{"id":4046,"date":"2012-05-18T14:35:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T02:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=4046"},"modified":"2012-05-21T01:39:48","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T13:39:48","slug":"gabs-2012-day-two-and-three-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/18\/gabs-2012-day-two-and-three-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"GABS 2012: Day Two & Three Photos, with Afterthoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

GABS Weekend was genuinely awesome — and pretty-much exhausting. I just never<\/em>\u00a0caught up on the fact that my trip started with 26-odd-hours awake running on a mere two hours<\/em>\u00a0sleep. But these are trifling #firstworldproblems; I was having a marvellous time, giddy with beer-geek joy, doing a bit of volunteer monkey-work, meeting lovely people and sampling a surprisingly-modest few beers. I couldn’t keep up the standard I set on Day One<\/a>, so will take the time now to post a few more photos and some very-preliminary afterthoughts I’ve thunk<\/a> since.<\/p>\n

— The People: Visitors<\/h3>\n

There were lots<\/em>\u00a0of people — ten-thousand-plus, distributed unevenly over the five sessions: a quiet and probably-valuable “soft” opening on Friday afternoon, a busier Friday night, the biggest crowd on Saturday afternoon, followed by a middling evening and a suitably-sedate Sunday — and they ranged massively from hard-core nerdy anoraks to “normal people”. The mix varied predictably (Friday night: more normal, Saturday day: more nerdy) but was never too<\/em>\u00a0lop-sided in either direction. They were good<\/em>\u00a0crowds, too; I have it on good authority that not one person<\/em>\u00a0was thrown out all weekend.<\/p>\n

All those people and tasting paddles did stress the serving setup, and — ultimately — break it a few times. Queues got long<\/em>, but people adapted by carrying multiple paddles and — barring minor flare-ups on Facebook and such — didn’t seem to let it ruin their mood. It’s a difficult event to design a system for, especially untested, and the organisers are wise to the issue and already talking about sensible-sounding revisions for next year.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Queue<\/a>
Queue of visitors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"People<\/a>
Purchasing plural paddles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Friday<\/a>
Friday night cup-stackers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

— The People: Volunteers and Brewers<\/h3>\n

I was basically a backup-member of a few-hundred-strong volunteer army — I had a few duties at each session, but normal<\/em>\u00a0recruits did one or two full shifts. The economics of beer festivals is such that they’re basically always dependent on people working in exchange for a few tickets and tokens, and the fun of it, rather than regular wages. There was a lot<\/em>\u00a0of prep-and-re-prep to be done between sessions, on top of all those thousands of serves of beer, and swarms of coloured shirts got it done admirably.<\/p>\n

Brewer presence is a tricky thing to figure out at beer festivals, too — it’s certainly\u00a0a factor that Beervana needs to work on<\/a>, and is working on — GABS-attending brewers had distinctive caps (though black hats all look alike at a distance, inevitably), but they also had a really-sweet VIP area (for which tickets were available to the public, at a premium price) with snacks and its own bar. Brewers were rare-ish<\/em>\u00a0on the main floor, but crowds were big and I still managed to meet a fair few — and, again, the organisers have already come up with a minor re-shuffle that should make them even easier to find, next year.<\/p>\n

\n
\"My<\/a>
My wristbands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Bar<\/a>
Bar 03's volunteers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Tasting<\/a>
Tasting paddle return bin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Guides<\/a>
Guides and glasses set up pre-session<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"The<\/a>
The easily-found Kjetil from N\u00f8gne \u00d8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"View<\/a>
View from the VIP area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

— The Food<\/h3>\n

Outside the building, through the big Southern doors, was a row of food vendors opening out of trailers and tents and whatnot. They were brilliantly varied, from pizza to curry, and reasonably-priced; basically perfect Festival Food. I didn’t have a dud snack or meal, and I had some absolute gems — particularly the gob-smackingly fantastic po’ boys from the guys in the Gumbo Kitchen truck<\/a>, which was (rather brilliantly) playing things like the Treme soundtrack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Po'<\/a>
Po' Boy and fried shrimp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Argentine<\/a>
Argentine barbeque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Paella<\/a>
Paella pan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

