After our epic day 1 of the Beer Bloggers Conference, day 2 started off with a sunrise walk along the beach in Lewes, Delaware (pronounced “Lewis”, not lose…and they will tell you). This quaint little seaside town is very important to the Dogfish Head family and you can see why. We stayed in the Dogfish Inn (yes, they own it) and the experience was amazing…but we’ll save that for a future post.
We boarded the bus and headed south to Rehoboth Beach and the Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats complex, and it is definitely something to see. The good folks at DH really rolled out the red carpet for the BBC and reserved an upstairs dining area for us. They served us an amazing lunch (I had a four cheese grilled cheese with bacon…yes, it was as good as it sounds) and Bryan Selders, their Brewmaster, led us through a flight of four beers that are exclusive to the Rehoboth Beach brewpub. All were on the lighter side and refreshing summer beers, and Bryan’s descriptions of his inspiration for each of them helped set the stage for the experience. After lunch, we toured the brewing and distillery area, shopped for more DH swag (I got some stuff…Mike went crazy) and boarded the bus back to Virginia and the start of the conference.
After getting to experience DC area traffic, and it seriously may be worse than Atlanta, we had a quick half hour to check in and jump back on the bus for the opening party kickoff at Farm Brew Live.
The party was sponsored by Visit Prince William County, 2 Silos Brewing and the Farm Brew Live venue. So I’ve been writing a series of posts about the Brewery Vibe and I turned to Mike and said: “We found it…the ULTIMATE vibe”. Bloggers from all over the country were all saying how we wish we had a venue like this. The campus is 8 acres and has a craft brewery (2 Silos), local food and food trucks and stages for live, local bands. It’s everything that craft beer lovers and foodies love all in one place situated in the beautiful Virginia countryside.
Three other breweries joined the party and served up some of their best as well. Prince William County truly was showcasing their area as they also had a local winery and two distilleries handing out tastes. So many reasons to visit this area as I honestly just thought of before as the home of Dulles airport.
We returned to the hotel and joined an impromptu bottle share with other bloggers who were sharing their favorite beers that they had muled across the country. Fun night getting to talk beer and everything else with others from all different backgrounds.
The sessions start today, so day three should be all about learning…oh, and tasting beers from about 2 dozen different breweries. Best. Conference. Ever.
CLICK the picture below to see more photos from the day …
