zwanze day scheras 2015

I was not driving and brought some bottles and was able to try others.

Side note- Vanilla Night Fury was a let down. BA Liquid Spiritual Delight was epic.

Everyone there was really chill. Draft list was pretty epic and the food was pretty good.

 

Excellent use of a pun in this situation.

 

I had a great time. Sure some things could have been done better but as others have already stated the event was about drinking great beers more than anything else. The tap list was awesome and the bottle share towards the end of the event was excellent.

 

So I'm digging this artwork that was made for this year's event. I attended last year but can't recall any art/poster. Am I wrong on this; was there something designed for last year's Zwanze Day?!

 

Same tap handle art of the two cats. No poster or anything last year.
In regards to the event, I did think last year was more chill/smooth. But this year was 100 people larger than last year (250 vs 150), so that's understandable.

Looking forward to next time.

 

I tried to write something up but it was too long winded. I just made a list instead:

Positives:

• Able to purchase 750ml of Cantillon at a reasonable price
• The food tasted good
• Drinking Cantillon on draft
• Spending the day with friends
• Sharing beers with generous strangers
• No bees flying in my buttcrack to sting me

Negatives:

• 100 extra people
• More people than chairs
• No communication about bottle sales
• 1 person selling bottles to 250 people
• 1 person hand writing receipts for 250 people
• Paying for 3oz pours but getting <2 oz pours
• People trying to sift through slips of paper to get a bottle of their preference
• People dropping said slip of paper when they pulled one they didn’t like
• People complaining when they pulled two of the same slips
• People complaining so much they just give you a different bottle

It was a nice day, but it was nothing like last year. Last year everyone bitched and moaned leading up to the event about how much of a shit show it was going to be. Last year was absolutely perfect. This year was every bit of the shit show people expected from last year. I felt like last year both Schera's and Abu Nawas were incredibly appreciative of everyone making the trek to Elkader for Zwanze and gave heartfelt toasts. This year we got, "Cheers!". I'll go next year if the event returns to Schera's, but if it's anything like this year, it'll be my last.

 

I should say I saw people complaining about their bottles more than once or twice. People were acting like the beer they drew was Schera's choice. Dude, you stuck your hand in the bowl...you grabbed your own beer.

 

So many people seemed disappointed to get Iris! If you don't want your Iris I will gladly take it off of your hands!

 

I heard some bitching while waiting in the food line from a lady who really wanted Fou who was saying how worthless Iris and Gueuze were to her. First world problems, she admitted, but annoying. My wife and I both drew Gueuze (which I thought was still a pretty fun bottle, large format and 2012 bottling), but after @jjohnston884 and his buddy both drew Saint Lam he offered to swap me one, because he is awesome.

 

As a lambic lover hearing this not happy with Gueuze/Iris crap irks me




Sure Iris isn't a lambic but close enough

 

I was happy enough to draw a bottle of Classic Gueuze, FWIW. I wasn't happy about having to wait in line for basically 2.5 hours, but I guess we bought that upon ourselves deciding to get in line when it extended all the way into the lobby area.

 

I was happy to buy a bottle of Cantillon.

 

I though it tasted great which surprised me given some of the reviews I had read. Never had 11 framboos though.

 

So to recap:

People who didn't have to wait in a 2+ hour line and/or were able to purchase a bottle of framboos were completely happy.

People who did have to wait in several excruciating lines were not happy. Those people should just deal with it because it was their choice and the day was totally not about bottle sales, bro.

 

I wouldn't say that. I only waited for maybe 30 minutes when I went to get my bottle, but I wouldn't say I left the event happy. I had a nice time, but there could definitely be improvements made for next year. I think they would have had a lot better reception if they would have raffled off the whale bottles like they did last year. It was a lot more fair and very few people bitched about it. I felt the way they sold the Cantillon bottles was extremely fair this year however.

 

I liked this year's bottle sale strategy better, personally. This way it didn't boil down to whose name was drawn first...everyone had a shot at the big dogs. So lining up early reaped no benefits...other than landing a Framboos if you were one of the first 10-12. Again, if you went to this for bottles, I just don't know what to tell you, we won't agree. (I do agree it probably needs to be tweeked if they in fact want to do this again. That's not to say I don't respect Brian and the check-out gal working their asses off for us back there.)

I do see and understand that some of you had worse experiences in the draught line and that does suck; I'm understanding the higher ticket sales negatively affected some in regards to getting the actual beer.

 

Could the line issue have been reduced by having a second fishbowl with non-Cantillon whalez and then only accepting cash for bottle sales?

 

Cash only would help. The drawing part was not that much of a time waster, it was the digging through boxes to find what you won/ordered and somewhat the credit card sitiuation. Having everything unboxed and organized would have cut the wait in half.

 

How is cash faster than card, unless you only accept exact change? Handling money and making change take up a decent amount of time, certainly more than swiping a card and being done with it.