Do you know the only thing better than traveling from place to place in search of great beer? Doing just that with a few dozen of some of my closest beer loving friends! Every Spring, early on a Sunday morning, Draught Board 15 packs thirsty club members, their friends and a couple of kegs into a bus and treks up to Hunter Mountain for TAP NY. True, seeing so many hung-over from the night before / still drunken faces at this hour of day isn’t for the faint of heart, but since I was among them my main concern was not spilling coffee on myself as I waited for the countdown to board the sweet chariot that would deliver us to the thirty-plus breweries that make this such a great event! Jeff, one of Gaslight's most colorful bartenders and DB 15 members, bellows to an anxious crowd:
The front doors open and the mob pours into the street. I run to the back of the bus like it's high school all over again. I know where the cool kids sit, and more importantly, I know where one of the kegs go. I sit so close I can pour without really moving much. (Turns out on the way home, not such a great place. A certain drunken someone fell in my lap on a couple of occasions and by the time we arrived back I was covered in beer. But on the way up it was the place to be!) About half way through, it got so rowdy that our esteemed club president, acclaimed writer of Adventures in Beerland, and all-around great guy, Vince Capano, had to get up and address the bus. (Or maybe he was just asking for someone to pass him a beer!) His attendance this year was so big, there’s even a limerick floating around about it. 
Once we all made it there safely, we got to run loose inside for four hours of great brews and free food. I’m not just talking chips and pretzels here. I’m talking Tandoori chicken wings, vegetarian chili, freshly made pizza and ‘run the line of samples at the Brewery Ommegang because the guy behind the table thinks you’re cute so he keeps serving you even when a line forms behind you and end up stalking the woman carrying a tray of them’ pierogies. Look at this crowd! All these people can’t be wrong. As an added incentive to drink from every brewery, like one is even necessary, if you collect a sticker from each booth and then stick them in the TAP NY program, you are eligible to win “all the beer swag you can carry home.” People from far and wide came to tell me how impressed they were by how straight and well placed all my stickers were by the end of the event. I didn’t know what they were talking about until I saw fellow club member Brian’s book. You could almost trace the order in which he visited the breweries by the placement of their respective stickers. They started off perfect, then a little off center, then completely crooked and by the end, some were upside down. Needless to say, he was having a very good time! 
So I’m making the rounds, collecting my stickers and enjoying my beers with fellow DB15 members and avid "You Drink Like A Girl" readers Pavel and Joe. Just as I look down at Joe's Stone shirt and remark about the humor of our East meets West attire, Delaware on the Jersey girl (I’m wearing Dogfish Head) and California on the Colorado transplant, we run into one of the big shots at the event. I don’t know his name, but I remember him on the podium announcing the winners last year. The three of us approach him and tell him what a great event TAP NY is. “I came all the way from Denver,” Joe adds. Wouldn’t you know it, they were looking for judges from the West to help choose the winners of the Matthew Vassar Brewers' Cup - given to the best brewery in the Hudson Valley and the prestigious F.X. Matt Memorial Cup – an award for the best brewery in all of NY State. At first I was a little jealous, but then I realized that, although an honor, judging was going to cost him not only his stamp book (judges can’t enter the raffle) but also an hour of quality sampling time with all his buddies. Sure he got to drink the cream of the crop out of chalices, but gallivanting with our sample glasses seemed way more entertaining!
Who won? Brown’s Brewing in Hudson Valley and Ithaca as the best in NY State. The top individual beers were Olde Saratoga’s White Ale and Ithaca 10. Disagree? Blame the judges! Interestingly enough, you know who else won? Me. No, not in some sappy ‘because I was surrounded by friends’ way, in a ‘I submitted my book and Joe’s for raffle tickets and won both the first and grand prizes at the event’ way! Thankfully, I had my beer club, because the shirt, book, bottles, other swag and, oh yeah, 5 cases of beer were WAY more than I could carry. It was such a great prize that some guy tried to steal a case of my beer. (But Pavel made short work of THAT!) All in all it was a fantastic day! Good food, great beer, better stories and a bus ride home where most of us were so waffled that we had a flat tire on the way home, and only a few people were sober (or awake) enough to notice. (Identities are being kept secret to protect the wasted.) All in all, it was a great trip! Can’t wait to do it again next year!
Did you go to TAP NY and want to sound off? Recommendations for other thirsty travelers? Want more information for your own upcoming adventure? Let me know! :-)