The weekend started with Noah picking me up. We then drove up to Madison. We listened to an interview with Dan Carey of New Glarus, on the Brewing Network, on our way up. When we pulled into Madison, we went to the Grumpy Troll, in Mount Horeb. I had the bratwurst, Tom and Nancy (we met them there) split a sandwich, and I don't remember what Noah & 'em had. To drink I started with the Cask Brown Ale, which wasn't too bad, Tom didn't seem to like it alot pickign up some sourness. But the rest of us didn't mind. I followed that up with a Summer Moon, which was a dark wheat, that was pretty good.
We left Grumpy Troll and headed to the Mustard Museum. We started to watch the video inside, but grew impatient. They had a decent selection of mustards made with beer, including Sea Dog, Sierra Nevada, and others.
We left there, and checked into our hotel. Then as we left to go to downtown Madison, we rode the hotel shuttle with some guys in brewery shirts and hats, so I said "I know what you guys are here for..." We asked where they were from, and they said Bloomington. We clarified, Illinois? Yes. So we invited them to the next (and future) beer club events. We chatted some more, asked when they were going to go get in line, and some other small talk. Our first stop was going to be Maduro, but it didn't open until 6, and it was before 5 p.m. Instead we went a couple of doors down, to the Local Tavern (apparently no webpage). My first drink there was a draught, New Glarus Spotted Cow (when in Rome). Next was a Furthermore, 3 feet deep. This was a peaty, smokey stout/porter, that was pretty good. We watched the Kentucky Derby (presented by Yum!) and then headed down to Maduro.
Noah remembered last year, when Maduro had an (according to him) outstanding tap list, with some really rare and delicious beers. We walked in, looked at the board, then left, everything on tap was available in Champaign/Urbana (except for Stone IPA). So we went next door to, Argus. They had an ok selection. I went with the New Glarus Organic Revolution, which was slightly skunky, but not totally unpleasant. I had something else after, but don't remember.
We left there in search of the Bulls vs. Celtics game 7. We wound up at Great Dane. I started with their Texas Speedbump IPA (that seemed to be on cask), followed that up with the Tri-Pepper Pils (that was one of the best beers I had all weekend; somehow refreshing and spicy enough to make you want to drink water, all in one), after that was the Emerald Isle Stout, that was an Irish Stout that reminded me of Guinness. We left there when the Bulls lost and headed back to our hotel, it was only like 10:30, but we were tired, and were getting up early.
Woke up around 4, showered, got dressed, attempted to wake up... left around 5:15 to go get in line. We got there at 5:44, and to our surprise, the Bloomington contingent was already in line ahead of us. Tom and Nancy showed up a few minutes after us. We got there at 5:44, and were in about position 50-60 in the line. We went to Steve's Wine on University. Paddy showed up with Blau Augen some time later, and was back further in the line. With 400 tix at our location, and only 2 tix per person, he wasn't in danger of not getting his 2. Around when Paddy showed, Brian and his gal showed up as well. We all brought lawn chairs, and I borrowed Nancy's blanket. I proceeded to fall asleep, nicely bundled, for a couple of hours, which wasn't a problem, as the line didn't move until 11:30.
We met some nice people in line. (Paddy was going back and forth from his spot to ours), including Lucas, from Gimp Radio.
Around 9 (i think, not really sure, I was sleepy) a guy from MHTG came around to find out how many tix everyone would be getting, and to inform some unhappy people that they wouldn't get tickets. After he got to the end of the line, he came back around, and told us that the location had around 150 more ticktets than people there (room for 75 more people). I don't know if the other locations were sold out initially, but there were tickets left over and I saw a few people get back in at the end of the line. No one from our Champaign/Urbana group got back in line, as we had plenty of people throughout Madison. After we got through the line, we did some shopping in the store, I got a 4 pack of Ten Fidy, and also a 4 pack of Viking Hot Chocolate. Paddy got a 6 pack of Central Waters IPA, he also got a three floyds munsterfest, but I don't remember what it was. I rode back with Paddy. We stopped in Bloomington and got some Gondolas and a Ham and Cheese, at Avantis.
Got back into town around 4, then had a softball game.
Here's a news article on the tix day.
As for those who may have camped out over night and stood in long lines and not ended up with ticket? “That’s just part of managing this very popular event and there are only so many tickets available,” declares Rogers.Um... how is that possible? We didn't camp out, or stand in too long a line, and we got there at 5:45. Once again, you see people who think they want to do something, but then don't really put out the effort to do it. With 150 tickets that remained at Steve's Wine on University, at around 10, there is no reason anyone should not have gotten tickets.
I'm not sure if the other locations were more full, but the 2 ticket per person, probably is what allowed more people (than before) to get tickets.
I'll see you at the festival, August 8. If anyone has a spare ticket, Kelly K (who commented on a previous post) is looking for tickets.
I didn't see any on Ebay yet. There might be some on Craigslist.
No comments:
Post a Comment