Man.
Talk about the stars aligning for
Glenn Blakely and his 2nd Annual Washington’s Crossing BrewFest inSolebury, Pennsylvania.
65 Brewers’ tables, huge, happy
crowds, characters in period dress, really, REALLY good food and a day where
the weather notched a 12 on the 1-10 scale. Shaded by trees and bordered by the
Delaware River, it’s an ideal place for a Beer Fest.
Yard’s had the superb Washington’s Tavern Porter and Thomas Jefferson’s Ale
there. And besides being able to taste brews from recognized national breweries,
new brewers like Vault, Tall Grass, Naked Brewery, Free Will, Crispen and many
others were proffering their liquid wares. Ever hear of “Clown Shoes brewing?”
Neither have I, but they were there, along with Half Acre, Full Pint, Great Swamp, Green Flash and a beer club
called Brewtal. Impressive also were the likes of Innis and Gunn, Lagunitas,
Allagash and Left Hand from Colorado. A full listing is on the Washington’s
Crossing BrewFest website. The participant breweries represented a very wide
swath of the US, and the attendees took full advantage. The aforementioned
Vault had some serious lines, but so did Port Brewing, Oskar Blues and
ShawneeCraft.
Of course, the problem with such
a wide variety of excellent breweries is the inability of the normal human
stomach to ingest its full, no matter what the mind is ordering it to do. And
the quality of the food put out by various vendors didn’t leave any extra room.
One dollar hot dogs, big thick and juicy burgers and pretzels so plentiful,
many folks were wearing them around their necks. The pretzel logs were
a foot long and almost three inches thick. There was even a brick-fired
pizza wagon from a place called Nomad on the premises putting out the finest
gourmet pizza you could ever want.
The entire event was thoroughly organized,
there were plenty of “toities” to handle the usual result of drinking beer, and the staff functioned like a well-oiled
machine. I even met George Washington Re-enactor John Godzieba, though for this
event he was wearing a staff brewfest shirt and not his general’s garb. And The
PubScout gives a well-deserved shout out to the band named “Shabby Road.” They
were good without being overly loud, and their cover stuff was on the money.
The slogan on the program for the
brewfest reads: George Drank Here. Good thing he made his crossing on a bitter
cold Christmas Day, because if it were a day like today, he would undoubtedly
have stayed on the Pennsy side, drinking from an excellent array of beers.
Write this one down in your
calendars as a “Must hit.” And pray for weather like today’s. Maybe "Gizmo" (L.) will be there, too.
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