Birthday Brews & Brats

This evening was the super secret Orland Rotary's Burgers, Brats, and Brew Fest. It's an event that they hold every year, but nobody ever hears about it until after it's over. I think their only advertising is a banner over the main street of Orland. Seriously. But this year we managed to score some tickets, for the Canadian's birthday, from a Title Co. in town and invited a work friend to meet us there.

So, you know it's a classy event when your beer tasting glass is a Mason jar. At least I got a real wine glass (which I smuggled home in my purse). We got there about 15 minutes after they opened and there were literally only about 10 people there so we had all the drinks and food to ourselves! And boy was there some good stuff!

I made friends with the gentleman pouring white wines, who knew I liked sweet whites, so kept coming over to our table and refilling me with other wines he'd thought I'd enjoy like an "authentic white" which was a blend of Riesling and Moscato, an Asti Moscato, and a sweet Chardonnay. There were some seriously delicious beef sliders from Farwood Bar & Grill, a fancy restaurant in Orland, that were topped with French fried onions. OMG so good. And outside they had brats, cut into coins with mustard dipping sauces, carnitas tacos, and some other little burger I didn't try. And there was cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Apparently there's a few creameries in the area and they make some pretty fantastic cheese. The biggest surprise, enjoyed by all three at our table? Stella Artois Cidre. A cider by an Eastern European (Prague) beer manufacturer. It was so good. Tart and crisp like a cider should be, but not quite as sweet as most of the American ciders. We all got numerous samples of it. If nothing else, it was worth going to just to learn about a new drink for our arsenal!