EBF 2014: Tell us all about it

SHOCKED to not see any comments on 4 Hands. How did my favorite hometown brewery show out there?

 

I mentioned 4 Hands in the sleeper thread. Loved the Chocolate Peanutbutter Milk Stout.

 

Sojo was one of my favorites of the day too. That whole NERAX table was awesome and (shockingly) didn't have huge lines to wait through.

Chocolate Rain, Night to End All Dawns, Baby Maker, and the 120 Minute with Simcoe randall stand out as some of the more memorable favorites as well (probably one or two more of significance in my notes though). Stone sadly underwhelmed me. Punishment (and to a lesses extent crime were undrinkable), Burning Rosids I thought was only decent and Double Bastard I've had too much of to get at a fest. Been a big fan of Stone so it hurt to say that (though the 4/20 Enjoy By that I had at Lord Hobo Friday night was delicious).

Regarding the execution of the fest, I thought it was well handled. Great volunteer presence on the floor and entrance area. My only suggestion would be to improve signage about where to lineup. As an ACBF veteran I was a bit lost going to usual lineup area and I know my group wasn't the only one that got as far as the lobby to ask for directions (Saturday B Session). As for the lines, there were some that were absolutely silly so I avoided them. Plenty of great beer elsewhere.

 

French Oak.

 

I agree there were some breweries that just didn't show up. Crooked Stave ran out in 10 min of opening of the second session. And Cascade also ran out fairly quick as well... FB was pouring the entire time and so was TG. Overall great time and lines moved quicker then I thought they would!

 

I just want to take a moment to thank the Beer Advocate Crew and Volunteers and the brewers who made the EBF easily the best beer festival I have ever attended (or worked). I was not a volunteer for this festival but have poured beers in many festivals in the PA and MD area. It got to a point that I would no longer attend festivals if I was not working, and then I burned out of that.

This was the opposite of everything that is typical in a beer festival. I know not every festival will have 74+ world class breweries bring one-offs and rarities. Honestly for me, the best part of the festival was all of the available space to walk, stop, sip and talk to my brother or whoever else might be nearby.

The fact that so many great breweries I knew of or learned about had short to no lines also makes this event unparalleled.

Again thank you to everyone who helped put this on, and also all the awesome people in Session B.

 

Is it 10 minutes now? I have heard an hour, 40 minutes, 20 minutes, and now 10. Next it will be that they didn't even bring any beer at all, and then finally that they no-showed.

Mostly kidding, because I do agree that it's not cool to run out so early when we've all paid for tickets for this event and a lot of us were looking forward to trying their stuff for the first time, and i'm glad I checked on here and saw that they had been running out because I went straight to their table in session C...but this is their first year here, right? Maybe they just hugely underestimated how much beer they needed...an honest mistake, perhaps? The anger from some here is a bit silly and childish. But then again maybe I just think that because I tried their beer and it was delicious.

 

It certainly wasn't 10 minutes, it was about an hour - give or take 15 minutes. The bottom line is there are breweries who had lines for 3.5 hours at each session and everyone got a pour. CS didn't have enough beer for 3.5 hours between the three sessions. That's shitty.

 

I was outside their shut down booth at exactly 6:41pm at session C. They had obviously shut down before then, but at 6:41 they were definitely closed. I didn't even have enough time to make it to the back before they were gone. Plenty of other great beer to be had, but that's just pathetic

 

Maybe it wasn't 10 min but seemed like I just got there... I was inline for TG my first line which took maybe 15 min to get through and my buddy comes up to me with Nightmare On Brett and says its all gone CS shut down and they only brought bottles. Do they ever have anything on tap? I feel like these breweries who only bring bottles always run out quickly...

 

Great festival, much more enjoyable IMO than GABF. Very organized, space to enjoy the beers, short lines. Other than a few breweries (FW and Crooked Stave) everyone really stepped up their game, even having some surprise beers towards the end of the light (Vanilla Bo and Luke). When the Crooked Stave dude told me I got the last of the batch 60, I laughed and thought he was kidding and about to open a new bottle since I got about one sip worth. It was a complete joke, don't show if you're not going to bring at least some type of back-up beers to pour for the entire session.

Thanks for putting this together, wish this could be twice a year so I don't have to wait 12 months for this again!

 

That would be sick, I'm kicking myself for waiting until this year to attend.

 

Large Bone to pick with Crooked Stave - As volunteers. Myself and the fiancé volunteered, both sessions setup/cleanup. I was out ticketing all morning and 2nd session so was told of this as I entered again. She was posted up by the back bathrooms by her captain. Keep people from the neighboring convention out of the fest. Which she did and handled it fine. Crooked Stave dudes kick their beer which she witnesses minutes into the fest. The proceed to cheer and laugh about it. From there they decide ah well lets go drink! THEY ask her to watch their kegs, bottles, gear ETC. NOT A BA CAPTAIN or the like for a few min. She complies and wants to grab a BA Captain but can't leave the corner as people kept trying to enter. Crooked Stave never come back and are off drinking. She is told by her captain to leave the bathroom area and assume her duty which was some water duty. During the fest both people from Crooked Stave confront her. Stand over her as to intimidate her and lay into her about who is watching their gear and why did she leave. She was never assigned to them, that was never a duty assigned to her, and why weren't they watching their own stuff. She politely says she is working and has to do her job and they can ask a captain or organizer about what to do with their gear. Extremely rude to her as a volunteer. Later in the fest they saw her and made additional comments and belittled her in front of attendees and other BA volunteers all while not pouring, watching their gear, and drinking. She felt very uncomfortable and was angry at this point. As much as I wanted to jump in and take care of the problem my way I did not. I was there for a reason and this would be something for the Brothers and Organizers to address. So I want to add to the hatred now of this brewery. That has to be the most unprofessional and disgraceful thing I have ever seen or heard of a brewery doing to someone (especially two males verbally abusing a woman) There is no biased as to her being family to me. I would have felt the same way for any other volunteer, friend, or person I don't know. I truly hope the brothers and organizers see this and this can paint a clear picture of what those @$$ holes had to offer to the festival. This infuriates me and I would hope an apology is at least a thought from them. I think she was hesitant to bring it up to authority there as they had been drinking and she did not want to make this blow up into something and jeopardize her time there or have them become more aggressive/physical towards her. (As any woman/man might be) I know the brothers and organizers were very professional about this fest and aside from that we both thought everything was great.

Aside from that did anyone else happen to see the person get form tackled next to my area towards the end of the day? Not sure what he did but when I checked in on it I think he ran his mouth at security? He was also tackled again in the tunnel on his way out. Most violent thing I've seen at a fest. Security handled it all not BA.

 

I wish there had been water stations near the ends of the rows of booths (i.e., near 26, 74, 52, and 4).

When that's your only suggestion for improvement, you know it was a pretty good fest.

 

incredible night and very professionally run. I will be a regular at this fest in the coming years

 

Shit, man...that's fucking awful. I would have been EXTREMELY pissed as well if they did something like that to me or my wife. Watch your own shit and don't give VOLUNTEERS a hard time as if they're there to serve you, you scumbags. You or your wife should address them with a facebook comment or message or something...not sure what'll come of that and it might sound a little lame, but something as shitty as that needs to be addressed somehow.

 

I hear ya, but I don't know the relationship between Brothers and the Brewery. I was at their event representing them. I can vent my frustration but I only even posted that since so many people were upset with them. I'll never see them again anyways most likely.