Changes Mostly for the Best at OBF

Since my first Oregon Brewers Festival in 1991, I've missed only one...I was out of town visiting my mom in 1992. I worked the event as a volunteer for many of those years, but stopped when I started writing this blog. I've seen a lot of things at OBF, including the recent decline in attendance.

The changes they've implemented this year are by far the most significant I've seen in the 28 years I've been going. My impression is that many of the changes are going over well with festival patrons. Others maybe not so much.

Wednesday > Sunday
Bringing back Wednesday, after dropping it last year, has to be considered a big success. There were a lot of folks in the park today and not just people who work in the industry or the bozos who cover it. It looked to me like there were a lot of mainstream beer fans hanging out, drinking, chatting and staring at their phones. Sunday would have been dead by comparison. Organizers did a good job getting word out.

The Venue
The big change to the venue is, of course, switching the south beer trailers to the river side of the park, opening up the large shaded area for seating. That seemed to work well. Organizers set up a huge number of sitting and standing tables in the shaded area. And patrons were taking full advantage of it.

I have to say it was a little odd seeing the large walking path on the south side in space where there were tents in prior years. They have some small tents protecting the beer taps from direct sun, but they're quite small. They could have put larger tents there, given the tendency of people to cluster close to the taps. I suppose not putting larger tents there provided some incentive for folks to vacate the area and find shade. Hmmm. Good work.

The Music
For the first time ever, apparently, there is no live music at the festival. Instead, DJs and satellite speakers are spread around. The stated reason is that patrons could only enjoy the music if they were in the stage area. True enough. But I never heard people complain about it. You were either into the music of you didn't particularly care.

This switch to DJs makes no sense to me. The music was a mix of styles and the sound was often muddled in the common areas. The former stage area is completely wasted, with a small DJ hut and no shade or seating. WTF? I found the sound particularly annoying under the tent at the north end where it interfered with conversations. I hope they bring back live music next year. My advice for now: Bring headphones (and your own playlist) or bring earplugs.

Fun Times
Making the event more fun and user-friendly was a big part of this year's plan. They added a gaming area at the south end, a Meet the Brewer tent and a Brewer Dunk Tank. I didn't notice at the time because I wasn't really paying attention, but the Dunk Tank and the Meet the Brewer tent are positioned in strategic proximity to one another. "Great to meet you, mister soaked brewer."

The most important addition, to me, is the gaming area. They have more than a few cornhold lanes set up and there were a bunch of people playing. Hey, if Millennials want games, they shall have games. This is the kind of thing that adds a lot to the casual fun of an event. They'll certainly want to bring this back in future years, maybe even expand it.

Odds and Enz
I mentioned the return of the printed program and the end of the mobile app that some of us used last year. There were printed programs all over the place and I saw people looking at them intently. That was fine. I have no idea how many folks used the Untappd app organizers touted as an alternative to the mobile app. There were countless people staring at their phones, but you don't want to pry about what they've looking at. Might be too much info. Not cool.

That tasting glass is the same form factor as last year, The taste line is at 3 oz and pourers were painfully careful not the exceed it. Maybe a sharper outfit would have helped. On returning home, I checked the actual capacity of the glass, billed at 12 ounces by organizers. The glass overflowed at less than 12 ounces of water, which obviously doesn't include any head/foam. A full glass of beer is probably 10-11 ounces, given the foam. That means a full pour for 4 tokens is a slightly worse deal than a taste for 1 token...unless the beer lines get long and you want to save time.

The Beer
As noted in my previous post, I think the shift to Oregon-only beers is a good change...and long overdue. There was a time when they needed out-of-state beers to fill the lineup. That's not been the case for many years and there are now plenty of Oregon breweries that want to be part of this event. And festival patrons want them here.

A possible downside to the change is that some of the breweries at this year's event are new and small, and maybe lack the expertise of established places. One of my geek friends offered up that the beer quality is a little off due to the altered reality. I don't know. I tasted around 30 beers and found more winners than losers. Of course, it was my list.

You might check the New School site for a list of the best beers. Ezra and Michael were determined to sample every beer before the end of the day and their intel should be posted tonight or early tomorrow. I did my own tasting and didn't taste close to all the beers. Plus, I trust these guys...sorta.

Some of my favorites were Upright (Flora Fantasia), Migration (Big Hazy Kane), Ecliptic (Key Lime Gose), Ordnance (Lite-Hearted Lager with Lime) and pFriem (Landbier). The worst beer I tasted, by far, was Full Sail's Malted Milkshake IPA.  Something went wrong there.

To Go
I suppose you can always find something to bitch about with an event like this. Maybe it's the glass or the venue or the program or the beer. Fine. But I think the changes they've made this year are mostly for the better. Give it a shot.

OBF Shifts Gears, Hopes to Regain Momentum

The Oregon Brewers Festival celebrates 31 years and 32 actual events this year. For most of its history, the festival was highly regarded and something people planned for. If you were headed out of town in July, you'd make sure your dates didn't conflict with OBF.

That logic has become somewhat threadbare in recent times. There are a lot of reasons. One is the success of the festival, which led to overcrowding and disenchanted attendees. Declining interest is also the result of an exploding festival scene, which occurred in good part because OBF provided the blueprint for how such an event should work.

Because attendance has been declining for several years, organizers have been trying to figure out how to regain some of the lost luster. They've tried bringing in foreign brewers and beers. They added a limited wine selection to the menu. Last year, they dropped Wednesday, reducing the festival to four days. It had been five for many years. The ideas mostly hit with a collective thud.

They're back in action this week, making some fairly substantial changes in an effort to rebuild credibility and excitement for the event.

The Beers
For the first time in history, they will pour only Oregon beers at the festival. You won't be seeing beers from San Diego, Florida or Colorado. I honestly thought the early renditions of OBF featured only Oregon beers. Not so. Take a closer look at the 1988 poster. They served beers from around the Northwest, California and beyond that first year.

The move to Oregon-only is predictable. People who frequent festivals expect it. They also expect to see new breweries and beers not seen in stores or pubs. That expectation has been programmed by smaller festivals that do just that. The beer changes needed to happen. This is the Oregon Brewers Festival, so showcasing unique Oregon beers ought to be the montra  A quick look at the list suggests they've done a pretty decent job of mixing new beers and breweries.

The Program
Some will recall that the printed program was dropped last year. They were evidently not being picked up by patrons (who don't read, anyway) and thousands wound up being recycled or trashed. Organizers launched a smartphone app and encouraged people to use it. They've flip flopped this year. A printed program will be available for free. The app is history.

