Great Austin Beer Festival Recap and Stuff
June 26th, besides the Real Ale Anniversary party (which I truly regret missing this), witnessed the Great Austin Beer Festival.
We were there loud and proud. See us in the pic above sporting our new rasterized banner (no, it’s not a pixilated image. It’s on purpose… IDIOT!)
As a disclaimer, I should mention that we were an event sponsor and appreciate the GATXBF guys including us.
GATXBF had a lot going on. 1,600 drinkers last I heard, ~40 breweries, tons of beer (we roughly counted 80 cases left over after!), and a good(ish) time for all. Plus nice local representation from Independence, (512), Real Ale, Saint Arnold, and Live Oak (who’s table was manned by the original party animal himself, Mr. Chip McElroy.)
The good- lots of lots of beer.
The bad- lots of lots of people/lines.
The ugly- some hipster man-boy called me an asshole because he didn’t win the raffle (learn to read the rules you stupid, illiterate, scenester fuck.)
The incredible- (512) blew off some socks with a cellared keg of the 2009 ONE and a rare appearance of the Whisky Barrel 2X Pecan Porter (don’t think I didn’t “sample” a few 6 or 7 of these.)
The from-left-feild- we debuted our BeerTownAustin Mustache glasses. If you got one, yr lucky. If not, we plan to have more available soon. Look left (<–) to see it.
Laser etching and wooden sign by our favorite laser artist in austin at Austin Laser Art.
The unsung heroes- big thanks to the Jester King gents for sharing their wooden banner frame. Sans their generosity, we’d have been left holding our rasturbated sign above our heads and out arms would have gotten so tired.
The rest of the story- Promoter Blake Richards did a quick video and e-mail interview wt us post GATXBF.
Here it is:
BTA: Was Saturday’s event what you initially set out to do?
GATXBF: We set out to give Austin another beer festival (the other being Flying Saucer’s in October) and we wanted the event to be something that could grow in the future.
BTA: Did you expect such a large turnout?
GATXBF: We expected a good turnout because Austin is an event driven town and there is a lot of interest in good craft and import beers.
BTA: Are there plans for a second GAtxBF, and if so, how would you like it be different than this year, if at all?
GATXBF: There are no plans for second event; but I would like to do it. It would be different, we would go outside and we would work with the TABC to figure out how we can do draught beer.
BTA: Not even hours after the event Twitter, Facebook, forums and blogs were already pouring in reviews of the event, mostly positive, but some negative, how do you respond to those?
GATXBF: They have been about 90% positive, I have responded to as many as I can especially the negative feedback. We are open to constructive negative feedback, we realize that the venue was way too crowded and the beer was in bottles not draught. With that being said, there were a ton of beers to sample and there is a good chance that most of the guests could find at least twenty to thirty beers that they have never tried.
BTA: Lots of people are wondering why the beer was mainly served out of bottles, can you comment on that?
GATXBF: There are a few reasons for the bottles, we are going to work on draught next year.
BTA: What type of post-festival feedback did you receive from the brewers?
GATXBF: The feedback from the breweries so far has been very good. I strongly believe a good majority would want to come back.
BTA: Why did you choose Austin for your festival?
GATXBF: I have been coming to Austin for years, I have family in Austin, it is simply one of the best cities in the country. Why not Austin!!
BTA: Assuming there will be a second festival, what are you most looking forward to next year?
GATXBF: If we do it next year, it will be outside. I am looking forward to that, it will be a completely different event.
Here’s the video:
Here’re more pics: (also by the talented Mr. Haley)
Our friends from Austin Homebrew Supply.
Celeb sighting.
More glasses and some of the raffle stuff.
Eric at the Independence table.
Jeff of Jester King shaking hands wt @madhouselarry (thanks for all the beer runs, Larry!)
The rear of the Saint Arnold booth. Our friend Kevin pouring beers next to Mr. Frank Mancuso.
this beer festival was possibly the worst run operation i’ve ever seen. FAR too many tickets were sold, they ran out of the little glasses and used dixie cups as a replacement, most vendors ran out of beer, you couldn’t leave the venue and come back, the list goes on. i will most certainly never go back after spending 80$ for two tickets on this nightmare.
I was considering going to this event however I was concerned about it being the first one. I went to the first annual Brew-B-Que event last year and was very disappointed. You spend money to get in and then spend money to buy exotic beer such as Bud Light and buy BBQ from vendors. I wanted to hear reviews of GABF before I shelled out money to go. I figured that there would be issues that would need to be worked out and I have heard and read many negative comments. Maybe next year…