ACBF 2010 – The General Stuff
A few days ago, I tackled the American Craft Beer Fest in Boston with fellow Hop Press writers Steve Koenemann and Carla Companion. I was in town to cover the Saturday afternoon session of the festival, Carla did double duty and hit both Saturday sessions, and Steve – the iron man of fest coverage – attended all three sessions for over ten hours of beer goodness. This weekend I’ll be posting my reactions to the beers I managed to taste at the fest, from the good (Bourbon County Coffee Stout) to the bad (Edison Light). Today, though, is all about the general stuff. How did the fest feel, what worked, and what didn’t?
The Crowd; Beer Advocate pegged attendance for each session around 5,000 people – a 25% increase from the number of people at each session last year. Luckily, the ACBF increased the size of the venue significantly this year, so the crowd of people never felt crushing or oppressive. While lines did become a bit of an issue by the end of the event, I never felt like I couldn’t move a few feet to the side and have some breathing room. There was definitely a good mix of beer lovers in attendance, from local craft beer fans to the biggest of uber-beer geeks. Although there were a handful of folks there aspiring to get as drunk as possible (why you’d pregame before 3-and-a-half hours of free beer is beyond me), the majority of the crowd was beer-lovers and folks drinking responsibly.
Breweries; Hard to sneeze at your choice of 86 different breweries. While it was a blast to try things from breweries “from away” at last year’s ACBF, there was a shift this year to New England brewers and beer you could pick up in Boston. So bye-bye to Surly, Terrapin and Shorts, hello to Clown Shoes, Element and Earth Bread + Brewery. Although the beer geek in me cries a bit for the loss of these big Midwestern brewers’ booths, it makes sense – why give your beer away to people that can’t buy it after they leave?
Beer; Compared to the Extreme Beer Fest that Beer Advocate throws in February, the choices for beer tend towards the conventional at the American Craft fest. Session beers and traditional pales and browns, which would be tossed kicking and screaming from the EBF, found plenty of space and fans at last weekend’s fest. With each brewery bringing an average of four different beers (and some serving close to ten), there was happily room for some stranger and stronger brews on the roster as well. Breweries that make rare, highly sought-after beers also snuck in a few gems – New England brought some Imperial Stout Trooper, and Cisco and Allagash brought barrel-aged versions of some of their line.
Speakers; A noticeable – but unsurprising – change this year was a lack of guest speakers and panels during the three ACBF sessions. In the past, speakers like Andy Crouch and Garrett Oliver have talked about beer in rooms off the side of the convention center, and last year there was a free screening of Anat Baron’s documentary Beer Wars. These sessions were always a free opportunity for some beer education and a respite from the crowd, so it was a bit sad to see them gone. However, they never seemed hugely popular (hey, there is free beer if you stay on the session floor) so I can’t say I’m surprised to see them gone.
Lines; For the most part, lines moved quickly and smoothly. Almost all the attendees practiced good line etiquette, snagging a sample then quickly shuffling out of the way. Rarely was a wait longer than five minutes. There were, unfortunately, exceptions. Rogue, Dogfish Head and Pretty Things were the chief offenders, and I ended up in the line for Rogue for almost fifteen minutes for a 2 oz sample. There isn’t too much to be done to remedy this on the planners’ end – popular beer is popular – but maybe a couple more volunteers pouring samples would help move things along. After the long Rogue wait, it was disappointing to see that there was only one guy slinging samples in their booth.
Food; After a few years at the Seaport World Trade Center, the food situation has been pretty well perfected. Hot dogs steamed in Harpoon, Whiskey River pulled pork, beer nuts, stuffed pretzels, fruit cups, veggies… plenty of tasty food was available to soak up all the beer. I miss the Belgian waffles served at the Cyclorama beer fests, but that’s more of a request for next year than a complaint about this one.
Swag; About 2/3 of the breweries had t-shirts, glassware or other swag for sale, and free coasters and flyers abound. This year, the crew switched from hard plastic tasting glasses to disposable, biodegradable cups; not as long-lasting as the old ones, but a genius “green” choice considering that most attendees tossed them in the trash on the way out. I’m only really mentioning merch to brag about the awesome Duck-Rabbit snifter I picked up, which might be my new favorite piece of glassware.
Bathrooms; Still the blemish on an awesome beer fest. The bathrooms – a bank of port-o-potties outside the venue – are some of the foulest smelling things I’ve ever been around. I’m not sure what can be done (lots of people + lots of alcohol + well, you saw the food I listed = bathroom breaks), but it isn’t a terribly pleasant experience. Kudos to the fact that they facilities are, at least, as far away from the floor of the show as possible, and outside in the fresh air. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but at the end of the day they might simply be the most elegant solution to an inelegant problem.
At the end of the day, bathrooms and the occasional line aside, the ACBF is one of the best beer festivals in the country. Each year offers steady improvements in terms of size, space, selection and crowd control, so you better believe that I’ll be on Boston’s waterfront again next June. Keep your eyes on the Hop Press for Steve and Carla’s impressions (read Steve’s first impressions here), and check back here this weekend for my rundown of the best, worst and most surprising of what I drank at the ACBF.
3 Comments to “ACBF 2010 – The General Stuff”
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Josh, I agree with most of what you said but I was far more disappointed and annoyed with the crowd. They REALLY oversold the fest this year, and I’d say if they kept it at 5k/session, this will be one I’ll skip from now on.
-Getting into the building was a maze…go across the street, around the lobby, up the stairs, over the bridge, into a back-and-forth queue, across the street again, down the stairs, and finally into the hall. It took me over 30 minutes to get into the venue.
-Lines were way too long to be able to stand and enjoy your beer. Unless you wanted to wait an extra 10 minutes, you would be getting a beer and heading immediately to the next line. This often ended up in just picking the shortest line vs. ones you wanted to visit. Half the time you didn’t know what line you were in because they overlapped from across the aisle.
-Part of going to these is being able to go to the booth, chat with someone who knows the beer, seeing what they have available, and taste/enjoy your selection. None of that happened. The lines were long, so you had to get up, make your selection, and get out of the way as fast as possible.
-The real lack of west coast brews was disappointing…was hoping for Russian River and others to be there.
-About the bathrooms, there isn’t too much that can be done. Though there are bathrooms at both ends of the hall, which were open the first ACBF 2 years ago. They were ‘VIP only’ this year i guess.
Listen, I really look forward to these festivals, trying out new beer and learning from the brewers. I was just disappointed in the overselling this year, as it took away from the whole point of going. Granted, there were a lot of good beers that I liked from the festival. It was the organization decisions from BA I had an issue with. Does BA they really need to make $500,000+ to make this thing run?
PS Got in that Edison line as well (was shortest for a reason i guess), terrible… The goose island bourbon barrel was a favorite as well, along with the duck-rabbit offerings.
[...] festival. Earlier this week Josh Christie provided lengthy insight into his experience at ACBF ( ACBF 2010 – The General Stuff). Josh and I were also joined at the festival by our fellow HopPress writer Carla [...]
[...] now, you’ve seen a couple of posts from Steve and I (two a piece, actually) about the American Craft Beer Fest in Boston. We’ve covered plenty about the setup [...]