My friend and I reach the finish line. (Note our snazzy race numbers.)
The 1K Beer Walk, that is. Last weekend I participated in the event, which was organized by the Washington Wine Academy‘s DC School of Beer.
It’s a clever concept, and I couldn’t resist. We were even given race numbers. Wondering what is really involved? It’s actually just a beer tasting, but it has 10 stations spaced out over the course of 1 kilometer. So, yes, I did walk a 1K (actually about 2K because I more or less walked the course backward to get to the starting line when I arrived). It was held in the Crystal City Shops, which I had never been to but is now on the list of things that are likely to appear in my suburban nightmare. From what I can tell, it’s about three blocks of shops all connected underground — a huge maze. And almost everything was closed on Sunday (when I was there), so it was rather creepy.
And this was one event where they didn’t skimp on the tasting tickets. COULD I have drunk more beer? Sure. I was feeling fine at the end, but I just didn’t feel I NEEDED more beer. And yet I had seven (of 20) tickets left, which I gave away to some lucky random stranger at the last stop. (By the way, if you read this and attend next year, you should know that the last station is by far the best. Not only does it have the largest selection of beers, it has a DJ and turns into a huge dance party.
I had beer from breweries including:
- Baying Hound Aleworks (Md.)
- Port City (Va.)
- Ommegang (N.Y.)
- Yuengling (Pa.)
- Anchor (Calif.)
- Sam Adams (Mass.)
- Flying Dog (Md.)
- Brooklyn (N.Y.)
