Oktoberfest, Riotfest, Rob's Wedding, Organic Week and Mondial (oh my)

Wow. What a month. This seriously has to go down as craziest month ever. I'm going to have to say 'wow' again. Wow. Ok, so here goes...

First, Oktoberfest. This was our 2nd time holding a full-on Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill, and we nailed it this time. Last year we got overwhelmed by the turn-out, but this year we really pulled it off. Not without a hitch, mind you, but pretty close.

Saturday was a complete sell-out and Sunday was pretty full as well. We raised over $30,000 for charity and had a whole pile of fun. The bands were amazing, the kinderfest was awesome (Doo-Doo the clown is the best kids entertainer, ever), the speakers series was super cool, Cask Days was phenomenal, the activities went really well and the brewery tours were enjoyed by folks, too.

I didn't post a pic, because you should check out the soundslide that Justin at our local newspaper, The Review put up. http://www.thereview.ca/story/soundslide-oktoberfest-ist-wunderbar

The next weekend, Riotfest. Nothing to do with the brewery, but there's a really cool punkrock festival in Chicago every year called Riotfest and a bunch of us went down for Rob's bachelor party...hey, Rob works for the brewery, so I guess it sorta has a little bit to do with the brewery. Also I went to Piece brewpub and drank a whole pile of 3 Floyd's beer while I was there...

And then Rob and Robyn's Wedding...The next weekend was the wedding. The night before the wedding Rob and Robyn held a show at Sneaky Dee's and they convinced my old band to get back together for a set. That was really cool and their wedding was awesome fun, too. And I must say that after spending so much money at Sneaky Dee's during college, I'm glad to have gotten a tiny bit of it back (our beer was on tap for the night).

Then Organic Week and the reception on Parliament Hill. It was a cool day spent remembering why we spend the extra time and money to make organic beer and do a bit of organic food lobbying. An interesting side note, was that in speaking to Steve Abrahms from Mill St Brewery in Toronto that he also was in a band back in the day called Skinnerbox, and I use to listen to their stuff all the time.

Then came Mondial. Wow, was that a party. This is the 2nd annual Mondial de la Biere held in Strasbourg, at the far corner of France, just next to the German border. The show itself was a bit rough on me physically, but great fun as well. At night though, everybody was out partying like it was 1999. I can't go through the list of awesome people I was hanging out with without sounding like I'm name dropping, so instead I'll say this: During my nights there I was enthralled with conversations with Swedes, Italians, Americans, Belgians, Brits and fellow Canadians. I'd come solo and was worried that I'd spend my nights bored and alone, but instead I think I saw the wrong side of 5am everynight thanks to the efforts of my intrepid brewing colleagues.

So yeah...this weekend is Cask Days and Halloween in Toronto with Nicola and the kids (who, I'm happy to say still remembered that they had a husband/father when I returned from France yesterday). That will put the final, wonderful cap on a wonderful, busy month.

George-A-Palooza (a.k.a. Oktoberfest 2009)

So this blog entry is a bit late, but worthwhile nonetheless. We had our first ever Oktoberfest on October 3rd of this year. Technically, last year we had a little shin-dig at the brewery, very low key, but still fun. All year afterwards we had this ongoing debate…are we ready to do a bigger version, or should we wait a year. With 6 weeks to go, on a trip to Toronto with Rob, we had a moment of intense optimism and decided the time was right.

In retrospect, it probably wasn’t, but once you commit, you have to deliver. 6 weeks is not a lot of time to put together a large scale event; but on the other hand, we work a lot harder than average folk, so maybe it was just right. At any rate, we had to find a location, food, entertainment, costumes, work out transportation logistics, print tickets, signs, posters and figure out how to get the word out.

Food wasn’t too hard. We’ve got great relationships with amazing restaurants and chefs, so we started calling them up. Entertainment was kindof tough, but we got lucky that some of the better oompah music wasn’t booked that night, and through other personal relationships we worked out a really cool homebrewing demonstration, kids activities, a keg tapping ceremony and obviously brewery tours and haywagon rides.

Then came the stoke of great luck. My friend George Eaglesmith said he would be coming. George is about the most enthusiastic brewer in the planet and if he was coming then certainly the stars and the moons had aligned and things would be good. Next I heard from Alan McKay of the Members of Barleyment that the other George (Wendt, that is) was doing a promo tour of his upcoming book Drinking With George. Better yet, Alan had been in contact with George’s PR firm about an interview for his Bodensatz website and had actual contact info.

This is where I came in. After about 300 emails and a dozen phone calls, I convinced George and his manager and his PR firm that he should attend our Oktoberfest. His schedule was pretty tight – Cincinnati Oktoberfest with ½ million people, Great American Beer Festival (awesome event if you are lucky enough to get tix before it sells out), and then the Colbert Report. The next morning a flight into Ottawa and boom – this is really happening, George Wendt came to Vankleek Hill.
Oktoberfest itself is a non-stop blur of work and excitement. We were pretty overwhelmed by the numbers of people that came out – we had expected 1,000, hoped for 1,500 and publicly said as many as 2,000 might show up. When 5,000 people arrived we couldn’t believe it.

While the food lasted it was fantastic. The bands were great. George Wendt stayed for an extra 2 hours to make sure everyone got an autograph. And all the homebrewers were excited that a professional brewer named George was so enthusiastic about their set up.

Perfect.

Well, in truth, the beer line ups got out of control for a couple hours and we did run out of food (until the pizza shops in town could start delivering), but 99% of the people who came told me afterwards they had the time of their lives. 1% of the people were very clear that they did not (see comments of long lineups and running out of food).