Beerfest @ Bismarck Civic Center Sept. 16

I thought it was pretty good. Not sure how many people were there, but I did see like 2 people who took every bottle cooler that Bells Beer had to give away.... hello those are for everyone not just 2 people, so that kinda sucked. It would be nice to see some vendors for home brewers, maybe sell some kits or something. All in all I thought it was good and would go again.

I'm sure they had plent of tickets left i would say 700 were there ...Jeff

How many people were there?

K, one thing I thought was a little disturbing was that they said you have to drink 30 slots to get the commemerative mug...well i cheated and had the last 4 or 5 filled by the nice poeple doing the pouring.they didnt disagreee at all..I had to drive. what they expect everyone to get a taxi?? heck just give everyone a damn mug....i really think they are asking for trouble with that kind of notion as some noncommon sense dude is going to say to the officer they said i had to !!...oh well i had a good time and scored a nice summit banner, and have to go talk to the owner of Jeromes and Shannon next week for some other items for display's at functions ect...like the blue moon neon sign{i'm sure i will have to pay dearly} its nice..had several nice beers...the best in wheat by far was Wibaux's chokecherry wheat...I bought a xl t-shirt from them and me and my wife can fit in it...they must grow e'm bigger there..I thought the nitestalker tasted like my 5 year old beer..and i do have one liter left and will carb it for next meeting.. Jeff

holy cow it starts at 5pm i thought it was 6pm...anyway my son in law{iguess former} maynot be able to attend..i will find out before 3.... Justin got off work so he can go...no ticket available..Jeff

here is the list i just got...and dont know if its changed from before...

Full line-up of beer for Beerfest 2010 at the Bismarck Civic Center September 16 from 5 - 9pm


Beer Style Brewery
Bell's Amber Ale American Amber/Red Ale Bell's Brewery
Two-hearted Ale American IPA Bell's Brewery
Bell's Porter American Porter Bell's Brewery
Third Coast Old Ale Old Ale Bell's Brewery
Double Cream Stout Milk/Sweet Stout Bell's Brewery
Oarsman American Pale Wheat Ale Bell's Brewery
Michelob Marzen Marzen/Oktoberfest Michelob Brewing Co.
Shocktop Belgian Style Wheat Ale Michelob Brewing Co.
Kinda Blue Fruit Beer Boulder Beer
Buffalo Gold American Blonde Ale Boulder Beer
Doggie Style American Pale Ale Flying Dog Brewery
In-Heat Wheat German Style Hefeweizen Flying Dog Brewery
Redhook ESB Extra Special/Strong Bitter Redhook Brewery
Nightstalker Imperial Stout Goose Island Brewery
Sofie Saison/Farmhouse Ale Goose Island Brewery
Beer Style Brewery
Boulevard Wheat Beer Wheat Beer Boulevard Brewing
Grain Belt Premium Lager August Schell Brewing
Summit Extra Pale Ale Extra Pale Ale Summit Brewing
Moose Drool Brown Ale Big Sky Brewing
Sam Adams Octoberfest Octoberfest Boston Beer Co.
Leinenkugel Octoberfest Octoberfest Leinenkugel Brewing
Dead Guy Ale German Maibock Rogue Brewing
Blue Moon Belgian Style Wheat Ale Blue Moon Brewing Co.
Smithwicks Irish Ale Guiness Brewing Co.
Woodchuck Amber Cider Woodchuck Cidery
Smirnoff Blueberry Lemonade Classic Malt Beverage Smirnoff Company
Sparks Blackberry Ultraviolet Premium Malt Beverage Steel Brewing Co.
Mikes Black Cherry Premium Malt Beverage Mikes Hard Lemonade Co.
Rusty Beaver Wheat Beer Wheat Beer Beaver Creek Brewing
Shiner Bock Spoetzl Brewing

* List is subject to change

Well, I've held over 5 different tastings already, for as many as 75. There is lots of buzz in the community already. People are just chomping at the bit for the beers, and the feedback I've received is truly amazing. The five regular tap beers have been successfully developed and duplicated a number of times. There are 2 seasonals developed for sure, with a new ESB to come out this fall as well, along with a Plum Nut Porter, and possibly an experimental wet hop harvest ale from locally grown hops.

So I do agree to a point that people will remember, but I think we will be involved in a few more tastings between then and now already. As far as advertising goes, I wouldn't spend the money on the tribune ad. I've found they don't work very well, at least from campaign experience.

mike frohlich wrote:

We were going to have our beers there. There was no precedence as far as city ordinance (McQuades had consulted Charlie the city attorney, who was a bit hesitant to allow this). They don't have any specific laws regulating "giving" beer away at a public event. We could have consulted the Attorney General for further opinion. We also decided that donating $500 of materials plus the labor to provide 2 1/2 barrels to the event wasn't necessarily in our best interest if we didn't have a pub to send people to, or somewhere else they could get the beer at the moment. So on our part it was partly a business decision as well.

I've been doing a number of tasting events around the city. I know the interest is there. Just looking for that all elusive LOCATION!

I would also comment that the beerfest is a start. My gut feeling tells me there will be some locally made craft beers at the next one....

