Last weekend I attended Tim and Johnny’s Bacchus Ale Festival 2009. I think the best way of describing this is as a “micro beer festival”, as in a beer festival that’s micro — 20 attendees — as opposed to a festival of micro beers.
All in all I thought it went very well. I had a brief chat with Tim about it at the Wokingham May Fayre yesterday. He said he found it very hectic, with very little time to enjoy the event. That sounds similar to experiences I’ve had hosting large family get-togethers, where you spend the whole time worrying about all your guests and no time enjoying the occassion itself. As a festival goer rather than organiser, though, I thought it was great.
I thought I’d use my internet pulpit to make a couple of suggestions. Firstly, a simplified first-past-the-post voting scheme would reduce the paperwork and headaches, especially around the 15th beer when it all gets a bit hazy. Secondly, I was wondering about reducing the number of beers somehow as the schedule was pretty punishing — 19 beers to try in 5 hours! Tim was suggesting that perhaps letting people sample the beers in any order. I’m not sure, perhaps. Everyone trying each beer simultaneously certainly prompted a lot of conversation!
Anyway, those were small criticisms. I hope the Bacchus Ale Festival returns in years to come. You can see some of the pictures I took on Flickr, although you’ll have to be logged in and set up as my friend to see all those featuring real people… unless you badger me and I send you a guest pass.