Funk n Line Fest

I don't know you, but you seem like a super mellow, cool guy. I would have told everyone to stop diluting my beer with their tears.



I'm kidding everyone, lighten up. Brewers, not event planners. Their humility causes them to underestimate their popularity. I doubt logistics and supply will ever overtake the demand for their tasty nectar.

 

Great beer lineup, happy I got to try most everything I wanted to. That sake was freaking ridiculous, hopefully I'll see some it at some of sushi spots around town soon. Aurelian Lure was awesome...Nocturn was good, O&P smelled awesome, but the taste let a little to be desired. Atrial will probably always be my fave since it was the first release and how fucking amazing it is.

While everyone has kind of a sour taste (see what I did there) in their mouth from the long lines, there's really no reason to complain about it any more, so please stop. Everyone had to wait a long time to get in, and get bottles to-go, so there's nothing more to gain from continuous gripes.

While things could have ran smoother, I still had a great time seeing and chatting with people and trying new beers. Jeff, thanks, and please let all the volunteers know how much I appreciated their hard work today. Alot of those guys and gals were busting their ass trying to keep people happy.

 

First off, Aurelian Lure was fucking amazing!
Second, how the fuck did the guy in front of me get two 8oz pours of Ol Oi, and when I asked if I could get a 8oz pour for 4 tickets, I got "well, we're only supposed to give 4oz pours". Really?!
Third, the lines sucked big time but people are gonna beat that horse, so I won't...much. Luckily, I got the big three out early and didn't have to wait longer than 5 mins. After 1 pm was a different story. Bummed that I didn't get bottles of Atrial, but I really just didn't want to wait 3 hours in line.
Lastly, the lineup was impressive and diverse. But again, it was kinda canceled out by the pain in the ass it was to get a pour after everyone got in.
I don't want to trash the event, but I think I'll just come on Friday night when it's quiet.

 

At least it stopped raining. #beautifuldaytho

 

I think the only thing I'm going to say right now is that while smaller events would avoid many/most problems, it is awesome to see 1000 people out to support Jester King, and with the lessons learned from this event, I believe another 1000 person event would be doable with the proper planning.

 

I think the amount of people weren't the issue, it was the amount of volunteers that could have made everything run a whole lot smoother. A couple of different tents would have been nice, but having 3 different lines for each beer(and others) was ideal. I think that it could have been planned much better, but we live and learn. Next time let's add more tents and lets not focus on having one huge tent. More points of sale would have been appreciated and Maybe a CASH ONLY option at one of these points of sale to kind of stave off any possible issues with card readers. Bottles could have been handed out as we got our glasses/tickets/wristbands which would have made things a little better on the Bottles To Go line, as well.

I enjoyed the event quite a bit and spent tons of time in line, but it kept me somewhat sober and I made friends with plenty of new people which is one of the things I appreciate the most with these events. Engaging conversations and great beer are what I come for in the first place.

 

Jeff is a super nice guy and these two threads make me sad. Lol

 

Jeff, thank you for an outstanding event. Everyone, or almost everyone, had a great time. I think you guys CAN host events of this size again in the future if you can just find a way to make the bottle purchasing more efficient. Yes, all the lines were long, but the tasting lines all moved very quickly. The bottle pickup/purchase line however did not. I'm sure some tweaks could be made, whether it's more staff, more cash registers,a separate line for picking up bottle allocations only, perhaps a cash only line?

 

In all honesty I had no issues with lines at all. The lines were about what I expected and at no point did I wait moe than 20 minutes. Quit your whining, you want it you'll wait for it. We got there at 230 and still made it through 12 tickets easily by 530 (and that was 3 of us all with 12 tickets), and we were also able to pick up bottles of everything we wanted (actually I need a couple of bottles of sleepy hollow or rhubarb) with about a 30 min wait. Big props to cuvée coffee for showing up and pouring black and blue which was amazing. I need that on tap in my house.

Jeff you guys did a wonderful job and don't let anyone say otherwise. My only complaint is everything was close together and creating crowding.

My biggest complaint however - those of you who participated in the bottle share - Clean up after yourselves you fucking slobs. No one needs to see all the bottles you drank. You took up over six tables with empty dirty bottles and no one sitting at them because of you hours later. It's great that Jeff allowed you all to show up early to his establishment to drink and you don't even have the decency to consolidate your fabled litter to one table? Shame on you, honestly I think it's lame that you all did that. Many probably didn't notice it but I did. Don't ruin a good thing out of laziness.

