Goose Island Brewery Event 25th Anniv.

HEY-O!

 

And THAT'S how you do an event.
The line for vintage/rare/rare BCBS was long as fuck, but you got rewarded at the end. Got a pour or two of rare, five pours of King Henry, two of coffee, two of napa, and a handful of others. Line was long as shit, but only took 25-30 mins for the good stuff. Plenty of people will complain, but I thought (after they figured out the line situation) it was a pretty good showing.

Also, Destihl killed it with some of the best sours at the show, easily.

 

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke. That was the worst event I've ever been to. Pretty sure I've never complained about a beer event, because beer. But that was horrendous.

Stood in line for an hour to get in. Why did we all have tickets if you're just going to check our names one by one when we show up? And why did I even buy a ticket, when walk up sales had no line and got to just walk right in?

Why did you sell 2,000 tickets to an event with such a tiny space? And not nearly enough beer to fulfill the 25 punch holes on each persons ticket? I had 3 beer samples in 2 hours and left. It was such a disaster, it wasn't worth even attempting to stand in line for a 312. The breweries I wanted to try sold out of beer in under an hour. And the ones that were left had 20-30 minute lines for a tiny pour.

There were hundreds of people in line for what was called the "Bourbon" line with no telling what you might get at the front. And if you got only one pour or multiple pours. So why would I stand in an hour long line for a chance at one tiny pour?

Basically, I spent $25 for the privilege of sipping green line shoulder to shoulder with 2,000 sweaty people. Pretty terrible.

 

Too many people in too small an area. I had fun for the first 40 minutes but then it became a clusterfuck.

 

Worst event planning I've ever seen. It was basically, "Hey, let's pack as many people as possible in here for 3 hours. Fuck everything else."

 

Short of everything everyone else has said (to varying degrees of agreement), how do you have 2000+ people crammed in a Chicago street on a 84 degree day and have the only way to get water be, as I was told from a few different staff members "buy it from the food trucks."?

 

Great time at an event that did present some frustrations to people, and great hanging with Jeff, Kevin mike Paul Adrienne Phil Robbie Brian fitz etc etc etc (sorry if I forgot anyone) great beer great friends amazing camaraderie end of story.

 

The food trucks ran out of water by 2, I was quenching my dehydrated body with orange jarritos. It was a complete shit show, but I did get BCS buffalo trace, blackberry, napa, king Henry and softie paradisi. Granted I waited continually in line for three hours, but I did get those.

 

Okay, I think I understand how this went. InBev oversold tickets that gave you three hours to taste some rare, limited beers and didn't need to supply enough for everyone because they knew there wasn't enough time for everybody to have all that should have been available. And we were worried that they would diminish the quality of beer when they bought Goose Island and all they did was exploit it to take advantage of us,the consumer.

 

I had a good time at WOB in naperville , got tart side of the moon!

 

My biggest gripe with the event today was the lack of beer by the guest breweries. 18th Street was kicked and done for the day before 1pm. Half Acre, Revolution, Pig Minds, Church Street, Emmet's all kicked before 2pm which forced everyone into lines for the Goose Beer and I'm sorry, I'm not waiting 20 minutes in a line for Green Line. The fact that all the "desirable" beer from GI was in one location and made everyone squeeze into a crazy line that at times was nearly an hour just to use 2 of my 25 punch slots in a 3 hour event is pathetic. Destihl stole the show today and that was reflected in the nearly half hour line for their beers which thankfully I got to try a number of, but all in all this was a terribly managed event, that was 2 hours too short and had 1,000 people too many.

Leaving early to head over to Whole Foods Kingsbury for KBS, Doom, Baudoinia and BCBCS on tap was the easiest decision ever.

 

Yes, you are correct, Goose should have KNOWN that the BCBS line would be a clusterfuck, which is exactly what it was. . . .

However, ALL OF YOU should have known that it was going to be a clusterfuck as well.

I got there about 10:40 . . .Was about the 9th person in line.......I got EVERYTHING I wanted, and more.
I am still recovering. . . . I left absolutely TRASHED, mostly off BCBS.
I had 3 pours of Rare, 3 pours of King Henry, and a single pour of the rest of the BCBS.

Also had the GI maple pecan porter. . . . Meh

Off Color's 3% RIS smelled like straight cigarettes. Was pretty cool to spew the shit with John Laffler...He told me I had to many brews in my hand (only had about 4 at that time, had as many as 7 in my hand at a single time)

Overall....I got everything and more that I wanted. And I didn't get my card punched for hardly any beers, still had LOTS I could have gotten.

It was an AWESOME time, met some cool dudes, they were nice enough to let me chill with them the entire time, since I was "ridin solo" .

It was a LOT better than I expected..... If you didn't get what you wanted. . .Ever been to a beer event in the Chi before??? If not, now you know better for next time. If you had, why didn't you show up earlier??
(I'll say, I was about ready to walk right back out the gate when we first we're let in and were pushing each other like cattle to get to the front of the BCBS line, but again, you get out what you put in. If you wanted something, you could get it, just required a little bit of effort and perhaps some nice words)

THANK YOU GOOSE ISLAND! ! ! Happy 25th!!!
I can not tell you how much I appreciated it, I truly do feel like I was re-payed for all the BCBS I've bought over the last couple years.

 

Speaking of which, Where did you disappear to at the end?

 

clearly this is the only way to judge a beer event.

 

For the record, it is CLEAR that GI was handing out Rare because it's at the end of its life. . . . ZERO carbonation.
But no carbonation works with BCBS ; It was still delicious.

Finally, I found it funny that theoretically you could get 100 ounces of Rare for just 25$ . . .Each pour was 4oz and only counted for one punch. 25 punches on your ticket for 25$.
When they sold Rare at retail for $50 for a 22oz.. . . . . (It helps to be patient )
^^This is why GI is awesome, and clearly did not hold the event to simply turn a profit, they did it to give back to their loyals like us)

 

I thought the event was fantastic. The food was delicious, the beer was phenomenal, and while there were a lot of people, it wasn't "cramped." touring the barrel room was pretty cool, as was the endless flow of beers like blackberry BCS. I think the tap lines of GI being spread out would have been cool, but the counter was willing to fill 2-4 glasses at a time so it was only the first round thru the line that you were really "empty handed" so to speak.

My top 5 were:
-Rare
-Strawberry Sour (Destihl)
-Scarlett
-BCS Coffee - Kenyan
-blackberry BCS

napa BCS not far behind either.

Seriously goose. This was a superior event. You truly brought your A game beers to celebrate CCBW and 25 years. Prost!

 

ITT: If you got Rare, the event was awesome and totally well-managed. If you didn't get Rare, the event was an oversold money-grab.

WHO DO I BELIEVE?!?!

 

Got there at 11:30 and got most everything I wanted. After getting in there was almost no line at any of the guest taps. Destihl was great.

If I didn't show up until 1pm I would have hated it probably.

 

line to get it was kind of a bitch, line for the limited goose stuff (Rare, King Henry, etc) was loooooong, but only took about 25 minutes.

Sucks that many of the guest breweries ran out of stuff about an hour before the event ended, but overall it was certainly worth the $25.. Rare, King Henry, Blackberry BCS, Scully, Buffalo Trace, BCS, etc... all made it worthwhile. great day in general - had a blast hanging with friends on an absolutely gorgeous Chicago afternoon...

Only suggestions I might have for future block parties (to help alleviate congestion) would be to spread the limited stuff to opposite corners of the space and sell maybe 500 less tickets... all in all great time though if you ask me...

 

It shouldn't have mattered if you showed up a little late.