Gabf

[b3s]

well, all i can say is: that was a blast!

i can comment on the following important safety tips:

i don't reccomend friday night -- all the college kids show up to just get hammered.
have a plan -- i took the list of brewers, removed the macros, rockbottoms, and ones not having a booth. i then organized by region since that's predominantly how the booths were arranged. then i decided what ones were must hits both from my interest and from asking my uncle who does a lot of brewpub crawling in new england. go to your must hits prior to going up and down the aisles...save that for after you know you can't take anymore notes. i didn't get to stones because, frankly, i just couldn't find them anywhere!
wear some kind of sports hat/shirt from your home state (or the state whose beers you want the most of). the folks at sprecher and capital city definitely went above the 1 oz. line on all my beers.
join the association of brewers.
attend more than one session -- i found that i just gave up on keeping notes and track of the beers i tried after 21 stands (average stand had about 4 beers, that's 84 oz. of beer for those keeping track at home).
try to attend the saturday afternoon session (wish i had).
don't drop your glass! not unless you really like being the center of attention briefly!
WHEN you drop your glass, just go with it.


i was glad to try out some eastern seaboard beers that i normally canot get. i'll have to check out (and decipher) my notes, but there were some definite good ones from new england.

some other random thoughts i have:

a lot of the people at the booths are distributors, but most booths had someone from the brewery, and sometimes even a brewer. they love to talk about their beers with home brewers.
charlie papazian is a cool guy to talk to.
one can get drunk on 1 oz. shots of beer.
if you were going to meet someone there, meet them outside...you won't find them inside (i wasn't meeting anyone, just a general observation).
is it just me, or do about 85% of all american made oktoberfests now suck after that online paulaner tasting?
brats and beer just go together!

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by b3s
is it just me, or do about 85% of all american made oktoberfests now suck after that online paulaner tasting?
YEAH!!!! Thanks a helluva lot, steveh! ;)

[b3s]

clarification: i organized my must visits by region, not the whole list.

[brewmonkey]

Friday night can suck big time!!!

The best session is Saturday afternoon but it is only open to AHA & IBS members. There is much room to move around and it is during this session that the winners are announced, so generally all the brewers are there to talk to.

The drunk kids are the worst. While I loved to be at the booth and talk shop it can be difficult when you have the drunk sorority girl trying a smoked beer and making stupid ass comments. All you can do is shake your head and hope they move on to the Miller booth quickly.

[b3s]

yeah, probably not the best session to attend, yet i still had a decent time and got some good chats in with beer people. there were some definitely interesting beers there!

next year i'll definitely attend the saturday afternoon session, along with at least one other session.

[chazwicke]

Sounds like a good time. I usually don't take notes either unless it is just the name of each beer I drink. I definitely recommend attending more than one session of any beer festival. I attended EVERY session of the GBBF. and I also went to several sessions of the Broadway Ealing Festival. Unfortunately some festivals just have one session.

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
YEAH!!!! Thanks a helluva lot, steveh! ;)

I went to the Oktoberfest at Ft. Belvoir Friday evening. They had several Spaten beers there but I stuck to Oktoberfest. Saturday morning was the first time in a looooonnnnggg time that I woke up with a slight headache from the beer. Nothing debilitating but I definitly felt it a bit. What is the ABV of Spaten Oktoberfest anyway? I'm going to another German event Thursday night and they will have a bigger selection of German beers on draught. Only problem is I have to wake up very early Friday Morning to catch a flight to Maine. This is a dilemma

[DreamWeaver]

Looks like there needs to be a little more competition in a few categories...

Category: 21 American-Style Lager-14 Entries
-----------------------------------------------------------
Gold: Old Milwaukee, Pabst Brewing Company, San Antonio, TX
Silver: Milwaukee's Best, Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, WI
Bronze: Schlitz, Pabst Brewing Company, San Antonio, TX

This was actually drank and judged by trained beer judges/humans?
Even around here the Bud Lite drinkers look down on these 3. :eek:

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by DreamWeaver
Looks like there needs to be a little more competition in a few categories...

Category: 21 American-Style Lager-14 Entries
-----------------------------------------------------------
Gold: Old Milwaukee, Pabst Brewing Company, San Antonio, TX
Silver: Milwaukee's Best, Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, WI
Bronze: Schlitz, Pabst Brewing Company, San Antonio, TX

This was actually drank and judged by trained beer judges/humans?
Even around here the Bud Lite drinkers look down on these 3. :eek:

You have to remember that the judges have a guideline to go by and not personal opinions.

