The gang packed up, piled in and headed south for a two-day excursion to Winterfest.
In order to help support microbreweries in Indiana, we selflessly gave up a weekend to taste as many new brews as we could in the three hours we visited the fest.
Although the festival was over crowded (expected 1000 and got 2700), many booths were out of beer before we could try them, and the layout of the giant room at the Fairgrounds was very poorly planned, the six of us did have a good time.
Having learned much from our previous fest visits, we stopped in Lafayette and had brunch on the way to Indy. After checking into our rooms at the fabulous Crowne Plaza downtown Indy (thanks for the rooms, Bull!) we set off to enjoy the fest.
Our usual style of sticking together as a group and sharing tastes in order to maximize our tokens didn't work this time. With the extra large crowd (numbers, not lbs.) and the unevenly disbursed beer tables, we had to break into pairs in order to make it through the sea of buzzed beer aficionados.
After the fest we enjoyed a great dinner that evening at Harry & Izzy's, a few blocks from the hotel.
Although the fest was slightly disappointing, we were still grateful to be there and to get away for a weekend with our friends.
