National Homebrewers Conference, Denver - Day Two

The most interesting seminar was Friday morning at 9 am. Tony Simmons of Pagosa Brewing Company created Poor Richard's Ale in celebration of Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. After a lot of research, he came up with a beer similar to a Scottish ale. It gave me confidence to continue refining my Kentucky Common recipe.

The next seminar was "Tricking Out Your Home Brewery" by Chris Graham of Beer, Beer and More Beer. I had hoped to learn some things about tweaking my setup. Instead, I learned about the More Beer product line. *sigh*

Satan and I skipped the rest of the day's events to check out downtown Denver. We had lunch at the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian mall downtown, and had lunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery, where I had a brown ale and a bbq pork sandwich. Then we headed over to Wynkoop Brewery. I had a blond ale and a stout. We met up with Peter, from Australia, who was taking a five week vacation in the UK and the United States, and he was also attending the conference.

We had heard the brewery at Coors Field was good, so we headed over there to find that it was closed. Dammit. Fortunately, Breckenridge Brewery was up the street, so the three of us popped in for another beer. It was here that I discovered the second best beer in the world: Vanilla Porter! Naturally, I had another one.

By this time, I was on the verge of being ready for a nap. So we went back to the hotel. Peter warned us that if we took a nap, we'd be ruined for Club Night.

Dozens of clubs, including the Austin Zealots and Houston's Foam Rangers, go to Denver with kegs of beer to give away one night. And there are a lot of great beers, including an Eisbock! We bumped into Peter, who had taken a nap, and was miserable!

One of the running jokes in our family is that Satan knows someone everywhere. At the opening toast, he sees someone, and asks, "Were you in Afghanistan?" And the guy answers, "Yeah. With you!" Tim Sloan got out of the army and went to work for the Brewers Association. Here's a picture of Satan and Tim taken on club night.

Unfortunately, by 10 pm, I was hammered, so I went to bed. But Club Night rocked!