EBF 2014: Tell us all about it

Hopefully get some feedback once people sober up in the morning. Seems like anymore you can get a 1,000 posts leading up to an event but nothing during or after unless it was a shitshow.

 

I'll start with the negative: signage. Me and a bunch of other guys had no idea how to find the place. WTC is a big place and we had literally no idea where to go. I walked through the building, went downstairs, found the room... And was told I was at the backdoor. Was then given directions for how to get to the front door which was a ways away. And there were lots of people like me.

Otherwise was a great event. Not too crowded at all. Very reasonable lines. The longest one I waited in was treehouse because everyone was waiting for juice machine. Even the tg and funky Buddha lines much faster. Almost everything else was a nominal wait. I got all four cascade beers with literally no wait. Good grilled cheese. Lots of water. Good security. Well run entrance. Nice people. And of course amazing beers. The one thing on my list that kicked before I got there was chocolate rain but no biggie. Oh and crooked stave kicked 100% pretty early. I think my favorite beer all night was vanilla bean night to end all dawns... But I had lots of amazing beers.

Just put up some signs

 

I totally agree on the signage. It was a lot of walking in the cold to figure out where the heck we needed to be.

The event went pretty smooth. As said before, any long line moved pretty quick. My only 2 complaints would be that it was sometimes difficult to move around because of the lines, and some of the breweries shutdown real early. Other than that, I had a great time. Chocolate rain was amazing! As well as many others

 

where do you need to be?

 

I'm so jealous you got to try that, it sounds incredible since ANTEAD by itself is a fantastic BA stout.

 

The line ended up being on the street level entrance, but around the corner, along the water. Now being at all familiar with the area, it was pretty confusing. If someone else is familiar with the area they can help you out better than a dude in from Detroit trying to figure it out lol

 

I had a great time. Tons of awesome beers, got to try most of my must haves. The only 2 on my list that kicked before I got them was Boulevard Foedar Projekt and Night Shift Funkd Citra. My faves of the night were the two goses from funky buddah and cigar city as well as Night Shift Smokeshow and the Half Acre Gin-barrel pony pils. Oh and Sierra Nevada had beer snowcones which was pretty cool.

 

Here are GPS coordinates of where you enter the fest (street level, not upper level). The line will wrap around and along the building to the Northeast.

42.3498613,-71.04099

Copy and paste the coordinates into Google Maps or your navigation app.

 

there are so many volunteers, you should just have a couple posted around the area pointing people in the right direction. just being honest, there were whole groups of people walking around with no idea at all where to go. but just some volunteers at the main WTC entrance (which is not at all where the line is) and a couple spots like that would have 100% alleviated the problem

 

I thought it was an excellent run event. Lines were minimal which was probably the most important aspect to me. Toppling Goliath and Funky Buddha had the longest lines but they were flying through pours so you could make it from back to front in less than 5 mins. Everything else seemed wide open. My only disappointment was about an hour into it I made it over to Crooked Stave and they were completely out of beer. Seemed strange to me. Other than that we had a great time, talked to a bunch of cool people and had awesome beer!

 

I liked it more, the last three years. For me bigger wasn't better. I thought lines were excessive and hard to get around.Great beer and wonderful people. Double Daisy Cutter was amazing and Avery Tweak once again blew me away. Surprises were Troeg's Scratch Beer 83 and Ithica Zuul. Let downs probably because having way to high of expectations Chocolate Rain and Parabajava.

 

Was

did you have to walk like a half mile around the building like the acbf entry last year?

 

cool stuff. new venue so not everything expected to go perfect but it's great you guys listen to and use feedback

 

yeah, I asked and they said it would be in their tasting room at some point soon, but it would go no further than that

 

Sadly I won't be at any of the weekend's events, but I just want to say that I think it's great that you're making adjustments in "real time" to mitigate issues others experienced.

 

The line doesn't get as long, so you can just go straight to the ride side of the building and walk past the established line.

Comments:

Overall the fest was incredible. Legendary lineup. I missed things and I didn't even care because I had forgotten about them due to the sheer number of awesome things I wanted to try. Someone mentioned Crooked Stave and they were the 1 exception that I realized I had forgotten and really wanted, so I sprinted down and of course they were out. They definitely had the least beer (and I was told a similar amount was allocated for each session). If I were you, I'd go there quickly if you want to hit it. They're in the back left corner.

Pleasant Surprise of the fest- Due South. The orange creamsicle beer was perfect (imho, other untappd check-ins less kind).

Toppling Goliath lived up to the hype, and very glad they had King Sue.

Look out for Bo & Luke variants (i think there will be a different one per session, A had the vanilla bean, which tasted like they dropped a vanilla bean into each glass)

Funky Buddha and Cigar City had strong showings. Love bringing people to FB's booth who have no idea who they are and watching their expressions when smelling No Crusts or French Toast.

Revolution Straitjacket was probably the best BA barleywine I had at the fest and didn't get much pub about being here.

Avery Tweak was pretty incredible.

Lost Abbey Spontaneous Cheer was praised by everyone, and was the favorite beer of the fest for a few people.

Tree House Double Shot was better than Juice Machine, IMO.

Dark Horse's bacon beer (something about little piggy) was delicious smelling. Not just smoke, actual bacon.

 

Did tg have morning delight and did it not run out? I'm amazed this beer was being poured