a birthday drink. Thanks Melissa! It was a blast hanging out with you and your friends.

Finally we wound down and called it a night. We had one last full day in Denver on Saturday and we were determined to make the most of it.

Click to read Part 6.

Thursday was the first day of the actual GABF proper. Of the four sessions being held, we were attending the Thursday night session and the Saturday afternoon members-only session (for members of the American Homebrewers Association). In preparation for the beer tasting, we figured we should get a nice filling lunch (plus I was still starving from the night before). Going on a stroll from our hotel and using Yelp on the iPhone, we arrived at Steuben’s. Steuben’s had an amazing art deco vibe inside and a wonderful patio area for us to relax and enjoy a bit of Denver sun.

I ended up selecting the Cuban Sandwich with a side of green beans and macaroni and cheese. It was an incredible meal. I highly recommend you check them out if you are in the area.

After lunch we did a bit of Geocaching using one of Rob’s iPhone apps. This was a first for me. Unfortunately it seemed like every location that we arrived at had homeless folks hanging out staring at us so we felt a bit weird about searching for the caches. We did end up finding one microcache at a park. Not too thrilling but it was a good way for us to see parts of the city we may not have traversed otherwise. Also an important safety tip when visiting Denver, it is closer to the sun so bring your sunscreen.

While walking the neighborhoods we swung by some convenience stores in search of dental floss and pretzels. A pro tip that I learned from the Free The Hops forums was to build a pretzel necklace for the GABF to give you something to munch on to cleanse the palate between beer tastings and to give you something to fill the stomach during the event. Dental floss is key because it won’t snag on the pretzels like normal string will. Fishing line would work as well. We purchased our supplies and returned to the hotel to begin assembly. Rob used the thread the needle technique while I took a pen, aligned the floss with it and then queued up 10-15 pretzels onto it before sliding them down the floss.

After the necklaces rolled off the assembly line, we headed downtown to meet up with Rob’s friend Melissa at the Chili’s on 16th St. for some more pre-GABF foodage. We figured a little grease would go a long way to helping us get through 4.5 hours of beer tasting in 1 ounce increments. After eating some sandwiches and drinking copious amounts of tea (unsweet, of course, since sweet tea is a Southern invention), off we went to the Convention Center.

Since we were attending the members-only session on Saturday, we were given VIP entrance tickets for the Thursday session. This really just meant that we got to wait in line inside the convention center versus outside in the sun. At 5:30pm the sound of bagpipes rang out through the convention center signaling the start of the Great American Beer Festival. We began to move slowly towards the entrance, shuffling ever forward, getting closer and closer, and finally we were in.

As Rob and I looked around at all of the tables and booths and took in the awe of 2,100 beers ready for the tasting, all of our planning finally came to fruition. We had been planning this moment for about 3 months, so what did we do? We just stood there. We were so overwhelmed by all of the choices that we didn’t know where to go or what to try first. Finally we got over being shell-shocked and dove right in trying the closest thing we saw. Once that was out of the way we could think more clearly. We headed over to the Dogfish Head booth (one of my favorite breweries even though they aren’t available in Alabama) and I had the pleasure of having my 1 ounce sample of Palo poured for me by the founder, Sam Calagione. I knew at that point that this was going to be an epic experience. Here is a pic of their booth (sorry about the finger stage right).

We moved through the convention hall hitting the bigger breweries at the ends of the aisles. These had the bigger lines, but we wanted to make sure we got to try their wares. We saw our buddies from Oskar Blues.

The Left Hand Brewery folks (the fellow behind the table on the right was the MC on our Brews Cruise bus).

Of course our Boulder Beer friends (the gal on the right was our tour guide at Boulder Beer for the Brews Cruise).

Hey, Boulder Beer was Colorado’s first microbrew and their birthday was the next day.

We checked out the Alaskan Brewing company tent (Dwyer somehow comes up with a bottle of this stuff every now and then so I had to check them out).

And then we started wandering through the different sections (they were arranged by geographic location and then alphabetically) trying anything that looked interesting (neat name, neat packaging, neat looking people pouring, etc.)

