Bonnaroo Suggestions Please

[abracadabra]

I am going to Bonnaroo this summer 6-14 to 6-17 and want to take some home brew. I'm not interested in drinking the overpriced headache inducing swill they will be serving if I can avoid it.

No glass is allowed so I'm thinking plastic bottles.

I am wondering what would be the best way to go.
Naturally carbonate in the plastic bottles or just use a beer gun to fill the bottles just before I'm ready to go.

Also wondering what's better for something like this 1 or 2 liter or 16-20 oz. bottles. I've got a carbonator and am considering using it on a 2 or 3 liter if a situation comes up where I want to share and putting the rest in 16- 20 oz. bottles.

I would very much like to here from ya'll as to what kind of experience anyone has had doing something like this.

Also I wondering if I should brew this weekend (8.5 weeks ahead ) so that I won't be drinking green beer or should I put the stuff I've already got in cold storage.

I'll probably keep it simple with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.

I'm thinking a cornie would be a hassle and hard to keep cool for 4-5 days but I'm open to suggestions and am not just looking for people to validate my idea.


Thanks

tony

 

[98EXL]

I think you should do plastic, but it would be more expensive to get those bottles.

(and you need to name it something like 'Dirty Hippie Ale' or 'I'm not paying to take a shower stout' ((and no, I'm not implying that you are a dirty, but a buddy of mine is going, and he brought up dirty hippies about it )) )

 

[Glibbidy]

How about some dry ice and a corny? You could dose the keg, and stay up for days.

 

[rdwj]

At the risk of sounding like a 'tard - what the hell is Bonnaroo?

 

[aekdbbop]

a music festival for stoners on some guys farm in Tennessee.. friggin hate hippies...

Backs up traffic for days...

(jk, kinda)

 

[Glibbidy]

I hear WP is headlining this year.

 

[Cheesefood]

I've yet to go to one, but the lineups are AWESOME. I think I officially gave up camping out in temps of 100+ when I turned 25. Maybe if I rented a winnebago with some of my hippy friends.

I toured with Phish enough to truly "appreciate" the crowd.

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

I toured with Phish enough to truly "appreciate" the crowd.

I've only been to 5 of their shows, but that was enough to "appreciate" them.

Buncha dirty hippies.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

I made it to 20 shows.... damn I miss phish.

Dude, I went to the first and third bonnaroo. First ROCKED MY F###ING SOCKS OFF! Trey doing an acoustic encoure rolling on MDMA " I LOVE YOU GUSY, MAN, YOU'LL DONT UNDERSTAND, I FREAKING LOVE YOU GUYS" Into an acoustic bathtub gin, crowd whisteling. Goooooood times. Third sucked horribly, I'll never go again... the scene changed, a bunch of druggies trying to make money there. I like to catch the smaller festivals now, Harvest Fest (GA) is my favorite.

Take a keg and some ice, you should be cool.

 

[abracadabra]

Man!

I was kinda dreading this, now I'm really dreading it. I too old for this crap.
That's what I get for marrying a young un. Thanks a lot !

The wife want's to go because the Police are the headliners. She bought the tix.

We got VIP passes so we won't be out there with the common swine. From what I understand there's a special exit, showers, parking and food for VIP tix so I'm hoping the traffic and other hassles are kept to a minimum .

Back to the beer any other ideas?

 

[rdwj]

Man!

I was kinda dreading this, now I'm really dreading it. I too old for this crap.
That's what I get for marrying a young un. Thanks a lot !

The wife want's to go because the Police are the headliners. She bought the tix.

We got VIP passes so we won't be out there with the common swine. From what I understand there's a special exit, showers, parking and food for VIP tix so I'm hoping the traffic and other hassles are kept to a minimum .

Back to the beer any other ideas?

Get one of these and you should be set

Here it is in action...

 

[abracadabra]

I made it to 20 shows.... damn I miss phish.

Dude, I went to the first and third bonnaroo. First ROCKED MY F###ING SOCKS OFF! Trey doing an acoustic encoure rolling on MDMA " I LOVE YOU GUSY, MAN, YOU'LL DONT UNDERSTAND, I FREAKING LOVE YOU GUYS" Into an acoustic bathtub gin, crowd whisteling. Goooooood times. Third sucked horribly, I'll never go again... the scene changed, a bunch of druggies trying to make money there. I like to catch the smaller festivals now, Harvest Fest (GA) is my favorite.

