{"id":11270,"date":"2010-06-03T08:16:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T12:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=11270"},"modified":"2010-06-03T08:16:43","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T12:16:43","slug":"columbus-beerfest-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2010\/06\/columbus-beerfest-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Beerfest 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer.jpg\" data-rel=\"attachment-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-11271\" title=\"River Town Brewery \" src=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Last Friday in order to kick off the Memorial Day Weekend off properly, Scott and I attended the <a href=\"http:\/\/columbusbeerfest.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Columbus Beerfest 2010<\/a>.\u00a0 This was the first official Beerfest (not to be confused with <a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2010\/03\/beercamp-columbus-2010\/\" target=\"_blank\">Beer Camp<\/a> which was also lots of fun!) for Columbus with the focus on bringing craft beers and breweries the attention that they deserve.<\/p>\n<p>If you know anything about me, you know I love a good dark beer! I prefer craft beers over anything else but I will drink a Sam Adam&#8217;s if that&#8217;s my only choice.\u00a0 That&#8217;s as big business brewery as I get though.<\/p>\n<p>The man behind Columbus Beerfest is also the man who is responsible for the Cincinnati Beerfest, so he&#8217;s done this before and has plenty of experience from what I&#8217;ve been told.<\/p>\n<p>Ticket cost provided attendees with a 5oz sampling cup and 25 5oz tasting tickets.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t count, but from what I&#8217;m hearing, there were a total of 158 different beers on hand for folks to test out.\u00a0 With 25 tickets, attendees were able to sample a good amount of beer!<\/p>\n<p>The convention center room was set up with booths all around the perimeter and a few booths towards the center.\u00a0 There was a huge open space with cocktail tables for people to hang around and chat with friends and other craft beer drinkers.\u00a0 While there was a high percentage of out of state breweries, there was also a strong showing of local breweries as well!\u00a0 Locals were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/elevatorbrewing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Elevator Brewing Company<\/a> (My personal fave)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.columbusbrewingco.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Columbus Brewing Company<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.barleysbrewing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Barley&#8217;s Brewing<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While not local to Columbus, there were some other Ohio Breweries making a showing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/buckeyebeerengine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Buckeye Brewery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatlakesbrewing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Great Lakes Brewing Company <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Rivertown Brewery\" href=\"http:\/\/rivertownbrewery.com\">Rivertown Brewery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Wooden Shoe Brewing Company\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Wooden-Shoe-Brewing-Company\/143053728990\">Wooden Shoe Brewing Company<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer_booths.jpg\" data-rel=\"attachment-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-11272\" title=\"Beerfest 2010 \" src=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer_booths-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer_booths-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/beerfest_2010_beer_booths.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Scott and I had fun sampling different kinds of beers when we were able to elbow our way up to the booths.\u00a0 With a lot of people crammed into a what was really a small room, it was hard to move around.\u00a0 It was very difficult to take pictures! I tried my best though, you know me.<\/p>\n<p>There were some &#8220;big&#8221; names making an appearance as well.\u00a0 Two of my favorite craft beer breweries were located right next to each other, <a title=\"Breckenridge Brewery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.breckenridgebrewery.com\/\">Breckenridge<\/a> and <a title=\"Kentucky Ale\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kentuckyale.com\">Kentucky Ale<\/a>.\u00a0 It was meant to be!\u00a0 Also among those attending were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Rogue Brewery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rogue.com\/\">Rogue Brewery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Stone Brewing Company\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stonebrew.com\/\">Stone Brewing Company<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Booklyn Brewery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brooklynbrewery.com\/\">Brooklyn Brewery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/newhollandbrew.com\" target=\"_blank\">New Holland Brewing Company <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Goose Island Beer Co.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gooseisland.com\/\">Goose Island Beer Company<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Just to name a few.\u00a0 There were lots of beers!\u00a0 There were buckets provided for dumping samples, allowing attendees to move along and keep sampling.\u00a0 I suspect that most did not utilize the bucket system though! Just a guess.<\/p>\n<p>While Scott and I did have a good time, there were a few issues that prevented it from being a <em>great<\/em> time.\u00a0 With new events I&#8217;m willing to give some slack because it&#8217;s new and there will always be kinks to work out.\u00a0 However, because this was an event that has been put on by this group before, granted in another location, I did expect a bit more organization.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I hope this doesn&#8217;t come across like I&#8217;m dissing on the event because I&#8217;m really not at all! But I am going to tell you what frustrated me a little bit.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>1. Lack of promotion.