Beer festival in Charlottesville.

While I was in Charlottesville this weekend, I went to the annual beer festival that's been going on for maybe 5 or 6 years. It's always a poorly-run festival, and this year was no exception. It's clearly organized by the marketing department of a local radio station, and not by anyone who knows or cares about beer. Free admission, and you had to buy a glass at a time ($3 for an 11-ounce plastic glass). Sometimes you could convince them to give you just a taste, sometimes not. And other than the people at Troegs, I didn't see anyone from any of the breweries there - the pouring was done by enthusiastically serious volunteers, who knew nothing about the beer they were pouring other than you had to give up a ticket before they'd let you have any beer.

Surprisingly, the festival had beer from the two Charlottesville brewpub/microbreweries. I don't think they had any from any of the Richmond microbreweries, or any from Harrisonburg or Northern Virginia. However, there was a brewpub from Blacksburg there - the Blacksburg Brewing Co. - and I'd heard good things about them, so I decided to stop by the festival to try their stuff. They *were* there, and had three good beers: a hoppy lager, a red/brown ale, and an IPA, made with rye. Enjoyed the last a lot; almost as good as mine. Then I started hanging out with the people at Troegs Brewing (out of Harrisburg, PA), and they plied me with their beer. Their nut brown ale was very good.

All in all, a better experience than I'd expected. But not as good as a real beer festival.