Beerfest 2011

Beerfest is this weekend. In my family it's like a holiday. We all go to my parents' house on Friday night and hang out and make pretzel necklaces. Here's my brother with several pretzel necklaces last year.


The pretzel necklaces serve 3 very important functions:
1. They help you count your beers. The idea is to know how many pretzels are on your necklace and eat one pretzel after each beer. That way you can count. I usually forget what I'm doing after about 10 beer samples and just eat the pretzels whenever I feel like it. My brother is much better at this.
2. They cleanse your palate. For those serious beer aficionados (like my family), the palate cleanse is important so you can really taste the differences.
3. More pretzels in your stomach mean you can drink more beer.

So, Friday night is the pretzel making party. Saturday morning we get up and make a gigantic breakfast. There are generally about 30 people with us so we make breakfast for a whole lot of people. Then Michael walks around giving everyone large glasses of water and making sure everyone is drinking enough water. Last year and this year we rented a bus and driver. The driver shows up at my parents' house and everyone gets on the bus around 11 am. We go to Sandy Downs for Beerfest and ideally get there early enough to not have to wait in a very long line. The Fest starts at 12.
After Beerfest we all get back in the bus and then it takes us to dinner, generally at Outback. Everyone eats and then the bus takes us back to my parents' house where everyone hangs out.

My best girlfriend and her husband are coming this year and I am so so excited. I can't wait for them to be part of the whole event.

So, in honor of Beerfest, here are five great beer quotes.

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."
-Dave Barry

"People who drink light 'beer' don't like the taste of beer; they just like to pee alot."
-Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed - Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, 'It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.'"
-Deep Thought, Jack Handy

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
-Benjamin Franklin

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."
-Frank Sinatra