FOBAB

[sherm10161]

What happened? I went thru the line at least 4-5 times thru the session and it seemed pretty mellow. Or are you talking about the groups who camped out on the sides of the booth all night?

yeah it certainly seemed people hung out on the one side and kept getting pours without login back in line, but it is what it is...

Yup. No one was enforcing the line except for the coffee Randall bcbw and no one was taking tickets.

 

[jmgrub]

I haven't felt this horrible in a long time. So great night.

 

[jmgrub]

I haven't felt this horrible in a long time. So great night.

I just peed out my butt.

Too many pours of Glacier Buffalo Trace Eisbock.

 

[user 306237]

I thought the event was fine - I drank a lot of beer that was good (mostly) and talked to good people. The venue change... I don't know. It could have been any hotel ballroom. And not that the decor matters that much, per se, but it just added to my overall feeling of 'meh'.

The lack of tickets was a problem for me only insofar as I didn't want to use them on a brewery I had never heard of and will likely never see/hear from again. I liked what I had from Penrose -- but even with them, they're not exactly an unknown quantity given the brewers' pedigree. I was glad to try something from Transient since they get so much hubbub in the FiB War Room thread (and it was good, too!). Otherwise, I stuck to breweries I know because, given the choice, I'd rather use a ticket for a known quantity.

Holy Candy from Wiseacre Brewery (picking them at random to use an example) could have been really good - but why try it when I could get Saison Du Blu (the only Side Project beer I had this year - and also crazy that it lasted so long -- keep it away from the Acidic Sours section and no one pays any attention!)? Also, Wiseacre Brewery appears to be from Memphis, TN - I really don't see myself ever having another beer from them.

The whisky tasting fests I've been to typically allow unlimited samples - I really appreciate being able to try anything and everything and being able to dump the bad stuff without feeling like I "wasted" a ticket.

And the last thing I'll say about tickets - I didn't mind that some people would take them and some people wouldn't. What pissed me off was when one person would sometimes take them and sometimes not. Just be consistent!

 

[lb304854]

yeah it certainly seemed people hung out on the one side and kept getting pours without login back in line, but it is what it is...

At the evening session everyone on the sides of the Goose booth were wearing badges.

This time, its legal.

 

[SSTroller]

Well put about the venue. Very "meh" to me as well. And what happened to the food options? Even though I didn't actually eat anything, the prices ($5 for regular ****** popcorn) and selection was ****** compared to last year.
And did anyone else at the Sat. early session have the guy pouring either Vainglorious or Clair's Thirsty insist on taking your glass and then holding it 2" from his face so he could pour it exactly to the 2oz line?

 

[gtx281]

This time, its legal.

 

[Dunt1]

Best sums up my evening

 

[jvanaus]

Well put about the venue. Very "meh" to me as well. And what happened to the food options? Even though I didn't actually eat anything, the prices ($5 for regular ****** popcorn) and selection was ****** compared to last year.
And did anyone else at the Sat. early session have the guy pouring either Vainglorious or Clair's Thirsty insist on taking your glass and then holding it 2" from his face so he could pour it exactly to the 2oz line?

Yeah... I had that guy... Gotta get it exact!!

 

[SSTroller]

Yeah... I had that guy... Gotta get it exact!!

He was also one of the pourers that made you give him a ticket before he would even begin to pour and chewed out the person next to him for not doing this. Serious business!

 

[jmgrub]

middlebrow I liked your beer. At the same time, I'm pretty sure I have **** for a palate. Looking forward to trying more of your stuff my next trip out.

 

[Farnsworth]

Had a good first time last night (second session), but I don't think I would go back. There wasn't anything downright awful about the event (well, the venue kinda sucked), but I there wasn't anything amazing either. Everything was fine.

Most of the beer was decent, a few were very good, and a few were very bad.
I also kind of wished that the brewers were pouring their own beer.

Highlight of the nights:

1. Saison du Ble - Really the only thing that blew me away and caused me to get multiple pours.
2. Papillon - Very tasty
3. Trinity Easy Swinger Wild IPA - I was surprised how much I like this.
4. Off Colour Yuzu berliner thing - The nose was ******* insane, and then a slight let down on the taste. Still great.

