Abandon All Hope, Ye That Enter Here.
It’s been about a week, but I’m still recovering from my three-city tour of Colorado based around the Great American Beer Festival. And I’m still amazed, after more than ten years of writing about beer (among other topics) for the likes of Food+Wine, Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and many others, that it was my first ever trip to the Big One, the mother of all beer events, the endless pour…
Big it is. Surreal, too. Moments after I checked into Hotel Teatro in Denver I found myself with some 160 other accredited journalists (from the beverage media trade, mostly, including some familiar faces I was glad to see) in a white-tablecloth dining room beneath the Marriott. Denver’s popular Democratic Mayor, John Hickenlooper, was about to make some remarks. I’d barely shaken off the general skeeziness of flying and my airport “breakfast” at 7AM when I sat down to a remarkably haute beer and food pairing. Buffalo carpaccio, meet Del Norte Brewing Co.’s Mañana Amber Lager. Tender Beef Cheek, meet Deschutes Black Butte Porter. Things were off to a good start, indeed… (more…)
