Aug. 14, 1999 began for us shortly before 5 a.m., when we were up and getting ready to leave Champaign, Ill., by 5:30. We drove to Bloomington to catch a chartered bus and ride to the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wis., with members of the Abnormal Brewers, our homebrew club before we moved to New Mexico.

Once in Madison we stopped at Steve's Liquors to look for local beers. We stocked up on several New Glarus Brewing products but Daria also spotted 1999 Sierra Nevada Big Foot in the cooler. SNBF was not available in New Mexico this year; and it turns out it wasn't in Bloomington either. So after Daria grabbed a six pack, club member after club member did the same. When we checked out the clerk announced they were out of the barley wine.

After a stop for lunch at J.T. Whitney's Pub & Brewery (and, yes, many in our group also had beer) we headed to the park for the festival. Hundreds of people were already in line and it was growing by the minute. It snaked out from the entrance (above), then did a switchback up a hill and ran back until a building stopped it, where it reversed for about 30 yards and then straight down the hill (that's where the picture below was taken). By the time the gates opened, well over 1,000 people (maybe 2,000) were in line but it took less than 15 minutes for them all to get inside.

We were diligent about taking notes until, to be honest, we reached the front gate and received our tasting glasses. We reconstructed what happened the next few hours for our email newsletter (you can sign up using the form at the left). Here's what we wrote there:

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide you with information you can use. Therefore the best thing we can tell you when we think back on last Saturday's Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wis., is that you should plan to be there Aug. 12, 2000.

Late in the day, we ran into Chris Black, proprietor of Falling Rock in Denver, one of the country's best taphouses. "Colorado doesn't have anything like this," he said.

With apologies to the Oregon Brewers' Festival, the Great American Beer Festival, the Real Ale Festival and many other fine events, there isn't a festival we enjoy more than the Great Taste.

The setting is terrific, in Olin-Turville Park right beside Lake Monona, with a beautiful view of downtown Madison across the lake. Ticket sales are limited. Many brewers are there to pour their own beers - except when they are off trying others - and they often bring special beers for the event. It's a madhouse when a brewery such as Kalamazoo (Kalamazoo, Mich.) "releases" cult beers like Bell's Psychobrau and Eccentric Ale at special times.

This year there were more than 90 breweries offering well over 300 beers. Not every one was great, but enough were. Our first stop upon entering was the St. Louis Brewery booth to congratulate brewers Sara Choler and Stephen Hale on their recent marriage. They were off drinking beer but we had the Bridalager that Sara made to celebrate the wedding. It is described as a beer "to fall in love with" and was a malty, clean and absolutely delightful Vienna.

Our fourth stop was at Egan Brewing (DePere, Wisconsin) to ask brewer Richard Steuven (a.k.a. "gak" of beerismylife.com, left). We asked him what he had found during the "brewers' hour" before the festival opens. A lot of good barley wines, he noted, checking his ever-present notebook. "It's going to be a long day," we thought.

And as the day wore on, others kept pointing us toward barley wines. We didn't get to the highly praised bourbon barley wine from Great Dane Brewing in Madison, but Goose Island's handpumped barley wine was outstanding, and so was the special release Old Conundrum Barley Wine from Flossmoor Station in Flossmoor, Ill.

This beer has spent eight months in used Jack Daniels kegs. We had it about 3 1/2 months ago, and it was already very good. Now it is excellent, and we suspect it's getting better. "I was disappointed when it came out of the fermenter, but not now," said brewer Todd Ashman, smiling broadly as festivalgoers fought for a taste from the quarter-barrel when it was released.

Festivalgoers battle for to get some of the special release barley wine from Flossmoor Station. The lucky ones managed to shove the glasses below the tap (right).

That was just for starters. Looking at the program now we realize that despite spending a full five hours in motion we still didn't get to dozens of beers we wanted to try and many brewers with whom we wanted to talk.

Bent River Brewing of Moline was particularly good about plastering festivalgoers with their "Get Bent" stickers. As the day wore on it was obvious that many drinkers took the suggestion at heart. Good-spirited brewers, however, showed a willingness to "Get Wet" in the dunk tank. Here Brook Belli of Oaken Barrel in Greenwood, Ind., invites trouble.

If nothing else, this sign from Three Floyds Brewing in Hammond, Ind., reminds us that this festival is a celebration of the individual freedom many Midwestern brewers obviously hold dear.