Rochester Real Beer Expo highlights and observations
Rochester Real Beer Expo highlights and observations
I am really, really pleased and proud of the effort and execution of the 11th Beer Expo. But I know we have some stuff to improve. Plus, these were my favorite beers.
Last Saturday was pretty chaotic and overwhelming for me. I was so busy with so many different tasks, that I don’t think I took a minute to sit back and understand what we accomplished at Innovative Field.
In my first year as curator, we threw the biggest Rochester Real Beer Expo ever! We had 70 total vendors (up from 58 the year before), 31 of whom were from the Rochester region, and a whole host of others who were brand new to the market. (More about that later.) I was really happy with the quality and variety of breweries we invited. And I’m certain it’ll be even better in 2024. I am really proud of the effort. And I think the baseball stadium proved to be a great venue.
We sold the exact same amount of VIP tickets as previous years (600) and welcomed those folks into a bigger, more spread out area. We upped the total tickets a bit, since the space was bigger. In total, we sold about 2,400 tickets, which really isn’t much higher than what the last festival on Gregory Street featured. But we’ll definitely have discussions in the coming weeks about capacity and where we can improve. I really do appreciate all the feedback I’ve received — whether it be on Facebook or Reddit (always gotta lurk) or in face-to-face conversations. Overwhelmingly, the feedback has been positive.
And I really can’t thank y’all enough for caring enough to attend. I also want to extend thanks to my co-organizers from the Business Association of the South Wedge Area, Dan Mason, Jeff DeSantis, and the entire Rochester Red Wings organization, and all of the distributors who worked so diligently with me to make this a great party.
I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my favorites from the festival, and then to talk about what I’d like to improve for next year. If we haven’t yet chatted, feel free to email me at clevelandprost@gmail.com.
I was pretty much a zombie by the end of Saturday. I walked more than seven miles throughout the concourse as I helped with logistics and other festival responsibilities. I didn’t get to try as many beers I would’ve liked and I certainly missed out on a few I was excited about. But in general, I sampled some really incredible beers. Keeping in mind that my sample size is very limited, here are a few of my favorites:
Counterpart Brewing (Niagara Falls, Canada): I was so ecstatic Greg and Harrison came across the border to party with us. It was Counterpart’s first time pouring in the U.S., and I think Rochester welcomed them with open arms. When I interviewed Greg, the brewery co-founder, a few months back, I was struck by his passion for the craft. And that patience and creativity was demonstrated in the two-year-old set of barrel-aged stouts called Deciduous that Counterpart brought to share with us. I’m gonna be thinking about those stouts for a while.
Cinderlands Beer/Old Thunder Brewing (Pittsburgh, Penn.): My buddy and I were able to make a quick trip down to Pittsburgh last week, where we enjoyed some sludgy bummer jams and three incredible breweries. Two of those breweries, Cinderlands and Old Thunder, made the trip to Rochester for the Expo. And they’re precisely the type of breweries I would love to see in Rochester. They excel with variety and just offer wonderful places to hang out. Each brought exquisite lagers. But I was enamored with Old Thunder’s nuanced wine barrel-aged saison. There was a half full bottle left at the end of the night that I enjoyed for the perfect nightcap. And I absolutely adored Cinderland’s Cindi’s Hard Mountain Tea. It drinks exactly like Brisk iced tea, but with a kick of alcohol. I am kicking myself for not grabbing more of it when we were down in Pittsburgh, especially after Cinderlands event coordinator Kate Thorsen (who was here in Rochester pouring for Cinderlands at the Expo and is incredibly awesome) told me I’d become addicted. I need more!
Eredita Beer (North Haven, Conn.): I invited Chris Papallo and Eredita to Rochester without actually trying any of his beers. It was a calculated gamble, but it wasn’t. I had a gut feeling. Chris has an incredible outlook and resume (spent a number of years at Hill Farmstead). Chris, who started this new project last fall, brought three of his newest releases — an incredible Pilsner that rivals Rothaus, an amazingly balanced single IPA (with Citra and Simcoe hops), and a decidedly old school imperial coffee stout. Again, these are beers I’m gonna be dreaming about for a bit. I was so wildly excited that Brooklyn’s Wild East Brewing came all the way up here to hang with us. And then I did a horrible job of trying the beers they brought. That will be remedied next year.