Take a keg and some ice, you should be cool.

The harvest fest is just up the road from where I live. The weather always seems to be bad.

 

[abracadabra]

I hear WP is headlining this year.

Who's that?

Just talked to the LHBS owner $17 for a case of 24 brown PET bottles + $3.50 for a bag of 12 caps. WTF's up with that. I'll buy some freaking water and use it to brew with and save the bottles. Or save some coca cola bottles.

I might have been born at night but it wasn't last night.

 

[HarvInSTL]

Who's that?

Just talked to the LHBS owner $17 for a case of 24 brown PET bottles + $3.50 for a bag of 12 caps. WTF's up with that. I'll buy some freaking water and use it to brew with and save the bottles. Or save some coca cola bottles.

I might have been born at night but it wasn't last night.

WP=Widespread Panic

Depending on where you live you might also want to check out the Wakarusa Festival.

I saw WP in KC,MO and Carbondale,IL a couple weeks ago.

 

[tbulger]

How about those mini kegs. I think they hold about 15beers or so not sure, gotta drink them fairly quick though.

 

[joshpooh]

Mini kegs sound like a good idea. I am pretty sure the beer stays good long enough to last a four day festival. I was talked out of buying a couple of them one time because the guy at the homebrew shop said once you tap them they only last a few days it is better to save the money and eventually invest in a kegging system. He was undoubtedly right in general, but I think for a music festival they would be a definate winner. what about simply using growlers also, I know you're not supposed to bring glass, but it seems you could hide a few large glass containers as long as you weren't drinking out of them.

 

[jdoiv]

I've got mini-kegs and would suggest against them. They are fine if you plan on drinking everything within a few hours, but they don't work well longer than that. Figure each mini-keg is the same as a 12 pack. That's alot of beer to drink by yourself or with one other within a short amount of time. Plus you will need a tap and co2 cartridges. Can get sort of expensive. Also, they can only be used 4 to 6 times. Wish I never bought mine.

 

[joshpooh]

I've got mini-kegs and would suggest against them. They are fine if you plan on drinking everything within a few hours, but they don't work well longer than that. Figure each mini-keg is the same as a 12 pack. That's alot of beer to drink by yourself or with one other within a short amount of time. Plus you will need a tap and co2 cartridges. Can get sort of expensive. Also, they can only be used 4 to 6 times. Wish I never bought mine.

When he said they didn't stay good long I thought he meant a couple of days or something lol. Knowing that I would definately suggest against it. I was never planning on buying one anyway, but the info is still nice now I know I never will.

 

[abracadabra]

Thanks Guys

I stopped by the package store last night and they had some Miller Lite in brown plastic bottles for about the same price as the LHBS wanted for empty ones.
One of the package store employees said Miller was not going to make them any longer as they didn't sell. Maybe I should start a new thread and post that.

Now all I've got to do is get my sister and brother in law to drink all the beer in them.

 

[Catfish]

Or you could just consider the Miller as sanitary, and dump them as you're bottling. Save on star san.

 

[abracadabra]

Or you could just consider the Miller as sanitary, and dump them as you're bottling. Save on star san.

LOL A good option to consider

 

[krispy d]

If you do decide on kegs I would either hide them well or get permision. I am pretty sure that the explicitly say no kegs. At least most of the festies I've been to have been that way. Not that that stopped me...

 

[brewinfool]

i am going to a smaller festie in ohio the grateful fest

been going for 8 yrs straight now

this'll be my 1st time w/ my own homebrew

it was suggested to me to use my 5 gal cornies w/ a jockey box
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/jockey-boxes/jockey-boxes.shtml

it's a coiled tubing and or an aluminum plate that is immersed in icy water.
the beer flows through the chilled tubing and you get frosy brew.

this is definitely the way i'm going

hope this helps

 

[BrewDey]

Sounds like the plastic Miller bottles will be the best bet. As an aside-we brought a full 1/2 barrel of Killian's to the 1st Bonnaroo with intent to sell. The ice held for the ride down, but then it was a trick keeping it cold, since it was ~100 degrees. We sold some, but we mainly drank a lot of it before it got too warm-filled our nalgene bottles up with the stuff. Funny now-but a hassle at the time.

