I spent a lot of time tonight wondering how the Brew Swap went. Someone chime in tomorrow and let me know.

Matt

 

Here is one of the winners... NAM name howsoonisnow

 

This was my first MOTD and Brew Swap, and it was great! I drink mostly microbrews with an occasional Guinness or Sam Adams, and think of myself in the minority. I was amazed at the turn out of people- well over 100 probably closer to 200. I brought 2 twelve packs from my local microbrewery and had them all traded in probably an hour. Many people showed up at 7 or later after dinner. I actually wish I had brought more, there were others I wanted to trade for, but I wasn't willing to give up any of the new ones I'd just gotten. Now I can't wait to start trying some.

I wasn't listening to the emcee much, but I heard him say that $2600 had already been donated, and there was likely to be more.

Wasn't there going to be a silent auction also? Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I didn't see or hear anything about it.

 

We had a blast but me missed the excitement during the Olympics Lots of F bombs being dropped from what I heard.

 

Yeah we ditched the silent auction due to a lack of items to auction.

I'm waiting to hear how the Beerlympics went. Hope the language didn't offend anyone but sounds fun to me.

 

I heard only good things about the swap and the beerlympics...

... but I think the best part of that night was the "Das Uns" and "British Girl" raunchiness on 7 sub 21. Wonder who that British girl really is...

 

I had fun so I hear

Mark

 

It was great, I traded all my beer in less than an hour and I did great, I got great beers, can't wait to taste them all

Don't know about the beerlimpics, I left before they even started.

 

The Brew Swap was great,4 friends and I won the beerlympics we kicked some butt! Every one was great and friendly I will post all are names when I get a chance are team name was the EAST COAST BULLOCKS and yes we will be there to defend our title next year. JERSEY

 

I had a good time and i don't even drink beer. I judged, and some things got out of hand early, but we were all friends by the end of the night.

If i judge next year we will have to be better organized at keeping the teams together.

 

Compared to the last few years, I felt that the overall vibe had shifted away from sampling/learning/swapping beers and mingling with each other to hurry up and swap so we can get to the drinking. I suppose that is natural.

It seemed that everyone brought all of their beer already cold. I saw a handful of the same beers multiple times and a number of imports. While imports can be great, I just thought that seemed to go against the purpose of the event.

Even though it seemed to dominate the consciousness of other attendees, I left when the Beerlympics got rolling. Admittedly, it was kind of nice getting the swapping done with enough time left in the evening to do something else. But I felt like I was there on a mission (to swap brews) instead of there to enjoy it all and soak it all in.

I still enjoyed myself and came home with plenty of new, regional brews to taste, but I think that it was basically missing a bit of your vision, Matt. Hope you can make it back next year!

 

It was so much fun! I got some REALLY good beers to see if I can find! I may just have to take a trip down south a bit to get some Sweet Water Blue!!!

I have some pictures and some videos that I am in the process of uploading.(disregard any pictures of me....beer and giant pixy sticks....)

 

Aside from too many people bringing cold beer, it was just as fun as last year.

We got our trading done and left when the drinking games began. Went back to the campgrounds and grilled out and drank a few of our newly acquired brews.

I do think some of the 'find a local brew and bring it' was missed by a few folks. There were quite a few imports and someone had Miller Lite.

Still, we had a good time and will do it again. But, next year I'll be the one making all the 'don't bring the beer cold!' posts before we head out.

 

I was a Beerlympics spectator. I think it was more fun watching than any kind of participating.

 

Well Said Ditto for me.

The volunteers did a very good job, but we definitely missed Matt & Heidi - it wasn't the same without you.

 

As far as the Beerlympics goes, I do have to apologize for the complete disarray. That was totally my fault and I really dropped the ball. It got a little heated early on, but we made it through with a ton of help with the gameplay and organization from the members of Think Pink. I can't thank Think Pink enough even though it's just a typed message. During and after the event I was completely upset with myself and didn't really know what to say. I think the bottom line is that the two best performing teams made it to the end, and it all came down to beer pong.

-Greg

 

i had a great time. thats all i can really say.

 

I've heard some rumblings about the Beerlympics ranging from it being a total mess with fist fights nearly breaking out to a little heated. I don't know what happened but I'm glad to hear that the games continued on succesfully.

I will say this, IF (and that's a big if) there is a Beerlympics next year there will be no walk on teams. I spent months trying to cull interest from people to make teams and didn't get responses except from the four teams that OFFICIALLY signed up. I didn't bar walk-ons though so I take fault for that myself.

I'm glad it came down to Beer Pong because from the moment I got the idea that's what I always wanted the deciding event to be.