I'm disappointed to see the app go away, but there are reasons. It turns out that people who had a good experience with the app were iPhone users who downloaded it prior to arriving at the festival (my scenario). The Android version of the app was apparently not finished by the developer. People who tried to download the app at Waterfront Park had problems because bandwidth there is limited due to everyone being on their damn phone. Go figure.

Those who want to see what others are saying about the beers will have an option in the form of a Verified Venue on Untappd. That seems like a reasonable alternative, though I think Untappd is largely a tool for geeks. If you intend to use Untappd and you don't already have it on your phone, best get it before you arrive at the park. Otherwise, your experience is likely to be poor.

The Brunch
The popular Brewers Brunch that kicks off the festival moves to Ecliptic Brewing this year. Brunches have historically been held reasonably close to Waterfront Park. But Ecliptic is a good distance away. That becomes an issue for the Oregon Brewers Parade, which departs Ecliptic following the brunch at 11 a.m. and hoofs it to the Waterfront. Anyone can walk in the parade, by the way. That will be interesting. Pack your walking shoes if you're parading.

Days
As noted above, they reduced the event to four days by dropping Wednesday last year. That was kind of goofy and not very well-received. Sunday has had abysmal attendance for years. If you're going to drop a day, that's the one that made sense. Like magic, Sunday is gone this year. The festival runs Wednesday through Saturday. Smart move.

Odds and Ends
A creeping challenge for OBF has been to provide an experience comparable to what smaller events do. It's tough for a large event to do that. Indeed, changing the ambiance at OBF is a bit like turning an aircraft carrier around...slow and awkward. But they're attempting to enhance this year's experience in a variety of ways, some of which may pan out.

It looks like the weather will cooperate, with temperatures in the 80s. Shade will be at a premium, as it is most years. The best spot in the park on hot days has always been the shaded area at the south end, an area typically occupied by beer trailers. Not this year. The trailers will move toward the river, leaving the shade for mingling and drinking. See the festival map for a visual.

Stuff they're doing to bump up the fun-factor includes a Meet the Brewer Tent, a Brewer Dunk Tank and games...Millennials love games. Live music, a staple of the event since the start, is gone, surprisingly. The gripe was that the music could only be enjoyed in the stage area. To address that, they'll have a DJ with satellite speakers, meaning music will be playing around the grounds. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I suppose it depends on the music and the volume.

Value
My view is that the Oregon Brewers Festival is a pretty good value. They've done a decent job of holding the line on cost, despite rising prices for everything. It costs nothing to enter the venue. If you want to drink beer, you buy a mug and tokens. Although they are promoting a $20 package that includes a mug and 10 tokens, they aren't requiring attendees to purchase that package. You're free to buy a mug and however many tokens you wish. Mugs and tokens are also available in advance at various locations.

As with all recent OBFs, a 3 oz taste of beer sets you back a token. A full glass, reportedly 12 ounces, is four tokens. In the past, a taste was typically a slightly better deal than a full glass, encouraging tastes. But the cost structure this year suggests a full pour is an equal deal. The impact of this change will likely be more full mugs floating around because the incentive to get tastes is gone. I doubt that was the intent, but it appears to be the reality.

To Go or Not to Go
I have friends who proudly announce that they've never been to OBF and have no plans to attend. A good number of these folks are migrants who moved to Portland from other parts of the country in recent years. These same folks dependably attend some of the smaller festivals happening around town on any given weekend. They devalue OBF largely on account of its size and age.

My problem, I guess, is I remember when OBF was the only show in town. I know the impact the event has had in terms of supporting the growth of craft beer. I know it isn't as relevant as it once was. But it's still the granddaddy of them all and I will be there.

Visit the event website for a rundown of festival dates, times, etc.

Notes from the Portland Craft Beer Festival

As with almost everything else connected to beer, we continue to see an evolution in beer festival format. Organizers are working to satisfy shifts in preferences that have as much to do with event amenities as with beer. Craft beer's growing mainstream status is part of that.

The Portland Craft Beer Festival is a good example, I think, of what's happening. I'd heard good things about it, but had no personal point of reference because I'd never attended. That changed last week.

This is the fifth year of the festival, which is held at comfy Fields Park in Northwest Portland. The Park is a significant selling point. It's of modest size, but located in a populated area that has great transit access. Getting there is easy and The Fields actually feels like a park, with thick green grass, great views.

Organizers are creative with the layout and it works well. The taps are positioned in the middle of the park under a tent. There are taps along the length of the tent on each side, allowing patrons to approach from both sides. It's an efficient use of the space consumed.

With the beer in the middle, there's ample room for tables with and without umbrellas a short distance from the beer tent. A variety of vendors and marketing demos are set up around the fringes of the park. Perhaps best of all, the layout allows for a large gaming area, which was set up for multiple lanes of corn hole. The venue didn't feel packed, despite a pretty good crowd.

This isn't an overly expensive event. For $30 (a little less online), you got a glass and 10 tickets. Each ticket yielded a 4 oz taste, unless you splurged on a full glass for tour tickets. Those first 10 beers might not be a great deal; but the next ones are because additional tickets are a buck, which translates to a $4 pint (four tastes). That's virtually unheard of at contemporary beer festivals.

They were pouring more than 100 beers, ciders and wines during this event. The beers were a mix of standards and one-offs. I was sharing tastes and sampled around 25 of them. There were far more misses than hits and most of the best beers were standards from known breweries. Several beers I tasted had obvious and significant defects. Not good.

I'm not sure beer quality is all that big a deal at an event like this. In some ways, it reminded me of what festivals were like 15-20 years ago, when patrons were more interested in drinking interesting beers in a unique setting than they were in obsessing over those beers. At some point, we crossed a bridge into bizarro geekdom. This, to me, seemed like a step back in the direction of sanity.

One thing I never thought I'd see at a beer festival is a gaming area. But the young crowd wants that and festivals are responding. This wasn't the first time I'd seen a corn hole being played at a beer event, but this was certainly the largest use of space. I was tempted to regard this as a generational shift in preferences, but it isn't that. When I was younger, we always played games in bars and taverns. Gaming at beer fests simply means craft beer is attracting the mainstream audience that wants that experience while drinking a few beers.

There was no live music. Instead, they provided some sort of piped in music playing on not huge speakers near the gaming area. I'm a fan of live music at these events, but the reason fests are moving away from it is that patrons don't pay attention. A little buzz in the background is all they want. You'll see a similar approach at the Oregon Brewers Festival in a few weeks.

What organizers have done is put together an event with wide appeal. They chose a relatively intimate venue in an easily accessible location. They designed a layout that provides easy access to beer and space for seating and gaming. And by not catering to the geek crowd that chases rare and expensive beers, they've made the festival attractive to a mainstream audience that just wants to have a few beers while enjoying the scene.