 

But what's the point of drinking rare beers if you don't get to show everyone you drank rare beers?

 

This liine doesn't sound any different than Dark Lord Day.

 

http://jesterkingbrewery.com/funk-n-sour-fest-apology-for-long-lines

I hope that everyone here who had issues yesterday reads this and realizes how lucky they are to be customers of such a wonderful brewery.

 

This issue is none of my goddamn business, but I'm going to stick my nose where it doesn't belong again (because that's what I do).

As someone who has my fair share of "oh shit we weren't ready for this" moments, and as someone who has gotten to know the way Jeff and Ron approach their business: any snags there may have been from being caught off guard yesterday will be good for everyone in the long-run. I know Jeff and Ron to be meticulous and always striving to perfect every last detail, and that anyone was unhappy is probably bugging them right now as much as it does you. As a result, the next event at JK will probably go smoother than butter.

Stuff happens. You guys continually surprise us brewers with the amount of love you show us, and sometimes we let you down. But like always, Jeff comes right out, apologizes and does his damn best to make it better the next time. That's f'n great customer service right there and metaphysical high-fives over to the JK crew for it.

Jeff, let me know whenever you want to share notes on our various experiences with events. We both go through the growing pains together!

 

I had that exact same comment to my wife as I was leaving. Clean your crap up. I did not partake in the bottle share, but you had the exact same bottles lined up from 1PM to 6PM with rarely anyone sitting at 3 long tables. I get it, you wanted to get them all lined up so you can get that picture of the epic tasting you just had. At one, when the doors opened, you should have had some respect and moved the bottles off the tables. Give everyone a chance to see them, and then get rid of them or actually use the tables you are taking up due to them Whoever hosted it or organized it needs to be the person responsible enough to clean up after yourselves in a timely manner.

 

I wasn't part of the bottle share but who cares if they took up tables, I never had a problem finding a place to sit down all day, if it wasn't cleaned at the end that's an issue but seating wasn't.

 

I'm not here to complain, because I had a good time. But I do think I can offer some suggestions that, had they been implemented, would have made the event more successful with regard to lines. While waiting in various lines, I had friends hold my place so I could walk up to the front to observe what was happening and why lines were moving so slow (the speed of a line is not a function of its length - this fallacy doesn't explain anything). Here's a few observations/tweaks I think could help:

Entrance & Check In

• Demark the entrance line further back. Splitting the lines into A-M and N-Z is a somewhat reasonable idea, but because the sign was at the front of the line and not at the back, we (and many others) got into the wrong line. By the time we realized our mistake, we had gone too far. Of course, those manning the booths were helpful and helped us out, but that's a waste of time and it hurts those behind us.
• Begin checkin earlier. Tons of people arrived to the fest before the event started, because of the bottle share. Had they all been allowed to check in earlier, this would have reduced the number of people who needed to wait in that line. Of course, that doesn't solve the speed of the line, but it does decrease the wait of others.
• Combine bottle allocations with check in. Rather than checking lists twice, the people who bought the tickets+bottles options should collect their two bottles at the entrance. This allows half the list-checking work. And it leads into my next suggestion:
• Split the check-in line differently. Instead of splitting A-M and N-Z, split based on "tickets" and "tickets+bottles." The difference in number of people will be equalized by the time taken to give people their boxes of bottles. And since most people were getting their bottles as soon as they could, any concerns about carrying boxes around would be mitigated by the fact that that happens either way.

Drinking

• Pour from multiple tents, group beers differently. As time progressed, the lines for pours moved faster, but I think this was mainly a function of reduced confusion more than anything else. That said, having one giant tent is easy in terms of setup but causes traffic jams and penalizes those going for "less desired" beers. So: I think one tent should handle the most sought beers, while two to three other tents should handle everything else.
• Make tents redundant. If, except for the "whales tent," the tents all have the same beers, then it doesn't matter which tent someone goes to. When a line jams in one tent, people can go to another tent.
• One line, multiple servers. This is the Best Buy checkout strategy, and it works. (A somewhat simple explanation is here.) There should not be three lines going into a tent, there should be only one. That line moves horizontally across the tables and as it moves, multiple servers grab people what they need.

