We had an opportunity to raise some money for the animal rescue at this event, and a huge thanks to Nicole and the other folks at WOB for helping us make this happen. This is the happiest of situations for me in this business. I love selling beer and I love making people happy. But what I really love is to round all of this out with helping animals. It's warming to have large and diverse groups of people come together, make the plans to help a good cause, and lots of people show up to support it. Also, the folks at WOB agreed to donate $1 to ARK for every pint of Boulder Beer sold! Again, a HUGE thanks to the folks at World of Beer.
Of course, this is a beer event and I was excited as all get-out to try the Nitro Flashback for the first time. Boulder makes Flashback year-round, but this is a special occasion that they charge it with Nitro and I have yet to have had it.
Flashback is a dry hopped brown ale at just under 7% alcohol that has 5 additions of Cascade hops. Massive citrus on this one and the balance created with the chocolate malt make for a very complex brew. The nitrogen adds such a creamy characteristic to this beer and it also moderates some of the hops a tad. The nitro is a beer that could do well as a year-round offering.
It began pouring rain, of course, at about 5:00 and the forecast showed no sign of reprieve. This really sucked because the folks from ARK traveled all the way from DeLand for this event and I wanted it to be as successful as possible for the doggies. They set up at the front of the building and created a nice showing as we were also auctioning off our limited release Sweaty Betty and Hazed & Infused posters. This meant we were going to be taking donations at the door, WOB was making a very generous donation, and we were auctioning posters so this event was bound to be a success.
I met up with Beth from JJ Taylor and Nicole from World of Beer and we started getting some drink on. I was also able to meet some of the doggies in the bunch including a beautiful and well-behave Pit Bull puppy that belonged to one of the bartenders. It's always great to see the love that people have with their dogs, and especially to see them bring a Pit Bull out and show the world that they are not vicious killers.
For Boulder drafts, they had Kinda Blue, Mojo Risin', and the aforementioned Flashback Nitro. We began the night drinking on some Kinda Blue and needless to say I moved pretty quickly to the Risin' and to the Flashback, and back to the Risin', and back to the Flashback, and so on and so dizzy. As I always say - I love my job. But I love it more when we get to make people happy AND support a great cause. Cheers to everyone!
NOTE: When I was packing for my trip, I threw in a bottle of Port Brewing's Older Viscosity; a 12% bourbon barrel aged strong dark ale that pours like a river of 30 weight. This brew is pretty rare and I have been waiting to share it for 2 years. This seemed like the perfect time given the generosity of World of Beer and the hard work that everyone put into this event. Needless to say it didn't disappoint. This brew rates 100 out of 100 on ratebeer and it definitely was apparent why. To make things even better, there was a loyal WOB customer who had just reached his 1000th beer, so we were able to share it with him. Made for a great time and everyone loved this beer.