There are some things that need to be fixed. The lack of readily available drinking water is at the top of my list. Beer consistency could definitely be better. But all-in-all, the Portland Craft Beer Festival is a nice example of what a modern beer festival should be.

Edgefield to Tap 2nd Annual Brewfest

It's the season of outdoor festivals in Oregon. The summer calendar is packed with events. So packed that beer fans will have to make choices. Next week's Edgefield Brewfest presents an interesting possibility due to the setting and the long tap list.

First, the list. They'll be pouring more than 100 Northwest beers and ciders. I tasted through a few of the offerings at a poorly attended media preview Monday afternoon. People who attend this event will have access to some great beers and ciders.

Besides the well-known breweries listed on the event webpage, every McMenamin's brewery will be represented at the event. That's a first and it's interesting because most of these breweries are tiny and the beer they produce is served across only one or two pubs. McMenamin's ciders, some really interesting ones, will also be poured.

Beyond the beers and ciders, there's the venue. Pay no mind to the bland photo above, shot when no one was around. The fest will be held in the amphitheater where Edgefield Concerts happen. That's a sizable area where folks can set up chairs of blankets near the taps. They'll have food nearby and music on several stages through the afternoon.

To me, a significant point of interest is Edgefield itself. It's a sprawling property where there's something for pretty much everyone. One can easily get lost or disoriented roaming the grounds, seeing the different buildings, soaking up some of the history.

This was once the County Poor Farm, opened in 1911. It was a place for destitute folks to live and work. The farm ultimately consumed 345 acres. On it, they raised hogs and chickens, grew produce, operated dairy and a meatpacking plant.  That rendition of the property ended in 1964.

Soon thereafter, the main building was named Edgefield Manor and became a public nursing home. It stayed that way until 1982, when the nursing home closed and the property was abandoned. The area fell into disrepair, as vagrants and vandals trashed structures. By 1985, Multnomah County was planning to demolish everything and sell the land. 

The Troutdale Historical Society intervened, claiming the buildings were historic and should be saved. The bleeding hearts delayed demolition for nearly five years, at which point Mike and Brian McMenamin bought the property. They were going try the hotel business. 

Their first order of business was to find the seventy-odd buildings on the property, many of which were covered by blackberry thickets. They planted a vineyard and established Edgefield Winery that first year. The old cannery turned out to be a great spot for a 20-bbl brewery, which has been expanded in more recent times. Edgefield has become a destination.

Apologies for the walk through history. The point is, Edgefield is an interesting place with a rich history. And it's located only minutes from the heart of the city, making it easily accessible to city slickers who need a bit of country respite from time to time. 

The upcoming Edgefield Brewfest, happening Saturday, June 29th, is a great chance to appreciate an historic property while enjoying good beer and cider. Visit the event site for more information and to buy advance tickets. It's sure to be a pleasant day in the sun and shade. 

OBF Becomes a Chameleon at 32

The 2019 Oregon Brewers Festival is three months away. Once upon a time, that reality would have generated considerable interest. Once upon a time, there weren't a gazillion beer festivals crammed onto the annual calendar.

This will be the OBF's 32nd year and they've gone chameleon in an effort to reverse the declining attendance of recent years. There was a time when this event could do whatever it pleased. A lot of harebrained ideas were tried over the years. But things are different now. They've got to sharpen their game.

One of the big changes this year is that all the beers will be from Oregon. Yup. They'll be serving 101 products from 93 breweries and eight cideries. I'm guessing you'd have to go back to the very early days to find a year in which all the beers came from Oregon. This to me is a smart move. It is, after all, the Oregon Brewers Festival.

These will mostly be one-off and experimental beers made for the event, according to a press release. That's in keeping with the current rage for small batch stuff, a strategy that's in place at most successful festivals and similar events. Of course, the quality of experimental beers can be all over the place. But it hardly matters. Festival goers demand unique beers. The list is here.

Event organizers, responding to declining attendance, cut the event to four days last year...dropping Wednesday. That seemed a little odd because stats showed Sunday was the dead day. They've adjusted appropriately for 2019. Wednesday is back; Sunday is gone, gone, gone.

The popular Brewers Brunch that kicks off the festival moves to Ecliptic Brewing this year. Brunch tickets go on sale on the OBF website Wednesday morning (May 1) and cost $49. That includes brunch, two beers, a souvenir T-shirt and an OBF tasting mug.

Brunches have historically been held reasonably close to Waterfront Park. Not this year, as Ecliptic is located a good distance from the Park. That becomes an issue for the Oregon Brewers Parade, which departs Ecliptic following the brunch at 11 a.m. and hoofs it to the Waterfront. Anyone can walk in the parade, by the way. That will be interesting. It's a long walk.

Another change related to making the event more user-friendly involves comfort. One of the best spots in the Park on hot days is under the shade trees at the south end, an area typically occupied by beer trailers. Not this year. The trailers will move to the river side, leaving the shade for mingling and drinking. (The map on the website hadn't been updated when this post went live.)

You may remember that the printed program was dropped last year. They were evidently not being picked up by patrons (who don't read, anyway) and thousands wound up being recycled. Organizers launched what seemed to me to be a pretty decent smartphone app in 2018. Surprise...the printed program is back this year. No word on the app. Bizarre.

New and old features for this year include a Meet the Brewer Tent, a Brewer Dunk Tank, games, food vendors, homebrewing demonstrations, plus the Crater Lake Soda Garden offering complimentary craft soda to designated drivers and minors. Sadly, surprisingly, live music is gone, to be replaced by DJs in different parts of the park. That sounds like a hoot.

I've always argued that the Oregon Brewers Festival is a pretty good value. You enter the venue for free. To drink beer, you buy a mug and tokens. It's four tokens for a full mug of beer or cider, one token for a taste. No big, upfront charge to enjoy a few beers. The changed beer lineup might actually make this year's event more appealing to some.

But the strategies don't all mesh. The press release says attendees must purchase a $20 tasting package this year. The package includes a mug and 10 tokens, which means you're paying $10 for a throwaway plastic mug. That's not the worst deal in a city saturated with overpriced festivals and beer dinners, but it seems vaguely at odds with the goal of boosting attendance.

Some of my older friends who haven't attended OBF recently say declining attendance might get them interested again. But the biggest changes outlined for this year suggest organizers are targeting younger patrons, which makes good sense, actually. We'll see how that works out for them.

Visit the OBF website here for a rundown of festival dates, times, etc.

