German Bierfest

Last weekend we went to the 8th Annual German Bierfest in Woodruff Park, in downtown Atlanta. We had never been to this festival before, and it was much more our style than the Decatur festival we went to the weekend before.  My parents came in town to visit for the weekend so as an added bonus we got to hang out with them all weekend and they joined us at the beerfest.

We do not venture into downtown Atlanta very often (I could probably count on my two hands the number of times we've been downtown for non-work-related events), but we figured a beer festival was as good of a reason as we could find - besides an SEC Championship game, of course!

A few local restaurants were selling food there, so we got ourselves a few brats, wiener shnitzel, and a pretzel or two.  All the beer was included with the price of admission - $30 all you can drink? Sweet deal.  The thing I really like about all the beer festivals in Atlanta is that you get a small "tasting" souvenir glass. Mom even got a coozie to go with hers!

At first, the glass seems really small. But after 5 hours of day-drinking you are glad that it's a small glass. Plus, there isn't enough time for your beer to get warm. They had all our favorite German beers (except Hofbrauhaus, sadly) and several new ones that we will be hunting down at our nearby liquor store. There were also enough beer tents (21, I think) that the lines were never long.  We also got to hang out with several friends - girlfriends from Atlanta, old friends from UF, a few of my favorite co-workers from my old firm, and some of my softball teammates.  I think we were too busy drinking beer and catching up, because somehow I only managed to get a few pictures! Some of these are from mom and dad, you can always count on them to have at least one camera each.

Shara, Jenna, Christy & me

I will say that it's still too hot in August for outdoor beer festivals - and the few tents and tables/chairs they had available were not close to the beer tents. Based on weather alone we might pass on this one from now on.  But there was a slight breeze for a little while - it even blew away one of the beer tents!

This festival was pretty good as far as beer selection, but the Decatur Craft Beerfest in the fall is our absolute favorite (who's going with us??). We may have even skipped part of a Gator football game one year to go to the beerfest - that should tell you how awesome it is! :)

It was a great weekend and we had so much fun with my parents. Hopefully we should see them again during football season to hold us over until Christmas.