A quick heads-up for those of you who will be in the San Diego / Southern California region this weekend.
June 1 and 2 (that’s this Friday and Saturday) is the 10th Annual Real Ale Festival hosted by Pizza Port in Carlsbad. The festivities start at 4pm on Friday and pretty much run until closing on Saturday night/Sunday morning. (Okay — there is a small breather in there between midnight and 11am on Saturday morning. Just enough time to catch a few hours sleep and re-fuel.)
Being the Real Ale Festival, there’s going to be an enormous selection of real ales served with the traditional beer engine, but I also have it on good authority that there will be a pretty good sampling of bottled real ales to try too. (If there’s one thing to know about Port’s festivals, it’s that the beer selection is always H U G E.)
If you want to get in a little early, you can go to the VIP session which starts at 1pm on Friday, and get a chance at a few ales that the great unwashed masses regular patrons won’t have an opportunity to taste.
Price of admission is $25, which gets you a nifty tasting glass and 8 tasters. Additional tasters are just $1 each. The VIP session is $40, but, as I mentioned, it does get you in three hours early. My good friend (and Pizza Port / Port Brewing co-owner) Vince Marsaglia will be captaining the food once again, so you know there’ll be plenty of good stuff to eat.
Added bonus — I’ll be at the VIP session with my good friend MoJo, so if you want to be seen drinking good beer with two cute California blondes, here’s your chance. (Yeah, okay, Beer Sage will be at the VIP session too, but he has to leave around 3:30 to man the tasting room over at The Lost Abbey brewery.) Plus we’ll be back for the full day on Saturday, so if you can’t make it Friday, we still have an opportunity to toast on Saturday.
Sad girly side note: My Dindl (a traditional Bavarian dress) was sitting at my girlfriend Kristine’s house in Nürnberg and she just mailed it to me on Monday, so I’m pretty sure it won’t be here from Germany in time for me to wear it at the festival. I’ll have to find some other outfit in which to get my drink on. (And no, I don’t care that it’s a German dress at an English beer festival. It’s cute, so I wanted to wear it.)
If you’re going to attend the festival, I strong recommend getting a hotel room. There’s a number of them nearby, and the festival is a heck of a lot more fun when you don’t have to worry about transportation.
You can can get all the details on the festival and driving directions at Pizza Port’s website right here.
If you want to attend the VIP session, you can purchase the tickets online right here. (Normal admission tickets are sold at the door.)
If you plan on attending, make sure to drop me a note, or look me up when you’re there. Hope to see you!
