The Big Beers & Barleywines Fest in Vail, CO is always one of my favorite events of the year. While snow conditions have generally sucked this year the beer and benevolence has never been better.

Last night my Delaware beer brethren and I hosted a party at our Rick-James-esque rental house snuggled up to a babbling brock in the shadow of the mountain. The main course was hit... sausages from Mario Batali and Chef Alex at Eataly NYC. I would like to thank Connie from Dogfish and Chicago Sausage King Ted Leah for working through the bi-coastal meat logistics so gracefully. These two fine folks spent more time thinking about sausage than the Village People did throughout the entire year of 1979. For condiments we made Rockfort 10 mustard and Vidalia onions sauted in Midas Touch. The man behind the grill was Josh Cohen of Moe's Tavern (sick craft beer bar in the Berkshires) fame. Our brewer buddies who came to the party brought many fine beers to augment our rations of 60 Minute IPA and Bitches Brew. So props to out pals at Ska, Avery, and Stone. Caring is sharing.

Volks

I'm pretty sure the guy in the included photo is the local off-Grid skiing legend simply called Volks. That's not a neck brace he's wearing. That's a Kevlar-inforced mock turtleneck this gentle giant has sported in mourning every single day since Steve Job went into the perma-cloud.

Today is the big festival main event and the ski-beer-gods showed mercy as the sky has opened up and its finally sbowing hard. If you love skiing and beer sign up for next years Fest as quick is you can. It sells out quick and it rules. Don't stop. Believing.

UPDATE:I just finished writing the line-up for our festival booth. All the beers arrived safe and sound fromDelaware thanks to the hard work of Dangerous Donn from Dogfish and the good fils at CR Goodman, our CO distributor. If you are coming to the Fest today stop by our booth for the highly collectable gift-set of six dogfish coasters. Its free-ninety-nine. There not really all that highly collectable but they work and you can use them to trace the dogfish logo on festival posters or on bathroom wall graffiti.

Big Beers

Takin' it to the man since 1995!