I searched the forum for mentions of it, and it looks like a few of you have gone. In your opinion how well does this run? Specifically wondering about the number of people. I've never been to a fest with so few breweries, and when I check the photos from previous years the lines appear to be awfully long.
I've been there every year. Overall the numbers have been comfortable, enough people to feel fun but not packed and you can find open spaces to chill. Lines really vary. Surly always has a line and that can be the longest. A few other breweries have lines at certain times but there are always other breweries or homebrew clubs pouring that have very short if any line. The beer is always interesting as all the beers are sour, infused or barrel aged so you will find a light fruited gose's to barrel aged stouts and lots in between but no light lagers so it keeps nearly all the 'get drunk quick' crowd out.
The longest line for the 2017 Picnic was the food line. For the beer booths, I remember a few times of 5-6 person in line but a lot of booths allowed two lines. At about hour three, the lines waiting for beers declined considerably. Junkyard Brewing Twitter account is starting to list the beers to be served, according to each participating brewery. Forager and Barrel Theory so far, and all sound very tasty.
Had a really good time last night. Beer was fantastic. Especially a lot of the homebrews. I would have to say that my original concern about the lines played out. Forager and Modist had a line that was always 20 people long and all but a few breweries were consistently 8-10. We quickly figured out that moreso than other fests, you had to get in another line as soon as you got a pour and all was good. The bigger problem was space. There wasn't room for lines that long. Blackstack and Barrel Theory lines wove into each other and the Modist line snaked around both of them. The only way to figure out which line was which was to go along and ask people what they were in line for. Also, Drekker was completely out of beer 90 minutes into a 4 hour event. Otherwise it was a really good time and I'm glad we came.
Yup, it was a line-fest this year, it felt like there were definitely more people there in the same space than in the past years so sorry about talking up the lack of lines.
Not a problem. Like I said, we still had a great time. I'm actually glad to hear that this isn't how it always is and I'm just less tolerant than you are.
