21st Annual Festival Of Craft Breweries

Forty-six brews, thirty-three breweries, hundreds of people.

We were jam packed with beer enthusiasts at C'est What on Friday October 2, 2009 for the 21st annual Festival Of Craft Breweries. As usual, the only thing attendees were able to agree on was that it was a good time. As far as agreement in the matter of taste there was less unanimity. There were many perfect tens awarded and as many "I'd rather drink out of the Don River" zeros. Most scores fell happily in between with twenty-five of the beers reaching the plateau where most festival-goers would seek them out for purchase.

Six finished with median scores of 8 Mike Duggan's IPA #9 (cask), McAuslan Pumpkin Ale, Durham Black Katt, McAuslan Vintage Ale, Wellington Imperial Russian Stout, and Waupoos Peach Cider. The most sampled beer was the hop filtered Flying Monkeys Hoppopotamonkey. The beer that provoked the most disagreement in scoring was Black Creek Porter which was brewed over an open fire with no electricity and served warm 19th Century style. For every complimentary score it received a brickbat like "No wonder the pioneers are extinct."

For those of you that are statistically inclined, it was our busiest festival ever: we sold 5829 samples in four hours and fifteen minutes when we had to stop sample sales due to a shortage of eco-cups, up 20% from last year. That amounts to about one sample served every three seconds. About one-third of the samples were rated with the second version of our simplified festival rating system. Those that took the time rated an average of fifteen samples. There was some discussion about the merits of the new score sheets with "early adopters" and traditionalists in equal numbers.

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Scores for products rated by more than 35 people, maximum score is ten

Samples

Std Dev

Median

45

1.5

8

McAuslan Pumpkin Ale

46

1.5

8

40

1.7

8

36

1.9

8

51

1.9

8

38

2.1

8

44

1.6

7

47

1.7

7

61

1.7

7

44

1.8

7

43

2.0

7

60

2.1

7

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