Buying Stuff

• Separate stuff. I already hinted at this by suggesting that bottle allocations be part of check in, but there's more that can be done. Merchandise was separated from the bottles but as others pointed out above, this didn't turn out to be the case once the merch line started selling AR, and eventually, all bottles. Instead, merchandise (shirts, posters, anything but beer) should be handled completely separately. In fact, I'd suggest that it take place at the check-in tent, but only a few hours into the fest. No one is leaving so early that they can't wait, say, two hours, and after that point, the volunteer hanging out at the check-in booth will have more to do than just idle around while waiting for stragglers to come and check-in.
• Decrease the number of people working this line. This is the exact opposite of what most will suggest, but the issue with buying bottles, from what I could see, was not too few volunteers; it was inefficient use of volunteers. At multiple points I witnessed the too many cooks situation causing delays and breaks in the system. At one point I observed seven people behind the tent, only two of whom were actually processing sales. One was frantically moving back and forth to get bottles, one was rearranging posters, and three were standing idly.
• Implement a true pre-order system. I noticed a lot of people, early on, had order slips they were filling out. When they'd get to the front of the line, nothing had been done with these slips. The volunteer would grab the person's ID, say "do we have a box for John Smith," receive a "no" response, and then ask "do you remember what you ordered?" The box would then get put together ad hoc. At that point, one of the idlers (there were always people idling in that tent) would spring into action to put the box together. Part of the issue is that it's difficult to, in the heat of the moment, put boxes together. However, since most people know what they want before they even get to Fitzhugh, it might make sense to allow an even more advanced pre-order system. Volunteers can arrive early to put these boxes together, label them, and then a separate tent with one volunteer can sell those pre-made boxes.
• Create a cash-only line, not tent. Lots of people are going to suggest a cash only line. This is a good idea but it needs to be part of the same tent as the credit card line, and there needs to be an extra ipad for that line too for when it inevitably runs out. Basically, there should be a (obviously much shorter) line for people paying in cash, who can speed past those paying credit. The cash transaction is much faster, so it gets people out of the line quicker. However, at any point that the cash-only line empties, the cash-only volunteer should pick up an ipad and get the second person in the CC line. They should not destroy the cash-only line, they should just grab the second person, allowing others to come into the empty but still spatially-existent cash-only line and only have to wait behind one person.
• Have LOTS of bottles in this tent. Multiple times, I witnessed an idler run back to the brewery to grab a few more boxes of Atrial Rubicite. Given the previous demand for AR, there should have been at least fifty cases in that tent, so as not to waste time running back and forth to get them. This would free up an idler to instead be a cash-register volunteer, or to simply not be under the tent, pouring instead.

Miscellanea

• Decrease operations during big events. It was nice that tours were offered, but it also means that at least one volunteer is tied up for most of the event. Maybe decrease this to only one tour, or just don't offer tours at all. It's not a normal taproom day and I'm sure people would understand.
• Just some thoughts on other stuff. There were lines for the bathrooms, as everyone expects. But they moved fast. Maybe adding a port-o-potty or two would be nice but honestly I think if someone complains about the bathroom lines they're just trolling you. Similarly, allowing the bottle share is actually a good thing. Maybe a bit of a mess was created (this should be dealt with) but it allowed people a distraction when they didn't want to stand in slow lines.

To conclude though, I had a damn good time. Got to hang out with good people, drink great beer, and as always, enjoy Jester King. I don't doubt for a minute that hiccups and hangups can be solved. And I don't doubt for a minute that the JK guys will continue to tweak things to make them better. The above are just some suggestions I had. Jeff, Ron, if you have any desire to discuss these or other observations I had with me, let me know. I love what you guys are doing and only hope success continues to overwhelm.

 

They had some of the only tables near the event where you could listen to music, see if the lines were short, etc. Yes, there were tables in the pavilion area, but it was just a dick move to continue to claim all of them after you are done while not cleaning up.

 

Towards the end of the event I ended up hauling maybe 3 cases full of empties towards the back. I didn't mind though, just trying to do my part and ensure that at least I took care of some of the mess.

No idea who lined up the bottles though?... I remember doing the cupcake thing and looking up at the table and seeing them neatly lined up.

 

This lazy guy was glad to be at Funk and Sour festival, and waiting in line for beer is what I do. Thanks to some friends and JK my glass was never empty. My money is with Scott smooth as butter next time.