Not to miss breweries at the 2014 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

Russian River at the 2013 Invitational

Good god we are excited to hit the road on Friday with some fellow beer bloggers for the 3rd annual Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival. Last year I had a fun case of bronchitis in 104 degree weather – this year I’m in full health and it’ll be in the low 80s!

There are so many great pics for the festival this year, which makes this the best event in California (at least) for beer lovers. Many of our recommendations are things you cannot usually get on this side of the country (other favorites like Beachwood Brewing are just a drive away). But we’ve managed to narrow down the list to a must-must-must-have list of breweries to visit during the fest. The full preliminary lineup of breweries and beers available at TheFullPint.com

Here goes:

3 Floyds
8 Wired Brewing
Avery Brewing Company
Ballast Point
Bell’s Brewery
Cigar City Brewing
Crooked Stave
Dogfish Head
Firestone Walker Brewing
Founders Brewing
Kern River Brewing
Mikkeller
Pizza Port Brewing
Revolution Brewing
Russian River Brewing
Southern Tier Brewing
Surly Brewing
The Bruery

And to recap the lessons I learned at last year’s festival:

1. Don’t get deliriously sick
2. Bring a pretzel necklace
3. Bring lots of business cards (ideally this would be swag, but we ran out of stickers!)
4. Be fashionable but appropriate (this isn’t Coachella, thank god)
5. Lots of ice water!

See you there!