World Beer Festival - Columbia, SC UPDATE #1

@AllAboutBeer has released the latest brewery line-up for this weekend's World Beer Festival in Columbia, SC.  By my count, 17 entrants fell off and 9 new ones were added. (New additions in italics)

Additionally, they have included the preliminary beer line-ups for each brewer.  Take a gander!

BREWERY	BEER	BEER	BEER	BEER
Abbey de Leffe	Leffe Brune	Leffe Blonde
Abita Brewing	Grapefruit IPA	Strawator	Turbo Dog
Allagash Brewing	White	Black Belgian Stout
Anderson Valley Brewing Co.	Spring Hornin'	El Steinber
Angry Orchard	Crisp Apple	Ginger	Cinful Apple
Avery Brewing	Ellie's Brown	Out of Bounds Stout
Bell's Brewery	Amber	Two Hearted IPA
Benford Brewing Co.	O'SOO Stout	Brown	Irish Honey	Southern Tater
Blue Moon	White	Seasonal
Blue Mountain Brewery	Lager	Steel Wheels ESB	Full Nelson IPA
Boston Beer Co.	Boston Lager	Cold Snap	Rebel IPA
BottleTree Beer Co.	Blonde	Red
Brooklyn Brewery	Lager	Brown
Carolina Brewery	Sky Blue Golden Ale	Copperline Amber Ale	Flagship IPA
Carolina/Cottonwood	Carolina Blonde	Carolina Strawberry Blonde	Cottonwood Frostbite
COAST Brewing Company	HopArt	Smoked Red	32/50 Kolsch
Conquest Brewing	Blonde Ale	Sacret Heart IPA	Medusa Stout	Beer Fest Beer
Crispon	Crispin Cider
Crown Imports	Modelo Especial	Pacifico	Victoria	Negra Modelo
Czechvar	Czechvar	Czechvar Dark
Diageo	Guiness	Harp	Smithwicks
Dogfish Head Brewery	Namaste	My Antonia	India Brown
Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery	Milk Stout	Paul's Holiday
Foothills Brewery	Torch Pilsner	Hoppyum IPA	People's Porter
Founder's Brewing Co.	All Day IPA	Porter	Dirty Bastard
Four Friends Brewing	i77	Uptown Brown
Fox Barrel	Fox Barrel Cider
Freehouse Brewery	Brown	Ashley Farmhouse
Goose Island	312	IPA	Sofie	Matilda
Heineken USA	Amstel	Dos XX	Strongbow
Highland Brewing Co.	Oatmeal Porter	Gaelic Ale
Holy City Brewing	Pluff Mud Porter	Slanted Porch
Laguintas Brewing Co.	IPA	Undercover Shutdown	Little Sumpin
Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co.	Southern Hops'pitality	Jefferson Stout
Leinenkugel	Snow Drift
Lonerider Brewery	Peacemaker Pale Ale	Shotgun Betty	Sweet Josie
Magic Hat Brewing Co.	#9	TBD
Merchant du Vin	Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout	Lindemans Framboise	Orval	Ayinger Brau Weisse
New Belgium Brewing Co.	Yuzu	Spring Blonde	Fat Tire	Ranger
NoDa Brewing Co.	Hop Drop	Coco Loco
Olde Mecklenburg Brewery	Copper	Captain Jack	Dunkel
Oskar Blues Brewery	Dales Pale Ale	Old Chub	Mama's Yellow Pils
Red Hare Brewing Co.	Gangway IPA	Long Day Lager
Redds	Apple Ale	Strawberry Ale
River Dog Brewing Co.	Belgian Quad	India Red Ale	Kolsch
RJ Rockers	Good Boy Stout	Witty Twister
Rogue Brewery	Good Chit	Yellow Snow
Shock Top	Belgian White	Raspberry
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.	Pale Ale	Torpedo Extra IPA	Ruthless Rye
	Bigfoot Barleywine	Ovila Plum	Porter
Smuttynose	Big A IPA	Rye IPA	Scotch Ale
St Killians	Carlsburg	Carbbie's Ginger
Stella Atrois	Stella Atrois
Stone Brewing Co.	Levitation Ale	Vertical Epic
SweetWater Brewing Co.	Whiplash White IPA	IPA	Blue
Terrapin Brewing Co.	Hopsecutioner	Rye Pale Ale
Thomas Creek Brewery	River Fall Red	Coffee Oatmeal Porter
Westbrook Brewing Co.	IPA	One Claw Rye Pale Ale	White Thai
Weyerbacher Brewing	Merry Monks	Blithering Idiot	Double Simcoe Double IPA
Widmer Brothers Brewery	Alchemy IPA	TBD
Windy Hill Cider	Ginger Gold	Gala Peach	Hoppin Johnny
Woodchuck	Amber Cider	Pear Cider	Cellar Series

OK, I will take another look at this on Friday, and check for any more changes.

Hope to see you there!

Special Release in Columbia SC tonight!

My bud @AUGCraftBeer reports on @allaboutbeer & @conquestbrewing's collaboration release:

"This evening, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm, an advance release will be held at World of Beer in Columbia, South Carolina, for a special collaboration beer brewed up by Conquest Brewing Company and All About Beer Magazine.

