the pissed liBEERian: Festival of the Beer... the Winter WABL version.

Winter Beer Fest @ Hale's Palladium

December 10th & 11th

Seems like I'm approximately 2 months over due on this post, liBEERian fines equaling no less than 1 million dollhairs! I'm always a bit late. If I came early or was on time, you wouldn't know what to do with me. Considering all the lovely events MGD & I have attended, I think we got this one right. See formula below (do not attempt to calculate or duplicate without the supervision of a trained professional):

1 Friday session + 1 hotel room for 2 nights + the presence of my only (& therefore my favorite) sibling who newly moved back to WA sate + 2 Saturday sessions + midday break @ Kate's Pub + closing the place down after all attendees have vacated + one trip to the super elite brewer's green room + 1 keg of Schooner Exact Schoon Light (hmmmmm...) + a suicidal Boundary Bay Santa + Theo chocolate in flavors of curry & coconut + over 70 beers to choose from + a session on the rocky 7 Seas that is Santa's lap + some of the hottest hotel nooky I've ever partaken in (which is TOTALLY what I asked Santa for!) ='s An Amazingly Great Weekend & Festival in the Big (overdue) Book of the Pissed LiBEERian.

Travis Guterson rockin' a winter onesie

This may be the first time I truly felt the (minuscule amount of) celebrityness that my blog has generated. It's nice to come in and know a good chunk of the brewers and discuss the fun ales they have planned. I mean who doesn't like the 7 Seas guys dressed as Santa or sporting an adult onesie? (Travis... only YOU could pull that look off) Head swells further as fellow beer blogger Mike Besser (brewdad.com) comes up to introduce himself and tell me how much he enjoys my mad awesome writing skillage (my words, not his). Now practically at the point of having to wipe brain & skull matter off my fellow event goers as my head gets to the exploding point of swollen, as WABL member & home brewer, Brandon Horn, comes up to say hello and ask if I'm the pissed liBEERian. Why yes in fact, I am! (He was also instrumental in hooking us up with some super special WABL brew, the Holiday Knickerdropper. Served in both whiskey & sherry casks. Delicious!!)

Yeah... wow. I'm still trying to not be shocked when people come up to me in both Tacoma and Seattle because they recognize me from the blog. Still wigs me out because I feel like I'm supposed to know them back, yet it's always ridiculously flattering and blushworthy. I'm kind of a big deal. Which makes MGD a bit of a big deal. Hahahaha. So you reader people out there? Thanks a heaping tun of mash for making me feel so special in a non short bus kind of way. :) Best compliment I got this week on the Book of the Face: "Dang! I just read your blog... wow, awesome read! You're like all beer-famous and stuff yo!" Epic.

Beers of Noteworthiness from 35 WA Breweries (basically the awesome ales we gave 3 out of 3 stars amongst our collective group):

Alex from Airways

7 Seas Brewing - Port Royal Export Style Stout & Saison
Airways Brewing - Sky Hag IPA (Hot Chocolate Ale pretty tasty as well. Brewer Alex told me he made the Widebody Blonde in honor of me, which might have been a compliment about my curvature, but all I could laser focus on was 'Is that a fat joke dude?' )

Big Al - Peanut Butter Imperial Stout (PB does truly fill the cracks in the heart, glad they had an extra keg for the 2nd session!)
Big Time Brewing - Holy Mole Chocolate-Chile Ale (molemolemolemole)
Diamond Knot Brewing - Aged Belgian Blonde Ho Ho Ho
Elysian Brewing - Bifrost Winter Ale

Hale's Ales Brewery - Supergoose (a bigger version of their Mongoose IPA)
Silver City Brewery - Imperial Stout
Snipes Mountain Brewery - Pumpkin

Death, 2 Fresh IPA, Zombie Killer, Sour Pumpkin (secret blend a lot of brewers kept coming back for so we hopped on that band wagon)
Two Beers - Cask Conditioned Jive Espresso Stout, Double Dry-Hopped Infused Evo, 20:20 Blonde (so yeah... basically everything they brought was beyond consumable)

And surely not to be overlooked, the official debut of Schooner Exact's Profanity Hill Porter and (squee!) their Midnight Union Raspberry Brown Ale. The Profanity Hill Porter was very nice but Midnight Union, seriously? Like I'm gonna stop spending my wooden festival money on that at any point. Delicious raspberry dark roasted malty goodness for me... sigh. Later on in the night, owner and brewer of SE Matt McClung told me that they made this beer for me (undoubtedly because of my ongoing obsession and promotion of their Seamstress Union Raspberry Wheat Ale). I'm pretty sure he was a bit inebriated and possibly lying to me, but I'm totally okay with that.