Hopefully everyone had a wonderful time yesterday atAutumn Brew Review. I certainly did. Good beer, good friends, good music, good people… Thank you to everyone who stopped to introduce themselves and say hello. Thanks also to the Guild for mentioning MNBeer.com in the program – that was a welcomed surprise!
And now, a few random thoughts:
- The VIP hour was entirely worthwhile.
- Brau Brothers Brewing! Not only are they going to be bottling beer, but they’ve finally got a website!
- Breckenridge Brewery didn’t show. That’s two years in a row for those of you keeping track at home. If they sign up next year, I’m bringing a keg of my worst homebrew to serve in their place. Generally speaking, I like their beer, but c’mon… show up!
- I knew Boulevard was getting big, but hiring a beer server in a short-cropped tight t-shirt seems a little more like something you’d see from the BMC crowd.
- There were gallons upon gallons of good beer on tap. A few of my favorites included White Winter Winery’s Cyser & Blueberry Mead, Surly’s Darkness, Town Hall’s Thunderstorm & Twisted Reality, Fitger’s Cherry Batch, Wheatwine and Daisy Ale 8 and Schell’s cask Pale Ale and probably a bunch of others that I’m forgetting right now.
Thoughts? Comments?
Darkness kicked some serious ass.
Thoughts? I’m really, really tired. Thanks again for helping to get the word out.
db
Did I miss City Brewing and Viking Brewing entirely? Looking back on the program, I seem to have missed them entirely.
Oh, and I’m really glad that Chipotle was nearby.
AND the restroom lines were much shorter this year. That is a good thing.
A few things:
There were some very, very good beers. Most of the locals seemed to show up with their best faces. I’m a whore for session beers, so having on-cask Little Barley Bitter was _wonderful_. And microbrew darling Surly had a wonderful RIS and bourbon barrel beer.
I really don’t like the venue at all. All that multi-levelled concrete made for some dangerous moments with drunken people.
The wait times for the bathrooms were excellent. Thank you for that.
I wanted rinsing stations like over at Great Taste; they’re both nice to have for a clean taste of beer, and they allow for a nice spot to pour beers that for whatever reason you can’t stand (again, sort of a problem with it being an all-concrete place.)
I probably will stick with the Winterfest from now on. It’s not the brewers; it’s just the whole event seemed too crowded and too harried. By the time 3 o’clock rolled around, I felt like I was swimming through the crowds…and frankly, that’s a hard thing to do when you’re inebriated.
-djohnson@snowplow.org
darkness was one of my favorites, as well…
..I don’t recall seeing City or Viking either, …
and I would like to nominate Loring Park as a future venue for this event. They do bigger festivals there, why not this one? Lots of grass, a lake, plenty of space….a different feel. Sure, you might have to fight with some geese for your beer, but so what?
City and Viking were no-shows, although I suspected Viking would not make it–I was trying to get the beer and then we would pour it–didn’t work out.
As far as Loring goes–love to do it there, wanted to in 2005–Parks system wants 20% of your gross. That’s a bitter pill to swallow, and probably would kill the festival. Actually, I know it would, because the work put into the ABR is not worth only raising a couple hundred bucks for the Guild. But we’ll continue to look for a “nicer” spot.
Cheers!
db
I also seriously dug the Darkness…so good my wife and I each bought a shirt. It was a fantastic event. I found the venue to be simultaneously wonderful and frustrating. Also, the placement of Town Hall and Fitgers right next to each other on the relatively narrow balcony was a recipe for a disaster…especially during the 3:33 Cherry Ale event.
It was a pleasure hanging with you and Dawn.