FOBAB 2015

Is there equal allocation of the beer each session, but 2 of the 3 have early entry for select people? So if you specifically want something, Saturday evening is your best bet?

 

I have always been under the impression that the answer to that is yes, and that they are supposed to cut off a keg or bottles when a session has gone through (in this case) 1/3 of the total. Whether that happens...

 

Yes, equal amount for each session. So if they run out of a beer in Session 1, they won't tap the keg reserved for Session 2 etc..

So for example BA Abraxas was tapped fresh for each session. Session 3 is the best bet if you don't have early access b/c you can get in right when things are tapped instead of an hour after they are tapped.

 

One thing to remember also is that the judging takes place earlier in the day on Sat, so while not having to deal with imbibe early entry blowing all of the kegs on Saturday evening is nice, you're going to have to deal with everyone who wouldn't have already known how good BA Abraxas is knowing it won a medal. Plan accordingly.

 

This, BA Abraxas was gone in about 12 seconds and I missed my shot

 

This is true, but stuff like BA Abraxas and Chocolate Rain (the "whales" so to speak) will tap out first no matter what. Once they announce the winners, people do tend to go to those and try them. But the first to go will be the rare beers that will sell out medal or not.

It was funny seeing everyone ignore the ciders, but once the first place cider was announced everyone rushed over to try it

The great thing bout FOBAB is there are so many good beers, that even though stuff like BA Abraxas tap out fast, there are other beers that will last most of the session that at any other event would probably tap out really fast (Nuthulu, BA Dino Smores, Bell's Black Note etc..) these lasted quite a while, sometimes with no line. That would never happen at a bar tapping for example.

You can have a great time just trying stuff with no line and no hype, and still drink tons of great beers.

 

This is EXACTLY why I love this event.

 

Just had a friend help my find a Saturday night ticket. Very excited. Good reading the thread to get some idea of what I'm in for at my first FoBAB.

 

The breweries have to bring 3 1/6 barrel kegs of each beer. 1 keg for each session. If they bring bottles, it's 2 cases for each session.

 

BA Abraxas was poured out of bottles last year. For the sat night session more than half of the bottles coincidentaly went missing...go figure

 

I distinctively remember no one in line for BA abraxas last year (Saturday night session). I walked back about 8-10 times over the course of a half an hour. Evey time I went back, there was either 1 person, or no people in line. Same for saison du ble... Not a single person in line. nutulhu was pretty empty for a good 20 minutes. While I'm thinking about it, vanilla rye right at the entrance being poured and hardly anyone was getting that there either

 

They were found and put on 30 minutes after the initial bottles had tapped out. The second tapping didn't last long either.

 

That's because we all heard they were all out, then they found more bottles and kept pouring but no-one was looking for it at that point.

 

Let's hope it happens again haha

 

We may not get there until just before our session starts and we are coming from out of town. Has anyone had experience parking in the nearby Maxwell Street Parking Ramp for overnight purposes (Friday night)? Rates seem reasonable, just not sure about how nice the area is for leaving a car overnight.

 

It's a nice area. Right by UIC campus, lot of college students around there.

 

The great thing about FoBAB is, even if you ran out of the top 5 or 10 beers in the place, there's still way more than enough awesome stuff to drink for the entire night. While I'm as big a "whale drinker" as anyone, I almost prefer that they run out of the big stuff, so that it forces me to concentrate on beers I wouldn't have had otherwise. I'm always surprised by the beers that really blow me away.

 

I'm personally crossing my fingers for Side Project to show up with Derivation.

 

Chances are good. They have and it and the last couple festivals I have been too. Cory even opend a couples D3's for us two releases ago. Real ncie guy and the Derivation series is excellent.

 

Not sure if it's still the case, but Cory mentioned at the Goose Island Belgian Fest that Side Project wasn't going to be at FoBAB this year. I hope it's no longer the case though!