I got the the Shadowbrook Resort around 2:45pm, one and a quarter hours after the Tunkhannock Beer Fest 09 began. Pulling into the resort I was amazed at how many people appeared to be there. There were cars all the way up the driveway, crammed into the parking lot and all the way down the golf course. While making my long walk to the hotel part I passed a gentleman peeing on the wheel of what I hope was his truck. I knew I was in for an interesting time.

I payed my twenty dollars at the door, got my wristband, received my glass and was met by a wall of people inside the banquet room. I did not believe the place was going to be this packed. There were tables outlining the whole banquet area. Each beer had it’s own table or tables and people were manning the beer tables pouring their beer into glasses. People have various reason for coming to such an event. Some come to just get trashed…twenty bucks all you can drink for 5 hours. Some, like me, come to try out various beers and hope to find one or two that they really like.

Undecided which way I should go I ended up pushing through and shuffled where the crowd let me. First familiars I ran into were Brian and Joe old Cactus alumni. They started pointing me around to what beers they liked and which ones they didn’t like. The first one I tried was a Victory Storm King Stout. The beer seemed like a watered down incomplete version of a stout. It had a fairly bitter bite and was not really pleasing at any point. I nursed this one as I walked around looking for Matt and Mike. After two small laps around the hall I found them coming back from the roasted candied nuts area. “You want some of my nuts?” was a commonly uttered phrase. As an added bonus Michal was with them. I got the skinny on what they liked and we began walking around again. I sampled a pale ale from a brand I don’t remember and a Granny Apple Draft from Woodchuck. All in all I didn’t find what I was looking for as many of the other beers were semi common including Grolsch, Sam Adams which is one of my favorites, Yuengling a great ol’ standby and Franziskaner of which Matt suggested.

This adventure was more about the company than the beer for me. I got to hang out with some off the wall funny people and meet a few others along the way. I ran into my brother Jeremy who pointed me toward the Granny Apple and Sierra Nevada. He and his friends were up to their normal mischief. Standing outside for breather a few of the patrons came up to us and just started talking about random things. One guy went off about doing an “upper decker” which was completely in left field and Mike threw a little “Back to School” spin on it with adding a Triple Lindy. I think my heart gave out for a few seconds from laughing so hard.

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