Lowlights of the night:

1. 7venth Sun Brett Saison Extreme - Holy shitballs this was bad
2. Trinity Le Capitaine - The consensus among my group was that the smell resembled a porta-potty after the first dump has been taken in it; like crap being covered up by cheap industrial air freshener.
3. Gin Barell Pony Pilsner - Just not my thing
4. Vainglorious - Off the bat I was like 'Damn, this could be the best beer of the night'. But a few sips later and i couldn't finish it. Not terrible, just too acidic for me. It also kinda put me out of the mood for stouts for the night.

All in all, it was a fun night, but just didn't seem worth it. Especially since going to Piece afterwords ended up being the best part of the whole evening.

 

[jmgrub]

Lol at the whining/complaining ITT. You all don't know how well you have it. FoBAB was awesome again, as it always is. Did it have flaws? Of course. Was it a ******* blast? Yes. No question I'll be back next year.

 

[stxSS07]

Lol at the whining/complaining ITT. You all don't know how well you have it. FoBAB was awesome again, as it always is. Did it have flaws? Of course. Was it a ******* blast? Yes. No question I'll be back next year.

People are whining and complaining? Did I drunkenly miss a page or something?

I complained about my IMBIBE ticket because that ******* sucked.

 

[jmgrub]

People are whining and complaining? Did I drunkenly miss a page or something?

I complained about my IMBIBE ticket because that ******* sucked.

Wasn't talking about their customer service with you- that was ****** as ****.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective, but outside of the Shelton Fest last week, which was a one time deal in LA, FoBAB blows every CA beer event out of the ******* water.

 

[lb304854]

Lol at the whining/complaining ITT. You all don't know how well you have it. FoBAB was awesome again, as it always is. Did it have flaws? Of course. Was it a ******* blast? Yes. No question I'll be back next year.

So you're saying next year when they add a Sunday session, sell more tickets for each session, do not add more of each beer, add more crappy johnny come lately's who put beer in barrels for the first time 30 days days before the event, no one should bitch?

I think requesting adequate room to walk through aisleways is a reasonable complaint to make. Or putting the in demand beers far enough away from one another so the lines do not converge 30 seconds into the session.

Did I have fun? Hell yeah.

Would alternate universe me have had fun without getting gifted VIP passes? Most likely not.

 

[stxSS07]

Wasn't talking about their customer service with you- that was ****** as ****.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective, but outside of the Shelton Fest last week, which was a one time deal in LA, FoBAB blows every CA beer event out of the ******* water.

Agreed the overall quality of beers and stuffs is probably better than 9/10 fests you'll find, but it's heading in the wrong direction with the money-grab nature it's starting to take on IMO.

You would have **** yourself at the old arts center it was held at. Ring-tabled setup and the only dumb line (last year) was for BA Abraxas. Before that (2yrs) I never saw one more than 10 people long. Also not over-sold so I could actually stick my arms out, turn in circles, and not worry about hitting anyone. Last night was a bit of a **** with the setup/crowds IMO, but I still had a decent time.

lurchingbeast beat me to it. Lucky VIP-pass grabbing sunuvabitch. I actually told my buddy we should just start cutting everyone in the BCBS line and see if they stopped us.

 

[mychalg91]

I stopped taking notes after a while so from what I can make sense of in my program, here were the beers I liked/disliked...

Liked:
AC Golden Dark Kriek - might have been my favorite beer of the day
Transient Barricale/Wild Turkey Betise
Barricale/Wild Turkey Yodo Con Leche
Rheingheist Brewery - Pappy's Ink
Fremont BB Dark Star
GI Grimm Vicar
Penrose Wild V
Stickmen Brewery - Vinegar Strokes (this one I liked a lot at first and then I started getting sick of it, plus I was pretty buzzed at this point so not sure if I liked it as much as I noted)
Barricale Destihl Dosdivanya

Dislike:
Haymarket Clare's Right Hook - everyone seemed to enjoy this one. I did not.
Barricale - BBQ Beer (no idea what this one was, thats all I wrote in my program)