After the Thrill is Gone: OBF 2018

Once upon a time, the Oregon Brewers Festival got top billing on my annual calendar. I tracked the dates carefully and would enter them way in advance to make sure nothing got in the way. My first OBF was in 1991 and I've missed only one since, in 1992.

The excitement has admittedly worn off a bit in recent years, for me and others. I think there are a number of reasons for that, and I'll get to some of them here. Anyway, I attended this year's event Thursday afternoon, with a somewhat ambivalent attitude.

I arrived fashionably late. There was no wingperson to meet or group to hang out with this year. So no rush. Arriving a little late allowed me to miss the hullabaloo that accompanies the parade and awkward opening ceremonies, both of which I've experienced more often than I care to think about.

Between the lines
Getting into the park was quick and easy. One of the advantages of declining attendance is the long lines of past years are largely gone. It may also be that organizers have streamlined the entry process. Security staff check your ID and give you a wristband. Done.

The switch to a four-day event left me wondering what kind of crowd to expect. It was fairly light, even by late afternoon, when it would have been wildly crowded in past years. A few of the most popular beers had lines, but there was no line or only a short line for many.

One of the things I always look for is a long beer line caused by ineffective trailer management. You know how it works. You see one person serving a long line while nearby pourers stand idly next to swill that isn't moving. Mesmerizing. I saw it in action on Thursday for one of the popular beers. Thankfully, there were two people pouring by the time I reached the front of the line.

I didn't hear any complaining, but I'm sure some people bemoaned the absent Specialty Tent, a fixture for a number of years under different names. True to what Art Larrance told me two weeks ago, the area that would have been occupied by the Specialty Tent was filled with tables. It's a nicely shaded area where people can enjoy beer and conversation. Good call.

Heat was certainly an issue. As is generally the case, it was less comfortable under the tents than in areas shaded by trees. Watching the fest pass by at one point on the south side, I couldn't help but notice a dust plume hovering over the lingering crowd. There's not much grass in the park this year, which means the festival is built on dry sand. That isn't unusual, but it's not the best.

One thing I don't understand is how this event gets away with not making water readily available. Sure, there are mug rinsing stations scattered around. That water is drinkable, I guess. You can bring water in, which I did. Otherwise, you're stuck buying bottled water at $2 a pop (that's the price I saw). It seems to me they ought to do a better job with water.

The App
As mentioned in my preview piece, there was no printed program this year. Knowing that, I installed the OBF app on my phone several days ahead of the event. I played around with it a bit to make sure I vaguely knew how it worked. Check.

Once on festival grounds, I opened the app. I had marked a list of beers I intended to try. When I selected a beer, I found information about it and could see which trailer it was on. After I tasted the beer, I could make some notes in the app. Another benefit was alerts on beers that were tapped out and special activities.

I saw some grumbling about the app on social media and within the app. It isn't perfect. But it provided exactly what I hoped: info about the beers, their location and a way to easily enter notes without a program and pen. No, my phone battery (not a new phone) didn't go dead. This was a first-gen app that will surely get better. Good first stab, I think.

The Beers
During the run-up to the event, one of the organizers said they were showcasing "the beers of the world," or some such gibberish. Stylistically, maybe, because a lot of styles are represented. But these are almost exclusively local or Northwest interpretations. More than 60 of the 80 beers poured this year came from Oregon and Washington. Check the list.

With so many beers pouring, there were certainly some good ones to go with the fluff. My favorite may have been Old Town's Green Tea Lemonade, which incorporates a blend of green tea and lemon. It was a perfect fit for the hot day, though I have to say beers blended with tea are typically not my cup of tea (hehe).

Upright's Berliner Weisse was brilliant, naturally. I also liked pFriem's Mango Milkshake IPA, a hazy hop bomb, and Fort George's It Takes Two to Mango, another hazy hop bomb reminiscent of the current 3-Way IPA. There were lines for these and other hazies on Thursday. The pFriem blew Thursday through Sunday, a clear crowd favorite, apparently.

Listing beers that didn't impress is always a tricky. Everyone has an opinion. One of the beers a lot of people liked was Belching Beaver's Orange Vanilla Milkshake IPA. I thought it was sweet, cloying and tasted of a popsicle stick. Easily the worst beer I tasted was Widmer's Lemonic Possession. It had an unpleasant aroma and the flavor was no better. Something went very wrong, clearly.

What Now?
We obviously don't yet know what total OBF attendance will be this year. Those numbers will be announced in coming weeks. Based on what I saw Thursday, what I've heard from friends and what the heat did to weekend numbers, I won't be surprised to learn that overall attendance declined again this year. They were hoping for 70,000. Did they get 60,000?

During the 28 years I've been attending the Oregon Brewers Festival, it never occurred to me that the event might at some point become obsolete. This is, after all, an event that helped push the evolution of craft beer in Oregon and provided a loose template for the countless festivals that currently crowd the annual calendar.

But the landscape has changed dramatically. The OBF approach, which appealed to older fans who don't get out as much as they once did, doesn't seem to resonate with the younger crowd that currently drives the craft beer culture in this city. As I've said here before, one might easily argue that the Oregon Brewers Festival is a victim of its own success.

The OBF's open-ended mission has always been to promote craft beer in Portland and Oregon. That mission has been largely accomplished. Finding great craft beer in this city and state is easier than ever. In fact, there's so much good beer around that giant events like OBF have become less important to those who seek those beers and experiences.

Is there a viable path forward? My guess is this event needs to be significantly reimagined. It may need to get smaller, become more intimate and specialized, the opposite of the Oktoberfest-style event it has always been. Current organizers have been making relatively small changes in an effort to stay relevant. I fear they will have to do much more. Stay tuned.

Summer Festivals Beat Each Other Up

The first time I attended the Oregon Brewers Festival in 1991, it was a revelation. Drinking good beer while mingling with folks in a great outdoor setting was an unknown experience in those days. It felt rather odd and at the same time pretty cool.

For years and years, the OBF was the only significant show in town. If you missed the festival experience for whatever reason, as I did when I was out of town in 1992, you were stuck waiting until the following year. Not much happening in-between.

Fast forward to modern times and things have changed dramatically. There are now numerous festivals crammed into the calendar. If you can't or don't want to be a rock star brewer, the next best option is apparently to have your own beer festival.

I blame Art Larrance and the Oregon Brewers Festival. Because if the OBF hadn't set the stage, then created and refined the template for what a beer festival should be, we probably wouldn't have all of these events popping up, competing against one another. But never mind.

The proliferation of festivals, a fact of life, has now reached the point where they threaten one another's well-being. There simply isn't enough room on the calendar to accommodate everyone, particularly during the peak summer season. As a result, events are piling on top of one another, inhabiting the same dates.

