Barrington Brew Fest

Today was the Barrington Brew Fest, and after teaching crochet to some students in the morning, I kind of needed this.

We simply walked to the train station, caught the train from Palatine to Barrington, and then began to try lots of beer. It was nice to know that we didn't need to drive home; kind of an advantage of our new place, I suppose.

Here's what I got to try:

• New Belgium Somersault
• Gordon Biersch Sommerbrau
• Summit Pilsner
• Limestone Brewing Wisdom and Wit
• Capital Brewery Wisconsin Amber
• Emmett's Brewing Hefeweizen
• Potosi Brewery Wee Stein Wit
• Mickey Finn's Valkyrie Pils
• Sprecher Brewing Hefe Weiss

And here's what Dave tried:

• New Belgium Somersault
• Gordon Biersch Schwartzbier
• The Lucky Monk Tripel
• The Lucky Monk Kolsch
• The Lucky Monk Solitude Oatmeal Stout
• The Lucky Monk Wheat Wine
• Flossmoor Station Le Chien Blanc Belgian Wit
• Flossmoor Station Rail Hopper IPA
• Flossmoor Station 15th Anniversary Tripel
• Potosi Brewery Snake Hollow IPA
• Victory Brewing Company Golden Monkey

As you can see, we drank a lot of small, tasting portions of beer. Still, that's a lot of beer. Dave is pretty much the most sloshed I've seen in a while, even as I type this. A lot of his beers were some pretty high alcohol levels, including his favorite, the Flossmoor Station Tripel, which clocked in at something like 15% ABV. Dang.

The weirdest thing about this afternoon was randomly running into some old friends - Ryan Carey from law school and Mike Coy from grade school (and beyond). We got to share many opinions on beer and catch up on old times. Mike brews, so I think we'll be picking his brain to brew some of our own sometime in the next year.

Oh, and I ran into someone else; I posted last year about a beer tasting we went to in Chicago, mentioning a certain drunkard in a blue jean fishing cap. At last year's tasting, he was basically the drunkest person I've ever seen. After leaving the elevator speaking German, he basically walked onto Western Avenue, where I assumed he would be hit by a car. Well, that man was at Barrington today, so I guess he must have lived to drink another day. If I see him at too many more tastings, I will either know that I am at the right beer fests, or I will know my life is going horribly downhill. You know, one or the other.

Time to go make some jam and hang out with Dave for the rest of the night. Let's just say that in the next few days, there will be another crochet pattern, and this one will be simply redonk. You'll see.