Sabroso Craft Beer and Taco Festival

Yesterday went from being disappointing to amazing thanks to some of my rad friends.  I woke up in the morning with plans to head down to San Diego, but those plans quickly changed to going to a craft beer event here in Orange County instead.  The folks of OC Brew Ha Ha held their inaugural Sabroso Craft Beer and Taco Festival, which was amazing!  The event was located at the picturesque Lake View Park in Silverado, just adjacent to the venue of the OC Brew Ha Ha. The Lake View Park venue is a fantastic venue!  Even though yesterday was a warm day, the trees and misters located throughout the park helped make the heat less noticeable.

Over sixty breweries attended with many pouring beers that were created specifically for Sabroso.  Bottle Logic Brewing was one of the breweries that brought a special beer for the day, Leche Borracho which was one of my favorite beers of the day.  Besides beer, of course there were tacos available from a variety of food vendors.  From octopus, to Spam tacos, there was something for nearly everyone's tastes!  During the event, judges sampled the tacos and Hopscotch was awarded first place for their lamb al pastor taco at the end of the afternoon.

My favorite part of the day, besides the beer was the lucha libre!  The luchadores were full of energy interacting with the crowd and were so much fun to watch.  Several match ups occurred during the day and the wrestling ring was centrally located in the event so it was easy to catch the action no matter where you were standing.

I can't wait until the next event put on by OC Brew Ha Ha, they definitely know how to make sure that people have a fantastic time at all of their events!  You can tell that they put a lot of thought into their events, as they are always well organized and fun to attend.

Beer filled Saturdays are the best kind of Saturdays!

Air conditioned beer event = rad!

This past Saturday was a whirlwind kind of day.  The day started off by driving out to Pechanga Casino in Temecula for their fifth annual Microbrew Fest and chili cook off.  

Glasses waiting for attendees

This event is sponsored by Habitat for Humanity's Inland Valley location, so the proceeds go to a fantastic cause!   

Bootlegger's Brewery

Besides beer and chili, there was also a silent auction with a wide variety of items available to bid on.  Instead of drinking beer at the event, I was helping pour beer which is always a fun experience.  A steady flow of festival attendees throughout the afternoon made the time pass quickly. 

Yeah, just because...

On our way back to Orange County, we had lunch at my favorite fast food Mexican restaurant from San Diego, Sombrero in Corona.  Having a good meal before heading back home was essential since the second part of the day I would actually be drinking!

Cheers!

Congrats, Mr. Nagel!

After leaving Corona, we headed to Anaheim to help OC Beer Blog celebrate his second anniversary.  When we arrived at Noble Ale Works we were greeted by many familiar faces.There was a steady line of people eager to drink standard Noble Ale Works beer as well as some of the special beers created just for the event. As we were getting ready to leave, Slaves Against the Machine were tuning up their instruments.  I wish I'd been able to hear them because they sounded great just from the few notes I was able to hear!

Cutest beer baby, ever.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

Our next stop of the day took us to Bootlegger's Brewery in Fullerton to help celebrate the Amazing Stephanie's birthday.  It also happened to be Stein Night!  It was great to see all of the creative steins that people brought in for the competition.    

Sam judging steins.

I'm glad I don't have to help judge because it would be hard to pick the winners!  Some of our friends had not been to Bootlegger's Brewery, so it was nice to introduce them to beers they haven't tried before.  The favorite of the evening was the Black Phoenix, which is a coffee chipotle stout.

A drink with Christmas added!

The final destination of the evening was Hopscotch in Fullerton for dinner and drinks.  Hopscotch always has unique items on their food and drink menus.  The birthday girl was very happy with one of the newest items on the menu, a mini loaf of bread served with freshly made peanut butter and jam.

Lynchburg Lemonade = yum!

I had one of the new summer cocktails, the London Lemonade which was great.  I was also happy that even though one of my favorite drinks was not on the menu, a Lynchburg Lemonade, the bartender happily made it for me, it was amazing!Saturday was a fun-filled day.  I'm glad I was able to see so many of my favorite people!