Craft Beer Collective

Tour De Fat Durham 2012

June 23rd 2012, New Belgium Brewing‘s traveling road show and bike parade known as Tour De Fat, made it’s second appearance in Durham and raised 15,000 for local bike charities. Here is a collection of photos and video from the event!

My Video

My Photos

Beer and Racing Tour De Fat 2012 photo gallery on Smug Mug.

NBC 17 Video


The Whole Parade

Sister Sparrow

Tour De Fat Durham – Route Map

Tour De Fat returns to Durham for it’s second year of biking fun on Saturday June 23rd. This year’s activities will benefit www.ncactive.org and other cycling clubs in the area.

From Press Release – New Belgium Brewing today announced the much-anticipated Tour de Fat 2012 schedule. Now in its 13th season, Tour de Fat brings together passionate bike lovers for a day of two-wheeled revelry while raising money for local nonprofits. Tour de Fat is a thrilling rite of passage that includes an unparalleled costumed bicycle parade, New Belgium beer, dazzling entertainment, local food, unusual bike contests and much more. Coming to 15 cities across the country, New Belgium has added Atlanta and Washington, DC to this year’s lineup.

From their website: The Ride begins at 10 am at Diamond View Park at The American Tobacco Campus, but be there at 9 am to register. Stay and enjoy the fun after the ride from 11 til 4 with music and theatrics by Squirm Burpee Circus, Dovekins, Daredevil Chickens and The Pimps of Joytime. Did we mention it’s FREE

View Durham TDF parade route in a larger map

Beer On The Virginia Creeper Trail

Recently, HopZilla & I had a chance to ride most of the 34 Mile Virginia Creeper Trail and of course we couldn’t help myself by looking into the local beer culture while we were there. Here is a beer guide where every location is a few blocks off of the trail!

The Virginia Creeper Trail is a former railway that hauled lumber down from White Top Station near the Tennessee border through Damascus Virginia and on to the final stop in Abingdon, Virginia. Today, the trail is similar to that of the American Tobacco Trail: cleared for biking and recreational travel. There is a plan to continue the trail into Lansing, North Carolina but little progress has been made.

QUINCY’S PIZZA – Damascus, VA
Damascus is a center-point for the Virginia Creeper Trail, a popular pit stop for the Appalachian Trail and home to the biggest hiking / biking party of it’s kind: Trails Days. I hiked through part of the AT in 1998 and QUINCY’S was there. It’s still there with an expanded area for live music. Food selection is burgers, pizza and sandwiches. On tap today you might be able to find a Highland Brewing beer, something from Depot Street (from TN), New Belgium or Terrapin.

Address: 132 West Laurel Avenue / Damascus, VA 24236
http://quinceyspizza.com/
http://www.traildays.us/

BELLA’S – Abingdon Virginia
Bella’s is a Greek / Italian family food place not far from our hotel. Beers are offered in 10 and 22 ounce (ice cold) glasses. On tap, Highland‘s Gaelic, New Belgium Fat Tire, and Warsteiner were available. Bottle selection was pretty good and consisted of Blue Grass Brewing Co Bourbon Stout, Magic Hat #9, Harpoon IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Boulder Hazed & Infused, Abita Purple Haze and New Belgium 1554. We settled on Beers from Terrapin: Hopsecutioner & Rye Pale Ale!

Address: 872 East Main Street / Abingdon, VA 24210
http://www.virginia.org/Listings/Dining/BellasPizzaAbingdon/

RAIN – Abingdon Virginia
Rain had an extensive wine list but had the surprise beer selection on the trail. Saint George Porter (Hampton, VA), Longtrail Alt, Wolf Hill’s Honey Cream Ale, and Nectar IPA were the highlights. I enjoyed the Porter while HopZilla dove into the IPA and we shared a plate of mussels. The staff knew their beer and were glad to meet like minded drinkers.

Address: 283 East Main Street / Abingdon, VA 24210
http://www.rainabingdon.com/

THE TAVERN – Abingdon Virginia
The Tavern was built in 1779 and served as an Inn, bar, Civil War hospital and now the best damn German food in the hills! In fact the beer menu is mostly German beers with the exception one local: Wolf Hill’s Brewing. Offering both 16 and 22 ounce selections from Franziskaner, Spaten, Warsteiner, Paulaner and the locally made Wolf Hill’s IPA! The ceilings are low, the floors are crooked but the food, beer and atmosphere is world class!

