It’s that time again! This weekend I’m heading to Tampa, Florida for the first time in too many years (Sorry, Geoff!) at the peak of summer for the 2016 Beer Bloggers Conference.
Tierney and I attended our first last year in Asheville, North Carolina. You can read about our adventures here:
- Asheville in July: Beer Bloggers Conference
- SaraBozich.com does Beer Meccas
- REVIEW: Parkway Brewing Company
- REVIEW: Oskar Blues Brevard
- REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Mills River
- BBC15: Women in Beer
Unfortunately, T won’t be joining me (and I even upgraded to a waterfront room!), but I’ll be hanging with our BBC friends from the Carolinas for the weekend — then spending Sunday post-conference with an old friend.
Beer Dinner, Share
I’m pretty stoked about our host hotel, the Marriot Tampa Waterside, who has planned a pretty sweet dinner for us on Friday night (in addition that aforementioned waterfront room).
Bringing down a little Harrisburg beer love: For the evening’s “Night of Many Bottles,” I’m bringing down some local secrets — namely the elusive Tröegs Nimble Giant and Pizza Boy’s newly canned Sunny Side Up (featuring Little Amps) and maybe a secret can or two of Sunny Side Up Bourbon (You’re welcome, Nick).
Oh, and this time I’m not forgetting to bring a pile of Harrisburg Beer Week stickers with which to shower my BBC16 friends and any local place that collects them.
Writing better, Live Beer Blogging, Progressive Beer Dinner
This year, we’ll be able to choose from different sessions on Saturday morning, including some breakout stuff, so there’s a bigger opportunity for discussion among smaller groups. I still haven’t decided yet which I’ll do.
After our lunch hosted by sponsor Miller Coors, we will have a session on “Better Beer Writing,” led by Carla Jean Lauter of The Beer Babe. Later that afternoon, we’ll have a session dedicated to Sour Beers, which is exciting — and we’ll even get to blend our own. I better keep that palate fresh!
Somehow after this we’re then doing the Live Beer Blogging — which is very hard!! Last year it just felt like a fury of tweeting and sipping, and every rep brings more than the solitary beer they’re supposed to, which means we’re trying like 20+ beers in 50 minutes instead of 10, but hey, I’m always up for a challenge, right?
The bulk of the night — and what I may most be looking forward to — is the Progressive Dinner hosted by Visit Tampa featuring three Tampa Bay breweries: Cigar City Brewing, Coppertail Brewing, and Ulele Springs Brewery. Looks like we’ll be riding Tampa’s Brew Bus along the way!
Closing time
Should we survive, we’ll talk community and beer tourism Sunday morning before being released into the 92-degree weather. I’ll be on a boat or a segway, or maybe both.
