As you know, I met with the organiser of the bars at the Perth International Beer Festival, which is to be held on February 20 and 21 in 2010.
I would like to say at the outset that I did point out that I don't represent any breweries, as he had thought, and I was simply a member of the drinking public with some strong points of view.
The meeting was very cordial and I put a couple of suggestions to him as to things that could take place. I also offered him the opportunity to pass my contact details onto the main organiser (who came up with the idea) if he wanted to speak to me about entertainment and the like.
I can report a number of changes for next years festival.
The Venue
The venue is now the Supreme Court Gardens, a recommendation I made in my initial letter.
Tickets and general size
Tickets are capped at 5000 each day. They will be $25 each. This will make it easier for the organisers to predict required stock levels on a day by day basis.
Queuing
I discovered in my discussions a number of different things. Firstly, they were in charge of the bars at Stereosonic, where 1 in every 4 drinks was a vodka Redbull. Considering that all the drinks have to go into plastic cups with ice (that is my understanding), it took them longer than expected to serve people, hence the queues at Stereosonic.
Further to that, beer can only be poured out of a tap at the rate of 80mLs per second.
Essentially, there will be some queuing but they have separated the can and bottle sales from the tap beer sales, to prevent cross overs and ideally will provide more options when people get to the bar.
On the plus side, a professional crowd control company has been hired to work the event. This company looks after Subiaco Oval, Stereosonic, etc.
Range of drinks
Gage Roads and Little Creatures have come on board for the Festival in February next year and all the Western Australian microbreweries have been contacted. However, there is some reluctance from some operations for a number of reasons. One of these is cost, as they are not likely to cover their costs. Secondly, the license for the Festival operates on a sale and return system. This means that any undamaged and resaleable cartons have to be returned to the brewery/distributor so they can be used again. This prevents the organisers from selling the beer later on in any way.
Further to that, it appears that some of the breweries are not interested in running separate marquees to represent their own breweries. This is partly because of the cost and partly because they need to hire RSA-trained staff to work the bars and pour their beers.
They are trying to get hold of beers not normally available in Australia, but are forced to go through specific distributor channels. They do not hold an Australian importers license and so it is hard to get a huge range of beverages from overseas. Additionally, stock levels in nearby bottleshops and pubs are so strictly controlled that there is not a sufficient stock of certain products around for them to buy to top up.
One thing I did discover is that UDLs have a 3 month use by date... from canning.
Tastings
They are trying to get tastings this year, however their concern is that it will be difficult to properly pour tastes of beer off the tap and similarly some beers will taste different if poured out of a bottle or jug.
In conclusion, it appears that the organisers are doing their best to get it right. They have taken some very positive steps and my discussions indicate that they are looking at a long term view for the festival.
Hopefully, they will slide me some free tickets and I'll be able to judge for myself.
That's what they are doing (or at least saying they are doing)... what are your thoughts?
