Big Beers, Belgians, & Barleywines. And alsotoo, big mountains.

We snuck away to Vail’s Big Beers, Belgians, & Barleywines festival this weekend.  It was a good time with a load of good beers.  (And also, editorial aside here, some more reminders that we are spoiled in FoCo with freshtastycraft beer on at most bars and restaurants – not so in Vail.  However, a couple of places we stumbled upon are making an effort.  I’m not sure if that was just for this festival weekend, or if it’s a trend that’ll treat us all to a variety of great beers on there in the coming year or two, but I hope the latter!)  We attended a couple of seminars, learned a few things, met a bunch of folks, and tried what were, for me, a lot of new malted beverages.  If you’re a true beer geek and want to know more than my “I liked this one, that one isn’t my favorite, I’m trying to teach myself about XYZ style” sort of rating system would tell you, I encourage you to read the entries of one of the many beer bloggers and “real” writers who attended, like this guy:

The upshot is that this festival is a great way to sample small amounts of fantastic beers.  Breweries really did bring things you don’t normally see at a big ol’ beer festival.  I sampled some stuff I loved from breweries in Belgium, California, Massachusetts, and (of course) Colorado.  I also missed a wad of them.  There are just too many offerings and interesting people with whom to chatear.  


If you're able to go a day early and stay a night or two, there are both spontaneous and planned gatherings that are delicious, fun, and maybe even slightly raucous.   Of course, since I'm a deficient beer blogger, I didn’t take photos of the beer.  Too busy sampling it, I guess.  I did get a couple of photos of other aspects of the festival that struck me.

People.  Always fascinating.  And looky!  One of them whom we didn't know before this day was even wearing an H&D shirt.  Woot!  Also massive bowls of bread available for between sips, and icy portapotties with a snowy backdrop.  Advice (that was Tweeted, so if you follow us on Twitter sorry for the repeat):  if you’re gonna’ need to go, go early.  These babies were going to ice over by 5 pm and the only thing I can think of that’s worse than a portapotty steaming in summer is one with an ice skating rink for a floor in the winter.  As well, it’s good to know that even in Vail, people sometimes use an outhouse.  

Aside from the people and the beer, here’s a little look at Vail in January. 

Many thoughts on the way up there about the engineering feat that is I-70 and its tunnels.

[Despite these signs, we saw neither.]  

The mountains are spectacular, even when you can't see the high ranges.

In the event that the mountain scenery needed some augmenting, someone in Vail was on it for the holiday season:

Vail copes (as does, one hopes, any ski town) with a lot of snow.  The shoveling and plowing has got to be constant.  

These guys were shoveling off the roofs before the next anticipated snowfall. One guy was using (I think I'm not kidding here), a drill -- to drill through the ice but, presumably, not the roof. Dicey.

There are enormous plow-residue mountains of snow everywhere.  I realize this is not an astute observation.

Despite all this shoveling and plowing, icy streets and walkways are omnipresent, even at the resorts.  It’s kind of encouraging that there’s a place left in the US where they expect common sense, rather than your legal team, to prevail.  “Hey, it’s 10 degrees out and you’re at a resort built here because of the snow.  Watch your step.  If you slip, we’ll maybe help you up and we'll try not to call you a knob.”

Despite this indication that perhaps in the U.S. mountains, at least, we're still supposed to take personal responsibility for our actions and accidents, there was this sign on the (free) bus.  I blanked out the firm's name because I can't stand this message.  People!  You are deciding of your own free will to go 10,000 feet above sea level, strap one or two planks to your feet, and point yourself downhill.  You are going to do this with hundreds of other people who may or may not have any experience.  Gravity, in one way or another, will prevail.  You are able to assess the risks and decide if you want to assume them...

Here was a guy making Tim jealous:

And there’s plenty of evidence of hearty winter sportspeople – check out these ski tracks coming down the slope, with nary a ski lift in sight.  

Our sweet condo was flying a Colorado flag.  That’s how we knew we were home.  (It also had some amazing pines out front.)

We finished the weekend with a birthday dinner for Luke at Atwater on Gore Creek restaurant – one of the few places we found that pays homage to craft beer and great food.  

These two FoCo-ites joined us and pitched in on singing to Luke.  Thanks Matthew & Cy!

I loved this restaurant's beer menu.  Particularly this section -- what it's all about. Though I realize now that we didn't share a large format craft in a bottle.  Shame. We'll have to go back.  Alas.