OBF XXV: A Final Look Back

The 25th Oregon Brewers Festival wrapped up a week ago. It was another big success for beer fans and for the economic well-being of the city, which I'll get to in due time. This is my look back at this year's OBF.

By the Numbers
The folks who track such things say attendance was 80,000. That number has stayed steady for the last few years and I suspect it is nothing more than an educated guess. Landing on an exact number would be nearly impossible since many of the same people pass through the gates on multiple days.

Saturday brought out the shades and the crowds

As mentioned earlier, Thursday is no longer a secret. The Thursday afternoon crowd was enormous by historical standards. Friday was less crowded than usual, I thought, probably having to do with the (sketchy) weather. Saturday was a disaster...packed to the gills early on. I didn't attend on Sunday, but I'm guessing it was a not all that busy.

I heard a lot of bitching about the Saturday crowds. Indeed, the lines were long by mid-afternoon and there was no getting around under the tents. Some people were complaining that there were fewer people pouring beer. Maybe so, I don't know. The main issue, I think, was that there were just too many people in the park. People who might have come on Friday came on Saturday because the weather report was better.

Look, the only way to alleviate the problem with lines is to limit the number of people in the park at any given time. They could do that by pre-selling tickets for specific drinking sessions. That's what they do at the Great American Beer Festival. The OBF could do this, but it would require extensive changes to the way they do things. I suspect it will only happen when people stop coming due to the crowds...which essentially means it isn't happening anytime soon.

The Beers
I did my best to taste as many beers as possible during my three stints in the park...my notes suggest I tasted in the neighborhood of 50 beers. I had a few favorites, which I'll get to, but the whole experience got me wondering how much beer is consumed during this event.

Would 1,500+ kegs fill it? 

Festival organizers don't give out specific details on beer consumption. What they will say is that each attending brewery supplies a minimum of 18 kegs. There were 84 different beers this year (82 breweries), so the total number of kegs was at least 1,512. Doing the math, that comes to 22,680 gallons of beer. By the way, this number excludes the Buzz Tent beers.

Where could you fit 22,000 gallons of beer? Well, it turns out 22,000 gallons would fill a medium-sized backyard swimming pool. Not that you would want to. Most of these beers were pretty good and they certainly don't belong in a pool. Still, that's one approximate volume equivalent.

It's a little late to talk about beer highlights, but these are a few that I liked (in no particular order): Occidental Kellerbier, Gigantic Dynomite, Redhook Peach Trippel, Epic Hop Syndrome Lager, Ram Berry White, HUB Imperial Sunshine, Dunedin Chronicle IPA, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, McMenamin's Gilbert Grapefruit (Buzz), Cascade High Class Blond (Buzz). I have to admit some of the beers on my original tasting list didn't pan out.

Drinking the Raspberry Crush

Speaking of beers that didn't pan out, I ran into to some young ladies who were sipping a fruit beer Friday afternoon. I stopped to ask what they were drinking and it turned out they were all drinking 10 Barrel's Raspberry Crush. They weren't necessary lovin' it, they told me, but it was okay. Raspberry Crush was on my tasting list and failed to make my short list of favorites. You can connect the dots.

To-Do List
The biggest miss of this event in my mind was the handling of the beers in the Buzz Tent (which was also the Sour Tent, if you didn't know). There was no advance information on the Buzz Tent beers and there was little if any information in the tent. I don't get it. These were double token beers, typically high alcohol beers, many of them barrel-aged.

I can almost understand why you would want to keep the Buzz beers under wraps before the festival. But why would you not have information in the tent? One guy had gone to the web and gotten some info about the Buzz beer he was pouring...which he scribbled on a small piece of paper for patrons to see. He did it because he was embarrassed to give the patented Sgt. Schultz, "I know nothing, nothing!" response when asked about the beer he was pouring. Seriously? I hope this gets fixed next year.

Calm seas in the Buzz Tent Saturday afternoon

Water has been an issue for many years and I think it still is. They had several mug rinsing stations under tents at both ends of the park. You could theoretically get water to drink out of those taps, but the reality was a little different. There were lines to rinse mugs or get drinks. The flow of water out of the faucets was painfully slow. Not the best scenario if you want to stay hydrated while you're drinking. I honestly think water needs to be more readily available...and I don't mean the bottled stuff the food vendors were selling for a nice profit.

Value Judgment
The OBF is Portland's original beer festival. When launched in 1988, its primary (arguably its sole) purpose was to promote craft beer. The festival has done its job so well over the years that it has spawned countless smaller festivals in Portland and around the region.

Not all beer events are created equal, of course. Many of the newer festivals were invented mainly to cash in on the popularity of craft beer. Some aren't even a good value...largely because they're more concerned with making money then with promoting good beer. If you aren't sure who these festivals are, no worries...you'll figure it out.

Connecting the dots of success

Don't get me wrong...the Oregon Brewers Festival long ago made the transition from promotional vehicle to money maker. If it truly does produce $23 million in economic benefits for the local economy annually (that's what organizers say), it's also true that a few people make a nice profit from this festival every year. Yet the beat goes on and the success seems to grow.

To me, the key to the OBF's ongoing success is that they've found a way to balance profit motive with reasonable value. People come to Waterfront Park to enjoy good beers, live music and the great ambiance for not a lot of money. The value of the package makes it the quintessential event of the year. And it will likely maintain that title until something significant changes.

NAOBF Reviewed and Recycled

I hesitate to write event reviews. They're too personal. My experience at a given event may be completely at odds with the experience of others. But never mind. Let me tell you about the just-completed North American Organic Brewers Festival.