I saw Phish about 50 times-they were amazing. I miss that energy you get for getting so keyed up for one band. These festivals these days are alright, but it's just not the same.

 

[krispy d]

i am going to a smaller festie in ohio the grateful fest

been going for 8 yrs straight now

this'll be my 1st time w/ my own homebrew

it was suggested to me to use my 5 gal cornies w/ a jockey box
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/jockey-boxes/jockey-boxes.shtml

it's a coiled tubing and or an aluminum plate that is immersed in icy water.
the beer flows through the chilled tubing and you get frosy brew.

this is definitely the way i'm going

hope this helps

what up fool... make some good drunken tapes for us at grateful!

 

[brewinfool]

getting a keg ready for a "not fade away double ipa"

gonna keg it tomorrow evening...kinda nervous...1st time


and oh yes...the tapes will be spitty :rockin:

 

[BrewDey]

"not fade away double ipa"

:

Great name-I was in a brewpub in San Francisco that had one called:
"Stout of Circumstance" -good stuff

 

[brewinfool]

Great name-I was in a brewpub in San Francisco that had one called:
"Stout of Circumstance" -good stuff

very cool

all my beer will be plays on songs


my next one is a caramel creme ale

i'm gonna call it

"the son of suzy creme ale" :fro:

 

[98EXL]

I realized I need to do the same thing for Virgin Fest now

 

[D*Bo]

Anybody else end up bringing home brew kegs?

I brought my portable tap/chiller and paintball cylinder rig. Worked f'in pisser. Almost kicked the Belgian Golden the fist day between 6 of us.

Some killer shows. Discovered some really great new (to me) bands.

Anybody else catch North Mississippi Allstars during the Stripes show? They rocked out so hard. One of only 4 bands I saw get called back for an encore.

The art of such and such was pretty hot too. Owwww.

 

[98EXL]

are you a Tool fan?

 

[abracadabra]

Well it ended up that they did not enforce any of the rules if you had VIP tickets
while the common swine qued up to be searched . I walked right in with open beer bottles in my hand and a back pack full. They also had Sweet Water 420 beer on sale in addition to Bud at the alleged discounted price of $4 for a 12oz cup. And gave beer away at the Thursday nite VIP party. The weather was great a little warm in the day time but the nights were very cool much cooler than I expected. The included food was just OK except Saturday the hamburgers SUXed the vegi burgers were better than the hamburgers if that gives you any idea how bad the hamburgers were.

They wet the roads down in the VIP camping area to keep the dust down but inside the fesitval area the dust was unbearable unless you had a mask or scarf.

The Music covered everthing from Bluegrass to Blues and Heavy Metal to Pop and the sound systems were good.

But baking my brains out, breathing hot dust clogged air or staying up until 3:30 in the morning is not my idea of a good time. Plus with so many people in attendance a band you could see in a small venue of 100 people normally would have a packed audience of 400-500 or more.

What really gaulded me the most was VIP tickets afforded us no special access to see the acts. All we got for our money was a shorter walk, no waiting in line to get inside, clean airconditioned restrooms and occasionally hot showers and no extra charge for the Sysco food.

I sincerely hope my wife doesn't want to do this again.

 

[98EXL]

it sounded like a lot of fun. My buddy went, and I guess you have to put things into perspective. Then again, I love primitive camping, so I guess I have a little different perspective. I really wanted to go this year, but the timing was bad, plus the woman and I basically went broke (in terms of spending cash) on spending money on concert tickets this summer....fall shows haven't even been announced yet.......

 

[abracadabra]

are you a Tool fan?

Not really. I liked it 35 years ago when Black Sabbath was doing the exact same thing. It was new and exciting. But now it's just the SOS with different lyrics.

I like music that has at least a semblance of originality. Now most heavy metal is just boring to me. I fell asleep for much of the show. And since I'd only drank 1 beer I can't blame it on drinking too much.

In a way it's kind of like what passes these days for country music. It's the same music the Everly Bros. Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly,the New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Bros. Goosecreek Symphony, The Grateful Dead and the Eagles were doing 35-50 or so years ago. Just put a twangy voice, cornball lyrics on top of rockabilly and viola instant country hit.

