What's the best beer you've had the privilege of tasting at a special event?

Bodhi imperial IPA at cincy winter beer fest.

At Beervana back in October they had a limited supply of Utopias available starting at a specific time during the event. We saw the line forming, it was quite lenghty but moving very quickly. We hoped in and in no time we had a pour of, I believe the 2009 version. It was amazing (and I was expecting a big let down based on my experience with hyped stuff). So glad I got to try it! Also, big pat on that back to Beervana and Sam Adams who didn't charge an extra dime for the pour, it was all part of admission (as were a ton of other great brews).

Good People's El Gordo Russian Imperial Stout at the Magic City Brewfest.

I'm going to presume that you work in a bar. We don't have tap take-overs where I work. Come to think of it, we don't even have taps.

Real Belgian waffes, that's almost as exciting as the beer itself!

Victor Franc was the best of our tasting as well, we all agreed. And the Mattina Rossa actually had some carbonation - what a treat.

i do. we have 56 of them, so when i say "tap takeover" it's really like a quarter to a third of them.

1969 KBS aged in westy barrels with a sour yeast strain added and butterfly tears added... so fuckin good. i drank it at the hopslam release with black tuesday and it was a full moon........

Vera Mae and Society & Solitude #4 growlers.

The younger for the first time was awesome...iron abbey on 611 in SE PA.

2nd, Fou Foune at Teresa's in Wayne.

3rd, lou Pepe Kriek at Blue Dog in Chalfont for their wealth of riches.

Ann

Too many tasters of great beer to pick something to write, but I do remember having full glasses side by side of CBS, KBS, FBS, and Black Biscuit at a tap takeover that was pretty enjoyable.

A night of drinking a new and unheard of beer on tap at Rattle N Hum also sticks out. Oh yeah, beer was Hunahpu's.

CCB Pilot Series (now Wakefield Brewing) Dragonfruit Passionfruit Berliner. For sure.

/thread

last year my first beer tasting with friends:

2008 Darkness

You and your brother have earned amazing beer experiences like that. You both have changed the beer drinking culture in the U.S for ever. Best I have had was at EBF 2011 when I had Meph Addict from Avery. My palate has never been the same. I am hoping that BA Plead the 5th will become the new one or one of the many other beers this year will. Two weeks tomorrow!

This one is a piece of piss. I'm a lucky, lucky, lucky bastard who got to try 1875 Allsopp's Arctic Ale. Though that wasn't the best beer at the event. That honour went to 1977 Courage Russian Stout.

Special Event? At a bbq for my return from Afghanistan last time, a great friend brought a bottle of Cuir. Great beer and a great time with a great friend. I can still taste that beer. Special event to me.

say what? When did you have army of darkness?

A few months ago, after a crazy a night of tasting many vintage beers my friends day brought out a '94 Westy 12, a '94 Rochefort 10, and '94 Abt. 12 to finish the night off. Then I went to Ebenezers the next day. Great weekend.

Cigar City Wild Guava Lychee Sour at 2011 Fruit In The Room
Funky Buddha Maple Bacon Coffee Porter at 2012 Hunahpu Day
Cigar City Cucumber Saison at Sustain Miami/Cigar City beer dinner in 2011 (the beer was originally done for this dinner, but was brewed again later and bottled)

Why, exactly, did I move from Florida?

De Struise Black Damnation VI - Messy

Very delicious and sessionable.

Kate The Great at Kate Day last year
Black Tuesday at the first BA Stout Trooper release thanks to the owner Rob
CHEERS

Some memorable examples at bottle shares:

Framboos
Double Black
1991 De Neve Gueuze

Michigan:
Founders Bourbon Barrel Sumatra Brown
Dark Horse Smells Like Weed

I think, if I am correctly translating Ron's words, that he wasn't saying that Army of Darkness was a "piece of piss," whatever that may mean in American English, but rather that his answer was easy to come up with, in this case because the experience of tasting 1875 Allsopp's Arctic Ale (I'm extremely jealous) was far and away the most special beer he's ever tasted at a tasting event. Piece of piss=piece of cake more or less.

I'm lucky enough to know the person who found a stash of them in the empty Allsopp's brewery.

Probably this at a tasting tonight.

Yes, you are indeed a lucky^3 bastard.

How was the overall experience?

Truly magical.

The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) drank the same beer on a visit to Burton in the 1880's (with Winston Churchill's Amercian mother in tow).