\u00a0 I should have seen mention of this event all over twitter but I didn&#8217;t see anything other than a few tweets from people who were going to the event.\u00a0 Word of mouth when it comes to events is your best friend! It should be utilized as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p>2. Lack of communication.\u00a0 I tried to get in touch with the event coordinator just to give him a heads up that I would be covering the event for my blog.\u00a0 I also had questions regarding the photo taking policy and ticket purchase.\u00a0 My email was not answered.\u00a0 From my understanding, my email wasn&#8217;t the only one not answered.\u00a0 An event this big, organization and communication is key.<\/p>\n<p>3. In order to purchase tickets, I had to create an account on the website and then was charged with service fees for each ticket.\u00a0 No one wants to create an account for a website when it&#8217;s unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>4. Lack of signs and directions to the event.\u00a0 Nowhere on the website or the tickets was the exact location of the event.\u00a0 Yes it was at the convention center, but the convention center is huge with multiple rooms and sections.\u00a0 There were no signs in the building at all leading people to the event (other than two signs created by attendees near a different entrance!).\u00a0 Scott and I probably walked around for 30 minutes or more trying to find the location of the event.\u00a0 There were a Stargate and a Gamer (think multi-sided dice not computer\/console) conventions going on.\u00a0 I know because I walked around and through them several times.\u00a0 I was not in costume and not drinking any beer so I was really outta place!\u00a0 Finally out of frustration, I texted a friend and asked for help in finding the location. (The website now has the location but the day of, it was not there for me to reference.)<\/p>\n<p>5. The room was really crowded and dark.\u00a0 Sometimes it was hard to see where you were going and hard to read vendor information.<\/p>\n<p>6. Each vendor should have had large signs stating what brewery they were representing and their booth number.\u00a0 Also, a program provided to the attendees with a list of the beer vendors, booth numbers, and beer names with descriptions should have been handed out with cup pickup.\u00a0 Some vendors didn&#8217;t have signs at all and it was hard to see what was going on until you were at the front of the line for beer.\u00a0 There were some vendors we really wanted to see that we missed because we didn&#8217;t know where their booth was located.\u00a0 Sometimes it was even hard to tell where one brewery&#8217;s booth ended and another started.<\/p>\n<p>7. Say &#8220;No&#8221; to the band.\u00a0 With hundreds of people and a band in a small space, the atmosphere was very loud.\u00a0 People had to talk over the band <em>and<\/em> each other, resulting in attendees yelling at one other just to achieve casual conversation.\u00a0 The loudness also made it hard to talk with the vendors.\u00a0 I wanted to chat with several and was hoping to get pictures for the blog but with how loud it was, that was pretty much impossible.\u00a0 I also wanted a chance to chat with vendors about their beer just to get an idea of what I was tasting but that was not happening.<\/p>\n<p>8. Each booth should have defined spaces indicating a place to stand in order to learn about their beers and a place to get in line to get a sample.\u00a0 This will help people gather more information while also preventing bottlenecking once people got their sample.\u00a0 Several times people would get a sample and then just turn on the spot and start a conversation with their friends without clearing the area for other attendees.\u00a0 I had to ask many people if they were in line or socializing because I was trying to get to some beer!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While I did attend the event to hang out with my friends and to get a chance to meet new folks, I was mainly there for the beer.\u00a0 I was excited because I viewed this as what should have been a fun learning experience.\u00a0 I was going to sample some beers that I had not had before from breweries I had not tried before.\u00a0 I was hoping to get a chance to talk with more vendors about their beer and their breweries.\u00a0 Unfortunately it did not work out that way and I left the event more frustrated than pleased.<\/p>\n<p>The upside is that I did get to hang with my friends and I did get to meet new people along with trying some beers I had not had before! My favorite of the evening was a beer by <a href=\"http:\/\/newhollandbrew.com\" target=\"_blank\">New Holland Brewing Company<\/a> called <a href=\"http:\/\/newhollandbrew.com\/corp\/beer\/high_gravity\" target=\"_blank\">Dragon&#8217;s Milk<\/a>.\u00a0 It was dark, luscious, and outstanding. Something tells me those gamers a floor below would have loved it as well.\u00a0 I could tell right away that it was an oaked beer and I was right!\u00a0 If you like dark beers and can find it, try it! Totally amazing.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, Columbus Beerfest has the right attitude about craft beer!\u00a0 If they focus a little bit more on organization and possibly enlist the help of locals, next year&#8217;s event will be killer!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Interested in reading some of my previous beer reviews?\u00a0 Check out some from my favorite breweries:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2010\/02\/review-breckenridge-brewery-vanilla-porter\/\" target=\"_blank\">Breckenridge Brewery Vanilla Porter<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2009\/04\/review-brooklyn-brewerys-black-chocolate-stout\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn Brewery&#8217;s Black Chocolate Stout<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2009\/01\/review-new-holland-brewing-company-cabin-fever-brown-ale\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Holland Brewing Company Cabin Fever <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday in order to kick off the Memorial Day Weekend off properly, Scott and I attended the Columbus Beerfest 2010.\u00a0 This was the first official Beerfest (not to be confused with Beer Camp which was also lots of fun!) for Columbus with the focus on bringing craft beers and breweries the attention that they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[32,62],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-2VM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}