Address: 22 E. Main Street / Abingdon, VA 24210
http://www.abingdontavern.com/

WOLF HILLS BREWING – Abingdon Virginia
About a block away from the Virginia Creeper trail lies Wolf Hill’s Brewing Company. In a former ice house, head brewer, Josh Gambrel is producing a consistent line up of great beers. A stout, a Scottish, an Amber, a Cream ale an IPA and a Double IPA! Growler fills are available a couple days a week but in July the new law will be in effect and you’ll be able to buy a pint at a brewery! Seriously, HopZilla and I were impressed with every beer coming out of this tiny building. I look forward to seeing them again!

Address: 350 Park St SE / Abingdon VA 24210
http://wolfhillsbrewing.com/main.php/

Find out more and plan your visit:
http://www.vacreepertrail.com/
http://www.creepertrailoutfitters.com/
http://www.adventuredamascus.com/

Beer Mile

Video and photos from “underground competitive drinking sport” known as the beer mile, held in a secret location on 11/19/11.

From Kevin:
1) Jon Odgers dominated with 8:38
2) Ian VanGundy 9:02, awesome first race
3) Kevin Boyett 10:23, dropped 4:03 off PR
4) John Rabon 12:28, valiant first effort
5) Joe Winegarden 11:21, w/penalty lap for puking
6) Jerry Winegarden 15:08, had a cold

Shout outs to our officials: timer Ted Gross; photographer David Rogers; DJ & photographer Harmony Schilling; Crowd Control & Security Adam Springs.

video and photos: Away Team Media craftbeercollective.com

Please forgive the royalty free music: Nutrient

FOOTHILLS goes FOOTBALL

Foothills van

READ IT AT THE SOURCE HERE

CHARLOTTE – Foothills Brewing will start selling some of its beers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte for the Carolina Panthers games, beginning with Fan Fest this weekend.

Bartholomaus said Monday that he hopes to be making beer at Foothills’ second production location at 3800 Kimwell Drive in Stratford Industrial Park within the next few months.

Durham Tour De Fat

The first 2011 Tour De Fat… and the first East Coast Tour De Fat took place in Durham on June 25th, 2011.

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Photos on this page by Hop_Zilla and Craft Beer Collective. See more photo coverage at

Triangle.com, News & Observer, Herald Sun

And of course the whole event supported a local charity: Triangle Spokes Group

Big Boss Coaster Toss

Last weekend Raleigh’s Big Boss Brewing raised Money for Lineberger Cancer Center in Chapel Hill by hosting an adventurous sporting event: The Pan American Coaster Tossing Championships.

The event was brain child of the good people at McKinney who created a series of videos posters and artwork to promote the event.

Like most Big Boss events, I would document the festivities with tons of photos. But for this day I was on hand as a line judge. (I did manage to sneak a few photos in at the closing ceremony with the above snapshot).

Jon Page from the blog http://anyonecanenter.com/ was there and he really captured the drama of games and his experiences in this short video:

Craft beer fan and recent acquaintance Aaron Todd won the whole thing! Congrats to Aaron!

Tour De Fat comes to Durham

Re-posted thanks to Beer & Racing!

Last Fall, I blogged about the Clips of Faith film festival that New Belgium Brewery brought to downtown Raleigh and how it benefited a local charity that buys new bikes for kids in need. Along with Clips of Faith, New Belgium also hosts several other tours that travel from city to city across the US to spread beers and cheers. The event that I consider to be the biggest, most kick-ass of them all is Tour de Fat – a traveling festival that hits 13 cites nationwide during the summer to spread the good word about the bicycle as a mode of transportation. While vacationing in San Francisco last fall, we missed the festival by a day as it was happening in Golden Gate Park while we are on our way to Seattle. The Tour de Fat is a combination bike parade, beer festival and carnival all rolled into one family friendly and fun event.

Than over the winter, I learned that New Belgium was considering bringing their festival to North Carolina for a stop in either Charlotte or the Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill). As an avid craft beer drinker, Asst. Organizer of Tri-Beer and Bike2Beer cyclist, I was invited to participate in a round table planning discussion with the folks from New Belgium who were in town to check out the area. We had a great meeting and I felt good that New Belgium would make the right choice and select either Raleigh or Durham for the event. In the end, they did and Durham is now the first stop on the 13 city tour this summer. Tour de Fat 2011 will launch at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham on Saturday, June 25th from 10am – 4pm.

