My friend, Lisa, had invited me to the Craft Beer Festival. The boys would be out of town, and it seemed like a fun girls night so I checked with my friend who would be visiting that weekend to see if she was interested in going (of course she was! she loves craft beer!), and told Lisa we were in. Now, I'm not the biggest beer drinker, but I looked at the festival as an opportunity to broaden my beer horizons in 1-2 oz. doses.
We set out on Saturday night to find the festival. I drove, and Lisa navigated. After a wrong turn or two (no drive in Puerto Rico is complete without a wrong turn), we spotted a gas station with lots of tents set up, and lots and lots of people milling about. "That can't be the beer festival, right?" I asked the girls. No sooner had the words come out of my mouth was I saying, "That HAS to be the beer festival, right?" Like I said, I was skeptical.
Oh, and did I mention it was raining?
We parked the car and started to head to the gas station ... I mean craft festival when a van pulled up ready to drive us to the entrance so we didn't have to walk in the rain. We walked in the gates, and discovered that the beer festival was totally legit. Most gas stations in the States have a McDonald's attached, or a quik mart. This one had a biker store, tattoo parlor and pub. Aside from the concrete parking lot which caused all of our feet to hurt by the end of the night, it turned out to be the perfect locale for the event.
Almost immediately after arriving, the rain stopped and we found Lisa's friends that we were meeting up with for the night. And, we got our first taste of the beer. Each tent had 2-3 tables each featuring a different brewery. The tables were filled with large tin ice tubs packed with all the different beers the brewery had to offer. Chocolate stouts, India Pale Ales, Hefeweizens, Pilsners, Lagers, flavored beers and ciders (hello, watermelon beer on tap in the pub!). There was something for everyone.
We spent the next 4 1/2 hours wandering around the gas station parking lot (we kept laughing that were hanging out at the gas station) sampling beer after beer after beer. They had buckets to pour your sample out if you didn't like it, and we made use of those buckets pretty frequently. We also kept returning to the tables displaying our favorites. I'll admit, I stuck to the lighter beers and the flavored beers for the most part, but I also tasted my fair share of dark beer and stouts.
Morgan and I had been wondering what the food situation at the festival would be. She had been to a number of these types of events, and was concerned because there often wasn't enough food offered. Why did we even question it? This is Puerto Rico, after all, and roadside food is something this island knows how to do! There was fried food aplenty, and let me tell you, it was fantastic! I don't even remember everything we ate, but I do remember the churros at the end of the night. So. darn. good.
There was just something so typically Puerto Rico about the whole night. Five chicks hanging out at the gas station.
I should've known it would turn out to be an awesome night!
Photos courtesy of Morgan McGinn, fabulous friend and photographer extraordinaire (and the gal missing from the above photo)!
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