Volo Cask Days - Oct 17-19

Duct Tape · Post by **Duct Tape** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:59 pm

GregClow wrote:Some of you might already know this, but Ralph confirmed tonight that a couple of beers were mislabelled this weekend:

1) The Cameron's beer that was tapped was the High Hop Silver (a dry-hopped blend of the Cream Ale and Auburn), not the Clove & Dagger. He still has the cask of the C&D untapped.

2) The KLB Pale Ale and Nickelbrook ESB were mixed up on Friday, and part of Saturday, until Tim from Nickelbrook showed up and discovered the screw-up. If the beer you had was golden-orange and quite hop-forward (I think it was dry hopped), it was the KLB Pale. If it was more of a copper colour and better balanced, it was the ESB.

Also, there are tentative plans to have a "Cask Days: Extended Edition" this coming Sunday to go through the casks that remain untapped. Once it's confirmed, the details will be posted here.

Good time tonight for post cask moments. Ralph mentioned the possible Sunday Session this weekend coming. Fingers crossed, it would be a good way to either start or end my visit to a friends newborn since i don;t have to drive to Whitby for the visit!!!

The High Hop Silver was in excellent form tonight now that i know what it actually was, though i thought it was quite nice as Clove and Dagger on Friday night!!!

Blankboy · Post by **Blankboy** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:00 pm

Anyone know if the casks are still on tomorrow?

Duct Tape · Post by **Duct Tape** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:21 pm

Blankboy wrote:Anyone know if the casks are still on tomorrow?

I got the impression that anything which hasn't gone bad or empty should still be available.

sstackho · Post by **sstackho** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:30 pm

I had a good time Friday night and it was great to meet a bunch of you.

I had some very nice beers. Thanks for the clarifications and corrections, Greg.

Too bad they weren't offering cheese for sale at the evening session this year... I thought the cheese plate to be small and I would have liked to have had more.

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:47 pm

Another great event from Ralph and his team. The amount of space this year was a boon as there wasn't elbows flying everywhere and it was welcoming to be able to walk around freely. Some really nice beers on offer, but the one negative for me was the fact I had to wait until Sunday afternoon for the first newly tapped beer of the weekend. If I hadn't had been every day then I wouldn't have noticed etc etc, and this was the only thing that ruined it for me. I did actually stand around for about 40 minutes on Sunday Session 5 without a beer to drink, as over the previous 2 days I had drank everything, more than once, I wanted to try, and I didn't wanna go back to those beers when there was stuff I was waiting for. I guess the increase in beers and smaller sample sizes looked good on paper and in theory, but it relied on people drinking more than they did, and therefore, for me I was limited to what was on offer.

One criticism in 4 years is allowed, isn't it?

Cheers Ralph and looking forward to next year's event and possibly events further afield.

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:57 pm

Torontoblue wrote:the one negative for me was the fact I had to wait until Sunday afternoon for the first newly tapped beer of the weekend. If I hadn't had been every day then I wouldn't have noticed etc etc, and this was the only thing that ruined it for me.

Perhaps I am mis-reading but I believe that they tapped Hopfenstark Saison Friday night, and Publicans Square Nail Saturday morning (admittedly kegs), then tapped both the Purple Loosestrife Mead Saturday mid-morning, and then Great Lakes Peach and Pepper towards the end of the morning session. (After I had left so I guess it was later).

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:05 pm

JerCraigs wrote:
Torontoblue wrote:the one negative for me was the fact I had to wait until Sunday afternoon for the first newly tapped beer of the weekend. If I hadn't had been every day then I wouldn't have noticed etc etc, and this was the only thing that ruined it for me.
Perhaps I am mis-reading but I believe that they tapped Hopfenstark Saison Friday night, and Publicans Square Nail Saturday morning (admittedly kegs), then tapped both the Purple Loosestrife Mead Saturday mid-morning, and then Great Lakes Peach and Pepper towards the end of the morning session. (After I had left so I guess it was later).

The Saison wasn't available to all until Saturday. It wasn't pouring right late Friday night so it was taken off. And I was talking about casks being tapped, as it was a cask event, I was there for the cask beers. Still, the turn over was almost non existent compared to the previous 3 Cask Days. As I said, if I was there for just one day it wouldn't have mattered that the turnover was slow, but turning up Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to see the same beers on offer was a little disheartening, for me.

