FBCB Attends exBEERience 2011

How do you like the new site? I think it's pretty cool!

In one week, we launched this new site, opened a bank account, then rocked out at exBeerience 2011 at Redhook! It was a lot of fun, hanging out with the likes of Big Al's Brewing, Fremont Brewing, Odin, Widmer, Kona Brewing, Black Raven, Fox Barrel, Emerald City Brewing, and the other breweries I can't quite recall.

I also had a blast hanging out with the homebrewers that were there handing out their beer right next to us - the guys from L.O.A.D.E.D. were loads of fun (and they had some darn tasty beer)! The Cascade Brewers Guild that put this event on were also out in force, with tasty beer and just really cool attitudes. There was a jockey box (these are used to chill the beer served at an event like this - it's basically a lot of metal tubing coiled in the inside of a cooler, with ice put in it) that had 6 taps, and the handles were billiard balls 1 through 6! That was awesome to see.

Easily the most fun of the event was telling folks about Flying Bike. We talked about where we've been, how we started, where we want to go and how we think we'll do it. It was great to talk to people as I was serving them beer. A lot of folks listened cordially, waiting for that first sip. Maybe they were into it, maybe not, but then they tried the beer and looked at their glass a second time with a "Damn, that's good"! Then I'd point out the brewer ("Oh Shawn made that ESB, he's right there" or "That pale ale is Jake's, he's right there, say hello". Tim's Irish Red was also liked, but it got put on towards the end and he had to jet early).

There were many people that seemed to dig our idea and were really interested. We handed out a lot of business cards (although we should have collected email addresses too - now we know for the next time!)

It was also cool that we were hanging out in our white Flying Bike shirts. It was incredible how easy it was to look around a little and see our white shirts moving through the crowd.

After the event we headed to the pub and had some dinner to ruminate over the event and share a cheer all around. Here's to the next event, our future members, and our fledgling co-op!