Hopinions: Building a Better Beer Fest
This week on Hopinions: Beer Festivals. We reminisce on the memorable beer fests we’ve been at, lament at some of stupidity that happens at beer fests and discuss what we think could be done to improve them. Read along and leave a comment to participate in the discussion. I’d love to hear some of your stories, good or bad, and suggestions.
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
As you know, the 13th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival is happening in just a couple of weeks. We’ve been exchanging emails over the past couple of weeks planning for this trip as we will be privy to a side of this festival normally unreachable to the general public. That being said, the topic for this week’s Hopinions is Beer Festivals.
Generally speaking, I enjoy going to beer festivals. For a relatively modest fee, you can sample a wide variety of beer from a wide variety of breweries. In many instances, breweries use beer festivals as a way to debut new beers, bring out old favorites, share special vintages (yes, beer also has vintages) or test experimental batches. Even in the cases where the beer fests are of a singular style, i.e. the Bistro’s Double IPA Festival, it’s still a good time and you get to learn a lot more about a particular style. Whenever I’m at a beer fest I think it’s awesome to see people like myself, beer sniffers, who are enjoying beer for what it is and not to get drunk. Well most of the time at least.
In fact, the very first beer festival I went to was the Double IPA Festival at the Bistro a couple of years ago. I had just started writing the blog with any sort of regularity and was glad I could provide content beyond the beer reviews I had been doing at the time. What I remember the most was being introduced to the beauty that is Pliny the Younger. What an awesome beer. We had also made some new friends that day we still keep in touch with.
I can’t say that I have a favorite beer festival because each one has their own particular quirks. The Bistro’s beer festivals are all hop-oriented while the Toronado’s Barleywine Festival is epic. The Fairfax beer fest has it’s own charm and then there’s Boonville which deserves a weekend all to itself. I can’t forget the Great American Beer Festival. Sammy and I went last year and were hooked. We’re already making plans to go this year as well, assuming of course I don’t get fired or “downsized” from my day job. Out of all the festivals we’ve gone to so far, the most memorable has been Boonville but mainly because those were under special circumstances.
So my questions to you are: what was the first beer festival you went to and which was was the most memorable?
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
For some odd reason, I couldn’t tell you what festival was my first. It was probably the lame festival they have at the Oakland A’s games which is a parade of gas station labels. I’ve heard they’ve improved it over the past few years, but still have no desire to go back.
The first memorable festival for me was the KLCC Homebrew Festival in Eugene, Oregon. The reason we attended this festival was for the homebrew competition. For $10 you could submit a beer and get into the festival for free. You got your glass and taster tickets and were able to sample a wide variety of Wilammette Valley brewers. It was great. The best part of this festival was the fact that drink tickets were 50 cents for a half glass or one dollar for a full pour. By the end of the first night, the pourers grew lazy and the half pour quickly turned into full pours. This spawned the quote that lives on among my friends, “I’m not drunk, I’m just a big supporter of public radio.”
On top of plenty of professional brews, the festival offered a station where a common style was chosen and collaborated upon by local homebrew clubs. Some of the offerings were fantastic, some, no so much, but it was an opportunity for hoebrewers to play the role of professionals, even if for only one night.
To top it off, there was live music which could be described as “eclectic” as best, ranging from traditional Irish in one set to delta blues the next. The event was held as a fundraiser for the local public radio station, KLCC, and there was also a used record sale where I proudly claimed Thriller on vinyl for the price of $1.
Sadly, times have changed. $20 gets you in the door with a glass and 3 samples, with additional samples running $10 for 3. The hike is price is probably a reaction to drunken fools like me dropping a $20 bill on the table and running wild. At the current price, my best friend who was always my sidekick at these events has told me it’s just not worth the time. This is unfortunate, but I had a blast the two years I attended.
