10 ways to make the GABF even better

There's always room to improve just about anything!

For thousands of beer enthusiasts, the Great American Beer Festival is the ultimate beer fest. It has the most breweries and most beers in one place than you'll ever see in your life. It takes months of preparation, thousands of volunteers, sacrifice and time from all of the brewers, and not to mention the cooperation and self control of 40,000+ attendees.

There are so many things I could say positively about the Great American Beer Festival that I could write a short eBook about it. However, no matter how great or well organized a festival is, there is always room to improve somewhere.

Today I present my own personal viewpoints on the latest edition of America's biggest annual beer festival. I present to you 10 ways in which I'd make the GABF even better. These are presented in no particular order of importance.

#1 - Brewery Reps over-pouring - Of hundreds of brewery reps that I saw pouring beers, I noticed a vast majority of them pouring 2oz or more of their beers. In some cases they would fill up an entire tasting glass. If the brewery reps wouldn't run out of their beer then I wouldn't have an issue with this, but as it stands, many breweries run out of beer early on. If they would also pour 1oz samples like the volunteers are forced to do, then there would be more beer for everyone.

#2 - Breweries running out of beer - I realize that many small breweries don't have a lot of funds to spend on a festival like this, but when you see booth after booth of certain beers running out early in the sessions, then you have to wonder why they didn't plan ahead. The beers that are poured at the GABF should have enough to last all 4 sessions. If a special rare beer is brought in, it normally won't last long at all and many get shut out. Either shorten the hours of each session by about 1/2 hour or require additional beer be available. If you can't keep it in stock - perhaps don't bring it.

#3 - Volunteers getting drunk - Being a volunteer myself, I realize how difficult it is being tempted by all that beer and not drinking much of it ourselves. All too often, I'm seeing volunteers drinking steadily while on duty and several of them in worse shape than the people they are serving to. Without naming names, a woman who poured beer next to me had lost most of her inhibitions and was actually allowing certain male patrons to openly place their hand on her chest while dancing for them. Let's keep it professional people. How about a no drinking policy while on duty? Sure, when you are on break then go enjoy. But let's limit break times and don't let volunteers get drunk as well.

#4 Crowded aisles - I realize that the GABF organizing committee has done a great job in limiting the number of attendees for each session, yet I still am seeing a lot of people having difficulty getting around in certain aisles. With over 12,000 people at each session it can be slow going (perhaps by design) to get to your next favorite destination. Sure, the crowd slows down consumption, but it also increases frustration. Either limit volunteer traffic by restricting break times and keeping them behind the tables, or get additional space for the aisles.

#5 Better Food Vendors - I realize that venues have a captive audience and they feel they can get away with "ballpark" pricing, but come on, $10 for a small sandwich? The $7 pizza was ok, but other vendors seem to gouge you and their food wasn't all that great. How about the GABF spring for more free food booths. The FREE pretzels were great and there were very long lines to get into the food sampling area. I ended up bringing in a sack dinner from a local restaurant just to avoid the lack of reasonably priced food at the vendors.

#6 - The Noise - Sure, 12,000 people in a big echoing room are going to make a lot of noise. But add to that the addition of a Karaoke stage and music coming from the awards stage, not to mention the bagpipe parades and you've got an environment where you almost have to shout to be heard. As a volunteer pouring one of up to 6 different beers at a station, it was extremely difficult to hear what selection people wanted. We need some noise baffling acoustics added to the ceiling area to help reduce the noise levels. I almost felt the need to wear earplugs. Anyone get a decibel reading in that hall?

#7 - Trash Everywhere - While I commend the GABF team for putting out the Green stations for trash, there simply wasn't enough of them around. The aisles and booth areas get trashed big time. Even the areas behind the tables didn't have enough trash barrels to put everything into. People who drink are notoriously sloppy when it comes to keeping a place clean. If you make more trash stations available this might help, then again, there isn't enough room now to fit all the people comfortably.

#8 - Availability of Water - I like the fact that there are water stations scattered all over the convention hall. People really need to drink a lot of water during a beer festival, however, there wasn't enough stations to quickly get some water when you need it. Plus, the volunteers who are working don't have near enough water around to help keep them hydrated. Sure, there are rinse pitchers for the glasses but you really don't want to trust that for safe drinking water. I saw some attendees dump out beers into them by mistake. Yuck! Consider having bottled water in stock under the tables at the booths. If a volunteer sees a drunk attendee they could offer them some water instead. Costly? Yes, but needed.

#9 - Outdoor Food Trucks - perhaps I just didn't see them, but while standing outside waiting to get in, I didn't see an easy way for people in line to grab a last minute bite to eat. Supposedly there were going to be food trucks stationed outside the festival this year. I didn't see them. I saw 1 or 2 small snack carts near the lines, but not the big food trucks. Make more food available directly outside the event on the sidewalks so that some of the already drunk attendees(from pre-parties) can sober up a bit before they go in and drink more. Coffee trucks too.

#10 - Ticket Prices - This year, the GABF sold out within the first week. For most of those tickets, for non-AHA members, they had to be purchased through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster added up to $10.70 in service charges, convenience and handling fees to jack up the price to over $70 for a ticket. This is a crock. Get Ticketmaster out of the loop and go back to selling those tickets via the Brewer's Association / American Homebrewing Association. Sure, it may slow things down a bit but if you can keep the price down to $60 or less then it would make it a whole lot better. You lose control of prices with big ticket companies. Middlemen don't belong in beer fest ticket sales. Get rid of 'em!

OK there you have it. How would you improve the GABF for next year? Do you have any ideas on how to improve the issues above? Think I missed the mark on some ideas? Let's hear your side!! Add a comment below or to our Facebook page. Together we can make this the best ever experience.

We've got just over a year to make this better, according to rumor, next year's Great American Beer Festival will be held on October 11th, 12th and 13th, 2012. If the world does end at the end of 2012 what better way to go out!

Related articles:
- 2011 GABF opening night photos.
- Colorado takes 39 medals in the 2011 GABF.
- Behind the scenes at the Great American Beer Festival. (2008)
- Final 2011 GABF tastings and recommendations.

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