#brewvival

Time with close friends is the best, but sometimes you wonder why did it take so long?

I was sad to be missing Charleston's Brewvival (February 23, 2013), but craigslister Alyssa (below) was keen to snap up my tickets to this sold out craft beer festival. She and her boyfriend Jay (above) had a BLAST in this muddy mess and she sent me some great photos to prove it. These are some hardcore beer lovers!

Going into Brewvival 2012, I was plenty excited about a lot of the stuff on hand - Bell's Black Note, vintage stuff from Stone and COAST, new offerings from Green Flash and Westbrook, and so on. But in the week leading up to the festival, there was one brewery my friends touted as the likely surprise hit: Funky Buddha.

I had never heard of Funky Buddha before, which isn't surprising. Located in Boca Raton, FL, Funky Buddha is a lounge and brewpub that offeres everything from handmade beers to teas and tobaccos, in addition to live entertainment and other things you'd expect from a lounge. They don't distribute their beers anywhere else in Florida, so you have to go to the brewery itself to enjoy. My friends guaranteed me I wouldn't be disappointed once we tracked them down at the festival.

I certainly wasn't. Funky Buddha was not only the single best brewery at Brewvival, but they're one of the best breweries I've ever tried.

To start off, Funky Buddha wasn't even listed on the website or the guide you got at the festival. (Neither were their Floridian counterparts, Cigar City Brewing.) They had a big banner behind their table and plenty of merch for sale, but for the first couple hours, you could get up and get your beer without waiting more than a minute.

That changed as the day went along. I would constantly hear people excitedly telling their friends how amazing Funky Buddha's stuff was. By the end of the day, the lines at their table were so long they doubled back on themselves. Needless to say, word caught on fast. Easily the longest lines of the day, rivaled by only Black Note.

Here's what they had on hand throughout the day:

Hop Gun, a 6.5% American IPA with a deep amber color, a biting citrus smell and a sweet but piney tastes;

Ich Bin Lime, a 4.0% Berliner Weissbier with a hazy greenish yellow color, a tart citrus smell and a very tart, biting lemon lime taste like a liquid key lime pie;

Maple Bacon Coffee Porter, a 6.3% porter that poured fudge brown, smelled like coffee, maple syrup and chocolate and tasted like biting into maple bacon donut. Amazing stuff;

No Crusts, which smelled and tasted exactly like a PB&J sandwich. A 6.0% brown ale, it poured a deeper brown and smelled nutty with a sweet jelly smell. The taste, as expected, was phenomenal. Sweet grape and strawberry jelly, nutty creaminess. Damn;

Bonita Applebum, which much like No Crusts was liquid apple pie. Another 6.0% brown ale with that cloudy brown color. It smelled like cinnamon, spices and apple and tasted just the same. Another astounding beer;

Red Dawn, a 5.2% Irish red ale. It was a sweeter red ale that poured a deep brownish red color. There was a nice roasted and caramel smell to it and a nice malty sweetness throughout;

The Last Snow, one of the first beers I had at the festival. An American porter coming in at 6.5%, it's dark brown, almost black in color. The smell was coffee, toasted coconut and slight chocolate. The coffee and coconut dominate the taste and it ends amazingly smoothly.

For the third year, COAST Brewing Co. and the Charleston Beer Exchange hosted the Charleston Brevival at the brewery located in North Charleston, SC. With South Carolina lacking any major notable beer festivals, the folks at COAST and CBX joined together to invite brewers from across the country to bring out their biggest and best for a daylong party.

The festival, held in a field across from the COAST brewery, has become sort of a competition among brewers, with everyone trying something special or different with their beers in hopes of winning over drinkers. IPAs randalized with habaneros and bacon, 4-year-old barrel-aged imperial stouts, dry hopped casks, porters aged on pork shoulders ... you think of it, someone will try it. (In short, attendees win out big.) 

Word has gotten around about the festival quickly and it's grown to become one of the preeminent beer festivals in the Southeast. Last year it was busy; this year it was packed. It was a good thing my friends and I were in line two hours before the gate opened, because we heard people that got in at the back of the line didn't get in until around two hours after the festival started. You could clearly tell when a brewery had broken out its big guns - Bell's Black Note, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout - because the lines stretched on seemingly forever. But at the end of the day, after reviewing my extensive Untappd check-ins, I more or less got to try everything I wanted.

As should be the case with any great beer festival, I was more interested in spending time with friends and fellow beer geeks than taking photos and notes for everything I tried. So, instead, here's a list of what I was sipping on throughout the day:

Allagash Thing 2

Avery Trogdor the Burninator

Bell's Black Note

Brooklyn Brewmaster's Reserve - Mary's Maple Porter

Cigar City Church on a Hill

Cigar City El Murcielago

Cigar City Kalevipoeg Baltic Porter

COAST 2011 Barrel-aged Blackbeerd

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Evil Twin Biscotti Break (Spanish Ham Edition)

Foothills Barrel-aged People's Porter

Foothills 2010 Sexual Chocolate

Fullsteam 2011 Sour Summer Basil

Funky Buddha Ich Bin Lime

Funky Buddha No Crusts

Funky Buddha Maple Bacon Coffee Porter

Funky Buddha Bonita Applebum

Funky Buddha Red Dawn Ale

Funky Buddha Hop Gun IPA

Great Divide Oaked Red Yeti (cask)

Great Divide Petty Theft

Holy City Laser Pants

Holy City Notorious P.I.G.

Left Hand Ambidextrous Ale

Left Hand Oak-aged Widdershins

New Belgium 2009 Biere de Mars

New Belgium 2011 La Folie

Southern Tier Oak-aged Pumking

Southern Tier Oak-aged Back Burner

Stone 2008 Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Russian Stout

Stone Double Calypso Ruination

Terrapin Big Sloppy Monster

Terrapin Cabernet Barrel-Aged Monk's Revenge

Victory Braumeister Tettnang

Westbrook Mexican Coffee Cake

This year's Brewvival was bigger and better in every way. While the folks at COAST and CBX still have some logistics to figure out - they'll either have to cut the number of tickets sold or relocate the festival to a bigger venue to make it more manageable - I have no complaints. I still had a blast and will definitely be back next year.

Until then, cheers, Brewvival.

Brewvival is coming up soon. Honestly, I thought I would be outta this city by now. Looks like I might be here for a while. If so - hopefully I will be in attendance. Tickets are 50$. Beer will be sampled from the following breweries:

12% Imports

Allagash Brewing Company

Avery Brewing Company

Bell's Brewery

Brooklyn Brewery

COAST Brewing Company

Dogfish Head

Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery

Evil Twin Brewing

Fullsteam Brewery

Great Divide Brewing Co.

Green Flash Brewing Co.

Highland Brewing Company

Holy City Brewing

Left Hand Brewing Company

New Belgium Brewing

New South Brewing

Palmetto Brewing

RJ Rockers Brewery

Saint Somewhere Brewing Co.

Sierra Nevada

Southern Star Brewing Company

Stillwater Artisinal Ales

Stone Brewing Co.

Sweetwater Brewing

Terrapin Beer Co.

Thomas Creek Brewery

Victory Brewing

Westbrook Brewing

Weyerbacher

and more...