TOPIC:

"noby":1erg40v8 wrote: But sneaky samples would help in the whole "Home brew is good" argument.[/quote:1erg40v8]It's policing the serial sneaky samplers is the problem. How about: you get 100ml of beer for every ten minutes you stand listening to a homebrewer blather about his/her hobby. That ought to keep the queues down.

"noby":1erg40v8 wrote: If this is run like the Galway one, though, I wonder what are the odds on not having to pay for the stall? Pretty slim, I'd imagine.[/quote:1erg40v8]Quite possibly. On the other hand, if it means an extra stall is filled in the venue it could mean the difference between the event happening and it not happening. Anyway, this thread is just about seeing if there's interest in really doing this sort of thing, and what sort of thing it might be.

"TheBeerNut":tz0nhoos wrote: Are you saying that if the ICB stall charged the normal rate of other exhibitors, but gave all takings to the organisers in payment for having the stall that would be illegal?[/quote:tz0nhoos]

Yes, that would be illegal. It doesn't matter who benefits, or what happens to the money afterwards, as soon as money changes hands in any way which could be considered payment for beer, the excise man is supposed to be involved. The example Hendrixcat gave in the B&C last week was that it would be illegal for a bottle of homebrew to turn up as a prize in a church raffle, because the tickets are paid for.

"TheBeerNut":tz0nhoos wrote: Whatever way we do it, if at all, I think it should be emphasised that the ICB stall is not about giving out beer. And if we can't, we can't. [/quote:tz0nhoos]

While I do agree, I think that allowing people to taste a bit of quality homebrew is the most powerful way of dispelling the myths about the hobby, so I would be very much in favour of figuring out a way for us to do that, if we can at all.

"TheBeerNut":tz0nhoos wrote: It's policing the serial sneaky samplers is the problem.[/quote:tz0nhoos]

That's where my free ICB token idea comes in. You get handed the token as you come in the door and you have to exchange the token for the sample. As long as we are not charging for the token, we should be covered legally.

It's a desperate person that would go to a Beer Festival just to constantly wrangle a 50-100mL sample of homebrew to avoid paying for a commercial beer. It should become patently obvious if there's anyone abusing the 'free sample' gesture.

Maybe I'm being naive, in which case some sort of token system might be needed.

would it be an idea to ask thehomebrewcompany.ie for sponsorship or some sort of help seeing as it would be them who would most likely benefit a lot from this type of thing?

I would be up for help out and donating a corny or two

[quote:22pmf0wd]You get handed the token as you come in the door and you have to exchange the token for the sample[/quote:22pmf0wd]The problem with this is that the tokens would need to be totally different from the paid ones, so marked poker chips, the normal method, wouldn't be satisfactory in my opinion. I wouldn't want any possibility of a free homebrew token ending up behind a proper bar. I was thinking about having a punch-box on the programme, but then the transferablilty comes in, and people would start going round collecting discarded programmes.

[quote:22pmf0wd]It's a desperate person that would go to a Beer Festival just to constantly wrangle a 50-100mL sample of homebrew to avoid paying for a commercial beer.[/quote:22pmf0wd]That's a very good point. Is it possible to serve homebrew in measures small enough to be basically unabusable, but big enough so taste and texture can be appreciated?

[quote:22pmf0wd]would it be an idea to ask thehomebrewcompany.ie for sponsorship or some sort of help seeing as it would be them who would most likely benefit a lot from this type of thing?[/quote:22pmf0wd]Well, they're also ICB members (hi guys!) so they can tell us that themselves. However, if I were them and shelling out actual money to have a presence at something like this, I'd want it to be my own stall.