One hilarious thing during the festival was that anytime someone dropped their plastic tasting glass onto the floor a roar would erupt around them and move throughout the entire facility shaming them for such a faux pas. You would think that would get old, but it really never did. Some people went all out with their attire for the event. We saw all kinds of crazy costumes from lederhosen, to St. Pauli girls, to kilts, to even animal costumes. But the big one that everyone seemed to want a photo with was the man in the Pabst Blue Ribbon pajama onesie.

This guy would fit right in on Tuesdays for $1 PBR and free deep-fried bacon night at Wando’s in Madison, WI.

We moved through trying beer after beer, munching pretzels every now and then, and started to realize that 4.5 hours is a really long time. If you were trying to get drunk at this event, you would really have to work at it. The 1 ounce samples, the lines, and the flavor and strength of the beers are inherent limiting factors to becoming intoxicated. One thing that was shocking to both of us was how many bad beers exist out there. I guess it had to be given 2,100 beers. They can’t all be homeruns, but still amazing that some beers are even too bad to consume a whole 1 ounces of the swill. Luckily they had buckets at almost every booth for pouring out any beer you didn’t want to drink (another pro-tip, don’t drink it if you don’t like it, pour and move on).

About 4 hours in, we ran into Rob’s friend Melissa and decide to exit with them and their group of festival-goers. We would be back again on Saturday and there was an important matter we had to attend to.

We had to salute Arthur Guinness on his 250th year anniversary since he signed the lease on his first brewery. (Yes, I know that we left a beer festival to go drink some more beer). We headed over to Katie Mullen’s where the Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout was on draft for $2.50/pint.

What a bargain! Of course when I asked for a Guinness they didn’t pour me the 250 Anniversary Stout the first go around, so I ended up paying around $6/pint. That was corrected in subsequent orders. Really bartender? If you have 2 different Guinness’s and one is $2.50/pint and the other $6, which one do you think I’m talking about? I was probably the only person in the bar the whole night that got the standard Guinness. But other than that it was a great time with some great people.

We outlasted Melissa’s crew and finally decided to make the trip back to the hotel. Of course first we needed some late night grub. We ended up at the most amazing late night 24 hour diner (the first of what would be 3 nights in a row at this place), Pete’s Kitchen on Colfax. Here we ran into another Alabama person. When our waitress asked us “How y’all doing?” we knew she was not a Denver native. Turns out she was Victoria from Montgomery, AL out in Denver for school. Southern people just seem to be drawn to each other like magnets, this made 2 in 2 days. I ordered the Gyros Breakfast Sandwich (scrambled eggs & gyros in pita with hash browns) and it was absolutely incredible (so good that that was what I ordered the next 2 nights as well). If you are hitting late night Denver, you have to add this place to your list to check out.

Finally with our quota of beers sampled and bellies filled we retired to our Ramada for well deserved shut-eye after a busy day.

Click to read Part 5.

The Brews Cruise rolled on to our next destination, the Oskar Blues Brewing Company. I was excited to hit Oskar Blues because the founder, Dale Katechis, is originally from Florence, AL. He also was a bit of a trend-setter when he got started. He wanted a quality beer that he could take with him on the river, so he decided to only packages his microbrews in cans. They make brews such as Dale’s Pale Ale, Old Chub, and Ten Fidy.

At the Oskar Blues Brewery, lunch was provided for us. It was a nice little barbecue pulled pork setup that really hit the spot. Again we went on a brewery tour of the facility. Theirs was interesting in that the place was built inside what basically was a big warehouse so all of the brewing, fermentation, and bottling takes place in one big room. Again showing that each brewery has their own neat culture, Oskar Blues has a batting cage setup inside of their place. For some reason I didn’t get any pictures from inside this brewery. Maybe something to do with the third straight brewery we had visited with unlimited samples as well as on-the-bus brews during the drives between breweries.

At this point after 3 tours of microbrewery facilities a couple of things were very interesting to me. One was the size of the operations. All of these facilities occupied very small spaces. I guess that is where the micro in microbrew comes from. All of these breweries could easily fit into the footprint a standard restaurant building takes up. Another neat thing was that while each facility had all of the same types of equipment and processes, they each had their own culture and feel. You could tell the employees all take enormous pride in their work, their company, and the unique culture that exists at each facility. I wonder how this compares to the large mega-breweries. Also, not sure if this is a Denver thing, but all of the breweries were very big on recycling everything possible. All glass and paper was recycled, and even the used grains that were left at the end of the brewing process were shipped off to farmers for use as feed for livestock. It was very impressive to see this type of commitment to as green a process as possible.

