Hopefully everyone who wanted to go to the Cincy Beerfest got the chance to attend. It was a crazy scene but one that made me feel good. Good to see so many people interested in trying new beers. I believe the final count will be well above 10,000 people for the two day event. That's pretty good for a cold and slightly snowy weekend in this town. Sure there were some people there just to "get loaded" but from where I was located this seemed to be a manageably small percentage.
I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by to say hi and try the Octobersbest Brett Stout. I was pretty busy pouring beer most of the time so I didn't get as much time to talk to everyone as I would have liked and for that I apologize. I think the beer came out OK given the fact that it wasn't able to age on the Brett as long as the original homebrew version. A little bit has been kept back for the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am in September which should give the beer plenty of time to let the Brett character develop further. This beer will definitely make a re-appearance as a Blank Slate beer in the future (probably even barrel aged). Big thanks go to the Cincinnati Malt Infusers and Rivertown Brewing Company for making that beer happen.
But now the fun is over. As good of a "distraction" from work as this weekend was, the truth is I have a LOT of things left to do. The walk-in has been put together but still needs some sealing and sorting out of the refrigeration. A couple things still need welded. The kettle venting needs to be finished. The state inspection is happening soon (yes the legal hurdles are not yet complete). There's still a lot of odds and ends to get settled. I'm probably going to have to go into "hiding" for the next month or so to get this thing done. So for as fun as Craft Beer Week and Beerfest were, it might be a little bit before I see anybody out and about again...
Unless something really good comes up!
