Most of you could probably care less, but tonight marks the return of Phish after a five year “retirement”. Hippies are travelling to Hampton, VA from all over the world to convene on the Mothership (aka Hampton Colliseum) for what’s sure to be one hell of a throwdown this weekend.

If you’ve never been to a Phish show, one thing is for certain: there is plenty of good beer to be had in the parking lot. In fact, Phish shows are a big part of what got me into drinking good beer. Hippies from all over the country would bring cases of beers like Fat Tire, Sammy Smith’s Oatmeal Stout and Magic Hat #9 to shows all over the country to sell in the parking lot. I’m guessing the craft selection would be even better in the lot these days.

We used to sell beer/grilled cheese (yeah, we were those guys) in the parking lot at various shows to help pay for tickets/gas, and we’d stock our cooler with plenty of Bell’s and midwest craft beers. I even remember once trading a bunch of Bell’s Oberon to some dude for a bunch of bottles of Portland Brewing beer…it was beer trading before beer trading was cool.

I also remember Jamie from New Belgium talking to us at a beer dinner at Collins Pub a year or two back, and I mentioned how Fat Tire used to be the hot commodity at shows back in the day (please reserve any comments you have on Fat Tire these days). He got a big smile on his face and essentially went on to bless the hippie population and talk about how they used to pull up to the parking lot of Dead/Phish shows with a truck full of Fat Tire when the brewery was first starting out….and they’d have no problem emptying it. Sounds like New Belgium has a lot to thank the Dead/Phish for their early success:-)

A big part of me wishes I was at those shows this weekend, but I’ll be perfectly happy waiting until they schedule shows at The Gorge one of these days…for now, I just might go grab myself a big Sammy Smith’s Oatmeal Stout and throw on a Phish DVD this evening.

If anyone’s interested, you will also be able to download this weekend’s shows free on Livephish.com in mp3 format.