Winking Lizard Barrel Aged Beer Fest

Couple more confirmed:

• Lagunitas High West-ified Imperial Coffee Stout
  
• Green Flash Silva Stout 2014
• Stone Mixed Tape 5

Oh yeah, also some Cant He Yawn San Gil Wah.

 

Oh man, can-till-yun is the best!

 

I am way more pumped for this than I should be.

 

Couple more confirmed:

• Columbus Steel Dawn w/ Cocoa Nibs
• Avery Obscuro & Nimbosus
• Boulevard BBQ
• Alltech Kentucky Rye IPA

And both sessions are SOLD OUT!

 

I'm going to need some Barrel Aged Pomegranate 5 Hour Energy for this

 

Are they gonna post an actual list? I mean it is in 3 days. Not that WL cares, it's sold out. I mean where are the usual pitch forks and torches from the usual suspects?!?!

 

Meh. I would say with what we've seen so far, it's going to be a fantastic event. Cannot wait. Wife and girls are out of town -- dad's gonna be sleeping on the hardwood floor on Saturday night, most likely...with Taco Bell surrounding my body like a homocide outline.

 

Other notable additions:

• Bells Kal Haven
• New Holland Coffee Dragons Milk
• Troegs BA Java Head

 

Interesting that Bell's had listed on their website for weeks that they were bringing BA Cherry Stout...curious what happened there. Maybe WL didn't want to pay for that keg?

 

Not sure about the bells kegs. I wouldn't think Bell's BA cherry stout would be all that crazy expensive though. Certainly not more than lambic from Belgium or stouts from Hoppin Frog (!), but there is often politics involved in arranging these specialty kegs and it's not as easy as putting in an order and the keg arrives the next week. From talking to the volunteer staff at last years event some of these kegs aren't even assured to be there until a few weeks/days before the actual event. I think that was the case with Thirsty Dog last year IIRC. Maybe they rather error on the side of caution and not advertise/sell tickets for kegs that may not be there? Not like craft beer nerds ever get butthurt or anything??!. I don't know their exact thinking with how that works though.

 

Subject change. 'Looking like I may not be able to make it Saturday. Rather than waiting til Saturday and risk having to waste the ticket, if anyone does not have a ticket and wants to go, shoot me a message. Night session (5 pm - 8 pm). I just have the one ticket.

 

I guess from my perspective if a brewery says they are bringing something and then it's not there chances are the reason is on the festival organizers. I've worked other beer festivals before in Ohio and there were plenty of great kegs sent back because the organizers didn't want to pay the cost associated with said keg.

Winking Lizard could have avoided some of this by just posting what would be there. I mean if FOBAB can have an all barrel aged festival with 275 beers and announce their list weeks in advance why can't WL? It's not really an unreasonable ask considering the countless other beer festivals with high end beers that are some how able to pull this off.

 

I mean...this event always has great beers and sold out both sessions. At this point, just buying a ticket and trusting the organizers is easy.

 

^ that is true as well (that's what I do). Maybe FOBAB has a deadline for keg delivers or commitment date or something for an event that size. Not really sure. It seems like lots of events announce kegs as they are confirmed. WL has been posting online 4-5 keg announcements at a time along the way. The brewer from Columbus didn't know what he was sending to Lizards event until earlier this week it looked like. I hear ya on the list tho. Maybe they're going for the surprise/boner factor?

 

That sets a bad precedent, does it not? I mean the list is good. But not worth buying ahead of time and not knowing what is going to be there. I think WL would owe it to their customers to inform them of what they are trying to sell than rather using the "trust" factor. They have been around long enough to know how this works. The list was finalized TODAY. Two days before the event. Thats amateur hour. This is the 3rd year for this event. I am sure they knew about this event...for awhile now. Can't tell me they just started to procure kegs for the event.

 

To each his own, I suppose. I will likely continue to buy right away and I'm sure a lot of others will, too.

Also, what makes this tap list "not worth buying ahead"? There are a lot of great beers on there.

 

BBQ
BA Siberian Night
Siren Noire
Abyss
Dragons Milk
BA Brick Kiln
Backwoods Bastard

All can be still be found on the shelves.

St Gill
Silva
Steel Dawn
BA Bitches Brew
Mundi
High West

Those peak my interest.

The rest are Meh. So 7 are still on shelves, 9 (in my opinion) are meh. That is 16 out of 22 I could do without. So there is your answer for not buying right away.

 

There are a decent amount of good beers, but also a decent amount of space fillers and shit you can easily grab off the shelf as well.

I'm not going to lie, my excitement definitely diminished upon reading the finalized list.

 

Yeah I think that's what is most disappointing for me....all this hype and waiting all this time to see what would be there and we finish up with Backwoods and BA Brick Kiln? Both good beers but I have piles of them sitting here that I can have whenever I like. Had the list been out when I bought a ticket I would have really been on the fence about it.

 

Point taken on the fillers, but I do like a lot of those beers, so that probably explains why I don't really have a problem with it.

But as far as WL owing anything to their customers, I don't see it. They aren't forcing anyone to buy tickets. Plus, for $45(if I remember correctly), I get to drink a bunch of good beers, try some new ones, and eat a lot of good food.