Heimbräudammerung

[David]

OK, we knew it was bound to happen. Homebrew at festivals is no longer loved by the powers that be. Say, what about having a festival for all the local homebrewers? It could be a charitible event; we could work out the various legalities and logistics to do a good deed, have fun, and promote homebrewing. As for our usual crew of festivals, we could offer a beer forum, an area of the festival where people could talk beer and ask questions of people who think they know every damn thing about brewing, and will only shut up when they are actually drinking.

I dunno, maybe I just want to add value to brewing fests. I liked the attention we got and I was proud of our participation.

Any thoughts?

[JoeHPhil]

+1

But, of course, now we have time for AHA judging if we do not have the 'fests. Perhaps make a fest out of that, like superbowl week or all-star week in a city.

[Konertjm]

You have to ask yourself, what is different now than it was last year or the prior 2 years?
This had all been covered in the mandatory server meeting the Mo Alcohol people and serving home brew was fine with them. Has something changed?

Is this politics in action?

Why move to BallPark village?
Poor parking, and expensive
Competition with ballgame
People not attending because they don't want to compete with ballgame parking
or have to take Metro link, or walk long distances
Begging for volunteers - that hasn't happened before
Having to beg for homebrew to serve - that wasn't an issue before (isn't now either, but that is a different story)
GBS bowing out, not that I blame them.

I won't be surprised if Heritage folds after this, or moves back to Forest Park.

[wnordmann]

Jim - I didn't know you were such a conspiracy theorist .

I think the reason the homebrew was banned this year and not previous years could be related to the Peoria incident recently or maybe it was just never really considered before.

According to this interview with Florian from Urban chestnut http://foodtalkstl.com/2012/06/11/st-louis-brewers-heritage-festival/ the move was related to schedule conflicts with forest park. There is also a hope they can get some national press from the ball game and help grow the event, you know show the crowds outside the ball game at a beer festival, announcers saying "doesn't that look fun". Also the metro link might be intended as a positive not a negative, I know everyone feels different about public transportation. I'm not sure the begging for volunteers hasn't happened in the past.

Here is a good STL Post article about it http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/dining/bars-and-clubs-other/hip-hops/homebrew-barred-from-st-louis-beer-festival/article_110a5560-b4ab-11e1-a55f-001a4bcf6878.html

I imagine a return to Forest Park will be determined by how the event works with the cards games.

[turkeyjerky214]

I'm not a betting man, but I would put good money on my theory that if this were still in Forest Park, the legality of homebrew would still be a non-issue.