Drinking fire at the Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ festival

It’s events like this that remind me why I love taking pictures of food.

 

Jules and I won tickets late last week (given away by the awesome Downtown Diane) to the Friday night session of the BBBBQ festival. Since this is probably the last time I could attend this festival in Baltimore for the foreseeable future (and because I WON TICKETS), I decided to invoke my “special occasions” clause and go try some stuff.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the quality of the BBQ and the sheer amount of bourbon available to taste. There was no way to try all of everything, especially because I would probably become a quivering lump on my bathroom floor the next morning.  Makers’ Mark was on hand (one of my favorites) offering to dip our glasses in their signature red wax. We happily handed over our glasses and watched the process unfold. After that, we sampled a couple beers and I decided to try my hand at sipping some bourbon samples at a tasting session.  Thank god we did it after we ate.

Liquid Fire

Why so bad you ask? Besides the fact I haven’t had any sort of bourbon since New Years, I made the crucial mistake of not paying attention to what I was trying. After trying a few of the brands I heard of; I grabbed my cup of Bookers’ and took a swig. It wasn’t even down my throat before I felt the massive fire burning in my throat. The fumes wafted up into my nose and I immediately began to cough and tear up. The burning only intensified as I sat there.

That tiny taste basically ended my night. We wandered around for another hour afterwards, but my throat was still burning and I was no longer interested in trying anything else in liquid form that wasn’t water. While it sounds like I had a horrible experience; that was the furthest from the truth. I’ve been saving the best part for last- the BBQ tasting.

As I remarked to Jules while eating ribs that were falling off the bone, it was like “angels were dancing on my tongue”. The BBQ was amazing and delicious- it was some of the best food I’ve ever tasted in my life (so far). We really enjoyed the food of all kinds- we headed home with a little bit of fudge and beef jerky after sampling everything we could. At the very least, visit this festival for the BBQ alone- the beer and bourbon are just a bonus!