Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival

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I have been to many many beer festivals. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with them. I love sampling the beers and hanging with fellow beer aficionados. I hate the crowds, long lines, obnoxious drunks, and event planning oversights. The good folks at Obsidian Public Relations offer me some media passes, so I brought along my notebook and a beer- loving photographer (even though I was going to attend anyway). Keep in mind that I was only at the event from 12 to 3pm. Here are my thoughts based on my personal criteria:

• Event Scheduling: Excellent. Let's face it, fall is the best time of year for an outdoor festival. Our summers are way too hot for a beer festival. Eliminating the multi-session concept and having the event open from 12 pm to 10 pm  was more convenient and flexible.
• Lines: There were not any. Not for entry, not for beer, and not to use the rest room. 
• Cost: Very reasonable for a beer festival. Admission was free, but you could purchase a $20 tasting card, which enabled you to sample ten 4 ounce beers. For $1 more, you had the option to purchase a pint glass which enabled you to a 16 ounce pour at the "Full Pint" tent after every 3rd beer sampled. Tokens for pints and food were also available.
• Beer Selection: Good. 24 beers from US craft brewers covering a nice range of beer styles. I think the only weakness in the line up was the lack of another solid Belgian style offering. There were six tents with four beers each- Local, West US, East US, High Gravity, Captain Keith's Picks, and a Full Pint Tent. I appreciated the absence of macro breweries and "alco pops" like Mike's Hard Lemonade. I seemed to remember a mention of rare or out-of-market beers in an email, but none of those made an appearance during my visit.
• Food: I can't really comment since I did not eat. But it looked good!
• Facilities: Good. This was just a typical tent set up in the parking lot, but there was plenty of room to walk around. They also provided a large tent for seating. Rest rooms were available inside, as well as porta potties outside. I had no problem getting water to cleanse my palate and rinse my glass. 
• Staff: Friendly and personable. They all appeared to be having fun and enjoying the festival
• Attendance: A nice mix of age groups. The attendees were very civil and outgoing. It was about at one third capacity when I left.

I believe that a good beer festival is about quality, not quantity. Every beer listed on the tasting card was a quality-made offering. Larger festivals often only give 1 or 2 ounce pours and a cheap plastic mug. This minimizes the olfactory and tasting experience. Flying Saucer provided 4 ounce pours in a glass taster, which was far more optimal for beer tasting.

I am not sure if this was intentional or not, but the event planners removed the annoyances assoicated with many beer festivals. I raise my glass to a successful event. I shall return next year. For those that were there after 3pm, please post your comments (good or bad).

Nashville Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival

Geez! Nashville is overflowing with beer festivals this year. That's a great sign that beer culture is growing in the Music City. If you have nothing to do on November 6, I'd suggest that you check out the Nashville Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival held at the Municipal Auditorium. I tried to take advantage of the $23 groupon offer, but it sold out quickly. Tickets are now back to full price. Bummer!

If you need more information on the event, you can can visit the official website.

Cheers!

Smitty

Grab Your Wallet- Lots Of New Arrivals!

If you are heading to the Flying Saucer Beer Festival on Saturday, you may want to stop by Midtown Wine & Spirits (or your favorite high gravity beer-friendly liquor store). There are lots of new beers worthy of your frog skins.

For starters, Victory Moonglow Weizenbock is highly recommended. If you are a fan of the classic Schneider Aventinus, I think this is almost as good. As a fan of Harvest Ales, Terrapin So Fresh & So Green is a new one I look forward to trying.

Do you like chocolate, stouts, and a little heft in your beer? Rogue Double Chocolate Stout has just arrived. Speaking of dark beers, Atlanta Brewing Company is also on the high gravity side with their Red Brick Porter- available in 4 paks.

Now to the low gravity side of things. The good people at Bounty Bev should be stocking beers from Buckbean any day now. Look for Black Nody Lager, Tule Duck Red, and Orange Blossom Ale- in cans. Fellow Nashville beer blogger The Beer Snob has reviewed a few of these, so go over there and check out his blog. Negotiations have finally ended with Milwaukee-based Sprecher. Expect to see these beers in November.

Now it's time to finish my Goose Island IPA (sorry, not in Nashville...yet) and rest up for the Flying Saucer Beer Festival tomorrow. See you there! I'll have my "If it's not craft, it's crap" Tshirt on. Cheers

Smitty

Flying Saucer Beer Festival This Weekend!

I know I posted this a few weeks back, but I wanted to remind everyone that the first annual Flying Saucer Beer Festival is this Saturday. I believe it runs from noon until 10 pm. The great thing about it is that admission is free. If you want to sample beers, you can buy a tasting card for 20 dollars. No tickets, no long lines to get in, and hopefully no obnoxious drunks! There will be several tents and random rare beer offerings throughout the day. I hope to make an appearance at some point.  Cheers!