 

[98EXL]

I'm sorry to hear that. Although I do feel the same about current rock music. I listen to a lot of electronic music since it's new-ish.

 

[abracadabra]

it sounded like a lot of fun. My buddy went, and I guess you have to put things into perspective. Then again, I love primitive camping, so I guess I have a little different perspective. I really wanted to go this year, but the timing was bad, plus the woman and I basically went broke (in terms of spending cash) on spending money on concert tickets this summer....fall shows haven't even been announced yet.......

I like camping too. I just can't justify spending that kind of money to be 150 feet away from a band I could normally be 10 feet from. Sitting in the dust and heat when I would normally be in airconditioned comfort.

Everyone I spoke with in the VIP camping area or hospitality tent said they would never go back to camping with the common swine. Filthy 125 degree F
port-a-potties, dusty cramped camping conditions, 30 minute walks to the concert area, long lines waiting to be searched to get inside, tremendous wait times to get into and out of the camp grounds. Our VIP ticket allowed us to escape that but the VIP Bleachers were at least a 300 feet back from the main stage. And no special access to any other venue.

Concerts these days are a major rip-off but just like gasoline business men will charge what the market will bare. And if this sort of thing is enjoyable to you and your partner that's great. My wife loved it mainly because I got her to within 25 feet of the Police. But most of these guys especially the big name acts are a bunch of pompous, arrogant, egotisitcal, jerks and the thought of lining their pockets with my hard earn money bothers me.

On the plus side the crowd was mostly nice laidback people. The local and state police seem to have been restrained, my guess is because this brings millions of $ into Coffee county and if they screw with any and everyone trying to see how many fines and arrests they can make nobody's going to come back.

 

[98EXL]

I don't think that concert ticket prices are outrageous.....the thing that kills me is the [in]convenience charges. I thought our VirginFest tickets were a little overpriced....but then again, we went to StarScape a few weekends ago, night after we saw Tool again, and I thought that was a 'cheap' weekend of a **** ton of fun, lots and lots of music, people, etc. Seems to even out. I get what you are saying about being far away from the stage, it does suck, being close is awesome, but sometimes I don't even care...I just wanna listen

 

[scottthorn]

I'm an avid festival-goer (Summercamp, Wakarusa, 10KLF, etc). A month or so ago I attended a smaller fest and brought homebrew in half-gallon PET apple juice bottles. The lids sealed tightly enough to maintain carbonation throughout the three days I camped. It worked really well - thanks again to Brewinfool for the tip!

I also ended up camped next to a guy from central Illinois who is a homebrewer. It was great to talk shop and compare brews. His 2 year old mead was a tasty way to start the day

 

[abracadabra]

I don't think that concert ticket prices are outrageous.....the thing that kills me is the [in]convenience charges. I thought our VirginFest tickets were a little overpriced....but then again, we went to StarScape a few weekends ago, night after we saw Tool again, and I thought that was a 'cheap' weekend of a **** ton of fun, lots and lots of music, people, etc. Seems to even out. I get what you are saying about being far away from the stage, it does suck, being close is awesome, but sometimes I don't even care...I just wanna listen

Well like you said earlier it's all matter of presective and being a good deal older than you. I remember when concert tickets went from $3.50 to $5.50. Me & most of my friend were saying I can buy an LP for less than that. F#@* this S&!+. Of course those same folks are now paying $350 for tix. Also back then things were more laid back I remember one show where I climbed up on stage and sat there the entire concert while Rod Stewart and Ron Wood danced around me. Now days I'd get beat up, land in jail or both. But then the security went bonkers, the Rolling Stones started hiring Hell's Angles that would just as soon kill you as look at you and the law enforcement saw concerts as opportunities to enhance revenue for the city and have a little extra fun by cracking a few skulls. Couple that with the fact that most bands sounded like S^!+ , I decided to spend my money building a concert quality sound system. Now days however computers can correct mistakes realtime and make these guys sound like they can play and even though most of them can't carry a tune in a bucket the computers make it sound like they can. So the concerts sound a lot better these days. But it all because of technology.

 

[98EXL]

$5.50, wow, that's crazy! IMHO obviously