Trivia nights, musical guests and drag shows

"Drag night"? Man, that must be a nightmare to get all the legal permits for that - closing off the streets, protecting spectators, noise concerns, etc. I've heard of Bike nights and Classic Car nights, but dragging? Unless the brewery had a private track for racing, I guess...

Wait. What? Oh - never mind.

 

Lots of breweries do trivia nights around me, and they are always packed. I typically avoid them on those days. I would rather just read Harry Potter (I was never the biggest Potter fan, but read them to my cousins, and soon to my niece and nephews, so there is a little nostalgia on that for me, but many people go crazy for Harry Potter trivia), Lord of the Rings, or whatever, at the bar again than listen to all that. I can't blame brewery taprooms for doing what they can to get butts in the seats. Cool for them, but I much prefer the times when there are only a few people there.

 

It makes sense to me, what with the proliferation of new breweries in an already crowded marketplace. At least locally the top tier spots - Foam, BBC, Fiddlehead - are usually packed regardless, but I've noticed that some other guys - Simple Roots, First Republic, Stone Corral - host trivia, and why not... something to set them apart from the pack.

So to answer your question. Yes, unless the beer is so popular that folks line up for it anyway, this seems like a trend that'll stick around. And hey, I'm a trivia nut, so it works for me!

 

And "Trivia" in the Google/internet/smart phone age is like cheating at T-Ball.

Once, I was trapped in a house after a 3' snowstorm in the Southern Tier. Snow was higher than the blade on the tractor. Lost power when a tree took down the line running from the road until the mountain to the house. All I had was a wood-burning stove, a flashlight and a battery powered radio. But the phone still worked [but that's a long story]. Some local Finger Lakes radio station had a call-in trivia contest early in morning and I knew all the answers. Can't remember what they were now, but I think they all concerned comic books and, of the one question I remember, I knew that the Captain Marvel WHIZ Comics took it name from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang magazine. I won, too (I think it was a dozen donuts at a shop in Elmira). On the air, the DJ was amazed at how I knew all that stuff so quick and asked me what reference books I was using. WTF. "Books? But that would be cheating..." I replied. He was annoyed (I guess that's what the other winners did?) but I still got the certificate for the donuts.

 

Not sure what the complaint is here . . . building IRL community that combines good beer with entertainment? One reason I used to drink beer at bars more often was definitely "about the beer," but the fact is, I can drink just as good or better beer at home these days. I can't, however, meet completely new people, run a multi-team trivia night, or (easily) put on a drag show in my living room. These kind of nights, especially if they're occasional, seem like a win for the bar and the customer.

 

Most breweries up here in the Seattle area do live music, trivia nights, and even burlesque shows. I personally like the interactivity as opposed to just sitting on a bar stool and watching a hockey or college hoops game on the boob tube.

 

I wish more places would adopt a "phone's off" policy at Trivia nights. The cheating is rampant!

 

Don't forget retro video game nights/tourneys!

 

Showing your age?

 

Considering how I lived in my youth, I consider getting as long in tooth as I have an accomplishment lol

 

All the old farts ITT are.. lol

Nothing wrong with these types of events imo... and they generally occur on off-nights, from what I’ve seen locally; rarely if ever are you gonna see this kind of thing on a Friday or Saturday.

 

The Buffalo Wild Wings in the town I went to college in would be packed on Thursday nights for trivia. I have a hazy memory of attending a Trivia Night at the now defunct Kraftbrau in Kalamazoo back then as well. This was back in the mid 90's. What was old is now new.

 

You deserve a prize for being stuck in Elmira for any reason

 

Since brewery taprooms exist for the sole reason of putting bars out of business, there has actually been a government ordinance that taprooms are now legally required to host trivia nights to prevent trivia junkies from aimlessly hanging out on the streets.

 

Trivia nights seem to be common, one of they breweries in town has a Grey's Anatomy trivia night (never watched the show, so I can't judge). Being old, I still prefer drinking and listening to tunes, either live bands or the jukebox. All the more reason to have a bar at the house

 

running club, taco tuesdays, pint nights, music bingo, bands, pints and pups, brunches, etc etc etc.

just to name a few of the things being done to get people through the doors at a lot of places

 

You and he refer to TV as the boob tube (which I also do), but to really show your age you'd know that there was a 'game' that was introduced around 1960 that was called Boob Tube.


Each of the two tubes had a bunch of marbles that you had to shake down from top to bottom thru holes just a little bigger than the diameter of the marbles. Noisy! I'd hate to sit thru a Boob Tube tournament in a brewery and listen to all that noise.

Does that memory date me a bit?

 

Damn. I got that question wrong the other day at a Beer History Trivia Night!

"What central Michigan brewery held Trivia Nights in the Mid-90s?
HINT - Kraft beer in Kool town."

(I said - Frankenmuth. Forgot about the tornado...)

 

"Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd."
Breweries should do whatever works.
That being said, "I'm here for the beer."
If you make great beer, they will come.
And if you don't? Well maybe you should have trivia.