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Hi Oblivious,



We are going to have to disagree strenuously with you there! OghamBrew organises festivals more so than beer/wine tasting events. If it was a beer/wine tasting event then there would be a valid argument in saying 20l (for beer) is too much for an entrant to be asked to enter.



The reason we ask people to enter 20l is to ensure that all attendees are in a position to taste the beers entered for the competition. If a team enters say 8litres, then by the time the judges taste the beer, there is less than 6.5 to 7litres left for 150 people to taste. Nor, far that matter, can a beer festival run out of beer!!



The OghamBrew festivals aim to provide all attendees with a chance to taste any of the award winning beers in attendance, and to encourage people who attend to enter into the hobby. This is why most of our members enter their brews in kegs- 20l in size.



The festivals have two judging competitions- the first by a judging panel, and the second by the attendees of the festival. If the volumes are not sufficiently high, then aside from the judges, only a small percentage of the 150 or so attendees would be in a position to taste the brews. We don't think that this would be very democratic at all.



This, in our opinion, would discredit our festivals entirely, and it would only be a self-serving exercise, rather than being an attempt to introduce more people to brewing and to the diverse range of non-commercial brews, Irish or otherwise, that are available in today’s market.


And to be honest, and I'm sure you guys at ICB would agree, people's attitudes are slowly changing. Even a few years ago it would have been extremely difficult to get Joe Heineken to taste an extract chocolate stout for example!

I can see the point of entering that much beer, but it seems odd to me that the brewers have to pay almost as much as the visitors, when it's them supplying the beer for the festival. Shouldn't people bringing 20l to the party pay considerably less than the others?

Just a thought
R

Judging from the organisation of the last event, numbers is certainly one thing the OghamBrew lads can't be faulted on - the quantities were spot on, the people I brought were more than happy with the value for money in terms of both food and drink. The cost to brewers is a surprise though, wasn't expecting that.

As regards the cost to brewers it has to be said that both food and entertainment are expensive items, when you couple that with the fact that essentialy each brewer is recieving 1 guest pass valued @ €25 it works out @ only €15 for the actual brewer to be fed and entertained in a venue, which i'm assuming require some kind of payment also. I know a brew is sometimes costly aswell but IMHO that is part of our hobby, it's not always cheap but it's rewarding.

"BeerBaron":2bdig01d wrote: Hi Oblivious,


We are going to have to disagree strenuously with you there! OghamBrew organises festivals more so than beer/wine tasting events. If it was a beer/wine tasting event then there would be a valid argument in saying 20l (for beer) is too much for an entrant to be asked to enter.[/quote:2bdig01d]

Fair enough point, especially for the people choice. But I do think the judges choice could have a greater scope to include more beers form people , say 3 bottle per entry?

"beeristhereason":2bdig01d wrote: when you couple that with the fact that essentialy each brewer is recieving 1 guest pass valued @ €25 it works out @ only €15 for the actual brewer[/quote:2bdig01d]

Well its still 40 euro if your not bring anyone else and two brewers can enter together. Why not have everyone paying the same price, brewers get some feed back and the attendees get try try some different beers?

is this a disguised way of selling homebrew ? <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: -->