I quoted your whole post John because you made some excellent points. While Heidi & I were planning on skipping MOTD again next year so we can attend some west coast events (like AMVIV) I think we will try and do what we can to be there next year.

I hear Michael Stroz did a excellent job running the event as a whole. The dropping of any ***** would be from me in that I did not devote much time to pushing the recommendations and rules for the event as a whole. You may remember I spent a lot of time last year talking about not chilling all the beer. I didn't even mention it once this year. I also stress the local beer bit and didn't do that either. That'll be a big push for next year.

I'd also like to hear from people on the size this year. Was it too many people or was it ok?

And John, I like that you and others were able to swap successfully and still get out to have some other fun that evening. Nothing wrong with that.

I ask all attendees to post their comments and recommendations for next year but please keep it respectful and civil. No one has done otherwise so far but I want to head it off at the pass.

Thanks
Matt

 

Once things started winding down, Michael and I talked about the event in comparison to previous years. We discussed the cold beer thing and also both noted that it seemed there weren't as many samples being offered up this year. I don't know if there were just a bunch more first timers this year, but the sampling is one of the best parts of the event. I am not too keen on trading beer when I don't know if I like what I am getting.

Also, I need to bring more beer next year. I think my 12 Copper Flasks were gone in under 30 minutes!

 

+1 on sampling. I was giving out samples of Spotted Cow the whole time we were there, and I think some people were surprised I was doing it

For the record, I haven't drank MUCH of the beer I picked up, but I did enjoy a few of them. So far, Shiner Bock Bohemian Black is a new 'must get'.

 

Yeah next year I think we carve a few dollars out of the budget and provide sample cups like year one and promote the sampling aspect. Now that's I'm more tuned to my own tastes I can trade without sampling but the sampling was always half the fun.

 

They had sample cups, but i think some people didn't bring enough beer so they had to be stingy on the beer. I had a blast, I was told

 

Well as the eternal Newby and My first beer swap I had a lot of fun.

I brought 2 6ers half cold was that to much cold? Nobody complained and they were traded quickly. I am new to beer and didn't bring any local because the of the 2 in town on sells only growlers and the other one was being brought by someone else. How would trade for growlers work 3 for 1? Are Growlers ok? I should have asked these questions before. But I will ask for next year.

If there is are Beer Olympics next year. Here are my observations:

Drop the Beer chug it is redundant with the Boat Race. Which is more fun because it is a team event.

All the events you should be team event like Quarters.

Have team tables that they go to during setup of the next event. Bonus points for decorations.

Maybe have the competsion area roped off to keep the crowd out the way so that think can run smoother.

The Judges ruling should be final. I am think whistles and striped shirts for the judges.
[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT='Times New Roman']I am willing to buy this stuff to help. Again it was alot of fun.[/FONT]

 

The thing with beer is that it should be kept out of the sunlight and at a cool room temperature until such a time as you're ready to cool it and drink it. It's not good for beer to be cold, then warm, then cold again. Beer can skunk that way. Does that mean it's guaranteed to go bad? No, of course not. But it's a risk that doesn't need to be taken. I recommend to keep at room temp as many beers as you want to trade out. So if you want to take home 2 cases of new beers you traded for then keep 2 cases of what you brought at room temp. You obviously should have a six-pack chilled for sampling and personal consumption.

Growlers are great for sharing but no good for trading unless you're trading growler for growler. By all means bring growlers and do what you like. I just think it'll be hard to trade them out.

As to your Beerlympics suggestions:

1. Drop the pint chug: It is somewhat redundant but I could break down the reasons why it's good and a valid game for the current set up we have. That said, I'd love to swap it out. The problem is finding a quick game that can be scored that doesn't involve some craziness. Please send me any games you know of so I can review.

2. All the events should be team events: I wasn't there to see this year but Quarters should not have been a team event. That's a 1 on 1 event, so to speak. Team quarters doesn't make much sense. The idea of the team size and number of games was to have every player do a single event and the team does one together. Beer Pong happens to have 2 players but they won't be doing any other events than the team one. And turning all games into team events makes it harder to referee and would easily lengthen the time the games take. I can't see anyone wanting the games to go on longer than they do.

3. Team Tables: You know, if we had the space I love the idea of keeping team members who aren't playing off to the side. Decorations would be nice too. We'll think about that one.

4. Crowd Roping: I agree 100% and we'll have a solution for that next year.

5. Judges Ruling: Apparantly my iron fist is needed when it comes to ruling. If possible in anyway my fist will be there.

So if we have the Beerlympics next year (still undecided and will remain so until I get more accounting as to what went down) we'll take those things into consideration.

If others have comments or ideas I welcome them.

Thanks
Matt

 

I think you could say I had a good time.......

This years on the table - best (labels) of last year on the wall.