So now I’m going to bounce it back to you. Build a better beer festival. Are we talking one price for all you can drink or an admission plus taster prices? Do you want to price yourself out of the reach of the “frat boy” crow or do you keep the tastings and admission price low enough for public consumption (pun intended)? Do you try to keep it small like the KLCC festival, held within half of the exposition room at the Lane County Fairgrounds, or do you book the biggest arena in town and plan on thousands in attendance over a week like GABF? What else have you seen that needs changing at your favorite beer festivals?
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
I’m glad you brought up some of the negatives regarding beer festivals because if you didn’t, then I would have. Do you remember Jay Brooks’ Top 10 Festival Pet Peeves? I provided the link to avoid restating material but I agree with just about all his points, although #1 (Bad Drunks) and #3 (Glass breakers), are some of the worst. It’s inevitable. You have a large social gathering revolving around alcohol and you’re going to get drunks. Most of the time, they’re good drunks enjoying the day, the company they’re keeping and, of course, the beer. It’s such a shame though when bad drunk start to ruin things for everyone.
Festivals tend to go one of two ways when it comes to their charging: 1) higher entrance fee with all-you-can-drink sample format or 2) some sort of token or ticket redemption system. Both have their pros and cons but I do see some things that work out much better than others.
Trying to design a better beer festival is something I’ve thought about but haven’t come to a conclusion yet. If you just accept that there’s going to be a few assholes among the masses, your mind will be more at ease. It’s going to be a given and statistically unavoidable. I could go on an on about ways of making beer festivals more “problem-free” but let me outline some base ideas I have using the wonderful world of bullets:
- Location - A beer fest in the open air on a hot afternoon is just begging for some rowdiness. Perhaps a smaller and “upscale” festival location will deter the unruly.
- Type of Festival - Having a beer fest around a single style that hasn’t hit the mainstream is a way to eliminate beer hooliganism. As big as the barleywine festival is, it tends to be issue-free because it’s not a mainstream style. The people who enjoy barleywines tend to be more respectful of beer in general. Same thing for the Wood-aged Beer Fest at the Bistro. It would seem the more obscure the style, the more respectful the festival attendees.
- Pay-per-Play - Having a redemption system, whether it be tokens or tickets, tends to be a pretty good filter as well. Having an “all-you-can-drink” is an open invitation for binge drinking, especially when most beer festivals last only 3-5 hours. I believe that the redemption system works because it forces you to really think about which beers you’re going to pick and as a result, you enjoy the beers you’ve picked much longer. It because an issue of quality over quantity. If you have deep pocket, great! Buy more tickets but most people seem content to drink what they initially paid for.
- Setting the Tone - This ties in more with my first point. The Slow Beer Festival I attended last year made it a point in their marketing to explain this festival was all about quality and not quantity. The breweries were bringing some of their “higher end” beers while the food vendors were much more than your average festival vendor. You wouldn’t be seeing any cotton candy, corn dogs or frozen patty burgers here. As a result, there were a lot of folks about but the mood was much more mellow. This festival had unlimited tastings as well but no one seemed blitzed out of their minds. It was great.
I guess if I were to plan out my own beer fest, I’d use those bullets as a guideline. These bullet points are pretty darned convenient. I’ll use them for things I wish beer festivals would improve upon:
- Food - Most beer fests do not provide food, rather, they invite food vendors to set-up shop and charge what they will. I’m not saying that beer fests should be providing food. They’d go bankrupt after a single outing. I would like to see a more varied and consistent offering of food. How many beer fests have you gone to where you’ve seen 4-5 vendors offering tri-tip sandwiches? Have some variety and have enough vendors.
- Water - Maybe this IS something beer fests provide. You don’t have to provide bottled water but maybe water dispensers. As much as I like beer, after a couple of hours of drinking in the sun, a cool glass (or two, or three) of water does it the job like no other.
- Restrooms - People who drink a lot will pee a lot. Have enough Port-o-Potties or restroom facilities available. Then you avoid people pissing everywhere like dogs.