Godspeed Brewery (Toronto, Canada): This was a “pinch me” moment. Not only did Godspeed send beer across the border for us, but then brewmaster Luc Lafontaine and head of communications Max Morin came to Rochester to pour their beers. We organized a tap takeover at The Sheffield in Brighton. And Luc and Max brought two incredible Czech lagers to feature at the Expo.
Kettlehead Brewing (Tilton, N.H.): Like so many on this list, Kettlehead had never poured in Rochester. And when I invited them, they jumped at the opportunity. I think they really blew all of us away. Kettlehead makes some of the best hazy IPAs I’ve had in eons and then brought an incredible, dessert-like imperial stout and an imaginative quick sour. I think the Kettlehead crew was equally blown away with the reception and welcome it received. I am hopeful we can get Kettlehead to send beer to our market more frequently. (Hope to have more on that soon.)
Laurentide Beer (Penn Yan): If you’ve been following my work for any period of time, you know how much I love this Yates County brewery located in the historic carriage house. Married couple Brett and Jackie Driscoll are an incredible brewing team.
Other Half Brewing (East Bloomfield): If you’re an OH OG, then you remember Doug and the goofy 12-ounce can it came in. OH hasn’t made this beer in eight years, so I was ecstatic to see this on the Expo offerings list it sent to me. Doug is just a glorious black IPA and he’s still as great as I remember him to be.
Happy Gut Sanctuary (Rochester): I thought it would be fun and education to include local kombucha at the Expo as an alternative to non-alcoholic beer. Happy Gut and Katboocha both crushed it. Happy Gut’s Dragon’s Nectar was just a beautiful way to reset my palate between beers. (I’ll have more news about Happy Gut soon!)
Trophy Brewing (Raleigh, N.C.): Trophy co-founder Chris Powers is a Henrietta native. He started Trophy 10 years ago and this was the first time he got to pour beers in his hometown. I’ve long loved the brewery’s flagship modern IPA. And I was equally blown away by the barrel-aged pastry stout Chris brought for us. Such a cool homecoming!
Some things I wanna improve:
Water stations: We need more of them. We had two spots to pick up hopped seltzers (from Lagunitas and Hop Wtr), but we need more places for people to hydrate and they need to be spread out across the concourse. I promise we’ll be better there next year.
Mapping: This is pretty simple. I need to put breweries with the longest anticipated lines into areas of the concourse with more space. I positioned a few spots with big followings in some pretty tight spaces. That’ll be remedied next year. I want to make sure we don’t clog up any portion of the concourse and create enough space for people to move around.
Entry for VIP: I wanna make it more seamless for people to get in. The line of VIP attendees trying to get in at 5 p.m. was amazing. But I don’t want people to miss a chunk of the VIP time they paid extra for. So I’m gonna consult with the Red Wings and security staff and see how we can make it better next year. It could be as simple as starting to screen people before the gates open or it could be something else. I definitely heard the criticism here and will work diligently to improve this experience.
Fireworks: I would love to have them at the end of the night.
Again, I can’t thank y’all enough to coming to hang with us. I was overwhelmed with the amount of fist bumps and hugs I received Saturday night. I truly felt like a million bucks and was instantly reminded of why I took on this challenge in the first place. And I appreciate all the feedback. I promise next year is gonna be even better!
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We were talking to head of security at the stadium. I don’t know if this is all true but he said the liquor license for the event didn’t start until 5:00 so they couldn’t let people into the stadium until 5:00, even if they were not pouring. He said if they had a liquor license that started at 4:00 they could have started to let vip in at 4:30 but then waited until 5:00 to start serving.
I'm torn about the location - it had a lot going for it, especially parking (though, having to loop all the way around to get access to the lot was not intuitive. I could see this type of event just totally taking over Parcel 5 downtown, however. Of course, the problem there is controlling access to a big open space. However, having more space for lines to the breweries would definitely be helpful, and I feel like a parcel 5-like space would be conducive to that. I know there were several breweries that I ended up not sampling because the lines were really long and somewhat haphazard (i.e., I didn't want to inadvertently cut in front of someone.) But all in all, I thought it was a fantastic event, really great beers, and my group of friends who attended all seemed to have a great time. Great job!