#BBC14 Part 1

I know I am pretty late in posting about this but hey, #BBC14 kicked my butt. The Beer Bloggers Conference 2014 took place in San Diego, CA at the lovely Mission Valley Marriott so after a short hour and 30 minute drive I arrived bursting with excitement and anticipation of the beer festivities. I also think my liver quivered. That should’ve been my hashtag for the whole weekend…#liverquiver .

I dropped my bag in my room and walked into the conference room full of unknown passionate beer bloggers. I scanned the crowd for a friendly face and happily I saw Greg with OC Beer Blog who saved me a seat at his table. After some chatting and some beers (obviously) we went to a trade show that was set-up in another area of the hotel to try more beer (shocking) and immerse ourselves in some of the sponsors and vendors that attended. I really enjoyed the Lagunitas Hop Vapor bags and it made for some really fun pics. Tom of Queen City Drinks seemed to REALLY enjoy it.

After the trade show, we went back to the original conference room to listen to a introduction speech from Julia Herz of the Brewers Association followed by a panel of San Diego Brewers Panel with Tommy Arthur (Lost Abbey), Chuck Silva (Green Flash), and Peter Zien (Alesmith) on the history of craft brewers in San Diego. It was really interesting to hear them talk about the beginning of the craft beer scene from the people who lived it. After one more speech about social media best practices, we were given a short break then whisked off to Karl Strauss for dinner and beers.

On the ride over to Karl Strauss I struck-up a conversation with Jessica Miller of Hey, Brewtiful and we chatted about our local beer scene (she’s from Atlanta). Jessica is so cool and her blog is super clean and well put together, you guys should check it out!

At Karl Strauss we listened to Chris Cramer talk about some of the history of the brewery and the trials and tribulations one has to endure to open a brewery. It was really a lovely evening sitting on the picturesque patio of the brewery, sipping good beers and chowing down on some tacos. I knew full well that there was still a craft beer social happening back at the hotel hosted by Lagunitas so I needed to carbo load.

Thanks for photo bombing me Greg!

The Lagunitas party was great. I chatted with lots of fun people and I met more wonderful beer bloggers. I had a sarcastic conversation with Fred Abercrombie from Lagunitas that rivaled the best sarcastic conversation …ever. He could really throw around some wit. After lots of fun and even more food, I snuck away to a “cool kids” bottle share in one of the rooms to taste some super rare beers. I didn’t stay for too long because I was exhausted so I retired to my room around 1am. Stay tuned to part 2 of my #liverquiver #bbc14 experience!