After the tour, back on the bus we went for the last brewery of the day. We headed over to the Avery Brewing Company. This brewery stood out because it was just sort of right smack in the middle of a strip mall (Google Maps Satellite View). The party bus was cruising through a strip center past insurance companies, dry cleaners, Chinese take-out places, and then all of a sudden, the Avery Brewing Company. Definitely proved that you do not need a lot of space for a microbrewery. I had never heard of the Avery Brewing company but was very pleased with the brews that we had there (Old Jubilation Ale, The Beast, Mephistopheles Stout). I also was introduced to a style of beer that I had read about but never tasted and really couldn’t even fathom. The Sour Beer style (more accurately, the Belgian Sour Ale – read Sour Beer for Beginners). The best way to describe this concoction is to take a perfectly good beer, then add the sour flavor of a CryBaby sour candy. Now for most out there, I’m sure this sounds positively awful, but it actually wasn’t bad. You definitely couldn’t drink 6 of these babies, but one of them was quite nice. Avery had two different sours to taste and I enjoyed them both. When talking about sours with the group, it seemed to delineate along the lines of those that liked the flavor of pickle juice liked sour beers and those that didn’t couldn’t stand sour beers. An interesting experience nonetheless. We decided to forgo the brewery tour at Avery because it was quite crowded and we had a table with our Alabama transplant friends and some comfy chairs.

At long last the joy of the Brews Cruise had to come to an end. We boarded our bus to head back to downtown Denver. I used the ride back to catch a little bit of shut-eye. This of course proved to be too much for Rob to resist, and he proceeded to take pictures of me and send them out to all of our friends with various captions thanks to his trusty iPhone 3GS. Just this past weekend I ran into a friend and was telling them about the GABF and he mentioned he had seen the pictures. I just assumed he was on the distribution list from Rob but he was actually joking (guess he just figured that anyone that visits a beer festival must have a gaggle of incriminating pictures out there…not true in our case).

Upon arriving back at the convention center we decided to hit the hotel for a quick 20 minute nap before trying to meet up with some friends from the Back of the Bus Crew. Unfortunately that 20 minute nap turned into a 4 hour nap leaving us waking up late into the night. We met up with some friends of Rob’s and checked out Sing Sing’s Piano Bar. A nice loud dueling piano type setup.

Now the dueling pianos there weren’t bad per se, but I’ve spent most of my dueling pianos time at Pat O’Brien’s in The Piano Bar down in New Orleans. That is the cream of the crop piano bar, so anything other than that is really just amateur hour. Also, the fact that I had not eaten anything since lunch time caught up with me with a splitting headache and nauseous feeling. I decided to call it an early night, while Rob went and had some late night fun with his Denver peeps.

Click to read Part 4.

Wednesday began with us making the brisk 1.3 mile walk from our hotel (the Ramada on Colfax next to the tattoo parlors) to the Denver Convention Center to get on the bus for the Left Hand Brews Cruise (Post from Draft Magazine about the Brews Cruise). The Brews Cruise consisted of tours of 4 breweries (Boulder Beer, Left Hand, Oskar Blues, Avery), breakfast, lunch, t-shirt, tasting glass, discounts on brewery merchandise, and unlimited samples at the breweries all for $55. This was an absolute bargain. It turned out to be one of our favorite things we did while in Denver.

We ended up arriving to the bus right on time, but that meant most of the seats were already filled. Rob and I got the next to last pair of seats towards the back of the bus. This location would turn out to be the best possible place we could have ended up. The Back of the Bus Crew was a fun, rowdy bunch. We settled into our seats and relaxed for the 45 minute ride from downtown Denver to Boulder, CO for our first stop at the Boulder Beer Company.

Boulder Beer is the maker of such wonderful brews as Hazed & Infused and Mojo IPA. Upon arrival we were treated to as many samples as we wanted of their whole lineup of beers as well as a breakfast of wonderful Breakfast Burritos, Chips, and Salsa fixings. I admit that it was a bit hard to get started tasting beers at 9:30am but Rob and I dug down deep and made it happen.