- Flow/Layout - Most festivals have no thought put into the design of their layout. Brewers tend to be set-up in the periphery of the building they’re in, or whatever, and people tend to pool in those areas. It can make getting a beer an adventure in itself having to navigate a sea of people. If you loose someone in your party, fugetaboutit. Hopefully you have pre-ordained a spot to meet up later on.
- Homebrew - Give homebrew clubs group discounts or at least make a portion of the beer-fest homebrew related. These are the people you want at your beer fest and, chances are, many of the brewers you like today got their start as homebrewers. Let’s just give a nod to where many of us came from.
- Families - Lastly, let’s try and make beer festivals more family friendly. Just because an “adult beverage” is the center of the festival doesn’t mean that only adults should attend, right? In fact, I find it hard-pressed to say that only adults are in attendance. Everyone may look like they’re drinking age but they sure act like little kids. Maybe having kids around will make people think twice before doing something stupid or dangerous.
You opened up a can of worms man, you know I can get wordy if the mood strikes me. For your final volley, what would you do to improve a beer fest or what would you like to see included or excluded?
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
First things first, don’t knock the corn dog.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, beer festivals present an interesting debate as far as solutions to the drunks vs connoisseur issue. I’d love to be in a room full of beer geeks, sniffing their beer, talking about the finer points of beer and just providing a stimulating environment. On the other hand, I’ve started more than a few events that way and found myself stammering out incoherent sentences thanks to repeated tastings of stronger ales. When it comes to drinking in moderation, I have a long way to go to reaching the Bill Brand level.
So how do you mitigate that?
Beer is a beverage of the people. The experience should be one that is accessible by all. Raising prices of admission to keep out the drunks would go against that, on top of being extremely elitist.
When you’re selling tokens/tickets, you can limit a reasonable person’s intake by setting hurdles in front of them. If they’re too drunk, then maybe they won’t buy more samples. Problem is, we all know what happens when you’ve got a nice buzz, a pocket full of money and a room full of people willing to fill your glass with more exceptional beers. So do we put the responsibility on the people selling tokens? This would be ridiculous, they need to sell tokens to make their profit. The next step would be the actual people pouring the beer. Good luck there as any beer they have left they have to lug back to their car. That’s why taps get a little looser as events close, no one wants to bring beer home.
So we’re back at square one. I think you nailed it on the head when you mentioned Slow Food (except for you corn dog comment). It all comes down to the marketing. Pick your crowd and advertise appropriately. If Slow Food started advertising on Live 105 as an all you can drink beer festival, I guarantee they would sell thousands of tickets, but the crowd would change significantly.
So I guess it comes down to Mario’s First Annual Amazing Awesome Beer Festival, huh? Here we go:
- One price admission - pay for food, but not the beer.
- Designated Drivers get treated properly and with the respect they deserve. They are getting all of us home safe. Give them a special T-Shirt, discounted admission, free water and soft drinks, maybe even a food voucher. Catch them with a beer in their hand, toss them out on their ass and take back the shirt.
- 20-25 breweries, and let’s not have any of the filler breweries, just destination breweries. With less breweries involved, there is less pressure to drink too much because you can hit all the brewers you can’t miss and maybe go back for seconds on a couple without need for a liver transplant.
- A nice glass. Why is everything a pilsner glass? How about a 7 oz Duvel-esque glass that can handle anything you pour into it.
- A little more space. This includes the family aspect because if it’s a crush of people, you can’t bring kids. I attended a festival somewhere off of I-80 with my wife years back that was held in an open field. The beer was kept in a tent at one end while at the other end was a stage with music and plenty of room to set out a blanket and hang out with the family. Offer something to keep the kids happy and you will then keep the parents happy. Also, if there’s a kid and no Designated Driver, you need to slap the shit out of both people and send them home immediately.
- There’s got to be music, but remember, we’re there for the beer, not the music. I want the chance to get away from it. If I want the music, I’ll get closer to the stage.
- All things will be bulleted when possible, call it the “Pete trete-ment.”
So there you go. As usual, I have all the answers to all of life’s problems. Pete, see you in Boonville.
