Thank you for the two contests that joined the competition.  It was my first of hopefully many competitions in the future.  I had two entries that were exactly what I was looking for in the contest.  Even with just two entries it was a hard competition to judge.  I only have one prize to give away in this competition so alas there must only be one winner.  The problem is photographically one picture stands out as the AWARD winner.  It was going for EXACTLY what I wanted in this competition.  The problem with that entry is that it was not beer.  It is a "malted beverage".  The other product is also a great picture with exactly what I was going for in the content, but there was little story or info on why that poor solo Golden Monkey was out in the cold?  So, on to the award!
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FIRST PLACE - Victory Brewing - Golden Monkey  by Damien Garloff - This edged out the first place win purely because the fact that there was no doubt this was a beer.  I am a fan of winter and can picture myself in the Poconos or Vermont just after a full day of snowboarding at the log enjoy a nice cold Golden Monkey.  And since this monkey was obviously chilling nicely in the snow it would be nice and cold.  So congratulations Damien.  Please email me your address so I can have your mugs from Promos Online delivered to you.  Also, thank you for your submission.

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SECOND PLACE - Twisted Tea - Original - As I said, this was a really tough call - I was personally going for your best BEER picture.  This submission by Kimberly Waibel was excellent.  It was warm and inviting.  It has the tropical flowers flowing from the top of the bottle.  It came along with a little message that "she really only enjoys Yuengling Premium Light when she drinks beer..."  this is her " favorite beverage bought at beer distributors."  For you, none Pennsylvania people out there - we can not buy larger then a 196 oz (I think it is) at one time from any store in the state EXCEPT a "Distributor".  At a Distributor - you will mostly ONLY FIND cases of beer, not half cases, not 6 packs, and most definitely you will not find spirits like vodka, rum or bourbon.  This submission was taken from a birthday celebration for Kim herself which makes me feel even worse about this choice.  I even went online every where and tried to fit this drink into the "DEFINITION" of beer and this probably can be debated till we are blue in the face since some talk about using a clear malt extract and brewing a high alcohol content with removing flavor and color - then adding taste - it came down to this:  Would I use this beverage to review in my 365 Beers?  And the answer is I would not.

Thank you for both submitting.  Thank you all to those that thought about it - next time - join in on the fun!
 
It has been far too long since I’ve visited the beautiful state of Colorado.  I can remember my first trip like it was yesterday.  The year was 1998 ( I think ;) haha) and I was just fresh with my new job out of college 2 years.  My room mate had a college friend that was going to school in Colorado and living in Boulder, about 30 minutes north of Denver.  He had invited us out for a week and we couldn’t resist.  It was a great trip.  Since it is a mecca for outdoor activities we planned accordingly; hiking, biking, horse back riding, and of course skiing/snowboarding.

We touched down late at night so the drive from Denver Airport to Boulder was some what uneventful.  We got to the house and crashed.  The next morning I was the first awake so I walked out back to take a look around on that beautiful blue skied morning.  I saw what looked to me to be fairly large mountains.  I would later find out these were just the foot hills and that the REAL Colorado Rockies lay just beyond that point.  It took me seconds to truly fall in love.  I had never been horse back riding but decided that a 3 hour tour would be a cool idea.  That was a fantastic trip through the woods with about 8-10 other riders.  We ended up taking a ‘scenic’ route and our trip was closer to 4 hours – which to some was scary but to me – BONUS.

On one of the beautiful clear skied days we decided to take a hike up the Flat Irons right outside of Boulder.  This beautiful hike took us to a nice look out that we could see both the beauty of the Colorado Rockies and Boulder and Denver in the opposite direction.  We took two different bike rides; one was a campus tour through Boulder.  The other was a nice single track ride that took us on a beautiful ride ending on the edge of a mountain where we proceeded to have a snowball fight in our shorts.

I remember one of the days we got a huge storm, several inches of snow and it was beautiful; just the day before we were in the front yard drinking some great beer playing hacky sack.  On three separate days we scheduled ski/snowboard days that were the best riding days ever.  Specifically, Breckenridge was one of the spots we hit and got my first taste of Breckenridge Brewery.  It was tasty.  This trip provided me the outlet to find another WONDERFUL brewery called New Belgium Brewing out of Fort Collins.  I have yet to visit this wonderful brewery but hope to during my next visit out west.  I instantly fell in love with Fat Tire.  Since then, my palate has changed a bit and I have come to try many more of their beers.  Fat Tire is no longer one of my favorites but is still a great quality beer.  Since then I’ve come to visit Wynkoop Brewery, Tommy Knocker’s Brewery and even Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado.  It really one of the most beautiful places to visit (and I imagine live) if you like GOOD beer and great outdoor activities.

Though my hiking and biking abilities are not quite what they were in years past, the following event Colorado Hike, Bike, Beer & Brewpubs Adventure is right up my alley!  This event is being organized by Zephyr Adventures; they teamed up with World Class Beer, Untappd, New Belgium and Draft Magazine to give away two spots on this adventure.  Feel free to stop by the site and write your own post to register for this great give away.   Please check their site out for other great adventures they have planned.  I have got to get back to Colorado!  This is the trip I am in desperate need of!  Some how through all the work of blogging about the adventure and beers I drank I think I could find a way to have a little fun. new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.