Houston Beer Week - The Draft

Get rid of the backroom, having only 4 beers back there was kind of a letdown. It would of been better to have it part of the general festival and let more people try nice stuff.

I would only keep the "backroom" if there were more varieties. 8+ beers. (Doesn't even have to be casks, hell a couple of bombers would of made it nice).

 

Having organized a beer festival, I can tell you that putting together a beer list is very difficult. Most of the breweries change things on you frequently. For example, we were told by Dogfish that we'd have a keg of Palo Santo, Burton Baton, and 120 Minute. They were set aside for us. Somehow though, 2 of the 3 were sold to other accounts, and we didn't get them. We also didn't find that out until a day or two before the event.

When you publish a beer list, it's almost 'written in stone'. Someone's going to be upset if they show up, and the beer you promised isn't there. In addition to all of this, most craft breweries that are making special beers, don't know when the beer will be ready. It might normally take 3 weeks to produce a particular beer, but if it's not ready by the event date, they won't release it to us as organizers.

Even what is arguably considered the best beer festival in the world (Great American Beer Festival) doesn't publish the list until either the first day of the event, or the day before. It's just the nature of the beast. One we all struggle with in the same way as organizers though.

Cheers,
Chad