Wither Weather
This festival was victimized by marginal weather for the second straight year. If my recollection is correct, it wasn't as wet last year...and Sunday was nicer. I was down there Friday afternoon and it was cloudy and warm. By the time it started raining Friday evening, I had vamoosed out of there. Saturday must have been a quagmire with all the rain and Sunday was cool until late afternoon. Not the best.

The recyclable cup looked good in liquid gold

June is always a sketchy month for outdoor events in Oregon. Festival organizer Craig Nicholls knows that. All of us who have lived here for any length of time know it. I have no idea what attendance was...don't even need to know. What I do know is attendance would have been better if the weather had been warmer and drier.

I suppose Craig has a several options: First, he could try to shoehorn the NAOBF into July or August. That could prove difficult due to the packed summer calendar. Second, as insurance against unkind weather, he could cover more of the festival area with large tents. I suppose he'd have to weigh the cost of doing that against the benefit of better attendance. The other option is to move the event indoors...and let's face it, that isn't going to happen.

Ladies and gents, get ready to start your engines...

Unforced Errors
People on the outside generally have no idea how much coordination it takes to run a festival like this one smoothly. A lot of things have to come together for things to come off the way they're supposed to. By the way, I didn't coin the phrase unforced errors...Jeff Alworth over at Beervana did. Credit due.


I have no idea what kinds of issues occurred during the weekend. I wasn't there. They likely ran out of some of the more popular beers before closing time. That's par for the festival course.  If they avoided this scenario at the NAOBF, terrific. If you want the best beer selection, arrive early.

Possible ride home...for the overindulgent

What did happen was truly stupid, though it affected mostly those of us who showed up for the media tour Friday morning. The tour, a first at the NAOBF, was to be led by Lisa Morrison, who most of us know as the Beer Goddess and host of Beer O'clock Radio. Lisa was ready to lead the tour on cue at 11:00 a.m. It was fortuitous that some members of the media did not arrive on time.

When we did get over to the taps, we discovered the beer was warm. This was unfortunate. Here you have a bunch of people who have come to sample the beers so they can write or talk about them. And the beer is warm. As well, some of the beers hadn't arrived or hadn't been tapped. This threw a monkey wrench into Lisa's plan, which was well-organized. The good news is that paying customers weren't affected. Still, not the best. 

Faithful tasters...Alex Ganum (Upright) and Angelo De Ieso

By the way, this problem was well on its way to being solved by the time the gates opened at noon. By 1:00 p.m., they had iced down the jockey boxes and all the beer was flowing cold. I can assure you that members of the media did their best to find a warm beer...and failed.

The Layout
They changed the layout this year, to mixed reactions. The beer taps were located to the right of the courtyard as you entered, as opposed to straight back, which was the case last year. I saw the possible reason when I took a gander at the area where the beer was located last year: it's quite uneven. The area where they had the beer this time appeared to be flatter.

This may have been a nice logistical change, but it created a couple of issues: First, the beer taps were a long ways from the restrooms, located on the opposite side of the festival green. I heard a few people bitching about that. Oh well. Take a walk. Second, the beer was a long ways from the stage, where they had live music playing pretty much continuously. I can't say how big of an issue this was. To me, the music seemed remote and muted this year...I paid little attention to it. Last year was different.

The Friday afternoon crowd

The Beers
It's a little late to talk about the beers, since the festival is over. But you will be able to find some of these beers around town on draft or in a bottle. I used my original tasting list as a guide (find it here) and was pleased with most of what I found. A few notes:

Alameda Brewing - Thai Yellow Wolf Imperial IPA - ABV 8.2% IBU 100
This variation on standard Yellow Wolf is made with 100 percent organic malts. The addition of dried mangoes, flaked coconut, Thai basil and ginger softened up the normal bite. I thought it was terrific. 

The Commons - Havier Bier/Oat Saison - ABV 5.6% IBU 15
Typically on-style and refreshing. Any beer by The Commons is worth a try. 

Fort George Brewing - Spruce Budd Ale - ABV 5.2% IBU 0
They use spruce tips in place of hops for aroma and some flavor in this beer. I didn't care for it. The other Fort George offering, a barrel-aged fruit beer called South, was good.

Laht Neppur Brewing Co.- Peach Hefeweizen Fruit Beer - ABV 5.2% IBU 15
This is Laht Neppur's Hefeweizen with peaches and puree added. I found it crisp and tasty.

Laurelwood Brewing - Organic Green Elephant IPA - ABV 6.9% IBU 80
Both of the Laurelwood beers were quite nice, but I knew already knew that. Organic Green Elephant and Organic Deranger IRA are on tap at the Sandy pub and should continue to be for a while. Update: I stopped in last night (7/3) and discovered they are not pouring Deranger. Bartender said they won't put it on until the Green Elephant is gone. I swear they had Deranger on last week. Oh well.

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales - Kili Wit Beer = ABV 5.5% IBU 20
I may have ingested more than my fair share of this stuff during a visit to the brewers tent. Brilliant.

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing - Love Potion Fruit Beer ABV 4.5% IBU 36
This one was not pouring at the outset. It's a pale ale brewed with cherries, oranges, rose hips and hibiscus. I thought it offered a nice mix of lightness and complexity.

So there you have it...my version of the 2012 NAOBF. It was a decent event all in all. Of course, the weather could have cooperated. Maybe next year.

Update: Check out the Brewpublic blog for Angelo's version of the NAOBF. Nice write-up.