— First After-afterthoughts<\/h3>\n

It was a great<\/em>\u00a0weekend, and I’m very glad I made the trip. I’ve inherited my Dad’s engineer’s-eye for criticism and potential improvements, but basically all of them that came to mind were straight-away mentioned, unprompted, by Steve (the Festival Overboss) when I caught up with him late in Sunday’s session. He, and the rest of the organisers, are all over it. So I’m stowing most of them in my brain, satisfied that the wrinkles will be smoothed and next year will be even more awesome<\/em>. I’m in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GABS Weekend was genuinely awesome — and pretty-much exhausting. I just never\u00a0caught up on the fact that my trip started with 26-odd-hours awake running on a mere two hours\u00a0sleep. But these are trifling #firstworldproblems; I was having a marvellous time, giddy with beer-geek joy, doing a bit of volunteer monkey-work, meeting lovely people and sampling … Continue reading GABS 2012: Day Two & Three Photos, with Afterthoughts<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-4046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports","tag-photogenic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3973,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/12\/gabs-day-one-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":4046,"position":0},"title":"GABS 2012: Day One Photos","author":"Phil","date":"May 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I'm back in my dear old Melbourne taking full advantage of my well-timed unemployment to attend GABS: the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular. It's rather a treat, and will warrant a proper write-up (or several), but I just want to use the last few moments before my sleep-deprived brain implodes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Main Hall, looking East","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Malt-end-daylight1-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4431,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/30\/yeastie-boys-gunnamatta\/","url_meta":{"origin":4046,"position":1},"title":"Yeastie Boys ‘Gunnamatta’","author":"Phil","date":"June 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's rather fitting that, now I've finally finished uploading my GABS Weekend notes, I actually have a proper Diary\u00a0entry for the beer that started my trip. At the preposterously unfortunate time of four-thirty in the morning \u2014 around-about when I'd usually be contemplating going to bed \u2014 I arrived at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A later \/ right-now \/ not-long-ago bottle of Yeastie Boys 'Gunnamatta'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yeastie-Boys-Gunnamatta-in-the-bottle-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4051,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/20\/gabs-paddle-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4046,"position":2},"title":"GABS Paddle #1: Everything \u2264 4.5% ABV","author":"Phil","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've mentioned a few times when talking about GABS, my Friday was very\u00a0sleep-deprived; I only had two hours sleep on Thursday night -- my nocturnal nature meshes not at all\u00a0with early-morning flights -- and wound up awake for some twenty-six hours. So I took it very\u00a0easy, those first two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tasting Paddle #1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GABS-2012-Tasting-Paddle-n1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4083,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/23\/gabs-glass-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4046,"position":3},"title":"GABS Glass #1: Garage Project ‘Double Day of the Dead’","author":"Phil","date":"May 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"At GABS, I was understudy for Local Taphouse's Guy Greenstone, who was set to host 'Beerista' introductory tasting sessions at the 'Craft Beer College' series of free seminars running at the festival. He had a run-in with pneumonia, but was looking hearty during Friday's Session One, so I seemed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garage Project 'Double Day of the Dead'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Garage-Project-DDOTD-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":243,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2005\/09\/01\/fullers-1845\/","url_meta":{"origin":4046,"position":4},"title":"Fuller’s \u20181845\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"September 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Fuller's 1845 Strong Ale. 500ml, $5, 6.4%, 1\/9\/05. I'm old, and using a fake pen from Wallace. Watching Scrubs. It's good n' big. Ruby-brown. Light aroma, but quite nice and full. Very British. Methinks most people would like it. But it's a bit like the Tangle Foot; sneaks right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fuller's '1845'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1029-Fullers-1845-300x265.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4187,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/15\/gabs-paddle-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4046,"position":5},"title":"GABS Paddle #2: Random Favourites","author":"Phil","date":"June 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The final Sunday-afternoon session of GABS was considerably lower-key than the ones which came before. There were fewer attendees (a shade less than the Friday afternoon session, perhaps would-be visitors were off being dutiful offspring for Mother's Day), and the whole machine of the thing was running with now-practiced smoothness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tasting Paddle #2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GABS-2012-Tasting-Paddle-n2.1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4046"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4116,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions\/4116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}