The Belgian festivities began for me on Valentine's Day, the night before the festival started. My friend Chuck, who maintains the Belgian Beer Specialist website and has visited 175 Belgian breweries, drove up from Richmond. We spent the evening in my bar drinking a couple of Belgian lambics he'd brought, plus my homebrews.

Friday February 15. We drove to our friend Jason's and the three of us Ubered to Jimmy's for the annual Cross Street Irregulars pre-festival breakfast. I ate my usual 3 meals and Chuck drank a Belgian ale. I didn't even know that Jimmy's served beer.

We then stood in line at Max's for over an hour, and it didn't seem that long, maybe because it wasn't very cold out. The back room was roped off when we walked in, so we commandeered a table in the main room and had a fantastic time socializing and sampling many beers:

1. Oud Beersel Oude Lambik
2. Cantillon Fou Foune (great)
3. Struise Black Damnation XXVI Froggy (great)
4. Alvinne Wild West with Primitivo Grapes
5. Alvinne Wild West Framboos
6. De Leite Fils a Papa
7. Oud Beersel Bersalis Triple Oak
8. De Halve Maan Straffe Hendrik Heritage 2014
9. Verzet Whole Lotta Blue
10. Alvinne Sour'ire de Mortagne
11. De Proef / Surly Zwart Black Star
12. Alvinne Omega
13. RaR This Ain't Belgium (great 3.8% NEIPA)
14. Verzet Oud Bruin Raspberry (bottle)
15. Key Gedrocht
16. Huyghe Floris Strawberry (great)
17. Tilquin Oude Mure
18. Tilquin Stout Rullquin
19. Tilquin Quetsche
20. Off Color / Jester King Cygnet
21. Off Color Blueberries Feel Pain
22. Off Color Little Friend
23. Bosteels Triple Karmeliet
24. Huyghe Averbode
25. Lindemans Jonge Lambic
26. Westmalle Dubbel
27. Huyghe Delirium Black Barrel-Aged
28. Het Nest Barrel Aged Schuppenboer
29. 3 Fonteinen Zwet Be
30. De Brabandere Petrus Chocolate Cherry
31. De Leite Mam Zelle
32. Kerkom Bink Bloesem (meh)
33. Verzet Oud Bruin Oak Leaf (great)
34. Hof Ten Dormaal Kriek
35. De Proef Triple Honey Kriek
36. Alvinne Bolleville Calvados 2009
37. Boon Geuze Selection
38. De Dolle Bos Keun
39. De Dolle Dulle Teve
40. Huyghe Delirium Red
41. RaR Barrel-Aged 10 Layers
42. Dubuisson Surfine Saison
43. Saison Dupont
44. Abbaye des Rocs Grand Cru (meh)
45. Val Dieu Grand Cru
46. Het Anker Lucifer
47. De la Senne Major Tom (bottle)
48. Oud Geuze Boon Vat 91 (bottle)
49. Mikkeller / Boon Oude Geuze (bottle)
50. Oude Groseille Rouge Tilquin (bottle)
51. Gueuze Tilquin (bottle)
52. Huyghe Mongozo Mango
53. De Blaugies / Hill Farmstead La Vermontoise
54. De Glazen Toren Canaster
55. A Vapeur Cochonne 1996
56. Lindemans GingerGueuze (bottle)
57. Silly Scotch de Silly
58. Verzet Whole Lotta Bluebs
59. RaR / Other Half Reap What You Sew
60. Oud Beersel Bersalis Sour Blend
61. De Proef Sour Barrel #3
62. Bosteels Pauwel Kwak
63. Corsendonk Christmas

Around mid-afternoon Jason, Chuck, and I walked to Ale Mary's, where our friend Nestor met us and we ordered some food and drank bottles of Orval and Westmalle Tripel.

Then Nestor drove us to Jason's where we met up with Lisa and the five of us spent the evening eating and drinking. Beers included some of Jason's and my homebrews as well as:

1. 3 Fonteinen Geuze
2. 3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek
3. Cigar City Jai Alai
4. St. Bernardus Tripel
5. St. Bernardus Abt 12
6. Founders All Day IPA
7. Cantillon Nath

Then we all crashed. I got a nice comfortable couch in the basement. It had been an epic day.