Mike that would be where my opinion differs BIG....people remember , although not for long but when memory is refreshed you do get good results....one ad dthe laxy tribune costs you more than that and will not give you NEAR the imbed into memory..I've been self employed for more than 30 years so i may look at things differently.....Jeff

A note on tickets, I forgot to mention this:

They have only sold around 500 tickets so far, and I think they were making 1300 available. They are expecting a lot of walk-up purchase the day of, but once the tickets are gone, they are gone.

We were going to have our beers there. There was no precedence as far as city ordinance (McQuades had consulted Charlie the city attorney, who was a bit hesitant to allow this). They don't have any specific laws regulating "giving" beer away at a public event. We could have consulted the Attorney General for further opinion. We also decided that donating $500 of materials plus the labor to provide 2 1/2 barrels to the event wasn't necessarily in our best interest if we didn't have a pub to send people to, or somewhere else they could get the beer at the moment. So on our part it was partly a business decision as well.

I've been doing a number of tasting events around the city. I know the interest is there. Just looking for that all elusive LOCATION!

I would also comment that the beerfest is a start. My gut feeling tells me there will be some locally made craft beers at the next one....

just go on the site you can buy them right there//

Edwinton will have a presence at Beer Fest 2010. We will be located at a table at the entrance to the fest and will be handing out informational packets, pretzel necklaces, and all the chit-chat you can handle.

The Civic Center was / is being conservative with this event because it is a city municipality and they have no experience to date. They had no clue what pretzel necklaces were for instance. Food will be provided free of charge by Cloverdale.

I've talked to Jeff (of Crow Peak) over the phone several times, and he has no plans to expand to ND in the immediate future. His system simply can't handle the load, and they need some time to pay off their existing loans. So don't expect to see them at Brew Fest next year! However, I'll be interested to see if Deschutes shows up!

Beer Dealer wrote:

Well look at that the guys i was talking to must not know much..i think they owe me a 6'er....
and mike i thinks its because its a public paid admission event ...as i know i can give anybody here a beer for samples from what i found out earlier, unless they missinformed me..Jeff

Just to clarify, I'm not saying it's a total disappointment, necessarily. And Tyler does make a good point. It's a foothold for quality beer in this area and anything to promote that can only be positive.

To be honest, there must be some other legalities involved that are beyond me, since we charge admission to the O-Fest and the drinks are free. It would've been essentially the same situation with this event if Edwinton could have served there, too.

Well look at that the guys i was talking to must not know much..i think they owe me a 6'er....
and mike i thinks its because its a public paid admission event ...as i know i can give anybody here a beer for samples from what i found out earlier, unless they missinformed me..Jeff

I see 20 beers I'm fairly interested in grabbin'.

I figured this first year would be a $30 sacrifice to promote craft beer. I'm hoping that a good turnout will encourage more breweries/distributors (if we end up having more than two distributors next year, which is a different problem all-together) to set up shop and/or participate in a similar event next year. Maybe Beaver Creek will set something up next year to promote any travel to the west. Maybe Crow Peak out of Spearfish will come up to promote themselves (and possibly look in to distribution).

I assumed this would be my one-time fee I have to pay to encourage breweries to look in to western ND...it just so happens that there will be a bit of awesome beer there.

i thought you had a location, by the way if you want to save on some cost i can help you with the design portion, that is what i do, design floor plans.

dkwandt wrote:

mike, why aren't you guys supplying some brew? spark intrest?

We'd have loved to, but the city attorney was unable to find a loophole to allow us to provide our own beer without a brewer's license. The concern with that is, in order to obtain a brewer's license, you need an established location/floorplan. Personally, I don't know why you can't hand out beer to adults who are of age like you would coasters or t-shirts, but our hands are tied.

For what it's worth, there will be Edwinton test batches at the O-Fest and future club meetings, if everyone is ok with that.

mike, why aren't you guys supplying some brew? spark intrest?

yeah, i see that. oh well, my buddy wants to go & I took the night off, so what the heck.............may as well

Tyler wrote:

The beer list has been posted.

Beerfest 2010 Beer List

My first thought was, "Where's the beer?" To be honest, there's a small handful of interesting offerings on there but, for the most part, that list is pretty yawn-inducing.

The beer list has been posted.

Beerfest 2010 Beer List

Well i didnt mean to be bad news bearer but that is what was told me....

motorcyclelvr77 wrote:

REALLY!? Crap! I don't have tickets yet. May decide not to go. I took that night off to! Oh well... may just have to do a brew that night then instead.

No worries. The Oktoberfest will be far cooler. It'll probably have better beer, too!

REALLY!? Crap! I don't have tickets yet. May decide not to go. I took that night off to! Oh well... may just have to do a brew that night then instead.

I"ve talked to a couple guys at Capt Jacks and they think its "not" going to be what you are expecting...definitly not like harry's fest...with 30 different beers EHHHH.....heck bud and miller and michelob b=make more than that so i dont have my hopes to high and i have tickets......craft beers will be in short supply...unless thay change the venue ....they even try to make it sound like capt jacks is sponsering..well that aint so.......Jeff

Tyler wrote:

I'll be there, but strictly for business:

The business of drinking and promoting awesome beer.

Lucky.

I'll be there, but strictly for business:

The business of drinking and promoting awesome beer.

I doubt that it's sold out. You could call the ticket counter at the Civic Center to find out if there are still tickets available.

it is way too late for tickets isn't it?

I'll be there, but strictly on business, with the guys from Edwinton to make my presence known as their brewmaster.

Is anyone else going?