This weekend is a perfect example. We've got multiple events vying for the time, attention and dollars of beer fans. I attended Brewfest in the Park. It wasn't necessarily an easy decision. Competing events include the Portland International Beer Festival, Kriekfest out at Solera in Parkdale, and a host of worthy smaller events.

How Brewfest in the Park (formerly the Organic Beer Festival) and PIB wound up on the same weekend is sordid story. A couple of years ago, PIB unilaterally took the Organic Fest's June dates. The Organic folks caved and moved their event to August, a change that didn't work out for them. This year, Brewfest organizers decided to reclaim their original dates, putting them up against PIB. The PIB folks aren't happy. But who started this? Ezra has some answers here. Bigly!

It was evident during my Friday afternoon stay at Brewfest that having multiple events in the same calendar space is having an impact. There was never much of a crowd and it was never remotely busy. You might attribute some of that to changing dates. Fine. But I've never seen so few people at any large Portland festival, at least not in recent times. Nope.

It occurred to me that poorly attended fests are the coming reality unless there's more collaboration and cooperation among the festivals...a laughable notion. There's money to be made and everyone thinks their festival can win the war for patrons. So they'll carry on. I doubt we'll see any significant cooperation until attendance at individual fests bottoms out.

With respect to Brewfest, the updated layout of trailers and shade tents seemed pretty decent. I had as many mediocre beers as I had good ones, but I'm a snob and I didn't taste everything on the menu. I didn't miss the lack of live music. But I did miss being able to easily find drinkable water between beers, which should never be an issue. No excuse, folks.

What's the future of Brewfest? Even if this winds up being a lousy attendance year, which seems likely, the event will carry on. Switching dates is always a concern, even if competition isn't. These folks are connected to the OBF and know how to run festivals. They will be back, I'm sure.

I'm less sure how competing events are going to share space on the short summer calendar. So crowded. Maybe event organizers will eventually be forced to consider dates on the fringes of summer. I have no sense at all of how or if this is going to be resolved.

But something has to give.🍻

Pints in the Pearl Coming June 4

I sometimes wonder how many beer festivals and related events can be shoehorned into the summer calendar. Apparently we don't yet have enough of them. If we did, the ongoing barrage of new stuff might be slowing down. It isn't.

One of this year's newcomers is Pints in the Pearl, set for an inaugural engagement on June 4. The event is the brainchild of the Pearl District Business Association, whose mission is to promote the Pearl District. Fulfillment of that mission evidently means giving the area the beer festival it never had. Alright.

The host breweries are Bridgeport, Deschutes, 10 Barrel and Fat Heads. Each will operate a station serving three or more beers, including one made just for the event, along with food items. Brewery staff will be present, allowing attendees to possibly chat about how the various beers were created.

Pints for the Pearl is a bit of an oddity, for sure. Instead of your standard festival tasting mug or glass, they're handing out a stainless steel pint glass. And each token gets a full glass of beer, which flies in the face of the tasters present at most events of this kind.

Your $20 admission includes the "limited edition" souvenir glass and three tokens. Each token is good for a 16 oz beer or one food item. Additional tokens will be $5 apiece. Tickets are available in advance on he company website here. Along these lines, they will only accept credit and debit cards at the event. Slightly odd, right?

In addition to beer and food tasting, Pints in the Pearl will feature family friendly entertainment ranging from corn-hole to live music by artists including The Weather Machine and local American Idol contestant Haley Johnson. Organizers say the event is open to all ages and they hope to attract several thousand folks.

I suppose it's fitting that the Pearl District, the birthplace of craft beer in Oregon, should host an event like this. I can recall Bridgeport putting on shindigs back when the roads were unpaved and the potholes were big enough to swallow a Volkswagen. Times have obviously changed in the so-called Pearl, but craft beer continues to play an important role here.

A small group of grubby media types sampled some of the beers that will be poured at the event. Most of the beers are standards of the four breweries, but each brewery is offering at least one special beer. Your choice is to play it safe with a standard or take a chance on something special.

Go to the website for more information location and times. There's also a Facebook page here.

Spring Beer & Wine Fest Caters to Casual Fans

If you aren't familiar with the past, you might be inclined to assume our current glut of beer festivals is old hat. Not so. The festival scene we live in today wasn't built in a day, a week or a year. It started out rather slowly and took some time to develop. I'll spare you the details.

The Spring Beer & Wine Fest, which happened this past Friday and Saturday, has been around for a long time. It celebrated 22 years this weekend, which puts it's origins in 1994, a time when there was the Oregon Brewers Festival and not much else. My how things have changed.

Strangely enough, I had never attended the SBWF until this  year. There are reasons for everything. Prior to the time I started covering the beer scene in 2010 or so, I paid little attention to indoor events. More recently, I suppose this one simply got lost in the shuffle.

So it was informative to stalk the floor at the Oregon Convention Center. What I found wasn't quite what I expected, but it wasn't all that surprising, either.

In fact, the SBWF isn't a beer or wine festival, per se. Nope. It feels much more like a trade show with beer and wine stations scattered around. In some sense, it was eerily similar to last year's Craft Brewers Conference trade show, held at the same venue,

Entering the hall, I saw no beer. What? Instead, there were myriad vendors hawking a wide variety of goods...clothing, food, services, beer & wine accessories and more. Seeing a lot of vendors at beer festivals has become increasingly common in recent years, but this was crazy. These vendors want access to the beer and wine fan demographic. You might say these beverages are the glue that holds an event like this one together, which isn't such a bad thing.

There were more breweries than wineries in the hall, but the program suggested the number of actual beers and wines were close to the same. The difference was that the wineries brought more than two wines, all served from bottles that I saw. Most of the breweries were pouring two styles from kegs, typical of beer fests.

The brewery lineup was eclectic. It included a number of relatively new and unknown breweries (Ordnance, Krauski's, Pono, Vanguard) along with some that are well-established (Green Flash, 10 Barrel, Goose Island, Lompoc). I can't recall seeing such a bizarre mix of breweries in recent memory, maybe because I rarely go to fests like this one.

That's not the say the beer was bad. Not at all. I tasted 10-15 beers, mostly from newer breweries, and all of them were pretty good. The only beer I dumped wasn't a bad beer at all; I dumped it because there were pieces of hops floating around in the foam. That was a problem for both of this brewery's beers, some kind of filtering issue, I assume. Need to get that fixed.

At the end of the day, the trade show-oriented approach seems to work well. They've got 22 years of proof. It's best-described as a gateway event, designed for folks wanting to explore good beer and wine. The beers and (I suspect) the wines aren't exotic enough to keep hardcore beer geeks and wine snobs interested, but the event is a perfect fit for casual fans.