Overall I enjoyed most of the beers there. I liked that there were more than enough to keep everyone happy and not have really long lines everywhere. It would be nice if people wouldn't crowd those middle aisles, but that was really my only complaint. I ended up finding about 10 tickets on the ground and bought an extra 20 tickets (they only allowed you to buy 20 at a time so I bought them and gave a bunch away) so I got to try a ton of beers. Of course then I "forgot" to take notes towards the end of the day. I tried to stay away from any of the beers with long lines so did not get any BA Abraxas or the GI and Side Project stuff (didn't even see the other side project beer with the short line or the veritas line) Maybe they kicked before I walked past. The Barricale BCBS was very thin, is all this years BCBS like that?

 

[tectactoe1]

First time FOBAB'er here. Not gonna delve into a huge summary but all-in-all, it was one of the best beer related festivals I've been to.

Got in close to the front of the line, so the first place I went was Goose Island booth based on Treebs suggestion. Prop was great, but nowhere close to last year's, IMO. Templeton 2-year was amazing, as well. But dat dere Vanilla Rye. Oh wow. I am a big fan of vanilla & this rubbed every square inch of boner I could muster up. Delicious, even better than original Vanilla (again, in my opinion).

After the GI booth, walked over to see what SP looked like... Hah. Line was even longer than Goose. Heard that the line was thumping hard during the entire IMBIBE session, too, so I made a judgement call to not wait in a long ass line & risk coming away empty handed. So no Raspe or La Fosse for me, but I was far from disappointed with this decision. Plus, Cory will likely bottle them in the future so, there's always that.

What was great, though, is that thanks to that line, everything else was dead. Waited less than 30 seconds for Saison du Ble (awesome), Nuthulhu (crazy awesome), second & third pours of Vanilla Rye (hnnnnng), Veritas 013 (delicious), & pretty much everything else you can imagine. Even the BA Abraxas line was fairly short, until they filled the Raspe & La Fosse signs around which was around ~25 minutes into the general admission session opening.

Aside from those already mentioned, other big highlights for me were AC Golden Dark Kriek (holy **** this was delicious, absolutely NO line to get any lol), Revolution E Norma Gene (love the Eugene series, this was phenomenal), Transient Bettise (super sour & delicious), Upland Rambutan (super funky cheese & sweaty feet nose, really nice), & the coffee randalled BCBW was incredible as anyone would inspect. A few buddies blended Prop & Vanilla Rye, which was great also. I didn't have Claire's Thirsty Ale at the fest, rather I had a few glasses of it the night before at the Haymarket pub. That **** was excellent, too. Kind of like a more fruity, slightly more tame Lindley Park... VERY good ****. Tried some Pump[KY]n as I was stumbling out, too, trying to get rid of tickets, & that was pretty damn good also. But I love pumpkin stuff, so, there's that. #whitegirlproblems

There were plenty more beers I wanted to try but just didn't have time to get around to, but that's how a festival should be. Sampled 26-some different beers & there were still tons of things I wanted to try. Just goes to show you how great the selection was. I'll definitely be back next year, & would either consider getting tickets for two sessions or possible an IMBIBE membership (& then would just attend one). Had a great time Friday & Sunday as well, spending time hopping around the blue line, red line, & brown line in Chi-town.

And thanks again to stxSS07 who babysat my Darkness Day haul for the last two weeks, lugged them up to Chicago & walked around with it in a backpack all day just to safely deliver them to me. Gentleman, scholar, hero America needs, etc.... Seriously mane, much appreciated.

 

[jmgrub]

Agreed the overall quality of beers and stuffs is probably better than 9/10 fests you'll find, but it's heading in the wrong direction with the money-grab nature it's starting to take on.

You would have **** yourself at the old arts center it was held at. Ring-tabled setup and the only dumb line (last year) was for BA Abraxas. Before that (2yrs) I never saw one more than 10 people long. Also not over-sold so I could actually stick my arms out, turn in circles, and not worry about hitting anyone. Last night was a bit of a **** with the setup/crowds IMO, but I still had a decent time.

lurchingbeast beat me to it. Lucky VIP-pass grabbing sunuvabitch. I actually told my buddy we should just start cutting everyone in the BCBS line and see if they stopped us.

