Tenth Annual Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival – Vail, Colorado

This post is copied from my post on the HopPress

What are you up to January 7-9? Nothing? Then get yourself to Vail, Colorado, for the 10th annual Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines festival.

There will be dinners. Seminars. Competition. And beer. Lots of big beers.

The event starts Thursday night with a Brewmaster’s dinner. Adam Avery, Brewmaster/Founder of Avery Brewing, and Sam Calagione, Founder/President of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, join brewing and culinary forces for their Calibration Dinner.

Friday from 8:30-12 is the opportunity to show what you know about beer and brewing with Ray Daniels’ Cicerone Program.

Friday at 12, get ready to taste the big beers. All About Beer Magazine brings in beers specifically created for the 10th anniversary of this event.

At 1:30, the AHA-sanctioned Belgians, Barleywines and Strong Ales Homebrew Competition gets underway. Entries for the competition are due December 30th, so get on it!

2:30 is another chance to prove your beer industry knowledge with the Certified Cicerone Exam.

Friday night at 8pm is the Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Brewmasters’ Dinner. Featured brewmaster Peter Bouckaert of New Belgium will be joined by international featured brewmaster Lodewijk Swinkels of LaTrappe at Bierbrouwerij Koningshoeven.

Saturday morning’s seminar should be really interesting. It’s brought to us by  White Labs Yeast, and is on the recent explosion of experimental brews. The seminar is entitled “Brewing Outside of the Box: Brewers Gone Wild!” This seminar is followed by another by International Featured Brewmaster, Lodewijk Swinkels of LaTrappe/ Bierbrouwerij Koningshoeven. Immediately after is a seminar by Colorado Featured Brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert of New Belgium Brewing Co. Both of these seminars will be on topics of each brewer’s choice.

And finally, the event you’ve all been waiting for. From 2:30 – 7 is the commercial tasting portion of the festival. With around 150 commercially produced brews, the homebrew competition award ceremony, and a beer and food pairing challenge, this event is definitely something you don’t want to miss. Here are the breweries participating in the event:

Alaskan Allagash Altitude Anchor Brewing Anheuser-Busch Avery BJ’s Bosteels Boston Beer Co. Boulder Boulevard Breckenridge Bristol Bruery Cambridge Caracole Carver Chouffe Corsendonk Delirium De Ranke Des Rocs Deschutes Dogfish Head Dry Dock Dubuisson Dupont Duvel

Eisenbahn Flying Dog Flying Fish Glenwood Canyon Gouden Carolous Grand Lake Grand Teton Great Divide Green Flash He’brew/Schmaltz Hoegaarden Jolly Pumpkin Kapuziner Kasteel Koningshoeven Klumbacher Leffe Left Hand Lindemans Lion Lost Abbey Maredsous Meantime Mendocino Moinette New Belgium Odell Ommegang

Orval Oskar Blues Pagosa Brewing Papago Pinkus Port Brewing Pumphouse Redstone Meadery Rogue Russian River Samichlaus Samuel Smith Sierra Nevada Silverton Ska Slaghmuylder St. Bernardus St. Feuillien Steamworks Stone Thomas Hardy Trinidad Uinta Urthel Val-Dieu Victory Westmalle Wynkoop

I will be the festival all day Saturday, and if work allows, all day Friday as well. I’ll have a full write up here, so if you can’t make it, you can read all about it. It looks like an awesome event, and I’m really excited to check it out. Plus, it’s in Vail. Anyone up for some turns on Sunday?

For more information on the festival, check out their website at bigbeersfestival.com.

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