Saturday February 16. I left a little after 6 AM. Despite all the beer I'd consumed the previous day, I wasn't hungover. I had a food hangover instead. My system was overloaded from the approximately 10,000 calories I'd consumed.

At 9:00 my friend Amanda came over and we drove into Baltimore for Brian Strumke's 9^th annual Stillwater tasting event. There were beer industry folks and several of my homebrew friends. We tried:

1. Stillwater Preternatural Cuvée #1
2. Stillwater Preternatural Cuvée #2
3. Stillwater Preternatural Cuvée #3
4. Stillwater Preternatural Cuvée #4
5. Stillwater Preternatural Cuvée #5
6. Stillwater / Dugges Mango Mango Mango (bottle)
7. Oxbow Dance Language: Blueberry Honey
8. Stillwater Action Bronson
9. Stillwater Password
10. Stillwater Blown Speakers (great)
11. Stillwater Gose Gone Hopped
12. Stillwater / Dugges Speyside Cacao
13. Oxbow / Blue Mountain Alpha Minor (bad)
14. Oxbow Cohesion
15. Oxbow SaisonDre 3000

Then a bunch of us went downstairs. It wasn't at all crowded for the first few hours, but it got more crowded as the day went on, and by nightfall the place was packed. More of our friends trickled in throughout the day and joined us. A lot of the same beers were on tap from the previous day, but there were some new ones too. We sampled:

1. Cantillon Mamouche (meh)
2. Verzet Whole Lotta Bluebs
3. Stillwater / Dugges Mango Mango Mango
4. Oud Beersel Bersalis Sour Blend Grand Cru
5. DC Brau Barrel Aged Pet Cow
6. Piraat Triple Hop
7. De Proef Sour Barrel #3
8. Huyghe Floris Strawberry (great)
9. De Blaugies / Hill Farmstead La Vermontoise
10. Verzet Poker Face
11. Silly Scotch de Silly
12. Oud Beersel Oude Lambik
13. RaR Pulp (great NEIPA)
14. Wittekerke Wit
15. RaR Bare Knuckles
16. Bastogne Ardennes Spirit
17. Dubuisson Scaldis Triple
18. Alvinne Wild West Framboos
19. RaR Blacker the Berry
20. Boon Geuze Selection
21. Lindemans Jonge Lambic
22. RaR Barrel Aged 10 Layer
23. Rodenbach Alexander (great)
24. De Ranke Hop Harvest
25. Prearis Quadruccino
26. De Halve Maan Straffe Hendrik Heritage 2014
27. Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne
28. DC Brau Doctors Dubbel
29. Westmalle Dubbel
30. Caracole Saxo
31. De Glazen Toren Double Wit
32. Key Gedrocht
33. De La Senne Stouterik
34. Chimay White
35. St. Bernardus Wit
36. RaR This Ain't Belgium (great 3.8% NEIPA)
37. Stillwater Shaken Not Stirred
38. Musketeers Crowdsurf Saison
39. Alvinne Sour'ire de Mortagne
40. Chimay Blue
41. A Vapeur Saison de Pipaix
42. Dubuisson Surfine Saison
43. Stillwater / Dugges Speyside Cacao
44. Tilquin Oude Mure
45. Off Color / Jester King Cygnet
46. Off Color Blueberries Feel Pain
47. Off Color Little Friend
48. Val Dieu Triple
49. Oud Beersel Bersalis Triple Oak Aged
50. De Leite Mam Zelle
51. Het Nest Barrel Aged Schuppenboer
52. Corsendonk Christmas
53. Het Nest Barrel Aged Dead Man's Hand Aquavit
54. Van Steenberge Gulden Draak Imperial Stout
55. St. Bernardus Prior
56. De Brabandere Petrus Brewmaster's Selection Wild Tripel Ale (bottle)
57. Lindemans GingerGueuze (bottle)
58. De Glazen Toren Canaster
59. ??? Harvest Ale
60. Oxbow Black Light
61. La Rulles Houblon Sauvage
62. De Ranke Simplex
63. Saison Dupont

The place was rocking when Amanda and I left around 6-ish. It had abeen a great day of beer and friends.