On to the beers. My first real encounter with Brett was about 5 years ago in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival. They crew from Flying Dog had been toying with 100% wild yeast fermentations of their Gonzo Porter. Now, let me just say right off the bat that in the world of commercial beer THIS IS CRAZY! Brettanomyces is still classified by most folk as a beer spoiler. If you tell a wine maker that you hang out with Brett they will tell you not to even think about visiting their winery. Anyway, my friend Casey Huges from Flying Fish drug me over to their booth and shoved the beer in my face. “Drink it!” he said. He was right on the money…the beer was fruity, complex beyond belief, and wonderful. It blew my mind. Long story short we started toying with small batches of secondary fermentations with brett (Cherry Dubbel), and then eventually 100% (Dr. Drie). I knew we were on the right track when the Victory crew started making Wild Devil, a 100% brett fermented IPA.

We currently have two entire racks of barrels just for ‘wild’ beer and are using 3 different strains of this yeast to produce a wide array of great beers that run through our ‘Sour Tower’ here at the brewery. Be sure and ask for a taster of some crazy beer the next time your in. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting and you may even dig it as much as I do.

Man do I love my job.

We slept a bit, and then got up and headed to nearby Glimmerglass state park for a refreshing dip in the lake and a little sun time. The fest kicked off offically at 3:00p.m. but you’d never really know that it ’started’ as folks just sort of start showing up at the booth. We drank some world class beer throughout the afternoon. Beer highlights from the weekend included Ithica Brut and LaBlue, Rodenbach Grand crew, Cuvee Rene, Linemanns Ommegang Zur, Westmalle Tripel, Gardin Geuze, all of the beers from 12% importers including the ungettable, t’gaverhopke, the unending supply of Duvel / Ommegang beers, the aforementioned Superfriends IPA, Capt. Lawrence Pale (soooo nice to have a hoppy beer after a day of Belgian maddness).

After the fest we headed back to camp for a HUGE pig roast feast followed by the Bob Barrar Sunday bar. Yeah, he hauled icecream and toppings all the way out the the middle of nowhere. Dig his cool icecream man costume. Nice work Bobby. Saturday night featured the movie Caddy Shack (19th hole was the theme this year), Fireworks, and a great folk band. There was  a poker game, a huge hot dice game, pork forever and a TON of beer. It took us about 3 hours to clean up the mess on Sunday and then we headed south. California weather the whole way. Can’t wait for next year!

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Well the 2010 Iron Hill Twilight Criterium has now drawn to a close and I am happy to report that it was another great year of BBQ, Beer, and Bike Racing! In spite of the early rain, the course was in great shape and we had a blast watching the riders ‘go fast / turn left’ It was great to see everyone out for this killer annual summer event…and to share a beer with more than a few of you. I did hear some folks joking that it would have been a lot more entertaining if the course were wet…you know, lots of slipping sliding. The pro racers seemed plenty pleased about the dry track.

This was the sixth annual race. Overe 20,000 spectators lined the streets of West Chester to watch professional cyclists compete around the .8-mile circuit course starting and finishing right in front of the brewery (I even got to go on stage!). In addition to the Pro Men’s race, the schedule of events included an Amateur Men’s Criterium and an Elite Women’s Criterium. Also taking place was the popular West Chester Dental Arts Kids’ Race, which attracted over 400 participating children this year…most in much better shape than me!

It looks like we will be sponsoring for at least the next five years. Right on, ‘cause it was a blast. Check out the photos.

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Hey Gang, I just found this in my ‘Draft Bin’ I HAVE to post it ’cause of the great photo of Bob. Nice.

The annual Bradywine Valley Craft Brewer’s Fest at Iron Hill Media is in the can. Sorry to those of you who couldn’t get tickets…we sold out before the day of the event again! Media Youth Center is the benificerary of this fine event. The weather was great (not too hot).

Here’s Bob pouring Double IPA from 6 Liter bottle. (I can barley lift ‘em empty!) Check out all of the folks trying to get some of his sweet, sweet love. Every time he lifted it into the air the crowd went nuts!