It was announced in a media release sent out yesterday that the brew, an English-style Porter, which was brewed at the Columbia brewery specially for the sixth annual World Beer Festival - Columbia, will be unveiled at a special event tonight. According to Drink. Blog. Repeat, tasters will also get to decide on additional flavors to go into the final release of the beer."

 Additional details at the link!

World Beer Festival - Columbia, SC

@AllAboutBeer's World Beer Festival will be making a return visit to Columbia, SC's convention center on January 18th (Ignore the fact that the banner above from their current website still has last year's date on it, as I am sure that oversight does not reflect how the show will be run.....)

This will be my third year in attendance.  I quite liked the first year and had a lot of fun.  Though I hear that the evening sessions ran into some issue with lack of product (under previous organizers).  Last year's was not bad, though I felt that there were not as many booth's, especially with smaller local and regional craft brewers.  Additionally, there was a mix-up in the VIP section, where tastings of Sam Adam's Utopias were advertised, but never materialized.  Organizers made up for it with later tastings, though many of us could not make the drive up to Columbia for those make-ups.  :-(

That being said, the line up for this years looks like it has rounded into shape, and I must say looks rather promising, especially on the aforementioned local/regional brewer front.  Quite a few of the standouts from NC and SC are on the list, though not as many from GA as I had hoped to see.

Below is the list as of this evening, and I have heard that there may in fact be more regional brewers added to the list.  I have highlighted some of the booths that I am especially looking forward to visiting.   How about you?

Abbaye de Leffe	Belgium
Abita	Abita Springs, LA
Allagash	Portland, MA
Avery	Boulder, CO
Ayinger	Germany
Ballast Point	San Diego, CA
Batch 19	Golden, CO
Bear Republic	Healdsburg, CA
Bell's	Kalamazoo, MI
Benford	Lancaster, SC
Blue Moon	Golden, CO
Boston Beer	Boston, MA
BottleTree Beer	Tryon, NC
Brooklyn	Brooklyn, NY
Carlsburg	Denmark
Carolina	Pittsboro, NC
Chimay	Belgium
Coast	North Charleston, SC
Conquest	Columbia, SC
Cottonwood/Carolina	Mooresville, NC
Crispin Cider	Colfax, CA
Czechvar	Czech Republic
Dogfish Head	Milton, DE
Duck Rabbit	Farmville NC
Foothills	Winston-Salem, NC
Founder’s	Grand Rapids, MI
Four Friends	Charlotte NC
Fox Barrel Ciders	Colfax, CA
Goose Island	Chicago, IL
Highland	Asheville, NC
Holy City	North Charleston, SC
Hunter-Gatherer	Columbia, SC
Lagunitas	Petaluma, CA
Lazy Magnolia	Kiln, MS
Leinenkugel	Chippewa Falls, WI
Lindemans	Belgium
Lonerider	Raleigh, NC
Magic Hat	South Burlington, VT
Modelo	Mexico
New Belgium	Fort Collins, CO
New South	Myrtle Beach, SC
NoDa	Charlotte NC
Olde Mecklenburg	Charlotte NC
Orval	Belgium
Oskar Blues	Brevard, NC
Pacifico	Mexico
Palmetto	Charleston, SC
Railhouse	Aberdeen, NC
Red Hare	Marietta, GA
Redd's Apple	Albany, GA
River Dog	Ridgeland, SC
RJ Rockers	Spartanburg, SC
Rogue	Ashland, OR
Sameul Smith	England
Sierra Nevada	Chico, CA
Smuttynose	Portsmouth, NH
St. Killian Imports	Various
Stella Artois	Belgium
Stone	Escondido, CA
Sweetwater	Atlanta, GA
Terrapin	Athens, GA
Thomas Creek	Greenville, SC
Victoria	Downingtown, PA
Westbrook	Mt. Pleasant, SC
Weyerbacher	Easton, PA
Windy Hill Orchard	York, SC
Woodchuck Cider	Middlebury, VT
Yuengling	Pottsville, PA

Brew Fest Alert! Columbia, SC

Attention CSRA beer lovers! @allaboutbeer is hosting the World Beer Festival in Columbia, SC on Jan 18th.

Two sessions: 12-4pm and 6-10pm
General Admission: $40, and VIP Admission: $85
Buy tickets here.

This will be the WBF's 6th year in Columbia, and my third time attending.  Last year was a little less impressive than the first, as it did not seems they had as many booths/breweries as the previous year, and there were some snafus with the advertised VIP selections.  Additionally, there have been issues in previous years with lack of supplies for the evening session.  Hopefully all of these will be rectified for this event.

You can see the current "as-of-now" line up here.  The only one that actually catches my eye is Foothills.  Red Hare, SweetWater, Terrapin, and Thomas Creek should provide some solid regional representation.  But I am hoping the expanded list will include smaller regionals from GA (Monday Night, Burnt Hickory, Three Taverns, Southbound, Eagle Creek, Wild Heaven), SC (Westbrook, COAST, Holy City), and NC (NoDa, Olde Meck, Wicked Weed).   Columbia's Conquest Brewing is actually doing a collaboration IPA with the @allaboutbeer staff for the event, and I don't know much about smaller brewers like Lonerider and Hunter-Gatherer but it is good to see them in the door.

I hope that over the next couple of weeks we will see a final list, with some of these great regional choices included.