After getting some food and drink, the tour began. Our tour guide rocked. She was full of energy, and you could tell she loved her job. Of course there are not many jobs where you get to grab yourself a beer as part of your day. We got to see in progress brews being…well…brewed (mashed and sparged). We saw the fermentation tanks in the basement, got to munch on some malt and smell the hops. We saw the bottling facility in full swing and met the fine gentleman that bottle the beer.

They even took us into the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, the beer freezer. This is where all of their fine ready to ship brews and kegs hang out until hopping on trucks. I was in such awe I didn’t even get a picture. The amazing thing to me about the brewery was the fact that in such a small facility (it was not a large building) they create, brew, and bottle the beer that I am able to buy here in Mobile, AL. Truly amazing what they do in that facility.

Thanks Boulder Beer for the amazing welcome you gave us. Go buy and drink Boulder Beer! They deserve your support.

So back on the bus we went to begin our 15 mile trip from Boulder, CO to Longmont, CO to visit the Left Hand Brewing Company. This is when the Back of the Bus Crew began to come into full swing. One of the fellows behind us had purchased a 12 pack Boulder Beer sampler and brought it back on the bus to continue the sampling. He popped the top of each beer and passed them up the aisle so everyone could fill their sample glass and keep from being parched on the 25 minute ride to the next brewery. If you ever go on the Brews Cruise, Be That Guy! It was an awesome gesture that started a trend paying it forward the rest of the day from everyone on board. So as we sampled our generously donated beers, we got to know one another. The husband and wife from Texas, the military gals from Chicago, the young drummer formerly of Chicago now relocated to Denver, and the local that showed the bus the Beer-Love with the donated twelver.

We arrived in Longmont at the Left Hand Brewing Company, and it was obvious they had dressed up for us…or at least dressed up in the way that quirky beer-folk dress up. There was the purple tux-coat leprechaun-like outfit, the jeans, sportscoat, plaid shirt, and Left Hand tie Vice President, and even a full on serious suit back in the bottling area. Free samples again awaited with a full draft selection and even 2 casks that had just been tapped.

Here we went in smaller groups on our tours, and our group had the pleasure of being led around by the Vice President of Operations. He was extremely knowledgeable about the brewing process and a very funny guy to boot. As part of this tour I finally saw a real world use for diatomaceous earth (DME). I remember learning about this stuff in 8th grade biology and never saw a first hand use for it. Left Hand uses it for filtration of their beer. We got to see icky cloudy beer go in one side and a much clearer beer come out the other side. Hooray science!

In the brewing portion of the facility, they showed off their Human Computer Interface as they called it

Yes, that is a disco ball adorning the top of the room. If there is a pressure buildup in the system, the computers kick on the disco ball so the brewmaster can be alerted to the problem and fix it before bad things happen. This is a good example of the really neat culture that was apparent at all of the breweries we visited.

We were able to see their bottling operation and learned that Left Hand employs developmentally disabled individuals to handle some of the mundane repetitive tasks such as putting the shipping boxes together. The repetitive nature of the tasks is very comforting to many of the disabled individuals and they are able to work, produce, and be challenged. I applaud Left Hand for this.

During this tour, we met 2 couples formerly from Alabama that had moved to Denver. One from Birmingham and the other from Decatur and proud graduates of Auburn University. People from the South stick together so from then on we were torn between our Back of the Bus Crew and our Alabama transplant friends.

We were also again shown the beer freezer where all of the finished cooled product awaits shipping. The VP of Operations reminded us that this was the place to be if the country ever broke down and anarchy ensued. With that much beer, they would be able to barter their way to any other supplies they might need. A very good point. I will have to keep that in mind and be sure to keep some beer on hand if things start looking bleak.

While others in the group were completing their tours, we continued sampling the Left Hand beers and got to try a cask that had been tapped that very day. It was a partnership brew between Left Hand and the Terrapin Beer Company out of Athens, GA. It was an Espresso Milk Stout called Depth Charge. Here is a review of Depth Charge. It was an amazing beer if you like stouts and coffee. I like both, so it was my lucky day:

Finally we finished up and re-boarded the bus. The couple from Texas paid it forward by bringing a growler of Left Hand Milk Stout on the bus and keeping the trend going. The trend-setter that started the chain going also brought another 12 pack sampler on-board and brews were passed up and down the aisle as we headed to our next destination, the Oskar Blues Brewery.

