St. Pete Oktoberfest

I’ve been dying to blog all week about our Saturday at the St. Pete Oktoberfest this past weekend but have been a busy, busy girl planning all things bachelorette for my sister.

Anyways, as I was saying--this past Saturday, hubs, my sister, a few other friends, and myself hit up this festival o' beer, where we drank…and well, drank some more.

This was the second annual Oktoberfest in the area. Tampa Bay in general has quite a few different "Oktoberfests" but this is the only one I have ever been to. For $30, it was all you could drink beer and wine (that was new, last year it was strictly beer). *If* you were smart and waited, there was actually a Groupon for $15.00. I have to admit I was pretty bummed I paid the full price, but at the same time I knew I was going regardless, so I guess its okay.

Just once, I would LOVE a good hair day :-(

I do like beer but am not usually adventurous with trying new ones (mainly because I am cheap and don’t like to spend a lot for a drink I may or may not like when we’re out), so this was a good way for me to sample and find new ones to like!

Once the "shots" of beer started to flow, I forgot to document our trip, but I did get a few photos (mainly of the "gang", sorry!)

Love them (hubs and little sister)!

Just Goofy...

There were quite a few beers and wine to try and I was ready to sample said beverages. Per their website, they had the following beers: Victory, Bluepoint, Capital, Kona, Widmer Brothers, Redhook, Cold Storage (Florida Avenue), Evander Beer, Southern Tier, Kelly's Cider, Woodchuck, Gordon Biersch, Krombacher, Alexander Keith, Starr Hill, Leffe, Beck's, Magic Hat, Estrella Damm, Shocktop, Stella and Hoegaarden.

　

I’m not gonna lie, I couldn’t tell you which ones were which. But I do remember the Woodchuck (always love a good cider!), Stella, Hoegaarden and Cold Storage. I’ve always wanted to try Hoegaarden because I’ve heard its good and they have it at Bar Louie and we go there a lot. It was okay; not wonderful but I could drink it. I also really liked the Cold Storage brews. Turns out they’re in Tampa and I always try and support the locals when I can! They had a fantastic blueberry ale that I loved! I need to check this place out in person, soon.

There were also wines from Barefoot and San Giuseppe. Yes, I had beer and wine (judge away, kids. I was totally getting my $30 worth). I didn’t care for the San Giuseppe, actually. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t taste like anything to me. The Barefoot was a winner, however and they had samples of Pinot Grigio, Moscato (!), Pinot Noir and a Sweet Red. I am more of a white wine drinker (I guess my wine palate isn’t super refined, though I am attempting to learn more about reds) but liked them all.

Just for the record, the sips of beer/wine were dixie cup sizes, so please don’t think I was downing full pints and glasses, people! I’m not that bad….perhaps I am in denial.

Thanks to my self inflicted "injury" from Friday, I was forced to wear sneaks--ugh

All in all, a good time was had by all. Hubs didn’t want to pay full price for the event, so he found a convenience store off Central Ave and bought this beer (fancy paper bag and all. He’s classy, that guy) for $2.99 and even though I called him cheap a few times, he was pretty smart in doing so because he enjoyed a beer he liked and saved $27.01.

I am open to more beer/wine tatsing festivals and hope to hit another one next year.

What is your favorite beer or wine? Do you have any local drink fests near you?