In honor of my up-and-coming involvement in both the Great Lakes Brew Fest and The Great American Beer Festival over the next week, I decided it would be appropriate to post a few tips on how to survive a beer festival. Most of my suggestions go without saying — but the most obvious tips are also the most important!

MINI-BREW FEST SURVIVAL GUIDE
by The Beer Wench

Naturally, a festival that involves copious amounts of beer consumption has the potential of being either really fun or really disastrous. Here are a few tips to ensure that your brew fest experience is really awesome (and not disastrous).

1. HYDRATE. With water, not just beer. You should try to match every ounce of beer you consume with an ounce of water. The more, the better.

2. DRESS COMFORTABLY. And most importantly — wear comfortable and appropriate shoes. High-heels may seem like a cute idea, but not after hours of standing and walking.

3. PROTECT YOURSELF from the elements. Wear sunscreen, bring a hat or sunglasses and bring a poncho if there is a chance of rain.

4. PACK LIGHT. Big bulky purses or bags can be cumbersome and intrusive on others drinking hand in close quarters. Leave valuables at home for they may be easily lost, stolen or broken.

5. BE RESPECTFUL of your servers. At a festival there is often a mix of professionals and volunteers pouring. Feel free to ask them questions about the beers, but do not be offended if they cannot respond. Also keep in mind that the person pouring your beer may also be the brewer — honesty is encouraged but refrain from making any harsh negative comments.

6. MONITOR alcohol intake. Those little sample pours can add up really fast if you are not careful. Pay attention to the ABV% on all the beers you are tasting. Often times, seemingly light bodied and easy to drink beers can be very high in alcohol.

7. SKIP THE PERFUME. Just for one day. Overbearing perfumes or colognes can over power the aromatics of the beer and may negatively impact the experience for serious beer drinkers.

8. EAT. Alcohol on an empty stomach is never a smart idea. Luckily, brew festivals tend to have lots of great local foods available for purchase.

CHEERS!!!

You must forgive me, for I have been terribly rude.

You see, for two weeks now I have been planning an intense 11 day road trip across the southern most states of the United States. And I have not even made one mention of it on my blog — for which I apologize.

The original purpose of the road trip was merely to move to a TBD location in Northern California.

Now, the trip has become so much more.

A good friend of mine, Shana Ray, developed a rather intruging idea for a market research project for the wine industry consisting of traveling across the country interviewing members of Generation Y about their wine consumption. The project was still in development phase when I ran into her at the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Napa & Sonoma.

Attending the Wine Bloggers Conference was the final push I needed to move to California. It was the 4th time, in the course of 11 months, that I had visited the “Bay Area”. Each and every time I visited, I swore to myself (and many of my friends) that I would move there. And now I am finally holding true to my word.

This Monday, August 17th, I disembarked on a cross country voyage that will take me through the cities of Tampa, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, TBD New Mexico, Phoenix, Los Angeles and TBD NorCal.

After a bit of persuasion and a few glasses of wine, Shana Ray made the commitment to join me on the adventure. We decided that there is no time like the present to launch the preliminary phase of her market research project on the drinking habits of Generation Y.

ANNOUNCING PROJECT Y-INE — the first social media exposé on Generation Y and their drinking habits from the minds of Shana Ray and Ashley V Routson.

Project Y-ine will go past the generic survey questions and talk to people in their own backyards, bars or wherever else they hang out and drink with friends. The research and findings will be documented in an interactive, social media based journal of the experience, utilizing several social media platforms to capture their experience –including blogging, video-blogging, tweeting, facebooking, twitpic’ing, etc.

The move could not have come at a more opportune moment in my life as The Beer Wench. I’m about to launch my blog into the next phase. The talented people from Venataur Web Design recently developed a new interface for my blog. In addition to a new “look and feel,” I am in the process of reorganizing the content of my blog.

BUT. La creme de la creme of the entire “makeover” will be the addition of video blogs. The use of video on my blog will begin with my cross country trip. I have beer events set up in 3 of the cities along the trip:

1. New Orleans with Jeremy Labadie of “The Beer Buddha”

2. Austin with Chris Troutman of “Beer Town Austin”

3. Los Angeles with Chris Spradley of “Brewerires Bars and Beer Food”

I will do my best to announce the dates, times and places we will be meeting for each of the events. If you are in the area, you are more than welcome to join us and I am open to additional collaborations along the way (email me at drinkwiththewench@gmail.com)

Last but not least, I am also excited to announce that I will be attending both the Great Lakes Brew Fest as well as the Great American Beer Festival in September. Details of both of those trips are to come.

Keep your eyes peeled in the very near future for a new Drink With The Wench interface as well as the addition of video to the blog!

Cheers!

It is hard to believe we are already in the month of August and that September is almost around the corner.

As depressing as it may be for some, I tend to welcome the end of summer.In fact, I anticipate it.

Autumn happens to be my favorite season — and for many reasons. Autumn equals college football season, fall foliage, apple picking, Halloween (my favorite holiday), pumpkin beers (pumpkin everything), wine harvest, Oktoberfest … and lots of other beer festivals.

One such beer festival is the Great Lakes Brew Fest in Racine, WI. This year the GLBF is being held on September 19th from 3-7pm at the Racine Festival Park.

The Great Lakes Brew Fest is in its sixth year and will feature unlimited sampling of more than 250 craft beers and sodas from nearly 100 brewers on the beautiful shore of Lake Michigan. All paid attendees will receive a souvenir tasting glass.

Food served by local restaurants will be available for purchase. The festival also features live music including performances by the world renowned Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps.

Attendance is limited at 4000 people. Tickets went on sale June 1st and the VIP tickets have already been sold out. Basic Fest passes are still available at $39 a pop. They are being sold at a rapid rate, so make sure to secure your spot at the festival ASAP.

And why do I think YOU should be attending this event? For starters, I’ll be there. And if that is not enough, then you should go anyways because the lineup is KICK-ASS.

But don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself — HERE.

Although I intend on visiting every pavilion and as many breweries as physically possible, I can GUARANTEE that you will find me in the Michigan Beer Pavilion (Bell’s, Founders & Jolly Pumpkin — oh my!)

Here is The Wench’s list of  GLBF breweries that I absolutely MUST VISIT:

• Dogfish Head (ummm no brainer)
• Bell’s
• Jolly Pumpkin
• Founders
• North Coast
• New Beligum
• Stone
• Ommegang
• Victory

Of course, I intend on hitting up as many breweries as possible. But the ones listed above are my top priorities.

If you are planning on attending the Great Lakes Brew Fest and want to meet up, please leave a comment on the blog or shoot me an email at drinkwiththewench@gmail.com.

Cheers!