FOBAB 2016

I was at the early Sat session. My game plan was to go right for Atrial for my first pour. Got inside at 1:10 and it was already tapped out. Very disappointing. Mexican Achormatic also tapped out within 20 minutes and I missed out on that. That being said, I had very many excellent beers and have very little to complain about. I did find the GI line to be ridiculous and blame them for the poor way they ran their booth and tappings.

 

I'm very happy how popular your beers were and they were a big hit. I'm also personally very disappointed I missed out on both of them. The Achromatic tapped out very fast at the early Sat session. It also stung a bit because I was in line when it happened. Went to the sour room and found the Peach Climacteric already gone as well. Both of these were very high on my radar going in. Still very happy for your success and really hope I get a chance to try your beers in the future. Cheers

 

Prestige Worldwide barleywine?!

I must know how this was.

 

Way crowded and things were tapping out 30minutes in. Was trying to pace myself but probably should have just went all in for the first hour because I ended up missing plenty of things I didn't expect to go that quick. Caliente, Parabajava, and Hazel's Nuts were probably my highlights. Ten fidy, inego, and utopias would be my biggest misses. Passed on that weld works line.

 

What a sad, sad night for Goose Island. While standing in the longest lines of the night, people were complaining about not getting their BCS refunds yet, getting the wrong amounts, etc. Staggered releases, only one booth, and limited quantities (2014 only lasted 30 minutes) was a huge disappointment compared to last year. Goose Island used to be the highlight of FOBAB. This year it was the worst aspect.

Couple that with what was easily the worst beer of the night - prop 16. It's one thing to be spicy, many beers at FOBAB this year were, but this beer was so unbalanced and heavy-handed. So many of the great variants in the past were subtle and complimented the base beer, but this was a train wreck-- too much spice, too much smoke, muddled chocolate. I assume they had issues scaling up the prototype, but they should have never released it.

Seemed a lot more crowded this year, but the lines to get into the fest went much faster than last year. Signage was much improved as well. So many great beers. Great to see Jester King have a presence.

 

Saturday was my first FoBAB. While I enjoyed a good number of sours and BA beers, I'm not sure I would do it again... It felt like I was in a mosh pit trying to get some beer sometimes. I could probably count maybe 10 beers that I thought were really good. A lot of others were pretty decent / meh. Maybe I just have high standards. Also a lot of the ones I was looking forward to trying, tapped just as I able to find them. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was in a bigger room or just more spread out. This picture sums it up pretty well.

 

It was very crowded, especially in the back by the stouts. I'm not sure if they sold more tickets or the layout was the issue. I would love to see them move into a bigger venue.

Prop 16 was meh. I'll give it another shot though. BCBS 16 was on point. So thick.

 

I'd be completely okay with paying upwards of a hundo to get in, in exchange for them cutting back the attendee list by like half.

Which I know is probably unique to me but whatever. Love the fest, love the beer. Hate the crowd.

 

Sounds like you need to join Imbibe...

 

Winner, winner Chikow dinner!

 

That looks like a cluster f**k. Wait in line for 1/2 hour, finally get your beer, and wham, some drunk knocks it out of your hands.

 

Looks like that was Saturday night at the very end. There are open spots missing kegs and a coupler sitting in a tub where beer ran out, plus the lights were never up like that during the actual fest. Final clue is there are no brewers left up on the balcony. Looks like the drunken rush for one last pour you see at every fest....

 

I was at last night's session & it was my first time at FOBAB. I loved it mainly because so many people gravitated to about 4 lines to start it off (DDG, BAMA, GI & another I don't recall) so I stayed away & coasted around grabbing pours with zero wait like B-Bomb, Champion Ground, Clare's Thirsty, etc. I knew quite a few people there so maybe that made it more enjoyable but I made basically zero effort to search out specific beers & just walked around until something looked good & didn't have a line.
PS - also did not enjoy Prop '16. Hopefully it improves with age since I'm getting a bottle at Prop Day

 

Decent FOBAB.

Highlights:
-Spon 3... which started as 0 line as everyone bum rushed DDG...
-Achromatic; glad my friend grabbed a pour first thing Friday night
-Benthic... HA has upped their barrel game
-Scratch Sumac... just damn interesting
-Cherry Utopias... which totally needs to go into one of the world's most expensive Manhattans...

Lowlights:
-Prop 16
-BAMC... so thin compared to Achromatic
-GI line in general... the two booths setup was so much better
-Vinegar sours... we should be past the race for lowest Ph by now

Regrets:
-Not enough time spent in stouts/barleywines...

Head scratchers:
-The continued insistence of aging ciders in spirit barrels; save the bourbon for stouts, ciders deserve a more delicate treatment instead of doubling down on sweetness

 

GI lost the head of their BARREL program. That's a huge hit for them. Also, on top of that you probably have management telling them to be conservative so they don't lose their ass again. And oh yeah, the beer that was supposed to be Prop got dumped. They had a rough year and pulled something together at the last minute. I had it and I thought it was pretty good, the pepper will back off a bit and it'll taste a lot better.

Now on to my assessment. I attended the Saturday PM session.

The line to get in was insane! We got there about 5:30 and were wrapped around the opposite side of the building, took us until 6:20 to actually get in. Honestly impressed it happened that fast.

I was shocked at how crowded it was, honestly. I saw a ton of people coming in through the volunteer entrance and think that a lot of volunteers used their free ticket for that session as I didn't see too many people actually pouring beer.

The Goose Island line often wrapped around to the opposite corner, which I thought was insane, and I was not going to wait for the BAMA.

I did have a good time though for my first FOBAB. I will definitely go back, but will be doing the IMBIBE thing next year.

 

Like some of you said, I was at the Saturday AM session about 15 minutes after it opened and some of the good ones were already tapped. I felt the room was big enough, they should of moved that snack area somewhere else so they could have made the strong/dark/porter beer section wider.

For my first FOBAB I enjoyed it, next time I'm going to try and have more of a plan, once I noticed they weren't taking tickets I just tried everything in sight, good/bad decision lol. Never really looked at the booklet, but still tried a number of beers I may never get my hands on outside of this event. I really enjoyed Chickow!, but I enjoyed Destihl's rye beer more, I forget the name.

Didn't bother with the Goose Island line because I will be attending Prop day.

 

Just for facts sake, who was the head of their barrel program that left?

 

One of the last beers I had on Saturday. Was out standing.

 

Some Thoughts.
- Prop 16 is the worst beer iver ever had.
- WeldWorks is killing it on multiple fronts
- Half Acres Barrel Program is crushing it as well both Orin and Benthic were fantastic.
- DDG was a bit of a let down. Really good beer but maybe not so deserving of the hype.
- Spon was outstanding
- GI CLybourn had a great showing IMO
- Very Impressed with Haymarket
- More Scotch barrels please- Same number of tickets in a larger space please

 

I was shocked at how crowded it was, honestly. I saw a ton of people coming in through the volunteer entrance and think that a lot of volunteers used their free ticket for that session as I didn't see too many people actually pouring beer.

I was a volunteer for Friday PM - they let you pick which session you wanted to volunteer for, then you got free entrance to a different session. Turnout for Saturday PM volunteers probably experienced a certain rate of attrition because those people had already used their free entry. The organizers were very specific that you'd be blackballed in the future if you went to the free session only to bail on your later scheduled work session, but I'm sure it happened. I definitely noticed that the water/dump buckets weren't getting emptied anywhere near as frequently as they were on Friday, and I didn't really see many of the tie-dyed shirts that signified which volunteers were supposed to be doing that.

*Sorry, that 1st paragraph was a previous post that I copied - didn't end up looking the way I expected.