I went on Saturday with five friends, a beautiful warm sunny day, and the courtyard at Olims was a great place to be. Paid our money at the door and were given a tasting glass with ten tickets. There was interesting range of beers and a few ciders and between us we probably tasted everything there. Highlight for me was the Schwarz dark lager, and their pale ale was really good too, but there were lots of other good ones. The security was low key, the staff on the stalls were friendly and it was a good relaxed vibe.
There were a couple of disappointments that I think reduced the value for money of the event.
The advertising proclaimed that there would be gourmet food. Well, a sausage or steak sandwich from a charity stall and kransky rolls were the only things available – not ‘gourmet’ food in my book. We were also expecting some cooking demos with beer matching, but that didn’t happen either. One of the organisers said that there had been a late cancellation on that, though I note that they were expecting to go ahead with it on Sunday. They had also advertised Dragon playing, but it turned out that they were playing that night at Olims, sometime after the 6.00pm shut down of the beer event.
So for our $25, we got ten tasting tickets and the chance to sit in the courtyard with lots of like-minded people. I acknowledge that we also had the opportunity to taste a range of beers that we wouldn’t usually get at Olims. We had a good time and would support the event again, but all thought that we didn’t quite get what was advertised.