Belgium Comes To Cooperstown ‘10

In the beggining there was… Planet of the Ales

It was June 2006, Suzan and I were sitting on the Narke deck on a Saturday afternoon, enjoying several good brews when Ed began discussing this beer festival he had heard of.  Somplace in NY he said.  Someplace named Ommegang that brewed Belgian style beers.  You could camp on the brewery grounds he said.  Send us the link we said.  By Sunday evening plans were being made to go.

2006, those where the days, show up on Friday, camp where ever you want, pay the fee (no advance purchase required), it was all OK.  The EVC arrived early and powered it’s way up the the hill in the far corner.  The Narke’s arrived later.  Dinner was had and all walked down to the tent to see what was happening.  “Gratis” beer shouted Jamie, “it’s Gratis, you do NOT have to pay!”.  Yes it was free beer all around, the night ended well with well under 100 folks on the grounds.

As morning dawned the cars began to roll in.  Parking where they wanted, pitching tents, drinking cheap beer, good beer, bloody marys.   100s and 100s came.  Cars got stuck axle deep in mud.  The fest began, the beer poured, the rain came, Woodstock it nearly was.   The sun cam out and all was good.  We meet the folks from Stewart’s in Bear DE (Ric and Natalie own a VW Weekender). As evening fell, Ed made friends from Long Island with mullets and we dialed Manni on the mobile.  Most of us passed out… Ed partied on.  Sometime in the middle of the night Ed tried to wake us all up to see “something really gross”.  We all passed (ask Ed what it was, something to do with a Saab and pizza).

Morning dawned, we had cool posters showing we had gone… all was good and plans were being made for ‘07.   Stay tuned for part II.

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