Blankboy · Post by **Blankboy** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:21 pm

Torontoblue wrote:Still, the turn over was almost non existent compared to the previous 3 Cask Days. As I said, if I was there for just one day it wouldn't have mattered that the turnover was slow, but turning up Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to see the same beers on offer was a little disheartening, for me.

There was anywhere between 25 to 30 casks available and you're complaining about turnaround? That's not enough to choose from?

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:25 pm

Blankboy wrote:
Torontoblue wrote:Still, the turn over was almost non existent compared to the previous 3 Cask Days. As I said, if I was there for just one day it wouldn't have mattered that the turnover was slow, but turning up Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to see the same beers on offer was a little disheartening, for me.
There was anywhere between 25 to 30 casks available and you're complaining about turnaround? That's not enough to choose from?

Did you read my entire post? Considering I spent Friday night, Saturday night & Sunday afternoon, and after trying all the beers that appealed to me (I think there was about 8 that I didn't try), spending an extra $40+ for extra tickets on those 3 days, then turning up on Sunday to see the same beers that were available on Friday, then yes, there wasn't enough to choose from, IMHO, as the turn over wasn't what was projected.

Blankboy · Post by **Blankboy** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:59 pm

Torontoblue wrote:Did you read my entire post? Considering I spent Friday night, Saturday night & Sunday afternoon, and after trying all the beers that appealed to me (I think there was about 8 that I didn't try), spending an extra $40+ for extra tickets on those 3 days, then turning up on Sunday to see the same beers that were available on Friday, then yes, there wasn't enough to choose from, IMHO, as the turn over wasn't what was projected.

But how could that be helped? He would have to have less casks on hand at one time to be able to go through them quicker for there to be more turnaround. Less casks at one time means less variety and options per session.

The only way would be to have more people per session, which would have sucked, and bigger samples, which also would have sucked.

GregClow · Post by **GregClow** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:06 pm

Blankboy wrote:The only way would be to have more people per session, which would have sucked, and bigger samples, which also would have sucked.

Actually, the best solution (and one that Ralph is strongly considering) is to go with pins (20 litres) next year rather than firkins (40 litres).

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:16 pm

Blankboy wrote:The only way would be to have more people per session, which would have sucked, and bigger samples, which also would have sucked.

Why would bigger samples have sucked? It'd been bigger samples the previous 3 years with no complaints, and there was still a lot of beer left at the end of those events even though the selection was smaller. This year there was more beer, smaller samples and nominally more drinkers which meant more beer was always going to be left over. For the attendees that made it for more than one session it became very difficult not drinking what you had previously.

Sometimes less is more!

Blankboy · Post by **Blankboy** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:16 pm

GregClow wrote:Actually, the best solution (and one that Ralph is strongly considering) is to go with pins (20 litres) next year rather than firkins (40 litres).

I agree, but then stuff would run out sooner and the people who could only go Sunday would complain that several beers ran out and they never got a chance to try them. Basically, he can't win.

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:18 pm

Blankboy wrote:
GregClow wrote:Actually, the best solution (and one that Ralph is strongly considering) is to go with pins (20 litres) next year rather than firkins (40 litres).
I agree, but then stuff would run out sooner and the people who could only go Sunday would complain that several beers ran out and they never got a chance to try them. Basically, he can't win.

That happens at every festival and is a given it is going to happen. I've been to festivals in the UK where a beer has ran out within 2 hours of the event opening.

Duct Tape · Post by **Duct Tape** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:19 pm

GregClow wrote:
Blankboy wrote:The only way would be to have more people per session, which would have sucked, and bigger samples, which also would have sucked.
Actually, the best solution (and one that Ralph is strongly considering) is to go with pins (20 litres) next year rather than firkins (40 litres).

Which, if you do the math, is a solution likely to create much more turnover in beers per session, taking the average length of time a cask will last from around 4 sessions to around 2 (accounting for some beer you can't use at the end of a cask and not all 100people trying every beer in a session).

40L=1,352fl.oz(US)/4oz sample = 338 samples

20L=676fl.Oz(US)/4oz sample = 170 samples

Smaller amounts of the beer will not only drive demand as it won't last as long, it will be more likely to produce turnover as it will take less people to run through the full pin than the firkin. Even if everyone at every session had a single 4 oz of every beer (which we know is likely an impossibility), it would take over 3 sessions at 100ppl to get through the first batch of firkins.

PS - forgive any lousy rounding on the math, i'm not a mathy!!