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by brewmonkey
You have to remember that the judges have a guideline to go by and not personal opinions. Yeah, I can see it now:

"Hmmm.... this beer sucks a lot more than the other ones.... Gold Medal!" :D

[steveh]

Originally posted by chazwicke
What is the ABV of Spaten Oktoberfest anyway?...Only problem is I have to wake up very early Friday Morning to catch a flight to Maine. This is a dilemma

Spaten and Paulaner are both around 6.0 ABV - there's also a lot to be said about quantity of alcohol intake. ;) Don't overdo it (and I know that it's difficult when the beer tastes so good), and down a good deal of water before you hit the hay.

Fret and b3s, sorry guys - burden to bear. I know what you're talking about without that melanoidin flavor goin' on, but I still enjoy many of the Ami Oktos. August Schell has been getting some good reviews this year, need to find some.

S.

[chazwicke]

And Old Dominion Won a silver for theirs. I have some in the fridge at the beach. I'll be sampling some soon.

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by steveh
Spaten and Paulaner are both around 6.0 ABV - there's also a lot to be said about quantity of alcohol intake. ;) Don't overdo it (and I know that it's difficult when the beer tastes so good), and down a good deal of water before you hit the hay.



I think I had about 7 or 8 over a five hour period last Friday evening. I did drink a fair amount of water before bed. But I did feel the effects a bit in the morning. This is very unusual for me. Of course I do not usually drink beers with that ABV all that often.

[steveh]

Originally posted by chazwicke
I think I had about 7 or 8 over a five hour period last Friday evening.

7 or 8 ... liters? Half liters? .25 liters?

Nonetheless - 7 or 8 could qualify you as a binge drinker these days.

S.

[fretlessman71]

7 - 8 litres would KILL me. I can't remember the last time I drank 2 gallons of beer - that's almost an american case!

[steveh]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
7 - 8 litres would KILL me.

I think I remember a six count at my first Munich Oktoberfest in 1990 - over a time period of 3:00pm to 11:00pm (beating Chaz by 3 hours). Funny thing is, I was the most sober of 5 people, so I was charged with carrying all of the breakable souvenirs. No hangover the next day either - I was much younger then.

S.

No, none broke in my care.

[fretlessman71]

I'll bet you had lots of food, too... and 6 liters over 8 hours works out to just over 2 12 oz. beers an hour. I guess it's not THAT bad, but this lightweight prob. wouldn't make it through his first liter! :(

[chazwicke]

They were mugs and I'm guessing they were 12 ouncers. They were etched with the logo on them but I'm certain they were American made. I'll check for a litre marking on them this evening. I purchased them there. It was either that or drink from those flimsey plastic cups. I have stoneware stiens from prior years.

And Fret, One time in Munich (early 90s)at the Hofbrau house, over the course of a long evening I did drink 8 litres and I could hold no more and I left. My buddies had more. And I was the only one not hungover or sick the next morning. The story of that night is too long to tell here But it involved Other Americans, Norweigians, AWOL soldiers from Finland and more......

[fretlessman71]

Just don't tell me that it also involved a duck, a garden hose, and a large hurdygurdy.... :D

[steveh]

Originally posted by chazwicke
They were mugs and I'm guessing they were 12 ouncers. They were etched with the logo on them but I'm certain they were American made.

I'm betting they were .25 liter mugs - and you'll probably be surprised at them having been made in Germany (or Austria) - yeah, I have a couple too. ;)

S.

[steveh]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
I'll bet you had lots of food, too...

Getting food is almost as much work as finding a seat at Oktoberfest. But you know, that evening I don't remember a lot of food...there had to be some, none would surely have killed me!

S.

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by steveh
I'm betting they were .25 liter mugs - and you'll probably be surprised at them having been made in Germany (or Austria) - yeah, I have a couple too. ;)

S.

I should have clarified that the mug was etched with the Belvoir Oktoberfest logo and not Spaten. I forgot to check it last night. I have plenty of German glassware and Rastal crystal glassware as well as tons of american micro and brewpub pints. If anyone is interested I can post the list of my beer glass collection. I am cleaning out over 30 years worth of breweriana collecting and lots of other non beer related items too. I am a compusive collector and have a basement storage room, attic, storage locker, and garage full of antiques and collectables. I am starting to put stuff on Ebay. I just have too much stuff. I was planning on selling stuff off when I retired But I'm in purge mode now.

[Beaver]

Originally posted by chazwicke
I should have clarified that the mug was etched with the Belvoir Oktoberfest logo and not Spaten. I forgot to check it last night. I have plenty of German glassware and Rastal crystal glassware as well as tons of american micro and brewpub pints. If anyone is interested I can post the list of my beer glass collection. I am cleaning out over 30 years worth of breweriana collecting and lots of other non beer related items too. I am a compusive collector and have a basement storage room, attic, storage locker, and garage full of antiques and collectables. I am starting to put stuff on Ebay. I just have too much stuff. I was planning on selling stuff off when I retired But I'm in purge mode now.

That'll make room for more collecting, eh?

[chazwicke]

You got that right!!! That is how it always happens!