Brew at the Zoo coming up Saturday!

[Robin Garr]

<B>Brew at the Zoo</B>, coming up Saturday!

I can't believe I had to find this out from a wall poster at Heine's ... we got no notice of it at all. Great event, I'm really sorry I won't be able to make it.

<B>Brew at the Zoo (Fourth Annual)</b>

August 25 from 4:00 - 9:00 p.m.
in the Oasis Festival Tent & Field

Special ticket required

Produced by the Friends of the Zoo
Join us for the fourth annual Brew at the Zoo - a celebration with live entertainment, a wide variety of microbrews and great food.

Proceeds benefit the Zoo.

Admission:

Tickets will be available beginning July 1st.

<b>Click here to purchase advance tickets on-line</b>.

Advance Online:
$38 (designated driver $28)

Advance Purchase at Zoo Box Office:
$45 (designated driver $35)

Day of Event:
$50 (designated driver $40)

Price includes admission to the Zoo, live music, Official Brew at the Zoo 4 oz. tasting glass and brew and food sampling from participants.

(Food service 4–6:30 p.m., Beer tasting until 8:30 p.m.)

Event Overview:
There will be beers for tasting from 20 local and regional breweries. A selection of non-alcoholic products and water will be provided along with food tasting donated by more than 25 local restaurants and vendors.

http://www.louisvillezoo.org/events/brew.htm

(Website doesn't list specific breweries or restaurants participating. Forum brewfolks, can we assume that all the local micros/brewpubs will be well represented? Since they speak of "local and regional" breweries, does this mean Budswiller and other megas will not be on hand?)

To be perfectly honest, I've no idea who the brewing delegations are to be this year. We'll be there. Beyond that: ?

But there'll be gambling and a parrothead singalong, evidently. The less said about these new developments, the better.

I'll add one thing to the preceding.

Even if industrial megabrewers aren't there this year, I'm concerned that in the future, they will. At our Brewers of Indiana Guild festival in Indy in July, I was prowling around one of the tents and saw a stack of Bare Knuckle Stout (an A-B product). Later it was hinted to me that the reason for their incongruous presence was a handy "donation to charity."

My point: Corporate monoliths like the Busch boys are adept at luring the unsuspecting to the brink of the slippery slope, then taking everyone for a ride to the bottom. I don't trust them, I detest their century-long record of atrocities, and I warn that there will come a time when they'll move to dominate an event like Brew at the Zoo.

Here's the updated BATZ list so far:
Represented by Distributors and most on draft*
<a> Rouge Dead Guy</a>
<a>Schlafly Beers:</a>
APA
Pale Ale
Hefe
#15
Oktoberfest
Saison
Oatmeal Stout

<a>New Holland Red Tulip</a>
<a>Arcadia IPA</a>
<a>Ommegang Witte</a>
<a>Unibroue Chambly Noire</a>
<a> Avery White Rascal</a>
<a>Boulder Mojo IPA</a>
Bell's*
Breweries:
Bowling Green Brewing <b><i>Has backed out due to production issues</b></i>
Tourni's Main Street Brewing (Evansville - new this year)
Brugge Brasserie (Indy - new this year)
Barley Island (Noblesville, IN - new this year)
Browning's Brewery
BBC Beer Co. Clay Street Live Branch
BBC St. Matthews
Cumberland Brews
New Albanian Brewing Co.
Upland Brewing Co.
Alltech

Here's the list of breweries (so far):
Represented by Distributors and most on draft
Rouge Dead Guy
Schlafly Beers:
APA
Pale Ale
Hefe
#15
Oktoberfest
Saison
Oatmeal Stout

New Holland Red Tulip
Arcadia IPA
Ommegang Witte
Unibroue Chambly Noire
Avery White Rascal
Boulder Mojo IPA
Bell's*
Breweries:
Bowling Green Brewing Has backed out due to production issues
Touroni's Main Street Brewing (Evansville - new this year)
Brugge Brasserie (Indy - new this year)
Barley Island (Noblesville, IN - new this year)
Browning's Brewery
BBC Beer Co. Clay Street Live Branch
BBC St. Matthews
Cumberland Brews
New Albanian Brewing Co.
Upland Brewing Co.
Alltech

[Robin Garr]

Here's the list of breweries (so far):

Awwright! No mass-market swill! How in the heck did the Zoo resist the pressure?

Awwright! No mass-market swill! How in the heck did the Zoo resist the pressure?

I fully expected the A-B craft brew stable of Goose Island, Red Hook, and Widmer but none of these have been signed up.

Roger, any idea what NABC is bringing?

I'll quiz the brew crew today, but our usual festival routine is to bring the heavy artillery: Hoptimus (Double IPA), Thunderfoot (Imperial Stout) and the like.

It looks like a solid lineup to me. Now, if I can just get through the rest of the week ...

[Robin Garr]

the A-B craft brew stable of Goose Island, Red Hook, and Widmer

The sad thing about it is that I've been to all three of those places (Chicago, Seattle and Portland, right?) back when they were true indies and not "stealth micros." There oughta be a law!

Corporate monoliths like the Busch boys are adept at luring the unsuspecting to the brink of the slippery slope, then taking everyone for a ride to the bottom. I don't trust them, I detest their century-long record of atrocities, and I warn that there will come a time when they'll move to dominate an event like Brew at the Zoo.

I love your passion Roger, does AB use slave labor or something?

But seriously, aren't mass producers necessary to fill the demand? Just say there were no mass producers of AB, Coors, etc. could the demand for beer be filled? Eventually, could enough great, craft beer be produced to feed America?

Or with the equipment of AB is it possible for them to produce great beers that would meet the high standards we have for great craft beer?

Just some interesting questions that came to my mind.

The market for beer was readily appeased before the advent of industrial fizzwater production, so who's to say that a return to local based brewing would not fill the demand?

Nah, they don't use slave labor, but the absence of slaves doesn't mean their tactics over the year are any less reprehensible. That A-B is glorified as representing distinctly "American values" is meaningful only if you're willing to accept that such "values" can be the polar opposite of the way most people live their lives.

Given that we elected Shrub twice, that sadly might be the case.

I just wanted to say how excited I am to be working Brew at the Zoo. I have been wanting to go for a few years, and now I get to go as part of my job. Ain't life grand. David, thanks to you, John, Scott and all of the guys at BBC for the help you have given me with regard to this festival. Roger, I'll see you, and hopefully a lot of other people from this forum, on Saturday. I can't wait. This is going to be fun.

I can not think of any good reason that a mega brewer like AB, Coors, and Miller to be at a beer festival. Beer festivals are supposed to be celebrations of craft and maybe import beers for fans of good beer.

It would be the equivilant of Wal-Mart entering a Sam's Choice Bedspread into the Louisville Artisan's Guild Exhibition (September 4-Oct 9th by the way). Yes, they have quilts, but do they really belong there? Sure they sell more quilts than just about anyone, but it does not make them good, and nobody in the know really wants them there.

hail the brew at the zoo for remaining true to the real independents

echoing the thoughts of roger and todd

there is no acceptable reason for a mega brewer to be at a micro festival

(other than their desire to expand their market share by shrewdly packaging their new prodcuts to look like micros)

the only plus for AB's new line of micro creations is their attempt to push the "all natural/ organic" side of beer

--good news though--

even in a small town like charlestown, indiana
micro brews are selling well and being enjoyed by people who have never been exposed to real beer

can't wait to get the NABC on draft

Shawn

Just let me know when you're ready for it ... we have fresh brewery help as of this week, a walk-in cooler is being installed soon, and we'll be buying cooperage. We're ready when you are.