Holiday Ale Festival's Lump of Coal

Given the rapidly changing aspects of the media landscape, I've wondered for a while which of the various beer festivals would be the first to pull the rug on broad media support. Almost on cue, I learned the Holiday Ale Festival will not issue media credentials this year. Viola!

For the unaware, a "media credential" is just a fancy way of saying the event provides writers and reporters with a small subsidy in the form of a glass, tokens and (in this case) comped entry as an incentive to attend. The package is best viewed as a sort of starter kit. Most buy additional tokens once inside.

In exchange for the freebies, media outlets provide coverage in the form of previews and reviews. What the Festival is saying by not issuing credentials is that it no longer needs the support of smaller outlets, particularly blogs.

You may fairly wonder why I say blogs are the primary target. It's pretty simple. Most blogs, even those that have a lot of followers, don't make money. So if you want bloggers to attend your event and write about it, you ought to provide a small subsidy. Reporters for larger media outlets don't rely on that kind of support because they typically have expense accounts.

In case you're wondering, subsidies were once considered unethical. Yep. One of the things you learn in journalism school is that reporting should not be tainted or perceived to be tainted by gifts or benefits. In essence, restaurants, bars, beer festivals, etc., shouldn't be able to pay for good reviews or to avoid bad ones. Makes sense, eh?

The practice of providing subsidies to blogs became fairly common over the last 10 or so years mostly due to the collapse of traditional media. The decline of mainstream print and electronic media and the rise of digital and, eventually, social media, ushered in the need to recognize the promotional value of all outlets, including blogs like this one.

Some regard event subsidies as a form of payola. The Federal Communications Commission, which supposedly governs these things, has regulations that require the disclosure of these kinds of benefits. But media outlets, including blogs, rarely disclose such benefits. Why? Because the monetary value of the benefits received is typically small.

If there's a problem with that arrangement, it occurs when event organizers demand positive coverage in exchange for freebies. That's certainly the case with many beer festivals. Organizers can be thin-skinned and intolerant of negative reporting. That can and does lead to some fairly mealy-mouthed, worthless reviews. You've read them, I assure you.

In the case of the Holiday Ale Festival, they provided no explanation for the policy change. But it isn't that hard to figure out. The festival has grown to the point that organizers see no need for broad media support. As far as they're concerned, folks who normally rely on blog coverage of the event can look elsewhere...to TV or radio, perhaps.

The change won't prevent anyone from covering the event, though most local blogs seem to be ignoring it. Some may pay their way in for the privilege of mingling with brewers and tasting from a list of one-off beers. Theoretically, the credential situation could lead to more honest, critical reportage. But don't hold your breath. This is a major league brofest.

For my part, I've been increasingly uncomfortable with the recent direction of the Holiday Festival. The price of admission has spiraled upward ($35 this year, for a skimpy package) and the multi-token beers and VIP scenarios suggest the event has jumped the tracks. And don't get me started on the juvenile pin-up girl marketing graphic. What the hell are they thinking?

Organizers have generously offered media folks who pay their way in the opportunity to mingle with the festival's Great Oz, Preston Weesner, for special tastes and stimulating conversation. I suppose some will take them up on that offer. But I'll pass. And I urge others to do the same. Festival organizers handed blogs and their followers a lump of coal. We need to return the favor.

NAOBF Carries on with Shift to August

When Craig Nichols launched the North American Organic Brewers Festival in 2003, the beer calendar was pretty barren. There weren't daily beer events in those days and there were only a few large events. Things have changed dramatically as the NAOBF returns for 2015. Festival dates are August 13-16.

The first thing you ought to note is the move from June, when the event was held for quite a few years, to August. Nichols suffered through some truly lousy weather in recent years, prompting the move from unpredictable June into typically dry August.

We'll see how the move works out. Bizarre weather struck the Oregon Brewers Festival last year and again this year. Meanwhile, the Fruit Beer Festival, held in June, enjoyed perfect weather both years. The weather is fickle.

It isn't mentioned in the press materials, but organizers considered moving the event from centrally located Overlook Park to a location outside the city core. Why would they do that? Because Overlook, though it is easily accessible by MAX, bus or bike, has almost no parking for folks who have to come by car.

I suspect they stayed at Overlook because a move outside the city core would have cheapened the event's mission of promoting sustainable values. A move may still happen down the road, depending on how they perceive the parking problem. There may be venues out there that would work better than Overlook.

This year's event will feature 63 organic beers, ciders, meads and braggots from 36 breweries located in the US, Canada, Germany and England. Styles are all over the place, with a smattering of everything. I have not yet built a target list, though I will be posting some favorites after I attend next Thursday. You can find the complete list of beers here.

An addition this year is the Merchant du Vin Organic Bottle Garden, which will feature bottled beers and ciders. Pinkus Müller, the world’s first certified organic brewery, will be tapping kegs of Ur-Pils and Münster Alt in the Merchant du Vin Garden at 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Only tasters will be available and they'll cost two tokens. Hey, this stuff is rare.

For those not in the know, admission to the NAOBF is free. You'll have to buy a compostable cornstarch cup for $7 to taste beer. And you'll need some tokens at $1 apiece. One token will get you a taste of most beers; full glasses of most beers will set you back four tokens. This is pretty much the pricing structure you see at most area festivals. Nothing bizarre here.

  

One the reasons to support this event is garbage. Yep. Large events like this one generate a shitload of garbage. The NAOBF generated more than 2,000 lbs of trash in 2014. But they kept 95 percent of that out of landfills via aggressive composting and recycling efforts. They expect about 12,000 attendees this year and will probably wind up with about 100 pounds of actual garbage. Organizers would like that number to be zero. Maybe someday.

Check out the event website for more information. Looking forward to a fun event.

Holiday Ale Fest Returns for 19th Year

They say Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland's living room. Assuming that's the case, Portland's living room will welcome back the Holiday Ale Festival next Wednesday through Sunday. This is the event's 19th year, if you're counting.

There aren't really a lot of secrets with respect to this festival. It routinely features bold beers. These aren't run of the mill beers.The great bulk of what you'll find pouring here is made specifically for the event. They have a way of getting some great stuff. We're talking high octane ales, barleywines, barrel-aged beers, etc. Perfect for winter.

As most know, the HAF is housed under clear, heated tents. The weather may turn out to be perfectly dreadful outside, but it will be warm and toasty under the tents. So you won't need to wear your favorite ski outfit to be comfortable. Views of the city skyline and the holiday tree add to the festive appeal of this event.

