Goose Island Brewery Event 25th Anniv.

I got there about 11:30. Didn't even get in the event until close to 1.

And honestly, I was immediately fine with not making this a whale checklist party. Just wanted to have some beer with my friends. Seems reasonable, right? Except it was torture to even get beer. I had 3 beers in 2 hours, one of which was a 312. Went home with something like 7 holes punched.

So it would seem like a prerequisite of a good beer festival is being able to get, you know, beer. Duh.

 

Scully, Sour Pere Jacques, Templeton (Rye) and Dark Traveler were all tapped. Dark Traveler was at the Goose Island Brewpubs booth, along with a Maple Porter, Flanders and something else.

 

Silver jubilee.

 

Super crowded with hot sweaty festivalees,long lines everywhere you turned,but in less then 3 hours enjoyed a Rare,2 Coffee BCS's(which kind I have no idea),2 King Henrys,BCS Buffalo Trace,BCS Napa,Sofi Paradisi,a pint of 25th Anniversary,some Revolution IPA's, Haymarket Imperial IPA's. So looking back,it was a hell of an afternoon, and I'm thankful I got to go

 

Say what? Are you telling me your beer skunked in the 5 seconds it took for you to get your pour to get it to your mouth? This may have to be put #1 on the list of dumb thing beer geeks say.

 

This event was a disaster for 90% of those that attended. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the 10% that got their money's worth as I got their early and lucked out in the last 10 minutes with several pours of BCS+sour variants. However, the organization was down right dreadful. There were way too many tickets for the amount of taps available. I'm also stunned that all of the GI BCS and sour variants were at the same table. Most of the guest taps were out by 1 pm, and ALL of them were out by 2 pm. Yet, the BCS and sour variants still had at least 50% remaining at the end of the festival. I am not sure why they didn't put them in at least 4 different spots.

Now to the good parts. Even though I saw a lot of people that were visibly frustrated, I did not see anyone get into fights or participate in any beligerent activities (maybe because 90% of the festival wasn't even buzzed?). Also, I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but the GI employees, security, and volunteers were AWESOME. Every volunteer I saw was busting their ass to make sure people were served. I even saw a GI girl walking around with pitchers of BCS to serve people that had been waiting for 30+ minutes. All of the workers at the event did an incredible job and that should be recognized regardless of the organizational blunder.

 

Did I get my money's worth? Yes
Did I get to sample a fraction of what I originally wanted to? No

The organizational blunders - the sloth-like entrance line (which we were in at 11:30 and weren't inside until after 12), poorly stocked guest taps, poor signage, the clusterfuck that was the BCS stand, overcrowding for the size of the area - were many, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy myself. I certainly had my $25 worth of brew. So there's that.

But it's tough to sell the notion - to me, anyways - that standing in line for 30 minutes+ for a 4 oz sample is workable for a three-hour event.

Perhaps if I had wised up and taken multiple glasses through the BCS line I might have a different opinion.

 

Bourbon County Stout Tempelton
Bourbon County Stout Coffee Brazil
Bourbon County Stout Coffee Columbia
Sour Pere Jacques
Scully

These were all tapped and I had all of them.

 

how did you know the coffee variation? I asked when I got one of them and they said they had no idea. I tried someone's later and it was different, I ask what was the variation and he said again the guy didnt know.

 

One a friend got and just told me what it was. Another a worker was coming down the line and just pouring it out and someone asked and she said that she was "pretty sure" it was one of them. So I guess there is a good chance mistakes were made and I had only 1 or 2 variants.

 

SOme of the people pouring knew, but it appears other did not

 

No water and overselling the event definitely sacked, but I was lucky enough to try every beer I wanted to and had a great time.

Rare
Scully
Sour Pere Jacque
Scarlett
King Henry
Boring
GI Flanders
Paradisi
BCBS Napa (my favorite and long time want)
BCBS & Coffee variants
Destihl Sours and their BCBS aged barleywine (Antiquity)
Off Color / Mikeller Beer Geek Mus
Lots more from the guest taps

So yeah, a definitely ill planned shit show, but a shit show where I got to try some amazing fucking beer. With some better organization it could be a great event.

 

ahhh yes, I figured as much. I just saw one guy ask like two others and they all shrugged like mime's. Does anyone have any idea what one was tapped flowing around 1:15 and which one was going around 2:15. The one flowing at 1:15 was probably one of my favorites coffee variations since well, this years coffee or the old black cat one.

 

Were the destihl sours good or were they acetoney ((FYI - I'm starting a beer comic book about Acetony and his off flavor friends, Die Cytl and Oxy Date)) ? I wanted to try them but the line was almost as long as the BCS line so I opted for BCS instead.

 

Me thinks this is a contradiction

 

Both of the sours were very good. The apricot sour might have been one of the best beers I had all day. They had the second biggest line after Goose consistently all day.

 

Towards the end (at about 2:45) i was poured a coffee variant and i asked what it was and the girl told me it was "java bcbs" anyone know which one this could of been....I had a couple of the Kenyan and they were amazing...just dont know what the "java bcbs" was... brazil or columbian? any guesses out there?

 

So they aged the Templeton variant in a Heaven Hills barrel?

 

there are just hoses running through empty barrels....

 

its either just running through it or its a barrell jokey box.