Good Beer Week Feedback: Good, Bad And Ugly

[manticle]

I posted something similar last year. One of my close friends is heavily involved in the organisational side and I know they are all pasionate about making the selection of events as interesting, diverse and well organised as possible.

Honest feedback (both critical and positive) are integral to making anything that is run with genuine intent: run again, run well and hopefully run better next time.

While she is a friend, I am neither involved with GBW (except for writing two blog type articles) nor do I receive a kickback for this kind of thing. I just think the event is great and want to see it continue and grow.

To the best of my knowledge, the GBW guys make no profit whatsoever from this (whether this year or last).

Anyway if you went to an event or more than one, post your thoughts and feedback here. Try and make it intelligent and constructive but no need to hold back from critical response if something wasn't a good experience.

I will post my own thoughts here on the two events I have so far been to but they will be long, blog/review type things and I'm still writing one of them.

 

[DU99]

I went to pro brewer at the GB.very good night,top beer's and getting up close with guy's that have made the transition to micro brewing,listening to how they got there.venue was cosy and easy to get to..only down side was the guy who had to take home a bag of malt.hope they run it again next year.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...63569&st=20

 

[Wolfy]

I also enjoyed the Pro Brewer to Home Brewer thing at the GB, the only 'improvement' I can think of is (what they did at GABS) to better identify who the 'Pro Brewers' were. They were all dressed quite casually and looked like most any punter in the pub, at GABS each of the brewers had a "GABS Brewer" cap to wear around so it was easier to accost the professionals - so something like that would be a good idea I think.

There is various feedback and comments about GABS in it's own thread, but I suspect that is beyond the scope of what the GBW people can make changes to.

 

[razz]

Well done Andrew for posting this topic.
Yesterday was the inaugural Masterclass Of Champions and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was held at Hargreaves Hill brew factory in Lillydale. (I think it may have become their temporary/permanent home after Black Saturday)
The couple of fellas that organised the day had a steady hand on everything but stayed in the background and let the brewers do their thing. After a tour of the brew system in action and sampling HH beers from the bright tank or fermenters. We had some Q&A's with the brewers, Kjetil of Nogne O fame in Norway and Denise from Moylans in California, Simon from HH also spoke as well as Brendan Moylan.
A good chunk of the day was a three course long lunch, catered for by The 36 Collective, and 9 beers from the three respective brewers. The food was top notch Eastern European fair and a couple of the boys on our table were of Eastern block heritage and they gave it the thumbs up. I was the first to wander out the door and that was at four o'clock, an hour after the scheduled finish time.
Top effort to the people who organised the event, I hope they can see their way to organise a similar day next year, having a bottle from the limited edition collaborative brew is also something to look forward to in the next few weeks. I even got to press the flesh with our very own Doc who, I think, was coming to the end of a very long week, nice to met you Doc.
:super:

 

[manticle]

Honest feedback (both critical and positive) are integral to making anything that is run with genuine intent: run again, run well and hopefully run better next time.

Honest feedback (both critical and positive) IS integral.............

 

[jayahhdee]

Attended the Home Brewer to Pro Brewer and had a great chat with Brendan from Feral and Ian from Holgate.

Very much enjoyed by me and SWMBO who I dragged along, I think a more formal sit down Q & A would work with the less formal face to face discussions after, after all we were there for the brewers and I didn't want to see rude pushing in on other peoples conversations with the brewers with my own agenda, might have been easier with w more formal Q & A.
Otherwise I think it was really good and Matt from Boatrocker seemed to had the thing running smoothly.

I will be attending the AIBA Dinner tomorrow (scored a free ticket), but I doubt the GBW Team have much involvement in that and I will given a round up of the System Wars at G&G Saturday night.

 

[manticle]

Permission granted to post part of a PM from Cocko:

Was well organised, and an amazing concept delivered very well!

My tips would be, Obviously Sat arv session will be the most popular and the lines to the bar were 40-50 minutes long!

Great event for every one who was not in the SAT. arvo session....

 

[bconnery]

The info about which pubs holding pint of origins, specifically the opening hours and contact details, was lacking. It took us a few goes to remember to ring them. Many of them weren't open until 4pm which made it difficult to get to some because the majority of events were in the evening so we had to go to places near those.
Instead of 'normal trading hours' it would have been great to see specifics. (Plus I'd really loved them to have been open ...)

 

[Da Bear]

GABS was great. Word is that the Saturday day session was pretty slammed for lines,but every other session just had a rush at the start. I was at the Sat Evening session, the lines were pretty stacked for the first hour and a half, (to be expected when you're trying to pump 2000+ people through 4 bars), but after that it cleared up really well and I was quite impressed with how organised everything was. My suggestion is that if you're wanting to taste your way through everything and avoid the masses, the Friday day and Sunday day sessions would be the pick. I also went on the Sunday and there wasn't a line to be seen all day. Maybe that had something to do with mothers day, I don't know. The food selection was awesome and the location perfect. 4/5 Bear Paws

The Homebrewer to craft brewer session at the GB was pretty cool. I managed to corner a few of the brewers over the course of the night, praise their efforts and pick their brains. For $25, it was damn good value, especially if you managed to score one of the many prizes handed out in the form of slabs, shirts, vouchers, a bag of grain... As Jayahhdee said, a Q&A on stage would probably have been a good addition to the night, but my only gripe with the whole event was that I wasn't the one to go home with a case of Holgate Temptress.

