Zwanze Day 2017 at Schera's

I'll be there again. Seems feasible to me that some might be turned off by this year's Zwanze.

 

Will be there for our second year as well! Looking forward to a great time!

 

I'm looking forward to it. Any word on which breweries will be pouring there?

 

I'm sad to miss this after going the last two years. Price went up a bit and last year while fun was not as enjoyable for some because nice bottles were reserved for on site only.

I have a ticket available for under cost if anyone needs one, PM ME.

Cheers

 

I think Cantillon might have a few kegs

 

Hopefully bottle sales continue to trend this way. The day is supposed to be about drinking and celebrating Cantillon, not standing in line for hours to stock up on bottles.

 

While I agree standing in line for some was bad, however, with the amount of drafts and bottle shares I really didn't need more on site bottles. Maybe a better raffle style drawing for some take home bottles.

 

Most Zwanze locations do not guarantee a pour of Zwanze, let alone pours of other Cantillon, lunch, and other hard to come by beer. Toss in a bottle share and the gorgeous location on the Turkey River, the price is an absolute bargain.

 

The actual Zwanze beer has never really been the highlight to me. The access to all the drafts the bottle shares and the location are the highlights to me.

But yes, walking with a 'Boos and St. Lam in 2015 was definetly note worthy IMO. Also helped that I "stumbled" into the front of the line and did not have a long wait for bottle sales.

 

I also have a ticket for under cost. Feel free to PM me once Tuner gets his ticket transferred to someone.

Cheers!

 

I (and my girlfriend) will be going for a third year now. Schera's is awesome, and I'm stoked to be going again, whether they have bottles for sale or not. It's a wonderful time, the food is always great, the setting is tranquil and cool, and of course the beer is stellar.

 

As they should be, which doesn't that make the event itself more fun? In fact, I don't understand at all the people who spend half their event time in that line myself. The bottles are the thing I care the least about myself.

I'll be there for the 4th time. Has gotten better every year in my book, excited to see what this year brings. Cheers!

 

In years past, Schera's has had the best posters of all of them I've seen. This year, Jester King came out swinging and swinging hard.

 

I'll be there, will be my third year, can't wait! Always a well run event and the bottle share is epic. Beautiful location, I look forward to it every year, cheers!

 

Hmm. Wasn't sure I'd comment, for a few reasons. First, I've never actually bothered to post before, and second, I didn't want to be overly negative. However, after the response I received from Schera's to a pretty nicely worded email, in which they encouraged me to go elsewhere next year if I had complaints, I think it's only fair...

I live out west now, but flew back to the midwest to visit family and attend. The following are some of the issues I had with the event:

-7 pours, but only 3 Cantillon. The rest were seemingly things they got cheap off of Shelton Brothers and then they made people pay for the other Cantillon pours. $80 for a glass, food (more on that later), 3 tiny pours of Cantillon, Urban Family Darker my Love, Boon Oude Kriek, Jester King RU-55, and Dieu du Ciel Disco Soleil? Ehh. I'm not going to say that any of the non-Cantillon beers are terrible beers, but I, and everyone else I knew there, was unhappy about this.

-The Cantillon pour sizes were laughably small. My Vig pour was 1.25 oz. I know because I measured it in a measuring glass. So much for 4 oz. I didn't measure my Zwanze pour, but I suspect it was 1.75-2 oz. I didn't bother with gueuze because I brought a 2010 of my own, have had 2017 gueuze many times, and wanted to try other stuff.

-They sold way too many tickets. I actually went back and asked about the Vig pour size and the server told me they didn't have enough to go around, so they had to give small pours at this point. I should point out that this was only about halfway through the fest. How do you manage to sell too many tickets? It's pretty basic math to make sure you have enough beer for everyone.

- They really cheaped out on the food this year. In the past, they apparently had good Algerian food. This year, they had plain, watery crockpot meat (or tofu), plain black beans, plain rice, and a generic potato salad.

- Organization was really subpar. All of the beers that people wanted were in the same place, and that left a 100+ person line to a crowded bar where people were just cutting anyway. The line to get a pour of Fou Foune, St Lam, Iris, or Nath got up to 30+ min, while other areas were pouring only 1 or 2 beers. Not great. Further, on an organizational note, the dispersement of "rare" bottles" left a lot to be desired. They specifically asked people not to get in line before 2:30. I checked at 2:00 and the line was already incredibly long. This would have been fine, except that they allowed the first people in line to get many bottles each, which meant that you wouldn't get anything good without being in the first 20 or so people. Even if you were #20, people were cutting the line like crazy, so you would likely have not gotten what you wanted. This is easy to solve. Let each person get one and it gets spread around.

Overall, the place was way beyond a reasonable capacity, pours were too small as a result, the ticketed pours were disappointing, lines were really long, food was cheaped out on, and the bottle share didn't live up to previous years.

I sent all of this in an actually really nice email thanking them for hosting, putting up with everyone, and still complimenting a few things that went well, and they responded almost a week later suggesting I go elsewhere a week later, while refusing to acknowledge any of the issues.

To me, this just seems like a money making grab by Schera's. In all, I gave over $300 on tickets for myself and my wife, pours of the beers I actually wanted + generous tips, 2 t-shirts, and 2 375s to go (purchased upon entry). I'd like to have had a genuine response, rather than a sarcastic one to my message. Oh well.

Honestly surprised at the lack of other messages here in the aftermath. I talked to a few people that had attended all of the years and had several friends that had previously attended, and everyone considered it a huge disappointment compared to previous years.

 

I wanted to clarify two things so that I don't sound like a douche. First, 2017 gueuze is a great beer, and it may read like I'm suggesting otherwise. I just didn't get one because I was focusing on other stuff and didn't want to drink too much. Second, I hope I don't sound snobbish about the bottle share. I had just heard that the bottle share here was absolutely insane, with tons of super rare and really old bottles, but it didn't quite live up. I obviously don't hold that against Schera's, as it has nothing to do with them. Just something for people to note in the future... it seems like not every year has the craziest bottle share ever, so it's not something you can definitively count on. Hope nothing else in there sounds douchey, as that's not my intent.

One further note, so I end on something positive... It was super cool that Forager and Backpocket showed up to give away free beer! Forager definitely got some business out of me as a result, as I stopped by on the way back up to MN.

 

I'm not going to get into it because I have no desire to discuss why we disagree or try to change each other's minds, but I have been all 4 years to Schera's and I had a blast this year for the 4th time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