In 2003, the summer after we graduated from college, we went to what I think was the first "Belgium Comes to Cooperstown" celebration at the Ommegang Brewery. It was surprisingly fantastic. Fast forward 6 years. The VIP tickets sell out in 3 minutes. We are not among the lucky despite getting the tickets into our cart. The general admission tickets sell out in 3 hours. We become concerned that this even has become uncomfortably popular.
Despite our misgivings we borrowed the minivan (sorry Tess, Sofia and Clint declined to hold a dog apiece for the 4+ hour ride) and packed up the camping equipment and the Pyrs. We picked up Sofia and Clint and then made our way upstate in good time.
On our way to find a camp site we came across two people we know! We found Robert staking out a camp site too and then Liz showed up with a load of their gear. It was a really nice surprise to see them. We hadn't seen them in ages so it was fun to catch up. And they are getting married this fall so that is super exciting!
After putting up our tent and watering the Pyrs we headed to the main event to get the lay of the land. Clint and Sofia disappeared and Todd headed to the registration tent while I provided a Pyr petting station for the folks already gathered in the beer tent. The woman who placed Buddy with us warned us that walking around with a Pyr is like walking around with Mick Jagger — every one will want to touch him. And it's true.
We secured a table and had some excellent pulled pork sandwiches for lunch and when tasting officially began at 2pm we tasted until all the interesting beers ran out. Unfortunately some of the interesting beers, including beers from Ommegang ran out rather quickly. However I did manage to taste some excellent sour beers that made me very happy.
The difference between the first Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival and this one is that the first one was an original and extremely Belgian experience. It included flag throwers, a human chess game, stilt walking, lots of seemingly genuine Belgian food. There were also many fewer people so the enviroment was very laid back and the lines to get beer were very short. It had a very nice homey feel and we even got to meet and chat with the brewmaster.
Despite our misgivings we borrowed the minivan (sorry Tess, Sofia and Clint declined to hold a dog apiece for the 4+ hour ride) and packed up the camping equipment and the Pyrs. We picked up Sofia and Clint and then made our way upstate in good time.
On our way to find a camp site we came across two people we know! We found Robert staking out a camp site too and then Liz showed up with a load of their gear. It was a really nice surprise to see them. We hadn't seen them in ages so it was fun to catch up. And they are getting married this fall so that is super exciting!
After putting up our tent and watering the Pyrs we headed to the main event to get the lay of the land. Clint and Sofia disappeared and Todd headed to the registration tent while I provided a Pyr petting station for the folks already gathered in the beer tent. The woman who placed Buddy with us warned us that walking around with a Pyr is like walking around with Mick Jagger — every one will want to touch him. And it's true.
We secured a table and had some excellent pulled pork sandwiches for lunch and when tasting officially began at 2pm we tasted until all the interesting beers ran out. Unfortunately some of the interesting beers, including beers from Ommegang ran out rather quickly. However I did manage to taste some excellent sour beers that made me very happy.
The difference between the first Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival and this one is that the first one was an original and extremely Belgian experience. It included flag throwers, a human chess game, stilt walking, lots of seemingly genuine Belgian food. There were also many fewer people so the enviroment was very laid back and the lines to get beer were very short. It had a very nice homey feel and we even got to meet and chat with the brewmaster.
The current incarnation is much more commercial. Sadly no flag throwers or human chess and the good beer ran out disappointingly soon. But there were many many good beers to try overall. And it was a fun atmosphere with everyone obviously having a good time. There were a lot less choices of food, so we decided to go to the supermarket and get lettuce and fixings to make salads to have around our cooler (we didn't manage to make a fire).
We chatting into the evening with Liz and Robert and in addition to telling us what they'd been up to personally, they filled us in on some of the regular happenings at Belgium Comes to Cooperstown for the past few years...including the tendency for inebriated revelers to forget that foam coolers are extremely flimsy. This was demonstrated by a person a few sites over who accidently sat on a cooler, which promptly broke and dumped him onto the ground.
The ride home was *slightly* longer than planned. The good news is that we stopped at 5 Guys to get delicious burgers (mental note: get the small burger next time). The bad news is that we ran out of good audiobooks and had to resort to a mediocre one for the last bit of the trip.
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