Field Report: Mich. Beer Fest.

Had a good time at the beer festival yesterday. Rode the bus down there to avoid parking and driving worries, an idea that seemed to occur to many others; the bus we caught back to Ann Arbor was filled with slighty giddy people wearing yellow festival wristbands.

Best finds of the afternoon were: Bourbon Barrel Stout and Organic Pale Ale from Founder's Brewing, the Porter from the Fort Street Brewery, and a vintage Trippel Ale from Dark Horse Brewery. What the odds are of finding these on local store shelves I don't know, but I'll be looking.

The event offered further support for my longstanding impression that the craft beer scene has a high "wacky quotient," meaning that its followers frequently are given to displays of eccentricity and whimsy (or maybe the scene simply teases out latent currents of these that we all have in some degree--beers with 10% alcohol will do that). This tendency was most evident yesterday in people's attire. Lot of people wearing T-Shirts with offbeat and occasionally obscene logos, more than a few guys in kilts, often in colors (camoflage, say) or with accessories (mesh tank tops, say) never envisioned by the Scots of old. Leather bomber helmets, sportcoats in garish colors, guys wearing beer deliverymen's uniforms...you get the picture. A lot of people seemed to have gotten temporary tattoos for the event, and one brewery was even offering them for free on site, provided you wanted one advertising their beer. There is a well-known correlation between beer and misbehavior. I believe there is one as well between good beer and odd but harmless behavior. Microbrewing may support one of the present's few strongholds of the Carnivalesque spirit, and possibly the most broadly accessible of the few there are.

Whatever the attendees wore, the scorching hot sun dictated much of their behavior. Shady spots in Riverside park were thronged by people, usually including Kristine and me, seeking to enjoy their beers in relative comfort. A few tossed their shoes away and waded into the Huron. One couple went all the way across and back, proving that yes, indeed, that portion of the river can be wade-fished safely. Maybe a project for next week.