NERAX 2024

Can you shoot some info for volunteers (time needed onsite for setup, tending, breakdown, etc) Haven’t volunteered in ages since Extreme beer fest but enjoyed helping those events for fun. But being much older now the calendar has much more responsibility to work around ha

 

From NERAX:

Gentle reminder that we're just under a month away from the 25th annual NERAX cask festival! There will be real ales, lagers (including a wooden pitch lined German Stichfass), ciders, cyser (apple mead) and even a perry (pear cider)!

All these unique cask offerings from the US and UK are available for pours up to a 20oz imperial pint in our normal pint glasses, or a 25th anniversary commemorative dimple glass.

Everyone on the working party loves sharing this special event with you, so we hope to see you there for a pint or two. Cheers!

Tickets and volunteer form available atNERAX.org

 

Wonder if that's coming from Notch...

 

There are other breweries doing lager in wooden pitch lined casks in New England...

 

Could be Counter Weight, but the way I initially read it, I assumed they meant "from Germany" and now I realize that's unlikely (people don't realize how this terminology actually communicates).

 

Ya. This will be from Notch per Chris' history/affiliation + the NERAX crew was at the Brighton Starkbierfest to seemingly lock this in. Counterweight, Schilling, Caius...is unlikely per limited space + a focus on real ale


Sidenote: Chris is using these casks to serve lager (i.e. not condition). Albeit, he is in the process to appropriately/historically condition their lagers via barrel(s) come late 2024/2025

 

Got my ticket for Wednesday very excited as never been before.

 

If you love cask this will be the greatest day of your life.

 

I will be there next month for the 2024 edition. Can't wait. Who else is going?

 

Going Saturday day session

 

I'm Thursday night.

 

@AlcahueteJ @Jbrews - Do they change a bunch of beers in the gap between the two Saturday sessions or do they simply change beers throughout the week whenever they kick?

 

I can't necessarily speak to if they change between sessions. I doubt it, but again I'm not sure.

It's really more about them feeling the beers are ready. If the cask isn't ready, they don't put it on. When it's ready, they'll throw it on.

I also imagine if it's turned since Wednesday, they'll take it off. I do see many casks kick during the Saturday day session, so I would try to go to that one instead of the night one.

@meefmoff has worked at them, so he may be able to speak to this better than I can.

 

I've always just worked on Saturday nights, the final day, so I unfortunately don't have a good sense of how things turnover between shifts either. I think AlcahueteJ's notes above cover their general approach and the wisdom of going to the early shift if something specific catches your eye.

Because things are fairly loose and fluid I think the offerings on Saturday tend to be harder to count on because of trying to best juggle things prior to that. There will always be PLENTY of beer, but it's probably best to not get too fixated on hoping for a particular thing to be available on a particular shift. Especially on that last day.

On the plus side, there's a fun little ceremony built around when the pins kick

 

Haha. Yes, there's no doubt whatsoever when something kicks.

 

Do they publish what’ll be available prior so I may game plan or will have to be on the spot decisions?

 

I’m trying to remember, but I don’t think they do. That’s the nature of a cask festival. If it’s ready, it’ll go on, if not, it won’t.

Even if they do publish it, there’s no guarantee it’ll be on that day.

I’ve never cared personally. It’s all properly cared for casks you won’t get anywhere else, especially the UK casks. And many of them are lower ABV, unlike most craft beer today. So you can try a bunch without it weighing you down.