Monday, 11 August 2008
Great Taste Of The Midwest: A Report
« Great Taste Of The Midwest | Main | Catching Up With Beshear »What a interesting day. It began with a trip to downtown Madison where my wife, some friends, and I went to catch a bus to the site of the Great Taste. We arrived a couple of hours early for the shuttle and decided to use the time to walk around the capital of Wisconsin. We were treated with a farmer's market in the square. Normally, there wouldn't be anything special about a farmer's market except for the fact that Madison is a strong hold of left wing socialism.
That means we were amused by various table set up by the wacky left. The first of these tables I saw was the "Impeach Bush" table. I almost went up to ask them why they still wanted to impeach Bush. He will be out of office in a few months. Instead of playing with liberals in the wild, I just thought I would observe them in their natural habitats.
We saw all kinds of fun stuff. We saw the 9/11 truthers. We saw animal right activists. We saw pro-Palestinians. We saw a number of people distributing Obama literature. But the most amusing were the pro-UN people. I didn't know we had pro-UN people in this country.
After getting a taste of the local culture, we headed to the Great Dane Pub for lunch. Not wanting to pre-game before the main event, we ate a beerless lunch which was very good. Once lunch was consumed, we headed out to catch the shuttle. I was amused to see school buses show up to take people to the event.
We arrived at the park about 45 minutes before the event, and was greeted with a huge line snaking from the entrance into the field below. Event workers came around and traded our tickets for arm bands to provide entry. At 1:00 PM CDT, the gates opened and people rushed through the gates. For us way back in the line, it took about 25 minutes to advance to the front gate where we picked up our 4 oz glass and a program.
Some of our friends were in line before us and they found a place to set up our chairs. We met them inside and set up a "mini-camp" that would be our staging area. The event itself consisted of 6 large tents that held hundreds of different breweries. Each brewery brought a hand full of their beers for sampling. All one had to do was go up to any of the brewer's table and they would pour four ounces of whichever micro-brew you asked for.
In addition to the beer, they provided water jugs, a place to wash out glasses, porta-potties, and a food tent where one could buy food.
I spent the first 30 minutes going through the program and mapping out beers I wanted to taste with locations in each of the 6 tents. I don't really like hoppy beers, creamy beers, Belgians, or meades. But I do like dry stout's, dunkles, browns, and marziens (Octoberfests). Thus I decided to stick to beers I liked. Unfortunately, there weren't any dunkles at the fest. While disappointing, it wasn't that big of a deal. There was still plenty of others to try.
After mapping things out, I worked my way through each tent one at a time. I tasted over 20 different brewers over the five hours we were there. Most of the beers were good or very good. Only a few were so retched that they had to be poured out. For me, the best of show was Viking Brewery's Dark Marzien. It stood out well above all the rest.
The only down side to trying that many beers is the fact that many of them begin to taste the same over time.
What was most amazing about the event was how well behaved everyone was. Most people were drunk, but everyone seemed to be getting along. I imagine that had to do with the fact that the average age of those attending was in the mid 30's and mostly middle class. I was a bit surprised by how many women were in attendance. I would say 30 percent of those attending were women.
I had a most enjoyable time and would recommend it for anyone who likes beer.
If I were going to attend the event again, I would do some things differently. I would go early in the morning and try to pick up a program. Take it to lunch and pour over it while eating.
Instead of showing up 45 minutes early and standing in line, I would probably show up about an hour after the event started. Why so late? To avoid the crowds. In the first two hours the tents are packed. As the day goes forward, the lines become short and it is easy to get beers. I also wouldn't take chairs. One can always sit on the hillside to rest. The only thing I would take to the event was a fanny pack with water and a couple of snacks.
