Denver is notorious for festivals. I don't mean creepy clown filled festivals, I'm talking stuff like bacon and IPA festivals. Holy mother, are we in Denver or heaven? I got confused for a second. Last Fall when I got word that the same weekend would house a day full of IPA and a day full of bacon, my fingers flew across my keyboard like lightning in order to email and let Patrick and Dave know about it. Although I would've thought they might be in, I didn't expect both of them to literally book a flight the same day we talked about it. That's right, I've got killer friends. Be jealous. Festival tickets were also bought and a couple of months later, I was saying hello to two of my favorite boys on the planet.
Saturday kicked the weekend off with the Boulder IPA Fest held at Avery Brewing in Boulder. Avery is by far one of my favorite Colorado breweries and not just because I could drink their taps dry but more because the people are badass. The guys know their stuff and they're damn cute on top of it. I may have done a little stalker staring a time or two whilst there but we won't talk about that. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the festival but I was ecstatic over introducing myself to a whole slew of new IPAs that were sure to be spectacular. When we got there, they handed us our tasting glass, 16 tickets - each good for one taste - and our tasting sheet that described the glory we would soon behold:
Nope, not at all.
Guys, the weather was awesome. Seriously. It's like pairing the right wine with the right cheese. Beer and sunshine just go together. Alisa's friend, Emily, also came in town for the fun:
Man, we have smart friends, don't we?
After we all did our initial round of choosing which beers to start out with, the tasting commenced:
I love those boys.
Out of 102 different IPAs, I feel like we did some serious damage between the 6 of us (I didn't forget you were there, Todd!). Thing is, those "tasters" were literally about 3/4 of a full beer each time so out of 16 tickets, we managed to get through about 8 each. Um, I'd say we got our money's worth. It was a phenomenal event, truly. Once again, Avery does not disappoint. I'm gonna see if I can bribe Patrick and Dave to meet me in Denver for it this year.
The next day, we woke up like kids on Christmas ready for the Denver Bacon and Beer Festival. Coming off such a great day prior, we were hyped up for our second festival bonanza. Only, something terrible happened. By terrible I mean delicious but I mean terrible. We figured we'd need some stamina so we decided to start the day at Denver Biscuit Company. Folks, I led my friends astray. When they needed me most, I marched them right into biscuit battle with no hope of protection against the buttery temptation that is DBC:
We didn't stand a chance. See, we were supposed to just have a little something to start our day off right. I mean, we were going to a dang bacon festival afterward! Who did we think we were?! Case in point, we stuffed ourselves and honestly thought we were gonna die. This is at, oh, 11:00am or so when we had the entire rest of the day ahead of us to sample bacon dishes from vendors all over Denver. Whoops. What's the solution in a situation like this? Go for a couple of beers at Goosetown Tavern.
After doing nothing more than make ourselves feel worse, we finally got to the venue. Patrick proudly declared that no matter how full he was, he was gonna own that festival. May I present you with round one:
My entire body hurts just looking at it. Dave and I gave it our most valiant effort but we literally could not stomach more than two bites of food the entire afternoon:
Though he's eyeing Donnie's plate real nice:
Maybe he's just eyeing Donnie.
Despite my biscuit coma misery, we still managed to enjoy the shenanigans:
I'm gonna track that dude down and steal his bacon costume.
We stuck around as long as we could but eventually the only thing we could imagine putting in our body was either water or liquor. We opted for the liquor. Back to Goosetown Tavern we went to meet up with Mindy. Side note, we also met Jake who was our bartender extraordinaire and who has now become a very important person to me. Funny how life works, isn't it? Anyway, we got to the bar around 6:00pm and ended up nearly closing the place down. We stayed for three rounds of trivia and literally ended up having one of the most fun nights I can remember, at least up until that point considering this is a time travel post and I have enjoyed a few epically fun nights since then but who's counting?! I'd say this was a mighty good end to a magnificent weekend:
These things just happen:
Best. Weekend. Ever. Denver, we love you.