Besides promoting bicycling, the coolest part about Tour de Fat is that New Belgium funds the entire festival and donates the proceeds from beer and merchandise sales to selected local charities that support alternative transportation; namely the lovely bicycle. Each Tour de Fat festival stop starts with a bicycle parade open to ALL cyclists of all ages on all types of bicycles. The event is free to attend and participate in – wearing unusual costumes and riding unusual bicycles is encouraged! Following the four mile parade ride on the American Tobacco Trail, the festival than gets started with live music, New Belgium beer and a zany circus-like atmosphere.

One of the local charities that will benefit from Tour de Fat Durham is the Triangle Spokes Group - the same awesome charity that organized and benefited from Clips of Faith Raleigh. Triangle Spokes Group’s mission is to purchase new bicycles for need-worthy children each Christmas season that would likely not receive them otherwise. Their co-founder and a friend of mine – Rich Nowalk again contacted me to help spread the word about the TdF Festival and solicit volunteers to help work at the event. They need approximately 50 volunteers from the area to help out with a variety of tasks on June 25. I’ve already volunteered as a bike marshal for the parade ride so I encourage you to volunteer your time as well. Volunteers receive a free t-shirt, free beer and the satisfaction of helping out with a kick-ass event that benefits the community. As of last Friday, they still needed 30 more volunteers.

For you road cyclists, TdF encourages you to ride from home to the festival in Durham and leave the car at home. As an avid beercyclist, I wholeheartedly agree!

No advance tickets or registration is required to participate, just show up early and register for the 10am ride/parade.

More info is available at the following links or you can just click HERE to volunteer and sign up now.

New Belgium Tour de Fat

Tour de Fat Durham 

Triangle Spokes Group Announcement 

Share / RSVP on Facebook Events

New Belgium Facebook Events calendar listing

New Belgium Tour de Fat video on YouTube

New Belgium Plans UAR for Charlotte

Urban Assault Ride set for September 18th for Charlotte

From the New Belgian Website:

The only UAR in the eastern time zone. We’re wrapping up the 2011 series in CLT, so you better be ready for a PARTY!

The Urban Assault Ride™ is the biggest bicycle scavenger hunt series in the nation! Here’s how it works: You and your teammate will set out on a city-wide quest for “checkpoints” on your favorite two-wheeled steeds. At each checkpoint, you’ll drop your bikes and complete a funky/adventurous obstacle course, then remount your bikes and hit the streets for more.

The goal is to complete all the checkpoints in the shortest amount of time. You choose your own route and checkpoint order. This means that the most clever are often the victors. Of course, it may also help if you can pull a mean big-wheel powerslide and fly across an inflatable slip-n-slide

After your pedal-powered adventure, your team will cross the finish line and enter a massive celebration of New Belgium beer, bikes, and big wheels. The after party is just as much fun as the ride itself, thanks to the craziest raffle prize contest you’ll ever experience.

http://www.urbanassaultride.com/

BEER & BIKE TOUR of RALEIGH

So this was fun. Jon Odgers put together a beer and bike tour of Raleigh with stops at breweries, brewpubs and bars all over the city. His group of eight bikers started in North Raleigh at Barley and Vine. I met up with them over 10 miles later where I hosted them at Big Boss Brewing for a quick tour. After a door malfunction was fixed Remedy Diner was the next stop, I had an Aviator ESB there. After that we hit Raleigh’s best sports bar with a great beer selection, Woody’s at City Market for a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA! Next stop was Boylan Bridge Brewpub for a view of the city and another IPA for me! Next stop was Natty Greene’s for lunch and more beers. I stuck with the theme and had a Double IPA followed by a taster of the Spring Rye to go along with my Chicken Sandwich. Big thanks to Jon for putting this together! Next stop Durham!

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BEER and RACING!

Jon Odgers

He even runs his own blog at http://racephan.blogspot.com/.

This weekend I will join Jon on a super secret Beer and Bike tour. Follow the advanture on Facebook and Twitter for updates: @beerandracing and @craftbeergroup

Read the interview with Jon at DRAFTMAGAZINE.COM

The Beer Runner: What are your beer runner credentials?
Jon Odgers: My mother raised me in a home where there was an emphasis on healthy eating including fresh fruits and veggies, grilled or baked lean meats and staying away from junk and fast food. I ran track and was active outdoors as a teenager so a healthy lifestyle has always been a part of me.

When I moved to Raleigh and took up running more seriously, I lived on a lake with an incredible greenway system that I ran on nightly during the spring, summer and fall. Today, one of my motivations to run farther and faster is knowing there is a cold, craft beer waiting for me at the finish. While I run because I love it, I also love knowing that one of my passions helps balance the other.