:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

:: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 ::

:: Beerfest ::

Last Friday was spent at my first ever Beerfest. I went with a friend from work, who also happens to be an avid beer fan. The event seemed promising enough from the radio ads that we went and bought advance tickets ($20; $25 at the door) and made plans to show up before doors opened at 7.

Perhaps due to my admittedly high expectations, this Beerfest turned out to be, for lack of a better word, crap. Don't get me wrong. Any time you can try out dozens of beers for $20 and get free shit in the process, it's not a bad thing. But I was expecting a somewhat organized gathering of breweries in a large building, containing dozens of booths, with the chance to sample hundreds of beers.

Instead, it was a haphazardly cobbled array of temporary fences, folding tables, and ice coolers in the parking lot of Gulfstream Park. It was nice of the organizers to provide fee grub to soak up the alcohol but the lack of port-o-potties was glaring (we're drinking BEER, people!). There was a shocking lack of variety. There were only 14-15 tables and while most breweries brought two or three different bottles, did we really need a Bud Light, Corona and a Heineken booth? Does anyone really not know what they taste like? (The fact that by our observation, over half the attendees seemed to be there just to get fucked up is beside the point.) And it's a good thing we got there when we did since people started running out of beer by 9:30 and the few that were left was warm since the didn't bring enough ice buckets to pre-chill the bottles. One of the event people we talked to said they weren't adequately prepared because they didn't expect so many to show up (again, we're talking BEER, people!)

And for me, the idea of a beer festival is getting to taste stuff I've never had before but I have to point out that - though I'm not sure if it says more about me than it does the Beerfest - of all the beers they had, I've already tried at least 75% of them.

Labels: Beer

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 7:40 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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