2012 Knoxville Brewfest

Well, it's the morning after Knoxville's second annual Brewfest to benefit Cure Duchenne.

Yesterday started bright and early with a 5k run to benefit the Wounded Warrior project.  Proud to say Dave, Sarah, and I made it out to participate.  Early as hell, and a nice hilly run which myself and the wonder mutt Maxine did in rather decent time (for us).  Dave and Sarah muddled through quite well despite having been out drinking a bit late the evening before.  It was a great cause to get out for, and we got some pint glasses and pretty killer shirts out of it.

Brunch was our next destination, and I can HIGHLY recommend hitting Chez Liberty up for it (10-2 weekends). The kind folks there let us try a new Bloody Mary concoction called the Leroy.  It has BBQ sauce in it.  And it's spicy.  And garnished with either bacon or a pork rib (they were in the process of deciding which).

In any event, we met up with friends about 3, and headed down to the Railway terminal where Brewfest is held.  Tickets are kept to a fairly low number, so beers don't run out very early, and lines are short.  I think the longest any of us waited for any given beer in line might have been one minute.  Considering the large number of brewers, and the decent mix of high gravity offerings, this makes for interesting bit of pacing if you plan to go the distance.  There were a number of breweries that brought out some special releases (a welcome change from last year) and the overall number of participants was up as well.  Near and dear to our hearts, the homebrew section was also very much expanded.  Underground Brewing Company brought a huge selection (love their Black IPA), and BBM's Location X had an absolutely killer Sour Wheat and Rosemary Kolsch on tap.

All in all, a great event!  Chris and the crew from Bearden Beer Market did an excellent job running and organizing everything.  I for one am looking forward to next year's festival!  If we can figure out a way to enjoy the event and participate you might even see us in one of the booths...