Back Again ... Another Weekend in Tampa for Concerts and Beer!

When you visit Tampa two weekends in a row, life can't be all that bad! If you follow this blog, you know that I attended the opening fest of the six-city Beer Camp tour last week (check out the story on the home page). It just so happened that a while ago, the rock band Journey scheduled a concert in Tampa, along with The Doobie Bros and Dave Mason, for this past weekend at the Amphitheatre, and that meant back-to-back trips to the "city by the bay" on Florida's Gulf Coast. (Some of you might even get that reference to Journey's song Lights. And, yes, I know it was actually written about California).

Confessions of a GABF Virgin

Cover of 2015 GABF Program

Brew Bus Brewing and Aardwolf Brewing (Florida) Win Medals at GABF

If you saw my social media feed over this past weekend, you know that I headed west to the Great American Beer Festival ("GABF") presented by the Brewers Association ("BA") at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. In its 29th year, the festival consisted of four sessions from Thursday to Saturday, and I attended two: Thursday opening night and Saturday afternoon members session.  But, first things first.  In addition to the beer tasting, there was also a behind-the-scenes beer competition going on.  In fact, 6,647 beers from 1,552 breweries in all 50 states and D.C. were judged!  The winners were announced Saturday morning, and the event was broadcast live via internet stream. All said, the judging panel of 242 beer experts from 15 countries, including the U.S.and 155 volunteers awarded 275 medals in 92 beer categories, including 145 styles. 

Hey, How Was Your Weekend? (Part 1): The Brew Bus - Jacksonville

I hear it all the time: "You're always going somewhere." "Where did you go this weekend?" I'm always on the lookout for a new place to visit, and yeah, I like beerfests!  So, here's news for ya:  I stayed put in North Florida this weekend. Hey, there was a lot going on around here (if you read my prior blog posts, you would know that [wink, wink]). I couldn't make all those events, but my weekend was pretty full of activities. So much so, actually, that I'm dividing this into two parts. So, here ya go.