BEERFEST!

Finally, Beerfest arrived! For Christmas, I bought my boyfriend tickets to the World Beer Festival in Columbia, South Carolina. Yeah, I'm pretty much the coolest girlfriend ever right? Beer festival tickets! It's an understatement to say he was excited about it. We've both been looking forward to it all month. 

We made the 70 mile trip to Columbia yesterday. Held at the Columbia Metropolitan Center, we attended the 12-4 P.M. session, featuring live music, food, and lots of beer.

I was planning on giving Matt the tickets for his birthday a few weeks ago, but I was too impatient and he got them on Christmas Day. While working at the bar in mid-December, a customer mentioned the festival. Right away I made him give me the website, AllAboutBeer.com. I went home and bought tickets a few days later. So it was Matt's birthday/Christmas present. Luckily, he brought me along; I would have been pretty disappointed had be brought someone else, ha. 

We had a great time wandering around the convention center, sampling hundreds of beers, and making funny observations while watching the other convention-goers. Some people went all out, wearing beer themed costumes. One guy was the monk from the Franziskaner beer. Even some college guys wearing full Oktoberfest costumes, leather shorts and all. We only snapped a few pictures; I forgot I had my camera in my purse. 

We look like giants holding a little beer glass. Everyone had little plastic glasses to have 2 oz. samples of beer from over 80 breweries. Some beer was amazing, some not so much. One of our favorites was Éphémerè Apple, from Unibroue Brewers in Quebec. Their La Fin Du Monde (the end of the world) was also one of my favorites. 

My favorite of the day, by far, was Ace Cider. It tasted like a green apple Jollyrancher. Although it wasn't beer, per-se, it was still fantastic! I was a little disappointed there wasn't more hard cider at the festival. Strongbow + Guiness, a layered pint, Strongbow on bottom, Guiness on top, has been my beer of choice lately. There were so many amazing beers! I made sure I grabbed the full brochure so I can find local beer and wine shops that carry some of what we tasted.

Matt bought me a pretzel necklace, I finally took a cue many other people in the crowd. On top of being super convenient, the pretzels cleanse the pallet so you can taste beer better. And they're quite tasty. Reminds me of when I was little and my mom would string cereal on necklaces when we went on trips.

It was so funny walking around the festival and having a few people stop to ask me, "Do you work at Stillwater?" Guess I'm pretty recognizable. I work at a bar in Augusta called Stillwater Taproom. There are 18 different kinds of beer on tap, all microbrews, imported and specialty beer. You want Bud light? It only comes in bottles there, ha. So I pretty much just pour really good beer for a few hours at Happy Hour every week day. I feel like I've become quite a snob lately with my beer taste. But Guiness will always remain my favorite favorite.

My new shirt! It took quite a few passes of the booth, and having beer samples for a few hours before I actually bought it for $15. Mint green with burgundy screen print "beer expert". I'm not a big t-shirt wearing kind of girl, but it'll be great for work at the bar. And pretty funny. I think I might lower the neckline and make it a scoop neck. That, or make the sleeves into cap sleeves.

Now I'm enjoying my lazy Sunday afternoon. It's cold here (I know, I'm whining); I think it's about 40 degrees outside. Sunday has become my sewing day, and a day for hanging out by myself. So much sewing to do. Hope you all are enjoying the weekend!