Stopped in to the Mountain Goat Brewery last night for the release of the Abbotsford Collabotsford. A really nice 8.1% Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, full body, powerful, dark, rich, a tad fruity, just like Oprah. The Pizza was freaking fantastic. MG's pizza are always pretty tops, but the Pear, blue cheese, honey, walnuts and prosciutto was an absolute face melter. The place was pumping, the Mountain Goat and MoonDog brewers out an about on the floor chatting to punters and I assume there were Matilda Bay reps there somewhere too. A keen eye also would have caught the Holgate crew, Jayne from Two Birds, Kirrily Waldhorn aka The Beer Diva and a host of other craft beer industry types also in town for Good Beer Week.

And tomorrow I'm off to the Hair of the dog breakky at Beer deluxe, more info after that's happened.
It's a good time to be a beer nerd.

 

[bconnery]

I should add that I actually really liked the Pint of Origin concept.
Some of the guys felt it should have been held in a more central venue but I enjoyed getting around to the different places, when they were open...

 

[Edak]

GABS was great. Word is that the Saturday day session was pretty slammed for lines,but every other session just had a rush at the start. I was at the Sat Evening session, the lines were pretty stacked for the first hour and a half, (to be expected when you're trying to pump 2000+ people through 4 bars), but after that it cleared up really well and I was quite impressed with how organised everything was. My suggestion is that if you're wanting to taste your way through everything and avoid the masses, the Friday day and Sunday day sessions would be the pick. I also went on the Sunday and there wasn't a line to be seen all day. Maybe that had something to do with mothers day, I don't know. The food selection was awesome and the location perfect. 4/5 Bear Paws

The Homebrewer to craft brewer session at the GB was pretty cool. I managed to corner a few of the brewers over the course of the night, praise their efforts and pick their brains. For $25, it was damn good value, especially if you managed to score one of the many prizes handed out in the form of slabs, shirts, vouchers, a bag of grain... As Jayahhdee said, a Q&A on stage would probably have been a good addition to the night, but my only gripe with the whole event was that I wasn't the one to go home with a case of Holgate Temptress.

Stopped in to the Mountain Goat Brewery last night for the release of the Abbotsford Collabotsford. A really nice 8.1% Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, full body, powerful, dark, rich, a tad fruity, just like Oprah. The Pizza was freaking fantastic. MG's pizza are always pretty tops, but the Pear, blue cheese, honey, walnuts and prosciutto was an absolute face melter. The place was pumping, the Mountain Goat and MoonDog brewers out an about on the floor chatting to punters and I assume there were Matilda Bay reps there somewhere too. A keen eye also would have caught the Holgate crew, Jayne from Two Birds, Kirrily Waldhorn aka The Beer Diva and a host of other craft beer industry types also in town for Good Beer Week.

And tomorrow I'm off to the Hair of the dog breakky at Beer deluxe, more info after that's happened.
It's a good time to be a beer nerd.

Great feedback for the event organisers.. I only managed the time for one session on Sunday (sorry mum) but totally had a great time.

As for MG, I LOVE MG! Wed and Fri are so much better there than anywhere else. Didn't go last night but jealous that you did as I am also jealous of your next breakfast.

Heading off to NYC on the weekend so lets hope I can find some cool micro breweries over there.

 

[manticle]

Here's a link to my description of the first event I went to: Brew day feast at the Portland hotel with James Squire Beers.

My lady came with me and took photos but only a couple have been included (maybe file size etc??)

http://goodbeerweek.com/news

 

[DU99]

:beer: nice read mate

 

[NickB]

Great article Andrew!

Cheers

 

[winkle]

I hope the "Evening with Cantillon" was truely awful.
(simply cause I wasn't there - it'd sold out when I wanted to book )

 

[bconnery]

I hope the "Evening with Cantillon" was truely awful.
(simply cause I wasn't there - it'd sold out when I wanted to book )

Words cannot describe just how awful it was winkle.
Oh wait, no, what's that other aw word?
Awesome, that's the one. Awesome.

If it's any consolation I didn't feel at well the next morning...














(Until the first beer anyway)

 

[manticle]

BCONNERY IS.....................




YOGHURT MAN!!!

 

[manticle]

 

[Charst]

Permission granted to post part of a PM from Cocko:QUOTE
Was well organised, and an amazing concept delivered very well!

My tips would be, Obviously Sat arv session will be the most popular and the lines to the bar were 40-50 minutes long!

Great event for every one who was not in the SAT. arvo session....

I worked that session, serving drinks, the initial system they were doing was you went to the bar staff in the number range you wanted, so if you have 5 beers in 1-5 you got served once, if you had 1,10,20,30,40 you'd be served 5 times, it left it up to punters who are used to being served in one spot having to move up and re engage a new person.

once we started taking the paddle off them, and saying meet you up the other end, it went much smoother, except for about 1 in 15 dicks you can't work out what "meet you up the other end meant" and were left standing dumb founded looking for their pourer who's 20 metres away waving. but by then the lines we massive and damage was done.

apparently wasn't a problem friday as there were bugger all there apparently. doubt it'll be as much a problem next year

 

[manticle]

My second (and final) article is up on the same page:

http://goodbeerweek.com/news