SW to GABF 2014 Thread

Nice to see so many folks in Denver - there seemed to be a massive turnout of TX folks there this year!

WTF?! was poorly organized (LONG line to get in, no signage over tables, minimal water available, loud dark room with DJ blasting music, several breweries running out of their beers quickly) but still the best event of the weekend. The beer list was 4 PAGES long, and I got to try some amazing stuff (AC Golden and Casey were real eye openers for me, and came home with bottles of both)

Rare Beer/Pints for Prostates was super well organized, and went very smoothly. Personally, way too much focus on barrel-aged everything, and the food was kinda meh, but nice to have a chance to talk to lots of brewers in a much more social environment. For the cost, probably won't do again though.

And the festival itself was an overwhelming mayhem of people, but that was off-set by the ability to try a LOT of really great beers, especially by breweries I hadn't even heard of before. Saturday members session was a good choice.

Add to that all of the awesome events going on around town at places like Hops & Pie, Crooked Stave, Avery, Falling Rock, etc etc etc, and this was a pretty awesome experience for a first-timer. In the 4 days there I tried 204 new beers (plus a bunch of stuff I'd had previously), so I'd say mission accomplished!

 

I was shocked that we never ran into each other again! I tried to find you later that night, but couldn't. Sorry about that - we should have a beer together soon!

The largest issue was the lack of signage. I waited in lines, but had no idea what I was waiting for, since the tables were only marked once you actually got up to them. I wasnt the only one, as people kept coming up to me and asking me which line was which.

Hopefully in the future they can get a bigger venue and be a bit better organized, because its a great event and the beers being served were awesome.

 

I'm guessing this was your first WTF and it's actually pretty simple: you go clockwise and look to the left starting from the entrance. The order of the tables going clockwise is exactly the same as on the list.

 

Thanks, I'm aware of how the alphabet works. That wasn't the problem.

The problem is that when you're halfway around the room, and there are 5 long lines all next to each other, its hard to know which one goes to which table. I guess if you want to start at the beginning and go alphabetical that would make it easier, but I had specific things I wanted to find, and once the room was full, it was hard to know exactly where those things were.

 

I don't disagree with the water part, but a beer festival having long lines doesn't necessarily equate to being disorganized. One big thing was how the line moved much faster compared to last year, and thankfully they learned to have multiple people scanning tickets.

What I don't understand is how you expect the festival organizer to predict in advance who will have a long line when the room is full and therefore be prepared for it. Really, I'm not sure if you're asking for that or if you want to have a huge sign over a booth, because the first sounds absurd due to subjectivity, while the latter is reasonable. I thought the venue was a perfect size and I'm not sure how making it bigger would help out considering that would come with even more attendees, and thus not solve the problem you claim that exists. The lines did a pretty good job self-regulating themselves (which you even said).

 

I want the second of those 2 things. I went to Rare Beer the next day, and they had giant signs that could be seen from 30 feet away, so you knew exactly which brewery was where. I just didn't understand why the signage was on the tables, where it couldnt be seen until you got to the front of the line.

I personally felt the venue was a bit too small, especially with the giant DJ stand and the useless full bar in the corner. Moving around was challenging, especially when lines began to criss-cross one another.

And to me, having inadequate water and food options is bad organization, and a recipe for disaster. I think its an awesome event, but some issues need working out still.

 

I went to the Friday session of GABF. The wife and I went up on my days off. Went to Small Batch Liquors and got some great beers I can't get in AZ, toured Boulder Beer, went to Hops & Pie and then GABF. This was just Friday! Saturday we hit Crooked Stave before heading to the airport. Awesome setup they have in an old building in the warehouse district. Totally unassuming.