FuzzyBrew

Tour de Fat, an annual traveling bike festival sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire, will kick off a 15-city tour next month in Nashville.

The event aims to spread “the good word about the positive societal offerings of the bicycle” and features a costumed bike parade, New Belgium beer, music, food and more.

In Nashville, the bike Parade begins at 10 a.m. at Centennial Park, with registration starting at 9 a.m. The festival, which includes performances by Mucca Pazza, Ian Cooke, Yo-Yo People and Sssnakenstein, runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, go here.

The event, which is visiting Nashville for a second-straight year, will benefit the Sound Forest, Walk/Bike Nashville and Ride for Reading.

Here’s the full list of cities on the 2012 Tour de Fat calendar:

Nashville, TN – June 2 – Centennial Park
Washington, DC – June 16 – Yards Park
Durham, NC – June 23 – Diamond View Park on the American Tobacco Campus
Atlanta, GA – June 30 – Historic 4th Ward Park
Milwaukee, WI – July 14 – Coast Guard Event Area, McKinley Park
Chicago, IL – July 21 – Palmer Square
Minneapolis, MN – July 28 – Loring Park
Boise, ID – August 18 – Ann Morrison Park
Fort Collins, CO – September 1 – Civic Center Park Area
Denver, CO – September 8 – City Park
Los Angeles, CA – September 15 – Los Angeles State Historic Park
San Francisco, CA – September 22 – Lindley Meadow in Golden Gate Park
San Diego, CA – September 29 – Golden Hill Park
Tempe, AZ – October 6 – Tempe Town Lake
Austin, TX – October 20 – Fiesta Gardens

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So who’s been to the Tour de Fat? Tell us what it’s like in the comments below. And, New Belgium, how about adding Memphis next year? We’re down with biking, too!

Boscos won its first medal at the World Beer Cup this weekend, capturing the gold for the Boscos Hefeweizen.

Boscos won in “Category 52: German-Style Pale Wheat Ale,” which had 22 entries. It was only the second time Boscos had entered the World Beer Cup, according to Boscos founding partner Chuck Skypeck.

And it was the second big win in the past year for the Boscos Hefeweizen, which also took gold at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival.

Boscos has brewpubs in Memphis, Nashville and Franklin in Tennessee, as well as Little Rock, Ark. The Hefeweizen was brewed at the Little Rock brewery, though all the Boscos breweries entered the beer collectively.

The 2012 World Beer Cup, the ninth bi-annual such competition, boasted the strongest field of entrants on record, with 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers in 95 beer style categories. A 17.7 percent increase over 2010,  entries were eligible for gold, silver and bronze awards in their respective categories. Judges presented a total of 284 awards.

“It’s called ‘The Olympics of Beer Competition’ for good reason,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, the U.S.-based trade association that has put on the competition every two years since 1996.

“The event brings together great brewers from all corners of the globe. Plus, the awards are highly regarded. A brewer who wins a World Beer Cup gold award knows that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup. The Brewers Association and the proud sponsors of our event thank all participating brewers for their involvement.”

Go here for a complete list of winners.

If you’re drinking your beer ice cold, you’re doing it wrong. If it’s too cold, you miss out on certain flavors and aromas.

Get more good tips in the infographic below from FrugalDad.com:

James Ottolini, brewmaster at The Saint Louis Brewery Inc. and Head of Brewing Operations at Schlafly Beer since 1992, won an achievement award for innovation in brewing this week from the Brewers Association.

Ottolini won the prestigious Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing, awarded at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.

Here’s more from the Brewers Association press release:

Described by a fellow brewer as an artist, a scientist and an inventor, James Ottolini of the St. Louis Brewery, Inc. is the recipient of the 2012 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing. The list of his creative brewing solutions ranges from redesigned milling processes to reduce brewers’ exposure to dust to extensive research on dry-hopping, which has been said to result in “beer with bold floral characteristics, but a soft, inviting quaffability.”

Others winners were Doug and Wynne Odell and Doug’s sister, Corkie Odell, of Odell Brewing Co., recipients of the Brewers Association Recognition Award; and Tom McCormick, full-time executive director of the California Craft Brewers Association, who won the F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award recipient.

The Brewers Association is a trade association representing small and independent brewers.

Russell Scherrer winner @OttoAtSchlafly enjoying some @fourpeaksbrew Kilt Lifter cans at #cbc12 in San Diego tonight. twitter.com/Schlafly/statu…

— Schlafly Beer (@Schlafly) May 4, 2012