Beer & Barbeque - A perfect combination.

We had the best Saturday! We spent the afternoon at the "Beer Festival of the South," which was part of a huge beer industry trade show going on in town this week.

More than 30 breweries were at the festival and offered over one hundred beers for tasting.

We went from booth to booth sampling the goods. It was so much fun! We hadn't tried, or even heard of, many of the beers at the show. Some were local brews, but there were many from across the United States.

Many of the booths were staffed by the brewers themselves. Those were the best booths. The brew masters were really knowledgeable and passionate about their beers and spent a lot of time talking to us about the different brews.

Merchant du Vin is a specialty beer importer that had a booth at the Festival. I tried two "beers" at this booth and they were both delicious! I put beer in quotes because I don't think either of the drinks that I tried were made with hops and they didn't taste much like beer, but boy were they tasty!

The first was Samuel Smith's Organic Cider. It was a bit sweet and being a cider, it of course tasted a bit like apples. The second was Lindemans "Pomme" Lambic. It was both sweeter and more tart than the Cider, had a strong apple taste and it was also more bubbly. They were both SO delicious. Because they did have a sweeter, apple-y (yeah, i know it's not a word) taste I don't think I'd reach for one of these if I was in the mood for a traditional beer, but when if you're in the mood for a sweet, light drink these are perfect. Plus, it's fall - what's more delicious than a grown up apple cider?

I also tried a raspberry wheat beer called Purple Haze from a brewery called Abita. It was light with a subtle raspberry flavor. I love beer and typically not the fruity kind (I'm usually a Bud Light or Heineken Light kind of girl), so I was surprised to enjoy so many of the "fruity" beers. It was pretty much a guarantee that if I liked a beer, The Mister didn't and vice versa. He really prefers the extra "hoppy" IPA's, which just don't do it for me. But, we did find one favorite we could both agree on, which was Chang, a Thai beer. The woman at the booth told us the beer was brewed to compliment the flavors of Thai food, so we can't wait to try Chang next time we eat at our favorite Thai restaurant. (Napasorn, for any Orlando locals.)

You should be able to find all of these at your local grocery or liquor store. Hope you like them if you give them a try!

Also....I got the green light from The Mister to share his picture on the blog! (Maybe not the most exciting news in the world but it's exciting to me because now I can stop cropping pictures! yay!) I finally convinced him that he was being a paranoid dork and that nothing bad would happen if I showed his adorable little face to the small little community of people who are reading. So, here's my love and I at the Beer Festival:

I know it's really far away, but the lady taking was apparently trying to get the entire sign in.

After the Beer Festival we went to eat some yummy barbeque at our favorite barbeque place, Bubbalous Bodacious Bar-B-Que. Isn't the name just hilarious?

Doesn't my rib basket look delicious? It was! Half of it came home in a box but it was just as good a few hours later.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing on the couch and watching football. Both UCF and the Gators won, so it was a great ending to a perfect day. Hope Sunday is just as much fun!

Gotta run...The Mister is still asleep so I am going to try to make breakfast to surprise him with before he wakes up. Happy Sunday everyone!