Yeah man, this was my third year in a row. It's obviously all personal opinion. I agree that the Arts Loft was a far better setup, but the fest seemed to have outgrown that venue by last year. Also agree that things are headed in the wrong direction, but I suppose they'd have to deteriorate quite a bit before I'd abandon my yearly pilgrimage. Again, this is all from my non-FIB perspective, and many of people's gripes are legitimate but its hard for me to fathom hitting that fest and walking away feeling any way but positive.

And yeah, their customer service with you, or lack thereof, was unacceptable and I understand your negativity.

See you FIBs next year.

 

[stxSS07]

Yeah man, this was my third year in a row. It's obviously all personal opinion. I agree that the Arts Loft was a far better setup, but the fest seemed to have outgrown that venue by last year. Also agree that things are headed in the wrong direction, but I suppose they'd have to deteriorate quite a bit before I'd abandon my yearly pilgrimage. Again, this is all from my non-FIB perspective, and many of people's gripes are legitimate but its hard for me to fathom hitting that fest and walking away feeling any way but positive.

And yeah, their customer service with you, or lack thereof, was unacceptable and I understand your negativity.

See you FIBs next year.

Didn't know you were always out here. My fault. .

I found a ticket on the ground at one point, so haha Maynard I got your ass for 16 tasters.



Fav thing by far (again, didn't brave any of the stupid lines) was Imperial Breakfast Magpie. I must have spent 5 tickets on it. Stunningly weird. V013 was good too.

 

[jmgrub]

Didn't know you were always out here. My fault. .

I found a ticket on the ground at one point, so haha Maynard I got your ass for 16 tasters.



Fav thing by far (again, didn't brave any of the stupid lines) was Imperial Breakfast Magpie. I must have spent 5 tickets on it. Stunningly weird. V013 was good too.

Wasn't trying to big time you mane. Go Ducks.

 

[BobCobb1]

I agree that the Arts Loft was a far better setup, but the fest seemed to have outgrown that venue by last year.

I think the fest only outgrows a location if ICBG lets it. Keep it to a modest size and do more to ensure breweries don't enter bullcrap shelf beers no one wants (I urge everyone to read the full list of entries). Demand will obviously greatly outstrip what fest can accommodate but will help to ensure it is elite event worthy of entrance fee going forward.

 

[BobCobb1]

Got in close to the front of the line, so the first place I went was Goose Island booth based on Treebs suggestion. Prop was great, but nowhere close to last year's, IMO. Templeton 2-year was amazing, as well. But dat dere Vanilla Rye. Oh wow. I am a big fan of vanilla & this rubbed every square inch of boner I could muster up.

Watching Hunger Games with wife on couch. Intense scene.

"What are you laughing at?"

 

[csano]

Sounds like it was a great event, guys. Hope to make it out there someday.

I was at Fremont on Saturday, waxing bottles of this year's B-Bomb, and one of the guys working there mentioned that they had a crew at FOBAB. He didn't know what they had sent, but it sounds like they sent KDS? Did you guys get to try any of the variants? Coffee? Spice Wars? What else did they send? Thoughts? How did they stack up against the competition?

 

[SSTroller]

First time FOBAB'er here. Not gonna delve into a huge summary but all-in-all, it was one of the best beer related festivals I've been to.

Got in close to the front of the line, so the first place I went was Goose Island booth based on Treebs suggestion. Prop was great, but nowhere close to last year's, IMO. Templeton 2-year was amazing, as well. But dat dere Vanilla Rye. Oh wow. I am a big fan of vanilla & this rubbed every square inch of boner I could muster up. Delicious, even better than original Vanilla (again, in my opinion).

After the GI booth, walked over to see what SP looked like... Hah. Line was even longer than Goose. Heard that the line was thumping hard during the entire IMBIBE session, too, so I made a judgement call to not wait in a long ass line & risk coming away empty handed. So no Raspe or La Fosse for me, but I was far from disappointed with this decision. Plus, Cory will likely bottle them in the future so, there's always that.

