Events ACBF 2014 - What Breweries Do You Want There?

While it was awesome to try the hard to get brews from Night Shift and Lawson's, I'd like to see other 'limited distribution' breweries such as Surly, New Glarus and Pipeworks make an appearance. It's getting expensive having to trade so much to try and get them.

 

I think most of us can agree that Tree House and Lawson's have to be back.

 

Midnight Sun
Alpine
Crooked Stave
Kern River
Funky Boddha
Kuhnhenn
Toppling Goliath
Perennial
Pipeworks
Hair of the Dog
Logsdon

 

Bring Back
Goose Island
Maine Beer Co.
Tree House Brewing Co.
Lawson's
Jack's Abby
Trillium
Night Shift
Stone
Two Roads
Stone

Add
New England Brewing
Hill Farmstead
Willimantic Brewing
Russian River :- P
Three Floyds
Alchemist
Founders
New Belgium

 

bell's
funky buddha
cigar city
odell

hill farmstead
NEBCO
lawson's
alchemist
jack's abby
tree house

drake's
lost abbey
russian river
firestone walker
hair of the dog
deschutes

anchorage
struise
mikkeller
sierra nevada

 

A lot of these suggestions (Alchemist, Lost Abbey, Hill Farmstead, Cigar City) are/were at the Extreme Beer Fest. I'd love to see them at more fests, but maybe they only have a budget for one trip to Boston per year.

I was glad to see lots of new local brewers (Trillium, Tree House, etc.) and would like that tradition to continue. For more established brewers: Alpine, Hair of the Dog, Russian River, New England Brewing, Three Floyds, Founders

 

We've got to get New England Brewing there. Hopefully next year they'll be able to make it.
Marshall wharf would be nice as well.
Tree house
Lawsons
Jacks abbey
Franklin's
Nightshift
Trillium

 

ALPINE !!!!!
TREE HOUSE
LAWSONS
CROOKED STAVE
UPLAND
FAT HEADS
CANTILLON -YEAH RIGHT!

 

I'd love to see The Livery come back. Those guys are cool, and always bring some tasty stuff.

 

Suggestions above:

Struise
Mikkeller
Cantillon

You guys know this is the 'MERICAN Craft Beer Fest right?!

 

Rogue
Shipyard

 

Funkwerks
Hair of the Dog
Bell's
Cigar City
Odell's
Three Floyd's
Deschutes
Sierra Nevada
Southern Tier
Ommegang

 

seem to be out on a limb but we liked all the beers we had from Franklin's (6 tried) and would definitely like to see them back.

 

Tree House, Wandering Star, Trillium, and Battle Road stick out in my mind. I'll also mention DC Brau and Duck-Rabbit, but it's probably a lock they'll be there already.

 

Ones that I would like to see that were not there this year are:

Lakefront
Surly
Bell's
Russian River
New Glarus
Heretic

 

I noticed four by absence -- two because I just know them well and two because they were at ExBF and not at ACBF. The first two are New Glarus and New Belgium. The other two are Dark Horse and Lost Abbey.

I'm not sure how you decide which ones are to be selected. I have little doubt that more than 140 want to be there. But there were not all equal. There were two booths that remained empty on Saturday. Some brewers did not bring enough samples, others only had two beers to try. I'd like to see a requirement to have at least 3 different items to sample. And I wonder if there is a way to organize entries somehow in a Tour de France manner -- some permanent fixtures, with the rest left as wildcards. So, let's say, you have 80 breweries that are guaranteed spots if they want them. Then you have up to 20 reserved for brewpubs that only sell from the premises and another 40 are wildcards to be granted to the best of the remaining and these would rotate regularly so that more breweries get exposure. This is what makes most sense to me, but YMMV

 

I'd love to see Off Color Brewing

 

Lawsons
Hardywood
Russian River
Duchetes
NEW GLARUS

 

how about any brewery that haven't been there before.

 

AC Golden, I'd like to see what Coors does with sour ales and RIS.

 

Beer'd Brewing Co.

 

I thought I'd posted a second note earlier but it either got deleted or failed to go through. Still scratching my head on that. Given the sales numbers, I'm surprised Deschutes doesn't make it every year. Since we don't get to see much of them in stores on this side of the world, maybe it's not cost effective for them. But there are at least three others from the Middle of Left Coast that would be good to see: Cascade, Hair of the Dog and Pelican. The last two, in particular, could use some exposure. So could Gigantic.

Oh, and from a different part of the world, Toppling Goliath has been making waves--it's not a question of them needing exposure as much as of us needing to be exposed to it.

 

Remember, someone has to pay for it. Either we do, with tickets, or they wave it and that would make them sponsors. Not sure I'd want either on my conscience. Coors is putting a ton of marketing into ShockTop and a bit into Blue Moon as well. They can afford to push their own brands. I'm not saying they don't deserve a try, just doesnt sound like the best fit.

 

It was kind of a joke, but also kind of serious. They're a subsidiary just like GI is now an AB-InBev subsidiary. Right?

 

How about

New England Brewing Co
Highland
Founders
Hill Farmstead
Firestone Walker
Terrapin
Alpine

 

I replyed differantly but yes all six of those are in my book as well as Williamsburg ale works and hopefully
Bear Republic and Boulevard as well

 

Another vote for Three Floyd's. Zombie Dust is phenomenal.

 

While I would love to see more breweries whose beers are not readily available in MA (post #17), I will remind people that ACBF is one of, if not the only, fest that pays the breweries for their beer they bring. So more breweries and more beers equals higher ticket costs. While I would love to see Lakefont, Surly and New Glarus, is it worth it to go to a Fest in state where they don't sell? Some of these smaller breweries may not have enough beer to be able to come either. If they are at full capacity now in the sense where they are selling everything they make, then even if asked and paid to come, where do they get the beer from?

 

This is what I'd love to see:

Jacks Abbey
Night Shift
Idle Hands
Duck-Rabbit Head
Allagash
Natty Greene's

 

Just a thought. Does it make sense to put local breweries near each other? I'm not suggesting having some kind of a geographic distribution, but having MA breweries in one corner would be a nice tip of the hat both to the local brewers and to the local consumers--which constitute a rather substantial portion of paid attendees. If you make a point to highlight local breweries you might even be able to get a small grant from state Chamber of Commerce.

 

Hopefully Treehouse is still brewing beer then. Some douche bag is trying his hardest to shut them down.

 

And he is a douchebag. He is doing it on principle, not because he has a problem with Tree House per se. And he's the only neighbor who wants them gone.

 

Dry Dock Brewing Company. Best Hefeweizen in the country, great Barleywine and some good IPAs

 

You should do what you can to get Prairie Artisan there! Plenty of people are starting to hear about them because of how incredible all of their releases are, but it would be awesome to get the recognition there as well!

 

Founders
Bell's
Three Floyds
Russian River
Alchemist
Firestone Walker
New England Brewing
Cigar City
Alpine
Soudts
River Horse
Ruckus Brewing
Southern Tier

 

Kane
Peekskill
Firestone Walker
Alpine
Surly
Kuhnhenn
NEBCO
Freetail

 

Alpine
Lawson's
FFF
Cigar city
New glarus
Toppling Goliath
Hill farmstead