Columbus Beerfest: Wrap Up and Notes

6

June 1, 2010 | By Pete Lawrence

The first annual Columbus Beerfest was held this past Friday and Saturday at the Columbus Convention Center. After some initial hesitation based on early reviews of the Friday tasting, the Saturday session turned out to be quite fun and a really good beer event.

The crowd was big (it seems bigger than the organizers maybe expected) and as such, it got pretty crowded. We were still able to move around with relative ease though and the general feeling of the crowd was good. I didn't see much over-drinking and there was no sign of vomiting or other issues common at lesser beer festivals. If they were there, it was well hidden.

The beer list was pretty impressive, and while there wasn't much that's out of the norm or not readily available in Columbus, there were a few: Goose Island Demolition and New Holland Dragon's Milk were there, and Columbus Brewing brought out the last of the Creeper. I'm not sure this was the point though. Columbus needs these types of events where for a reasonable price, people can come and try as many craft beers as they want and see what they've been missing. In that regard, this event was spot on.

There were a couple of issues that would have made the event a home run, but alas, I hear they weren't all the fault of the organizers.

  • There was no list of breweries or beers available so when you found a brewery you had no idea what they were serving.
  • There was no map of the floor to help find breweries so I feel like I may have missed a number of things I wanted to sample simply because I couldn't find them or didn't know they were there. To be fair, I'm hearing that both the map and beer list issues were in the plans, but the printer fell through at the last minute.
  • The promised souvenir pint glass (now missing from the website) was no where to be found on the way out. I hear now they are coming soon, although I'm not sure how we go about getting them after the fact.

That said, this is a pretty minor list compared to the number of things they did right:

  • Ticketing was fast, easy and efficient.
  • Entrance to the event was fast and well-handled by the volunteers.
  • The event space was really nice and very clean.
  • There were plenty of quality beers available. They started to dwindle near the end of the night, but selection was impressive.
  • The brewers, brewery reps and distributor reps were there in force to promote their product. This is a huge plus for me.
  • There were virtually NO lines for beers. This was another HUGE plus as you could sample as fast as you wanted.
  • There were plenty of bathrooms available so there was almost no line there either.
In all, I'm pretty pleased with this first event in Columbus and already looking forward to next year to see how it grows. I hope the Columbus community and those who came from out of town enjoyed it as well. If you've got feedback from the event, let us know below and we'll try to pass it along.

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6 Comments | Add a Comment
Chris C
Chris C
Jun 3, 2010
11:49 AM
Reply

I agree it was fairly well done for the first event, but it could have been much better with appropriate planning. I got the impression the event was put together last minute. I also agree the brews were more common and there were only 2 brews there I haven't seen locally. Pete hit it on the head-this was not a connoisseur event, but more for the masses. Regardless, still great to see in Columbus. I was disappointed as I heard a rep of the festival on the radio the day before saying Founder's was bringing a special, non-released beer. It was not to be found on Friday.

In response to above, GI Demolition can currently be found @ Anderson's General Store at their Sawmill/161 location (as of Saturday) and NH Dragon's Milk currently can be found @ Kenny Road Market (as of last night).

I was most disappointed that their signage was so poor - many of the stations didn't have banners up behind them. I walked right by one of favorite breweries several times before noticing their logo on the jockey box. A small booklet that contained a map as well as a beer listing with an area for tasting notes would have been a homerun, especially with the individuals who don't drink exclusively craft beer.

The only aspect I experienced that seemed much different than Pete's is that I did not notice a lot of reps there. The local guys of course, and Lindsey from GI, but most of the people serving seemed to be volunteers. I talked to the first few servers and they weren't associated with the brewery in any way. In all fairness, I did stop asking, so I may just have had a bad run at the beginning. As an avid home brewer, I found this aspect a little disappointing.

Overall? not bad
Could have been better? yep
Could have been worse? yep

They have some areas to improve on for next year. If they don't post a Columbus specific beer listing next year, I will not attend as a personal protest. Ah, who am I kidding, I'll be there!
Andrea (Off Her Cork)
Andrea (Off Her Cork)
Jun 3, 2010
12:50 PM
Reply

Great recap Pete! I am going to assume that they got ticketing and such squared away by Saturday entrance because Friday night was chaos. Long line to get in and then the process seemed a bit disorganized.

Maybe it's a good thing that I didn't get a chance to talk to the vendors if they were all volunteers! Goodness! Friday night did have some long line for beers and some over drinkers who were there to get drunk and not sample beers. I was disappointed with that type of behavior.

From my understanding, this has been in the works for months so I'm not sure why it had such a last minute feeling to it. In my opinion, that's not really fair to those of us shelling out cash for the event.

Thanks to Chris up there for posting where to get Dragon's Milk! Hooray!
Chris C.
Chris C.
Jun 3, 2010
1:06 PM
Reply

I belive Andersen's has NH Dragon's Milk too(at least they did), but in 12oz'ers, not bombers, on the one endcap. I was suprised to see GI Demolition as well as GI Nightstalker there as I brought bottles of each home from my Chicago trip to Dark Lord Day thinking I could bust them out on some friends for a special sampling, but no longer.
Peter Lawrence
Peter Lawrence
(Author)
Jun 3, 2010
1:53 PM
Reply

Sounds like Friday and Saturday were fairly different at the festival then. There was no special Founders that I saw Sat. either. But, good to know these beers are becoming more available around Columbus.

@Chris - And does that mean you have Dark Lord available for sale/trade?? =)
Chris C.
Chris C.
Jun 3, 2010
2:54 PM
Reply

I don't think so as I only have a few left and want to age them for some vertical tastings in a few years. Midway through DLD, they reduced the number of bottles you could buy from 8 to 6, so I was only able to get 6. However, bottles of Tactical Nuclear Penguin or Sink the Bismark may persuade me!
Chris C.
Chris C.
Jun 3, 2010
10:47 PM
Reply

Breaker, Breaker... Have a positive sighting of GI Demolition, GI Nightstalker AND NH Dragon's Milk (all in bombers) @ Andersen's General Store in Dublin. Over and out...
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