Help with Hosting Large Beer Tastings

http://www.restaurantdepot.com/

 

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/

And make that 400 tasting glasses as 1) those 40 taps will make people want to try everything, 2) dishwashers are not that fast (human bottleneck, not machine issue), 3) tasting glasses tend to break at a far greater rate than regular barware. And there is a big difference in durability between different kinds of tasting glasses--I've noticed that the ones with "knobs" on the bottom are slightly thicker and more durable than the regular "plain" ones, which break at the slightest contact with a hard surface (such as another glass).

Also, what are you going to use for flights? The same 4/6-oz. tasting glasses? Or stemless snifters? The latter are harder to find.

 

I'd bet that you could find a local store in California to make you some cool paddles or to print glasses. You could also find generic ones. Might be easier than getting them shipped and then you can see what you're actually getting.

 

just give me your job...

 

Some discussion on BA here. But you should be able to do better than $2 a piece. A quick look points to peelepaddle.com (mentioned at the top of the thread) having some pilsner style glasses for essentially the same price as regular and all fitting into the paddle slots. But I'm still balking at their pricing. Might be cheaper by the case, I suppose. You may also need to order small quantities of testers, to see how durable/usable any of them are. I have relatives in catering and they always do that with glassware and take-out containers before buying the whole load.

Lee Valley Forge is an excellent vendor (at one point they were the sole US distributor for the cache of early 20th century Sabatier knives that were discovered languishing in a warehouse in France, which is how I know the place) and they appear to have Kölsch stangen for about $1 (but these are 6 oz, not 4). Unfortunately they don't have much else.

 

provide water and something like table water crackers to help people reset their palates

 

The owner of the establishment will undoubtably have (or be eligible for) a membership at a local restaurant supply store. These places are massive, wouldn't be surprised if they had flight racks, but it's absolutely the place to get a large quantity of quality stemware.