So I made a little noise with my beers of the Irish Fest post. I'm just getting around to posting the recap (not due to the excessive amounts of Pale Ale I consumed there!).
The beer stands seemed promising at first on Saturday as their beer inventory included Coors Light, Boulevard Wheat, Boulevard Pale Ale, and Boulevard Stout along with an Irish Cream Liquor. Still no traditional Irish brands, but at least a start. Unfortuntately, the Irish Cream was "kicked" by early afternoon on Saturday and when I returned on Sunday, the Stout had likewise been "crossed off" of the beer offerings.
In my previous post on this issue, a very informed poster informed me that loyalty to Boulevard is what determined the beer selections. I appreciate that. I want the Irish Fest to flourish and grow so if it makes sense to include only Boulevard taps then go for it. I still don't get how that explains that none of the other Boulevard brands were included. It also doesn't explain why the Stout couldn't have been easily replaced.
Rather than just complain I'd like to offer a solution. How about one of the beer tents being designated as the micro-brew tent with all Boulevard brands on draft and maybe a cider along with some traditional Irish related brews. (I was also chided by a commenter that all of my suggestions were actually owned by British controlled interests which confused me because a) I know I see the Boulevard brewery in downtown KC not downtown Dublin and b) and didn't realize such anti-British animosity revealed itself in a local family based event. I mean even Ragland Road and O'Dowds include the so called British brands I suggested.)
Anyway, great music, great fun, great food and a great time at the KC Irish Fest. I went two days and I will probably volunteer at the event next year. I just don't get the beer decision.
5 comments:
Okay, in the interest of accuracy you weren't "chided". The comment as written was just that there was an argument to be made against the Irishness of British-owned beers, if having an Irish beer at the festival is your goal. And there's no "anti-British animosity" in that statement. It's just that British ain't Irish. And Boulevard was never called an Irish beer-brewed in downtown Dublin or anywhere else. Our name is the Kansas City Irish Fest. Let's call Boulevard part of the "Kansas City" in that title. It's just as important to us as the "Irish" part. To your suggestion of having one micro-brew tent, here's why we won't do that. 95,000 plus people came to Irish Fest this year. And we're going to send all of them who want a certain craft beer to the one tent on the grounds where they can get it? Forget what the beer sponsors would say about cutting their handles by 70%. The beer drinkers would riot. And lastly why don't we have all the Boulevard beers on tap? One, there's not room in our tents or in the reefer trucks for all those kegs and handles tapped at once. Two, we attempt to keep the wait for a beer at Irish Fest to a minimum. Keeping our choices to the most popular labels keeps decision making and thus transactions speedy. And three, we pay for full kegs. If we tap Zon, say, to accommodate the small audience that might like to have one over the weekend and end up with 3/4 keg left over that's money out of our pocket that we can't afford. Again, by keeping to the most popular choices we minimize that problem.
Anyway, don't mean to keep beating this poor old horse. Thanks for coming to Irish Fest and for the kind words about the festival. PLEASE do volunteer next year, preferably on the beverage committee since you have a knowledge and passion about the beer. We'd love to have you.
Is it wrong to want Guinness at an Irish festival?
Not at all. But don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen in Kansas City.
Screw KC Irish Fest. It sucked.
Yeah. That must be why hardly anybody showed up for it.
Post a Comment