What a Relaxing Rendezvous it Was

Yesterday was Rockyard's Rendezvous at the Rock beer festival, which has always been one of our favorite festivals to go to. It's usually one of the smaller festivals, so there's more time to talk with brewery folk and thanks to the "deviations," each brewery usually brings one or two different things. This year, thanks to a huge festival in downtown Castle Rock on the same day, seemed to be more sparsely attended than previous years, but still lived up to our expectations.What is this about deviations? Well it's the people's choice award for the day, showing off a different take on brewing...although many of the breweries didn't seem to remember. My pick for the more interesting flavors had to go to Fate Brewing out of Boulder with their Coffee Kölsch and a Coffee Chocolate Blonde. They also had a Watermelon Gose (seems like ever since Paradox did Skully #15, everyone's jumping on that train!) and a sour IPA...lots of different flavors! As last year's winners of the Deviation prize, I knew Fate would bring some fun things. One deviation, and the eventual winner for the day, I could not try was 105W Brewing's Deez Nuts...a peanut and hazelnut concoction that everyone loved. The prize, and fitting that 105W won, was a custom fashioned didgeridoo made of brew house parts.Among all of the Denver and Boulder-area breweries it was nice seeing a good assortment of Springs-area breweries (Triple S, Red Leg, Bristol, Pikes Peak and even Paradox) making the trip up north for the Colorado Brewers guild event. All in all it was a good little fest. Pro tip: If the crowds and inebriated attendees are what's keeping you from attending a beer fest, keep your eyes peeled for the Rendezvous next year, it's a great place to get a few extra questions answered about beer, enjoy some good music and of course drink some fun and interesting brews.Here's our photos from yesterday: