RDS Craft Beer Festival 2015

Blut2

Ravelleman wrote: »

I have to say, the ticketing system was terribly conceived. Those that paid for tickets online in advance - and it is worth noting that doing so meant paying a booking fee in addition to the price of entry - were made to queue outside the door with those who had no tickets, thus negating the entire point of buying an advance ticket.

On Saturday buying in advance meant a discount on the price of entry at the door but on Friday this was not the case. On Friday evening this meant a 15-20 minute wait shortly after 7.

It is quite disappointing indeed to find that going to the extra effort and cost of buying online gives absolutely no advantage on the Friday.

To be fair, that's similar to most sporting/music events - where a ticket is a ticket, regardless of if its bought at the door or in advance. I think the main advantage of buying online is being guaranteed entry. As some of us found out to our cost on Saturday evening...

Ravelleman

Blut2 wrote: »

To be fair, that's similar to most sporting/music events - where a ticket is a ticket, regardless of if its bought at the door or in advance. I think the main advantage of buying online is being guaranteed entry. As some of us found out to our cost on Saturday evening...

It seems to be a matter of perception and expectation in that case. Rolling up to Taylor Swift with no ticket is perhaps a little bit more naive than arriving at a beer festival that, judging by some of the earlier posts, few expected to sell out though.

From my own observation on Friday, a large number of baffled people were turned away from the door with pre-purchased tickets and told to return to the queue, so it wasn't just me or my entourage.

Personally, I bought a three-day ticket, which I used first on Thursday, when there was no queue, so this made it essentially seamless for me to go in and out, but I felt the frustration of those around me. The three-day ticket is definitely the best option if you expect to be there for more than one day, from a value point of view and from a queuing point of view.

Yarghhh

Ravelleman wrote: »

It seems to be a matter of perception and expectation in that case. Rolling up to Taylor Swift with no ticket is perhaps a little bit more naive than arriving at a beer festival that, judging by some of the earlier posts, few expected to sell out though.

My personal reason was the Beoir 50% discount was only redeemable at the door. I'd have been very annoyed had I been turned away Saturday just trying to redeem the half price deal.

Subcomandante Marcos

Why didn't it run for the Sunday as well? They could have even had an earlier 9pm finish or something? there was clearly demand for it?

I was there Friday evening with work friends for a few hours. I really liked the Mango infused Deception on cask from trouble, I thought O'Brother's new IPA was phenomenal, Month's "mountain lager" was a lovely unfiltered lager for a hot day and a slice of pizza and I thought Porterhouse's new IIPA and Troble's TIPA were both epic!

Ravelleman

Yarghhh wrote: »

My personal reason was the Beoir 50% discount was only redeemable at the door. I'd have been very annoyed had I been turned away Saturday just trying to redeem the half price deal.

Yes, ultimately it would have been cheaper for me to just pay on the door with Beoir membership, as I went only two days. But it would probably be a pain to implement some kind of online ticketing system that allowed Beoir members to get discounts.

Anyway, I've had my grumble now. Hopefully they will continue to improve, as they always have in the past.

Overall I really enjoyed the event and the I imagine that for the vast majority of people it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.

schemingbohemia

Have to say, thought it was brilliant this year. Failed miserably to try all the beers I should have and should definitely have not tried the 7% plus beers early in the evening (schoolboy error) but overall found it great, especially having the food section out back.

I think having at least one or possibly two alternative token sale stands down the back of the venue (or even having people walking around selling them) would stop the clustering of people at the front, and going from one queue (to get in) to another queue (for tokens) was a bit annoying, perhaps selling you tokens whilst you were getting the tag would be a better use of time?

BeerNut

schemingbohemia wrote: »

perhaps selling you tokens whilst you were getting the tag would be a better use of time?

You'd end up with the two companies getting in each other's way. I don't know why they don't have roaming token vendors: seems really obvious.

Ravelleman

BeerNut wrote: »

You'd end up with the two companies getting in each other's way. I don't know why they don't have roaming token vendors: seems really obvious.

A man who I identified, possibly incorrectly, as Seamus O'Hara was selling tokens to people in the queue outside on the Friday evening to save people time. Roaming sellers would certainly be a good idea.

L1011

There was at least one twunt acting as an unofficial roaming seller, at twice the price, when the queues got quite bad.

I'm surprised he managed to get as many tokens as he had, probably repeat trips to each staff member on the desk early in the day.

quadrifoglio verde

Ravelleman wrote: »

A man who I identified, possibly incorrectly, as Seamus O'Hara was selling tokens to people in the queue outside on the Friday evening to save people time. Roaming sellers would certainly be a good idea.

Isn't he one of the organisers of it all?

oblivious

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Isn't he one of the organisers of it all?

yep

the beer revolu

I finally got to try The beer formerly known as Curious Brew but now known as Radical Brew from Radikale in bierhaus, Cork last night.

I think it's a truly amazing beer.

Not G.R

the beer revolu wrote: »

I finally got to try The beer formerly known as Curious Brew but now known as Radical Brew from Radikale in bierhaus, Cork last night.

I think it's a truly amazing beer.

I'd expect to see more of this type of beer with the price of hops ever increasing.

Does anyone know why lagunitas had a stand? Would have fathered another Irish brewery there.

Also when will the madness of Itchy and Scratchy land dollars go? What's wrong with give cash directly to the brewers? Legal reasons?

oblivious

Not G.R wrote: »

Does anyone know why lagunitas had a stand? Would have fathered another Irish brewery there.

They have had a US/Canadian brewer over the last few. Also an associate of Porterhouse in the importer from them so probably looking for a push.

The quest not asked is why Jameson were there

Not G.R wrote: »

IAlso when will the madness of Itchy and Scratchy land dollars go? What's wrong with give cash directly to the brewers? Legal reasons?

Standard beer festival issue for anything over a couple of breweries

BeerNut

Not G.R wrote: »

Does anyone know why lagunitas had a stand? Would have fathered another Irish brewery there.

They didn't really. Grand Cru Beers had a stand, and has done every year, I think. Usually they have Sierra Nevada and a couple of other beers; this year they went all Lagunitas. I've been a bit down on Lagunitas lately but the Fusion pale ale was fantastic.

Not G.R wrote: »

Also when will the madness of Itchy and Scratchy land dollars go?

It won't.

Not G.R wrote: »

What's wrong with give cash directly to the brewers? Legal reasons?

Business reasons. The festival organisers, the RDS and the provider of the licence to serve alcohol (Madigan's across the road) all demand a cut of the money taken in by the bars. It would be impossible to count the cash taken by the bars and give each party their cut out of that. It would also be an absolute security nightmare to have 50 cashboxes on the go, and may even render the event uninsurable. There's no practical way to run an event of this format on this scale on a cash basis.

Mesrine65

Not G.R wrote: »

Also when will the madness of Itchy and Scratchy land dollars go? What's wrong with give cash directly to the brewers? Legal reasons?

BeerNut wrote: »

It won't.

Business reasons. The festival organisers, the RDS and the provider of the licence to serve alcohol (Madigan's across the road) all demand a cut of the money taken in by the bars. It would be impossible to count the cash taken by the bars and give each party their cut out of that. It would also be an absolute security nightmare to have 50 cashboxes on the go, and may even render the event uninsurable. There's no practical way to run an event of this format on this scale on a cash basis.

The option to cash-in un-used tokens needs to be addressed though, hoping they'll carry over to the next one, frankly, isn't good enough IMHO

Creamy Goodness

Mesrine65 wrote: »

The option to cash-in un-used tokens needs to be addressed though, hoping they'll carry over to the next one, frankly, isn't good enough IMHO

Why though? if they were sold in a minimum spend groups I'd tend to agree loosely, but it's up to yourself to manage your spend.

BeerNut

Mesrine65 wrote: »

frankly, isn't good enough IMHO

I'm sure the RDS, whose system it is, think it's just fine and in no way jeopardises their takings. Why, if anything, it probably increases them

Mesrine65

BeerNut wrote: »

I'm sure the RDS, whose system it is, think it's just fine and in no way jeopardises their takings. Why, if anything, it probably increases them

My point exactly

L1011

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Why though? if they were sold in a minimum spend groups I'd tend to agree loosely, but it's up to yourself to manage your spend.

If the terrible queues at some times didn't induce panic buying by some people, there'd be nobody to blame.

Creamy Goodness

L1011 wrote: »

If the terrible queues at some times didn't induce panic buying by some people, there'd be nobody to blame.

Myself and the missus worked in a team, one would go up buy tokens, use tokens, the next person goes up to get tokens whilst the other goes gets a drink with the last of the previous batch.

It's not terribly hard, and if you think the queues are bad (they sometimes are) can you imagine the queue at the end of the night for people trying to get €2.50/€5 back in unused tokens.

matrim

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Myself and the missus worked in a team, one would go up buy tokens, use tokens, the next person goes up to get tokens whilst the other goes gets a drink with the last of the previous batch.

It's not terribly hard, and if you think the queues are bad (they sometimes are) can you imagine the queue at the end of the night for people trying to get €2.50/€5 back in unused tokens.

My GF and I made a deal that while she queued for the bathroom I queued for the tokens. I was normally finished queueing first

poitinstill

is it worth a beer of the festival thread or keep this one going ?

BaZmO*

poitinstill wrote: »

is it worth a beer of the festival thread or keep this one going ?

Probably best to keep it in this thread because this is the thread that people can search through next year or years after. Makes more sense to keep it all together. But if everyone else thinks it's better to have a separate thread, that's cool too.

poitinstill

for my top 3 i'd lean towards Radicale curious ( ale dry hopped with Gin botanicals) . Or the Coffee randal stout from White hag ? . and Rye River 10.1% american IPA. honorable mention to Boyne dortmunder and Kinsale sour brown

Gongoozler

We went on the Saturday around 2pm so nicely missed the massive influx after the match.

Is it my imagination or did the price of entry include a couple of tokens last year? Was woefully disappointed with paying €15 to get in, getting no tokens then having to pay fairly regular prices for the produce. I would expect at least one free drink for that price.

I'm not a beer drinker,but himself had a good time. Some really good stuff for him anyway. Unfortunately, as a cider drinker I was somewhat disappointed (though not surprised) that there were only two new ciders this year. Not a fan of Dan Kellys, Fallen Apple, Tobys etc. Did find Doyles range decent, though they each had a weird taste off them. Not quite sure what it was. Wouldn't be mad to go purchase any though.

We left just after the queue for the tokens spiralled, he had tried all the new ones at that point. Except for the Hairy Nuts one from Mountain Goat, which wasn't tapped in all the time we were there.

I couldn't get my wristband off without cutting it, but we thought it'd be nice to give his away to someone in the queue. Would be nice if it was a boardsie