On Saturday (February 6, 2010) I attended “The Bistro’s 10th Annual Double IPA Festival” in Hayward, CA. This was my fifth time attending what has become a predictably wonderful beer event.
However, the DIPA Festival has also become quite expensive! This year’s tariff was $35 for a souvenir glass and just five small pours (4-5 ounces [...]
In late September 2009 a few friends and I capped our trip to Oktoberfest with a visit to Bamberg, a 1000+ year-old town known for its beer.
Bamberg is a charming small city of about 70,000 in northern Bavaria. It’s reminiscent of Bruges in that it escaped bombing during WWII, retaining a twisty medieval character. Bamberg [...]
A few months back I went to Munich for the world’s oldest and greatest beer festival. I loved it – Oktoberfest wildly exceeded my expectations.
I had been to Munich at least once before, but not during this time of year. I expected a New Orleans Mardi Gras-like crush of drunken screaming twenty-year-olds to ruin the [...]
Today I attended an excellent beer festival at The Bistro in Hayward, CA. It went under various names:
The Barrel Aged Festival
The Bistro Wood Barrel Aged Beer Festival
West Coast Barrel-Aged Festival
But whatever it was called, Vic Kralj and his team pulled off a great event. Like several attendees, I was hit by some sticker shock – [...]
While in Vienna in April 2009, I of course spent some time getting to know the beer. Since I was only in town for a few days, I couldn’t make a comprehensive exploration of beer haunts. But, armed with some reports from Beer Advocate and a couple of earlier explorers who had posted their notes [...]
In April I went to London for business. (I stayed with Lauren and Jason in St. John’s Wood – when they moved there from NYC a few years ago, Lauren kept a still-funny blog about the tribulations Americans’ settling in London.)
While in The Smoke I took some photos, a handy ninety-two of which I deemed [...]