Official FOBAB Countdown Thread

You mean when I was sweating like a pig after running the gauntlet on all the stouts over the first hour before needing to sit down for 15 mins before seeking fresh air? 215-245 was a rough 30 min patch for me

 

valid I was referencing their sours which have won the past few years.

dosvidanyawas very tasty!

 

I miss the old venue. I was at the second session. Basically all the reasons that I liked this festival above others, beyond the beer, went away with the new venue. It was overly crowded. I couldn't do anything without bumping into someone. This also made it pretty hot. The line to get in was very slow. I think the coat check was the bottleneck. It was in the same line as the ticket takers and only one person was working it. By the time I got in, many beers were already gone, or didn't even make it to the second session at all. The guys at the bottles table said they only had 2 bottles of Rasp Wild One for the second session.

Apparently I am the only one who thought this, so maybe it is just me. New venues for festivals are generally painful the first year, hopefully they learn.

 

Anyone know specific beers that were present in the afternoon session and didn't make it to the evening one? I haven't heard of any....

 

I was roaming around post Afternoon Session between VIP and watching them set-up/clean-up for 2nd Session. Can confirm everything was there for Evening.

 

it was 55 degrees, these folks should have brought long sleeves.
but yeah, that was definitely a bottle neck. i guess it got colder in the evening but the line was smooth. the coat check should have been after receiving your glass. hopefully they read these comments and use up the feedback. the beginning of the first session was a PITA but maybe a half hour later to an hour it was crowded but it felt like it simmer down once people knew where things were. people get going back to their standing areas. i'm not a fan of crowds but this one didn't throw me off.
this was my first fobab and i enjoyed the venue. the old venue, how many times was it before it got moved?

i was at the first session and about an hour and a half left, there must have been about 7 bottles of Wild One on the ice Bin and there was no line for that. it was also one of my favorites. a lot of tart and i like me some tart.

 

are we all pretending the that hot corner by the sours wasn't known as the BO & fart corner? Jesus I sniffed the nose of track #9 and I think someone farted into my glass.

 

Agree with most of the comments thus far. We were at the first session and arrived 30 minutes before 12 PM, got into the venue at about 12:25, thus missing out on the promised 'ONE HOUR EARLY' entry to FoBAB benefit, even though we were maybe 40th in line. Last year's entry was much smoother. It wasn't the coat check holding things up when we went through the line, it was the 'hand ticket to person A, then wait until person B is available to look up your name on list of IMBIBE members' that really created the bottleneck.

Biggest Success - Goose Island (by far) - wow, really brought the house- the tasting paddle was phenomenal with Apple Brandy BCBS and Napa County BCBS being the clear standouts. (The renaming of XOCOLATL to Mayan Gold initially threw us off, big thanks to goes out to Jared for putting us back on track)
Biggest Disappointment - Destihl sours
Biggest Surprise - Cigar City(!) making an appearance (no Hunahpu, but hey, maybe next year)

Overall, a nice venue, though to repeat what everyone else has said, it might be better next year to change the layout such that the long area of the hall is used for the high demand offerings for easier access - the 8000-10000 numbered beers all being at the one small end by the VIP area created quite the crowd, and significantly increased the temperature of the place on that end.

Looking forward to attending this great event next year. Cheers to Pete and his team for another outstanding event overall.

 

Anyone find it ironic that the sinks and bathroom set up (plumbing) was head and shoulders above the facilities at the previous location, also known as the Plumbers Hall? Hmmm.

 

Just a clarification:

Napa County wasn't at the Fest. A Pinot Noir barrel version was.

Napa = Brett Brux and Merlot

 

Laffler confirmed at the event that the barrels used were Merlot barrels, hence my thinking it was Napa County Stout. My apologies if it was slightly different - it certainly tasted very similar to what I previously had a lot of back in March, to the best of my recollection.

 

Great to know about the Merlot.

But yeah, the other one was wild as wild can be.

 

Anyone have any insight into what wine barrels the BCS was aged in? Would love to know and when I asked Laffler on Sat he simple said he didn't know (although more like didn't care at the time). This beer was prolly my highlight of the night, and was even better when sipped in a full glass.

 

+1 on not liking the venue. It was very nice just poor location; good F'ing luck finding a cab or easy public transportation & poor layout.

 

Thanks, glad to hear the late session didn't miss out on anything...

 

Summary of FoBAB for me:
Event was great. Amazing beer selection.

If it's at the same venue next year, I'm taking the stairs. Stupid hour in a broken elevator.

 

Make sure you let us know if the guild follows up on anything for you guys and gals trapped in the elevator! That must have been extremely frustrating being so close to the action to be stopped like that for such a long period of time.

 

CTA Red Line to 35th St. bus is really that difficult?

 

Well, I will say that my pessimism earlier in this thread was proven to be pretty silly. I expected more breweries to drop out with the additional beer requirements.

I wonder if the wild beer category (#9) was the casualty of this or if breweries just chose to bring other stuff. Only 9 entries this year as opposed to 18 in 2011. It seemed like there were less overtly weird beers this year, but I could just be projecting.

I thought the fickle Lost Abbey would bring less, but they brought the house. It was great to see Cigar City in attendance. No Upland was a bit of a surprise.

Overall, I thought the quality of the beers I had was very, very high. I also liked how the beer was transferred to pitchers before being poured... this led to fewer tap problems and pourers screwing around with the jockey boxes in my experience.

I also did not wait in line for anything besides the Bourbon County barrel extravaganza, which was an improvement from the past two years. (I didn't want Cherry Rye or King Henry, so that may be part of it)

Just an awesome time seeing friends and drinking great beer.

 

Boston Beer Co. wasn't there this year. I guess they didn't want to bring 10 gallons of Utopias.