Another interesting thing about the HAF is it seems to attract people from all over the place. I've mentioned this in previous posts, but it's worth mentioning again. I can't count how many times I have met people who are from faraway places. They come for this event and for all that is Portland.

Because things tend to get a little nuts during prime time, organizers again say the best days to taste are Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The first two days are good because a lot of working stiffs can't get down there until the evening, if at all. Folks who show up on Friday or Saturday will likely have to deal with some lines, although it usually doesn't get too wild until mid-afternoon.

There are plenty of details available on the event website here. For example, you can pre-purchase a tasting package there. The beer list is there. A couple of significant factoids to keep in mind: This is a 21 and over event and the kiddies are not welcome.

As for recommended beers, I'm quite sure everyone can manufacturer their own hit list from the online program. If you want to know what the experts are tasting, there are plenty of online and print sources you can consult. As for myself, these are a few of the brews I hope to try:

13 Virtues Brewing Co.

Barrel-Aged MAX Stout

Imperial Stout

10.5% ABV, 70 IBU

Aged in both Eastside Distillery and Bull Run Distillery Whiskey barrels for three to four months, supposedly offers the complexity of oak and vanilla notes and textured layers of deep, dark secrets. I'm sold.

Firestone Walker Brewing

Luponic Distortion 

Double IPA

8.5% ABV, 75 IBU

A complex blended IPA boasting huge citrus notes by the crafty use of Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, Chinook and Simcoe hops. Sounds worthy.

Fort George Brewery

Santa's Dinner Jacket 

Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Red Ale

8.3% ABV

Aged in Bull Run Distillery barrels. Sipped slowly and allowed to warm, this beer tells a story of time spent in the barrel infusing this heftily hopped ale with notes of port, sherry, caramel and toffee. 

Gigantic Brewing 

Red Ryder BB Gun

Cranberry Saison

6.3% ABV, 22 IBU   

The sweet aroma of cranberries melds perfectly with spicy saison yeasts. There is just enough fruit and tartness to balance the beer's finest pilsner malt. Sounds like a live one.

Hopworks Urban Brewery

The Incredible Abominable of the Enchanted Barrel Forest 

Barrel Aged Imperial Winter Ale 

9.0% ABV, 100 IBU

The infamous uncle of the renowned Abominable Winter Ale.This imperial version was aged in freshly emptied Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrels and features notes of vanilla and spice mixed with the already delightful flavors of citrus and caramel.

McMenamins Edgefield Brewery 

Lord of Misrule   

Rum Barrel Aged Imperial Mexican Mocha Stout 

7.6% ABV,. 24 IBU

This dark and spicy imperial brew was made keeping all the joyful customs surrounding this ancient practice in mind. Brewed with cacao nibs, kilned coffee malt and habanero peppers, then aged in rum barrels post-fermentation. 

Migration Brewing 

Frankie Claus

Belgian Imperial Stout

11.8% ABV, 60 IBU  

This Imperial Belgian Chocolate Stout was brewed with French cocoa, Belgian Trappist yeast, and plenty of attitude. Frankie Claus is layered with notes of banana, cocoa, dried red fruit and toasted almonds, creating a very smooth 11.8% ABV stout with a soft, warming finish.

Portland Brewing

Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Stout 

Bourbon Barrel Aged Cherry Stout

10.0% ABV, 25 IBU

Brewed just for the 2014 Holiday Ale Festival, this massive brew boasts a huge backbone from seven different malts, a Northwest hop profile, and notes of roasted coffee balanced by delicious cherry flavors from an Oregon-grown sweet cherry puree.

Stone Brewing 

New Desecrator

Black Barley Wine

12.0% ABV, 100 IBU

This black barley wine has nearly the same profile as Stone Old Guardian, but surrounded by de-husked darkness. To give this demon its own flair, Stone fed it generous portions of Herkules, Amarillo, Comet, El Dorado and Pacifica hops. Coming in at 100+ IBUs, Stone says New Desecrator may just kill Santa Claus and end your holidays early. Yikes!

Of course, there will be a number of special beers tapped during the course of this event. If you want to follow that stuff, there's a mobile version of the Holiday Ale Festival website that your smartphone will automatically detect. Tune in there for on-the-fly updates on special tappings and locations, as well as other event details.

Holiday Ale Festival: A Cure for the Wintertime Blues

In my mind, the summertime blues don't need a cure. Summer takes care of that on its own. Wintertime is different. It demands a cure. And the Holiday Ale Festival might just be it.

I stopped by Pioneer Courthouse Square Wednesday for a tasting excursion. The beers are unique, most brewed specifically for this event. You can't possibly taste them all, so you seek out what you think might be the best of the best. Obviously, a hard afternoon's work.

I did not create a hit list of beers this year. Instead, I planned to use the guide Jeff Alworth posted on the Beervana blog the other day. That plan dissolved quickly when I realized what I really needed was a beer map of the venue. Only then could I target specific beers. So I walked around and created a makeshift map.

When you enter the festival, you'll quickly discover that the bulk of the beers are located in the Main Bar. The Side Bar (lower Southwest corner) and the Sky Bar (upper Southwest corner) have fewer beers, but you do not want to overlook those areas. There are gems everywhere.

The Wednesday crowd was a sleepy one. There were a large number of beer geek types milling around and collecting notes about the beers. It seems we (yes, I include myself in that group) like the idea of sampling beers when we know the crowds will be mostly nonexistent. There are advantages.

The most common question circulating among the crowd was an obvious one: "What is your favorite beer?" Thoughts varied. My choice for best of show was/is the Lagunitas High West Whiskey Stout. Some of my swill-guzzling friends concurred. However, none of us tasted all the beers. I probably tasted 30 beers...15 or so full tastes and just as many sips from other mugs.

Other beers I liked included Hopworks Kronan the Barbarian (heavy on the bourbon barrel, but still amazing), Stickmen The Twerking Elf (a sour with notes of cherry and dry fruit), Dick's Winter Ale (recommended for hopheads), Firestone Walker Luponic Merlin (a hoppy oatmeal stout that works) and Cascade Cherry Diesel (typically great).

I made a point to track down Lompoc's Revelry Red Ale to compare it with what I tasted a few weeks ago at their winter beer media tasting. The version at the HAF is a lighter version of the original, the result (I assume) of blending that had to be done to come up with the requisite number of kegs. I thought it was okay, but I did hear some disparaging comments. Whatever.

The festival runs through Sunday. Take public transit if you can. Get down there as early as you can to avoid lines. Beware that designated drivers will be charged $5 to enter the venue and consume root beer. Also keep in mind that food options are minimal here and water, which should be readily available given the strength of these beers, is stashed at the Northeast corner near the exit.