What was great, though, is that thanks to that line, everything else was dead. Waited less than 30 seconds for Saison du Ble (awesome), Nuthulhu (crazy awesome), second & third pours of Vanilla Rye (hnnnnng), Veritas 013 (delicious), & pretty much everything else you can imagine. Even the BA Abraxas line was fairly short, until they filled the Raspe & La Fosse signs around which was around ~25 minutes into the general admission session opening.

Aside from those already mentioned, other big highlights for me were AC Golden Dark Kriek (holy **** this was delicious, absolutely NO line to get any lol), Revolution E Norma Gene (love the Eugene series, this was phenomenal), Transient Bettise (super sour & delicious), Upland Rambutan (super funky cheese & sweaty feet nose, really nice), & the coffee randalled BCBW was incredible as anyone would inspect. A few buddies blended Prop & Vanilla Rye, which was great also. I didn't have Claire's Thirsty Ale at the fest, rather I had a few glasses of it the night before at the Haymarket pub. That **** was excellent, too. Kind of like a more fruity, slightly more tame Lindley Park... VERY good ****. Tried some Pump[KY]n as I was stumbling out, too, trying to get rid of tickets, & that was pretty damn good also. But I love pumpkin stuff, so, there's that. #whitegirlproblems

There were plenty more beers I wanted to try but just didn't have time to get around to, but that's how a festival should be. Sampled 26-some different beers & there were still tons of things I wanted to try. Just goes to show you how great the selection was. I'll definitely be back next year, & would either consider getting tickets for two sessions or possible an IMBIBE membership (& then would just attend one). Had a great time Friday & Sunday as well, spending time hopping around the blue line, red line, & brown line in Chi-town.

And thanks again to stxSS07 who babysat my Darkness Day haul for the last two weeks, lugged them up to Chicago & walked around with it in a backpack all day just to safely deliver them to me. Gentleman, scholar, hero America needs, etc.... Seriously mane, much appreciated.

 

[SSTroller]

Yeah man, this was my third year in a row. It's obviously all personal opinion. I agree that the Arts Loft was a far better setup, but the fest seemed to have outgrown that venue by last year. Also agree that things are headed in the wrong direction, but I suppose they'd have to deteriorate quite a bit before I'd abandon my yearly pilgrimage. Again, this is all from my non-FIB perspective, and many of people's gripes are legitimate but its hard for me to fathom hitting that fest and walking away feeling any way but positive.

And yeah, their customer service with you, or lack thereof, was unacceptable and I understand your negativity.

See you FIBs next year.

I'll admit it, if they didn't raise the cost of admission, my perspective would be completely different.
Like someone said, for $65-70 per person for 15 samplers (if the Vainglorious pourer had his way), I shouldn't see no ****** shelf beers being poured....cough cough Founders.

 

[jmgrub]

Sounds like it was a great event, guys. Hope to make it out there someday.

I was at Fremont on Saturday, waxing bottles of this year's B-Bomb, and one of the guys working there mentioned that they had a crew at FOBAB. He didn't know what they had sent, but it sounds like they sent KDS? Did you guys get to try any of the variants? Coffee? Spice Wars? What else did they send? Thoughts? How did they stack up against the competition?

Pretty sure it was just regular B-Bomb and KDS (which are both awesome). I didn't get them because I've had them in the past, but they seemed to be pretty well received.

 

[SSTroller]

Sounds like it was a great event, guys. Hope to make it out there someday.

I was at Fremont on Saturday, waxing bottles of this year's B-Bomb, and one of the guys working there mentioned that they had a crew at FOBAB. He didn't know what they had sent, but it sounds like they sent KDS? Did you guys get to try any of the variants? Coffee? Spice Wars? What else did they send? Thoughts? How did they stack up against the competition?

They were pouring bottles of Bourbon Abominable and KDS and something else. No variants of KDS though.
Personally thought KDS was one of the best beers I had yesterday. It was my first time ticking any Fremont stuff.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

Place won't get out grown if they don't over sell it.... Add the Friday night session to the Arts center and all could of been good..