Great American Beer Fest Winners

This years Great American Beer Fest has come and gone. Based on the tweets and Facebook status updates, it seems a great time was had by everyone. To be honest, I tried to limit my exposure to these since I knew it would do nothing but cause extreme jealousy. But it's over and life is returning to normal for those that attended (which will hopefully include me next year!).

Although California and Colorado took home the majority of awards (56 and 42, respectively. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking I need to move out west!), PA breweries rounded out the top 5 list with 9 medals. Congratulations to Iron Hill, Troegs, Triumph, McKenzie Brew House, and Stoudt's for their wins! I'd like to send out an extra-special congratulations to Weyerbacher for their win in the Field Beer category (even though they were up against Prism!) with their Imperial Pumpkin. If you've never tried this beer, you really need to and not just because they won at GABF. It's one of my favorite pumpkin beers and I imagine I'm going to be seeing it on a lot more taps with this exciting win.

On a personal note, I heard that traffic to the Prism booth was steady on both days and that the beer was favorably received. Best of all, I understand that the guys from Lost Abbey and Russian River specifically came by to try our beers. They said that both were really good and that they liked what we were doing! These guys are responsible for some of my favorite beers, and knowing that they appreciate the work that the Prism brewers are doing was great to hear. Hopefully next year I'll be writing about our wins at GABF!

In the meantime, for a full list of this year's winners, click here.

I'm a beer rep!

Sigh. I feel somewhat defeated when I sign in here and see how long it's been since I've posted anything. Over a month? There's just no excuse. But I'll make excuses anyway. Part of the reason is that I'm lazy (and honest!). Part is that I've been thinking I want to change up what I write about. Still write about beer (of course!) but in a different way. And I guess that's where I've been getting hung up.

Regardless, I'm writing right now with some great news. When I left my job as a marketing director back in the fall - 10 long months ago - I said I wanted to work in the beer industry. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do, but had an idea I would like to be a rep for a brewery. I started going out (well, I continued going out) and making friends with the people who worked in the industry. I didn't do it to get a job - I did it because they're cool people and I enjoyed hanging out with them. And, of course, I hoped that one day an opportunity would present itself.

That day came a couple of weeks ago. A guy, Rob DeMaria, that I met at an event at the Grey Lodge Pub in February who is opening a new brewery based out of Lansdale contacted me because he was looking for a sales rep. We met a couple of times, talked about the opportunity, and I decided it was the right choice for me. I am officially the first sales person for Prism Beer, and (I believe) the first employee! I'm so super excited about this. It's what I've been saying I wanted to do for months. The beer is really good. And I get to spend my days talking about something I really do enjoy. As they say, do something you love and you'll never work a day again in your life. So here's to me not ever working again.