Wichita's Midwest Beer Fest 10-18-03

The fest itself is so-so...pretty much the exact same selection found at the better local stores, so nothing new here, except you can get pours of Utopias without having to shell out the $$$. One also hopes each year that New Belgium will bring something not available on the local shelves like La Folie or NBB Love or Transatlantique Kriek, but they so far haven't and doubtful will this time. Here the real shit-kicker though, the $45 per plate "beer dinner" the night before, hosted by Joe Sixpack of the Philly Enquirer...and a more ridiculous looking beer list I've never seen:

night before, hosted by Joe Sixpack of the Philly Enquirer...and a more ridiculous looking beer list I've never seen:

Pete's brews are from WISCONSIN? I am SO ashamed. I'm afraid I'm going to have to drown my sorrows in a bucket of Sublime Hard Raspberry Lemonade with an Amstel Light chaser.

"Douglas W. Hoyt" wrote on 13 Oct 2003:

Snrf. Boy howdy, that's...what's the word? Sad? With all the decent to FG beers coming to the event, they're serving food paired with SA Cherry Wheat? Michelob Black & Tan?? Leinenkugal [sic] Red??? I guess Joe Sixpack wants to be in touch with the common man. Or the chefs don't normally have access to good beer.

Thought the Pete's line was produced in Texas now. Wish there were someone with insider knowledge around who could set us straight.

Witzel

I guess I can punt using up those FF points to fly to Wichita then. Okay, fine, maybe Chicago next year or something.

In the absence of such a person - well, I did talk to the original Pete recently, and might be out drinkin' with him on Wednesday night - I can offer that Pete's is produced in a couple of places. The company that owns the brand is in Texas, though.

Joe (Don Russell) is in touch with the common man -- he's a pretty much unassuming kind of guy, not given to putting on airs; he actually writes for the Philly Daily News, not the Inky (that's INquirer, Doug!) -- but I seriously doubt he would have selected those beers. I've broken bread with him at Monk's on a number of occasions, and he definitely has a taste for the finer beers. Having been the victim of things like this in the past, I'd conjecture that Don agreed to do it, and THEN the beer-ignorant chefs picked the beers. Probably by the labels or by the advice of the local beer sales twerps.

Is that where Pete's is brewed now? Was in Minnesota for awhile, then when bought by Gambrinus was breewd in places like Tumwater and, um, somewhere down south (IIRC). Now I see that's it's been dumbed down yet again-- less hops, next to no chocolate malt. Sheesh, have they no shame? Does anyone with a respect for beer still drink it?

-- Joel Plutchak | Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"I don't like beer. I tried it once and thought it was terrible." - Overheard at a restaurant

Have you read some of "Joe Sixpack" columns? S/he certainly doesn't aim at the beer snob market. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)

Sadly, rfdb has never had a good source of professional inside information. Would've been a nice resource for the group.

-- Joel Plutchak | Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"I don't like beer. I tried it once and thought it was terrible." - Overheard at a restaurant

Eden, NC ....cannot remember who was breing there in the past, but is was one of the "old-time" breweries (Stroh's, Miller, etc).

Sean

Hey, lets write em a letter and let them know we wanna see that stuf.

BTW, I have a bottle of la folie you are welcome to. I'll be the really really drunk guy from the local coors distributor. I cant stand la folie.

snipped-for-privacy@--sbcglobal.net

snipped-for-privacy@uiuc.edu (plutchak joel peter) wrote on 14 Oct 2003:

Uh, no, but with a name like Joe Sixpack I didn't figure him to be a Snob. See also Lew's post, naturally.

Probably too busy running their respective businesses to lurk in newsgroups. Hell, Bertha even took several months off, and it ain't like "she" was running a major brewery, just writing all the time.

Didn't we used to have a Budweiser worker around these parts?

Witzel

The attendence this year was really good and I think everyone had a great time. I ended up working through most of it so my glass only was graced with Buly! Porter, but that isnt all bad.

Durring cleanup I heard a group of police officers plotting to make sure it never takes place again. I sure hope this isnt the case. Wichita PD is filled with morons. Most people were pretty well behaved for the level of drunkeness. I guess they just dont like seeing people have a good time

i couldn't make it due to a last minute unforeseen event, which really pissed me off because I missed the event for no good reason really. But that last comment from the police...thats terrible but pretty typical of Wichita. sheesh.