Beer Dabbler

You might have guessed by now that I choose to forget that beer is generally not gluten-free.  I like the taste of beer and truly enjoy the huge variety of beers available, the start-up/small business mentality of craft breweries, the creativity and ingenuity that goes into brewing craft beers, and the pure geniusness of combining three of my favorite flavors in this world:  dark beer, coffee, and chocolate.  So no, I will not be giving up beer. 

Now on to Beer Dabbler business!

First of all, let's talk attire and supplies.  This year we really stepped up our game with the snack necklaces.

Ingredients:

• meat sticks
• string cheese
• salted nut rolls
• pretzels - regular, chocolate covered, peanut butter covered, cheesy pretzel crisps
• fruit snacks
• chicken nuggets.  Yes.
• random other snack food

We made our necklaces, packed on as many layers as we could, and went to the fair grounds where the Beer Dabbler was held this year.

Unfortunately it was super freezing cold out.  The beer was freezing in the cups and in the keg lines.  I really applaud the brewers for their ingenuity, though.  Knowing how cold it was going to be, some of the brewers offered hot beers.  The one I tried was a hot chocolate milk stout from Badger Hill and it was divine.   My brothers told me this morning that they tried a hot rhubarb infused beer.  I love the creativity.  The other stand out of the night was Pure hard cider.  I didn't get around to many brewers because it was just too darn cold for me.  My sister, husband, and I took off around 5:30 to go warm up.

Unfortunately we also don't have many pictures from the event either because our phones didn't work in the cold or we just couldn't justify taking off our gloves to capture the moment.  We were just trying to survive the moment.

In sum, I applaud the creativity and variety of the beers at the dabbler, but I feel that the execution was a bust.  With nowhere to go inside and warm up, the cold was just too unbearable to stick it out for 4 hours and get around to all the desired breweries.  I'll have to just go to the summer one instead.