Here is a picture of the bus crew courtesy of Aly from Left Hand. Thanks Aly!.

See if you can “Where’s Waldo?” me and Rob (Click the pic to enlarge).

Click to read Part 3.

Back in May I was cruising the Free The Hops forums as I’m want to do and ran across a posting about the Great American Beer Festival held annually in Denver, CO. Just the name alone sounded intriguing so I decided to do some investigating. As it turns out that festival is listed on all kinds of Man Things To Do Before You Die type lists. It is apparently Beertopia, Beerapallooza, Beerhalla, the Beery Gates, and Beervana all rolled up into one. It seemed that an epic adventure was there just waiting to happen. Once I got adventure approval from my better half I enlisted my buddy West-Coast Rob who is always up for excitement and new experiences. These posts will chronicle our time in Denver for the GABF from Tuesday, September 22, 2009 to Sunday, September 27, 2009.

Tuesday was a travel day for me with nice boring flights from MOB->MEM->DEN. Upon arriving in Denver I got to see first hand the monstrosity that is the Denver International Airport. I remember studying the airport’s baggage system in grad school. It is a case study on how not to run a software project (Article from Scientific American about the project). Calling this airport the Denver Airport seems to be a bit of a stretch. Google says it was about 24 miles from the airport to our hotel. In Mobile if I drive 24 miles, I’m in a different city and I’m almost at the beach. Also, Denver is sorely lacking on adequate affordable transportation from the airport into downtown. Cabs $50, Super Shuttle $20, Hourly Bus $10. Nothing like hopping on Bart in San Francisco or the “El” in Chicago.

Rob and I elected to go with the Super Shuttle van for our transportation to the hotel. Since the airport is so far away, the shuttle driver refused to leave until he had filled every bit of space in our van (he even tried to fill some space that didn’t actually exist, luckily those elderly passengers refused to squeeze in between everyone).

On the ride into town, I was lucky enough to be seated next to two brewers that were in town as judges for the GABF (Great American Beer Festival). One was Brock Wagner from the Saint Arnold Brewing Company in Houston, TX and the other was Chuck Skypeck from the Ghost River Brewing Company and Boscos in Memphis, TN. They were super nice guys and we had a great conversation about how they got started in the business, how things have changed since they began brewing, and what they saw for the future of beermaking. For someone that has been thinking about getting into homebrewing, this was an absolute treat. Thanks guys for the interesting conversation! Poor Rob got stuck up front riding shotgun, so he spent the trip into town keeping the van driver from killing us (which I’m very thankful for).

After checking into our hotel (the Ramada on Colfax Ave next to the tattoo parlors) we headed over to the Rock Bottom Brewing Company on 16th Street to meet up with Melissa, one of Rob’s friends that lives in Denver. There we enjoyed some wonderful Rock Bottom brews with Melissa and her coworkers. They all showed some wonderful hospitality to the out of towners. Here is my poor blurry iPhone pic of their beer board.

After imbibing for a bit we left in search of food (yes, we left a restaurant to go find a restaurant). That search led us to Hamburger Mary’s. After some great food (I had the enchilada’s with green chilies) and drinks, we discovered we were in for a special treat. At 9pm on Tuesday’s, Hamburger Mary’s has Drag Queen Bingo. They passed out bingo sheets and stampers and treated us to a hilarious 2 hours of bingo excitement.

If you are in town on a Tuesday night, you must go check this out. It was quite vulgar and profane, but in all the right ways. Unfortunately neither Rob, Melissa, nor I won any of the bingo games. So close, but no bingo.

On the way back to the hotel we swung by one more place before calling it a night. We checked out the Streets of London Pub on Colfax. A delightful place with a very Punk Rock meets Hell’s Angels meets Soccer Hooligans type vibe. And it was $2 You Call It which you just can’t beat.

Finally we retired to our Ramada (which we would later find out is referred to as the Rock-mada) to call an end to day one.

Click to read Part 2.