Bockfest 2008

The temperature on Saturday morning, Feb 23, 2008 was climbing from the overnight low, 12 below zero, but was still in the single digits when Clint and I left for Middleton, Wisconsin. Neither of us had ever been to Bockfest before; we didn't know what to expect. Earlier in the morning, I had Googled the directions and printed the map. Now I turned off Highpoint Road and passed by Capital Brewery.

There was no place to park for several blocks, but finally I noticed a place on the opposite side of the road, did a quick turn-around, and maneuvered my Volkswagen along side the ice and snow packed curb. Crowds of people already lined the sidewalks as the gates opened at 11 but the beer taps would not begin to flow for another hour.


We wandered around the brewery and gift shop then gravitated to the outdoor beer garden as people began to appear on the roof of the brewery throwing tons of bead necklaces to the crowd below. At the other side of the beer garden, Kirby Nelson, the Brewmaster, gave some kind of speech. I caught a few words and I guess it was the "blessing of the Blond's" to mark the release of Capital's Blonde doppelbock. I don't think his blessing worked very well because I never did get to try my glass of the stuff. I still have my wristband with the 'beer' tag still attached because the bar that I went to ran out while I was still 5-people-deep away!


I waited in line for over an hour for my first beer! There were lines of people everywhere throughout the day - lines at the taps, lines at the bathrooms, lines of people just trying to go to a new location in the crowd. I heard someone say that last year it was even colder and crappier and they still had about 1800 people show up. This year it was much more packed... maybe 3,000 or more people?

My beer mug empty, I got back in line again and an hour later, I was trying to get back through the crush of people without spilling my beer. I had missed the Brewmaster riding the green dinosaur out onto the roof of the brewery and they were already throwing fish down to the crowd!

Supposedly, if you catch a fish - head intact! - you get some kind of prize, but most of the fish I saw exploded in the hands of those trying to catch them. There was one guy I saw catch 4 of them in his beer mug! Amazing! Talented? Lucky? I can't say for sure.

I met Elvis while waiting in line and got his picture, and I saw alligator man talking to an Irish guy. My finger was over half the lens when I took the picture of the guy in the kilt. I met a lady dressed in black with sponge-mop-hair, and I think some one coped a feel of my butt while I was talking to her! I tell myself it must have been the loud woman not the guy standing next to her. The guy that won the costume contest had a little gift-wrapped box attached to his crotch but supposedly it wasn't 'Jack' that was in that box.

Well, that was Bockfest 2008. What else is there to do on a sunny twenty-degree day in February in Wisconsin?

Book: "First Big Crush"

Only one more week and February will be gone but winter has us locked in this year. Snow, below zero temperatures, and no mid-winter respite that I can recall! I'm dreaming of spring.

I found a great source for grape vines for my vineyard. Pam, a friend from work, gave me a catalog from Miller Nurseries out of Canandaigua, New York, and it has the best variety of wine grapes that I've found so far and the prices are very reasonable I think.

I'm also reading the book, "First Big Crush" by Eric Arnold.

This book is great fun for me but its language and talk may be too crude for you.

I work in an environment that exposes me to Arnold's type of crudeness on a daily basis so I get past that and enjoy the story he tells about working at a winery in New Zealand. I've caught myself laughing out loud more than once and I'm only starting chapter four!

It makes me anxious to begin my own vineyard and I'm sure I can produce wines that will rival the commercial producers efforts.