Final thoughts? Just one: Give your beer a chance to warm up a bit before you sample it. It's frigid outside and the beers are coming out of the taps too cold to provide an instant bead on their true character. These big beers change dramatically as they warm up. I observed opinions changing by the minute as beers warmed up. So let 'em warm up! It's a simple thing.

Happy tasting!

Wham! Holiday Ale Festival 2013 is Nearly Here

Hard to believe we've once again landed at the doorstep of the holiday season. Times flies, they say. As usual, the return of the season means the Holiday Ale Festival will be on tap next week in/at/on Pioneer Courthouse Square. This is one the best beer events of the year around these parts. No kidding.

Officially, this is the 18th rendition of the HAF. It was founded in 1995 and ran a couple of years under the Winter Ale Festival banner. If you're wondering, the tents weren't clear in those days. You could not look up and see the Portland skyline or the gleaming holiday tree. Nope. What you could see was fabric. I remember feeling somewhat claustrophobic. But never mind.

After a couple of years, the festival took 1997 off. Ownership of the event subsequently changed and it was rebranded as the Holiday Ale Festival when it returned in 1998. If you're keeping track at home, one of the original founders still owns the Winter Ale Festival name, just in case he decides to bring it back someday. But these are merely details.

The 2013 HAF will launch Wednesday, Dec. 4 and continue through Sunday, Dec. 8. Wednesday kickoff is noon. The start time moves to 11 a.m. for the rest of the festival. Closing times are 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday. Are you ready?

As most everyone knows, the best times to be under the tents tasting beers are Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, preferably in the afternoon. You might be okay crowd-wise early Friday...it will get quite crazy by late afternoon. I haven't attended on Saturday in several years, but it was a mosh pit by mid-afternoon the last time I sampled Saturday. I suggest avoiding Saturday unless it's the only possible day you can attend.

For folks who are lucky (or unlikely) enough to work downtown, the early start times offer the opportunity to go sample a few choice beers during your lunch hour. That's either a great idea or a really bad one, depending on how your office feels about you returning to work on your lips. In past years, I've seen lunch hours extending into the evening...a terrific idea if you can get away with it.

They expect to have 47 beers on tap for this year's festival. The great bulk of these beers clock in at over 8% ABV (nearly a third are over 9%!), which explains why you probably don't want to spend a lunch hour sampling. Thankfully, public transit is close at hand and organizers also do their best to accommodate designated drivers. No one should drive after drinking at the HAF.

I should mention there are beers beyond the 47 standards. As part of their specialty program, the HAF will have additional tappings of super special beers at specified times during the festival. These are limited release beers where they only have a keg or so available. I can't provide specifics on these beers because the list is not yet finalized. The web link is here once they have it dialed.

One of the things I truly love about the Holiday Ale Festival is that it attracts people from all over. In this case, "all over" means exactly that: I've met people from the east coast, from California, from Canada and Australia at this event. Don't be shy about striking up a conversation with the people around you at the HAF. You may be surprised to find out from whence they came.

There are more details. For example, you can buy advance tickets on the event website. It's a slightly better deal if you buy online, but you'll still be picking up your mug and tickets at the entry desk. Another important detail: this is a 21-and-over event. Space is limited here compared to some of our other festivals, so please leave the kiddies at home. Oh yes, the pinup art for 2013 is Angel (see above). There's a list of event facts here.

I expect to attend the festival on Wednesday, when I know all the beers will be on and it won't be particularly busy. I'll follow up my visit with a short list of beer picks here, probably on Thursday. See ya down there. Or not.

Update: Event organizers now say the venue will open at 11 a.m. all days.

Widmer Oktoberfest Taps into Portland's Late Summer

Perfect September weather. That's what they had for Widmer's Oktoberfest Friday and Saturday. Like a baby bear's porridge: Not too hot, not too cold...just right.

A couple of days of beers, food, games and music in ideal weather make you wonder why one of the larger outdoor festivals doesn't relocate to September. The most obvious suspect in that regard would be the National Organic Festival, whose late June digs tend to be dicey on the weather front. Oh well.

This was the 9th Annual Oktoberfest on Russell Street. They've more or less figured out how to maximize the space there. Tables with and without chairs are sprinkled around generously. Filling stations for food and brews are similarly available. There's a makeshift stage and room to roam behind the pub.

Grilling dogs for the masses

And don't forget the nod to Widmer Brothers history. The vintage Datsun pickup once used by the boys to deliver kegs and schlep hops and grains was on prominent display in the middle of things. You gotta love the attention to detail. Rob Widmer reportedly keeps the old gal alive. When we get around to putting together a craft beer museum here, the old Datsun will undoubtedly be part of it.

This was my first trip to the Widmer version of Oktoberfest in several years. I got down there Saturday afternoon, half expecting lines to get in and a wait for everything. That's not what I found. Instead, there were a few of us milling around at 3:00 p.m. waiting for the gates to open. No lines inside once we got in. I didn't stick around to see what happened Saturday night.

Future craft beer museum piece

If you were hoping for a fantastic selection of unique or one-off beers, this wasn't the festival for you. They were pouring standard Widmer fare, as far as I could see. Different serving stations had different beers, but those choices were limited to things like Green & Gold, Hef, Hopside Down, Alchemy, Okto and others.

I didn't hear any bitching about the beer selection. This is an Oktoberfest celebration, not a tasting event. The festival mug/stein will hold 20 ounces of beer, a far cry from the much smaller mugs and glasses used at festivals where small tastes are the thing. This is a drinking festival, pure and simple. Get over it!

Comfortable late afternoon on Russell St.

If I were going to grump about anything, it might be the $6 (six tokens) cost of a beer. As mentioned, the mug holds 20 ounces. But the apparent fill mark was right at 16 ounces. I refilled several times and each time I got about 16 ounces of beer. I think $6 is a lot to pay for that much of these beers. You can judge for yourself.

They had a decent lineup of bands playing from the makeshift stage that looks out on what is essentially an outback storage area for empties. I didn't venture into that area on previous trips to this event...don't ask me why. They had filling stations, a token tent as well as places for people to mingle while enjoying the music. The band Melville was playing while I was there. Not bad.

Melville on the loading dock stage

It's hard to imagine a better way to spend a few hours on a perfect, late summer afternoon. Days like this are numbered as we begin our long (and hopefully slow) descent into the wet, gloomy months of winter here. Soon enough, warm weather events like this will be nothing more than pleasant memory waiting for a rerun next year.

The mug/stein fill line

No event is complete without phone ogling

Cockpit of the relic

Wall of kegs in the outback