chazwicke
08-29-2003, 03:47 PM
Last winter in late January / early February I discovered a new festival called Miami International Beer Festival. It was a Tuesday evening and I was sitting in my office just perusing beer sites and I came upon an ad for the fest. When I saw the beer list which included 64 cask ales from the UK as well as many Belgians I nearly wet my pants. The festival was 4 days away when I found out about it. I was on the phone with my wife and making airline and hotel reservations online simutaniously. So off to South Beach we went. I attended all the sessions and was totally impressed with the setup and the handling of the casks. The festival was in a compound right on the beach and it was 80 degrees. My wife spent the days on the beach while I was sampling. Couldn't have worked out better! The hotels were just across the street from the beach. It was the first festival there so I was uncertain if they were going to have it again but I just received an email confirming that it will indeed be on in February again and in fact has expanded the beer selections, food selections, music selections and added some wines and spirits. The fest is now going to be called SoBe Fest. The dates are February 6 - 8, 2004. They do not have too many details yet but advised to keep checking the web site for details. the site is: www.worldofbeerfestival.com If this years Fest is as good as last I wholeheartedly recommend it.