Following a short rest at our hotel after our tour of Oskar Blues, we took our cabs to tackle another night of the beer fest. While I was in my hotel room I compiled a list of every brewery I could think of I wanted to try on this night that I did not get to the first night. These breweries included Pyramid, Big Sky, New Holland, Duck Rabbit, Boulevard, Alaskan, New Glarus, Deschutes, Firestone Walker, Odell and Troegs. I was determined to try big beers like Mad Elf, Moose Drool, Alaskan Smoked Porter, Dragon’s Milk, Double Jack, The Abyss and Serendipity. 

Again, instead of mapping out my quest and sticking to a game plan, I got out my proverbial divining rod and led myself around in search of brews that caught my eye. I have been into sour beers a lot, so I looked for anything with sour, Flemish Red, Berliner Weisse, Saison or Brett in the title. I was with Evan again when a very tall and large man rushed passed us in a hurried pace toward the back of the building.  We both instantly recognized him, it was hall of famer Frank Thomas! I ran after him to try to get a picture as he zig-zagged through the sea of people. I finally caught up to him and he explained he was on his way to the vendor restrooms and he would be out in a minute. We waited and he came back and took us to his booth with his brewery Big Hurt Beer.

There were two different malt liquors. We sampled them, took some pictures together and were back on our way to find more suds. I was very happy to meet one of my favorite baseball players I idolized growing up. One brewery that had some awesome beers was Shorts out of Michigan with some great sours and barrel-aged offerings. 

I did not forgo breweries that we could get in Florida because I knew they would be sampling some of their best stuff that maybe only tapped at the brewery, so I made sure to explore everything. I found a few more diamonds in the rough, and we all regrouped to take cabs back to our hotel to rest up for another big day tomorrow.

Adam Shugan, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Beer Consultant

Follow him on Twitter @abcbeeradams