Anderson Valley Archive

The Boonville Beer Festival is held in Northern California’s Anderson Valley and is one of the few festivals (in CA at least) where camping is part of the recipe. Camping begins on the Friday before the fest, with campers being separated into two different groups; Brewers & their guests stay on the Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s grounds and the Fest attendees camp at the fairgrounds next to where the festival is held on the following Saturday. [GoogleMap]
One of the people I was with knew a guy, who knew a guy, who dated this girl, who’s brother-in-law was related to this other guy’s ex-girlfriend’s brother, which got us permission to camp on the property a day early and so we arrived on Thursday around 3.30PM… to cloudy skies. After finding a spot and setting up camp, we set off to the brewery’s on-site Frisbee Golf course for a quick round- well everyone else played a round, I chose to play caddy and just enjoy walking the property. Just as we came to the last basket, we could feel the early droplets that would eventually become days of steady rain.
That first night we got to meet and hang out with our only neighbors for the night- A group of guys from Ninkasi and a really nice guy, John, who works for AV and his girlfriend- overall a good night.
As Friday began, the swarm of people descended onto the brewery’s property and while it rained, they staked out their territories with tarps and Easy-Ups. The peace was over. By that night I was soaked to the bone, so I decided to turn in early- I figured I’d wait it out until Saturday because the rain should stop by then, right? Right? Yeah right.
In the middle of the night I am awoken from a dead (and I mean DEAD) sleep by what feels like being punched in the face and my tent collapses around me! Apparently some drunk SOB camper had stumbled into my tent in the darkness and by the time I got out of my tent the idiot culprit was gone. So there I am in my underwear, in the dark, w/o my glasses on, scrabbling to put tent steaks back in the ground and get my tent back together so I could go back to bed… all the while throwing obscenities into the wind, until I could crawl back into my sleeping bag. It’s funny now, but at the time I was extremely pissed-off.
It rained Saturday too and I was thinking it deter folks from the festival, but it was PACKED, so along with the rain this unfortunately prevented me from trying everything I wanted to, but I was lucky enough to try some great barrel aged brews before the crowd was let in & I was quite impressed with what I sampled.
Back Street ran out beer (seven in all) about 30-40 minutes before the event ended and they weren’t the only ones, as we where breaking down people began to clamor for beer as everybody began to slowly run out. Something that happens every year with the same reaction.
In the evening the rain took a short break so the campers could enjoy themselves and at 10 PM the Humboldt Firkin Tappers started to let loose, just like they do every year, to a happy crowd. It was a nice thing to round out the night and while they played ‘Free Bird’ I drifted off to sleep…
The rest of the trip was uneventful, but we did manage to slip in a visit to Bear Republic & Moylan’s this year. Not only do they both offer GREAT beer, but the food ain’t too shabby neither! If you are ever up in that area I highly recamend giving them or Anderson Valley a visit.