North Texas Beer Festival May 14

[Jimmy Orkin]

There is going to be a beer festival on Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 1:00 PM - 11:00 PM in Plano.

Looks like Kelly is going to teach a class in homebrewing.

Here is the link to the site: http://www.northtexasbeerfestival.com

Should we have a table? I wonder if we could pour homebrew?

[Lov4OutDors]

I think it would be good for the club to have a presents at the event.
I'm relatively new to the club. I know the club has organized small club only events and large events like Bluebonnet.
Have we ever tried to market the club to the general public before? I'm not sure what has been done before along these lines.
Assuming we decide to get a space what should we have in our booth?
A few quick ideas to discuss.

Goals:
- To encourage people to become homebrewrs
- To encourage people to join our club
Revenue:
- Membership Drive
- Shirt Sales
- ?????
- Profit
Information:
- Club Awards
- Schedule a Brew Day the following weekend & invite people to attend
- Desplay brewing equipment
- Desplay examples of ingredents: different malts, different hops, water, yeast
Decorations:
- Do we have a club banner?
- A theame? Western, Laboratory, Olympics, etc
Freebies:
- Club brew, if possible
- Crackers &/or cheeses if we can pour

I'm sure I'm forgetting thing and I don't know what has been tried before.
Grant-

[RobDrechsler]

since we're a non-profit maybe they (beer festival) can donate a table and we can do like grant says.. I'll volunteer to man the table for a while..

[nortexbeerfest]

Greetings all! I am glad to hear the NTHBA has decided to take me up on my offer of a free booth at the festival. I think it will be a good opportunity to drive memberships and if nothing else raise awareness. Steve Steinheimer planted this seed in my head a couple of years ago and it has been by far the most challenging event I have ever organized. I'll get even with you later Steve The goal from inception has been to educate Texans about better beers in an ethical manner, raise some money for charity and have some fun doing it. I'm confident we will accomplish all of those goals.

We will have over 100 craft, specialty and imported beers from all over the world represented including some special releases you won't find anywhere else in Texas. TABC laws prohibit us from announcing them unless they are sponsors but if you look on the site- http://www.northtexasbeerfestival.com you will get an idea of who is coming to the party. Kelly Harris has graciously agreed to conduct some home brewing demonstrations and have some starter kits available for purchase. Guinness is bringing in their chef from the UK to do some pairings and we will have some local chefs offering classes with beer as an ingredient and pairings as well. We will also have key note speakers covering a variety of subjects. Not only will you be able to sample the beers in the booths but should you tire of drinking your beer 2 ounces at a time, you can purchase larger portions in the beer garden while listening to some great local artists. We feel we have the perfect venue for this type of event. The City of Plano has been more than accommodating and is looking for this event to be their signature event for years to come as are we.

There's only a handful of the VIP ex-Beer-ience tickets still available which include a 3 hour sunset cruise on the largest sailing catamaran in TX on Friday May 13th from 7-10PM on Lake Lewisville. This is a great opportunity to spend some quality time with the brewers, brewery representatives and sponsors in a relaxed atmosphere. Food, drinks, ticket to the festival, shirt and glass are included.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me directly.

Cheers!
Darrell Faircloth
214.884.9300 Office
214.934.6080 Mobile
[email protected]

[jlavin]

Many of you voiced interest in helping with the booth for the North Texas Beer Festival. I'm going to take point to get things organized along with the help of a couple other folks.

Some of the ideas raised were:

1. Have a one page flyer that contains info about the club on one side and our upcoming events on the other.
2. Have a basic brewing setup there to show how easy it is to get started brewing. People attending the booth could discuss how to get started.
3. Have our club videos from Youtube playing on a screen.
4. Raffle off a free club membership for new people who sign up.
5. Have information about our BJCP training Program.
6. Have information about the local competitions.

I'm sure you have quite few more ideas that would make our booth a success.

We are going to meet Tuesday April 19th at the Holy Grail Pub in Plano to discuss the event and what we need to get done in order to be ready. I've put the date and time out on the Club Calendar so if you are interested in helping out come on out and join us.

[BigWally]

I want to help out with this, but can't make the meeting tomorrow.

Do you have any idea on how much space we'll have? Along with the basic beginner's system, we could also have an example of an "advanced" system as eye candy that may generate some traffic.

I like the idea of a drawing for a couple of free memberships.

Let me know when the next meeting is and what I can do to help.

[RobDrechsler]

Many of you voiced interest in helping with the booth for the North Texas Beer Festival. I'm going to take point to

We are going to meet Tuesday April 19th at the Holy Grail Pub in Plano to discuss the event

What time?

[RobDrechsler]

got this information from Darrell..

You will be indoors. The booths are 10’ x 10’ with pipe and drape, an 8’ draped and skirted table, 2 chairs, wastebasket, power and WIFI. If you need more room we can offer a 10 ‘ x 20’ with 2 tables and 4 chairs.

[jlavin]

We are meeting at 7 PM at the Holy Grail in Plano off of Preston, just south of the 121 Tollway. I've included the time, location, address and map in the club calendar as well.

[RobDrechsler]

We are meeting at 7 PM at the Holy Grail in Plano off of Preston, just south of the 121 Tollway. I've included the time, location, address and map in the club calendar as well.

Short meeting , I got there about 7:20 because of the storm and missed out..

along with the equipment displays, it would probably be good to have fresh hops for everyone to sniff... show some two/six row..

maybe have a basic extract recipe for a pale ale to give away.. you know, get people interested..

[jlavin]

Rob,

Sorry about that, we probably passed each other in the parking lot. I figured that since no body showed up by 7:20 everybody was too busy dealing with the storm.

[jlavin]

So here is what has been suggested so far:

1. Membership Drive, to include a drawing for a free year's membership. We'll need Membership forms, forms for entries and something to put them in.
2. Club Shirt Sales. I know Leroy still has a lot of T-shirts and possibly even some of the Dickies Work shirts.
3. Beginner Brewing Kit. I talked with Brian last Saturday and he said he would be more than happy to get us a kit together. I have a 5 Gallon Pot that I can bring. I'll work with Brian on getting the rest together.
4. Advanced Brewing System. Any volunteers on brining in their system?
5. Ingredient Display: Grain, Hops, etc.
6. Recipe Handouts
7. BJCP Training. I'd like to get together something that describes the classes and testing.
8. Competition Info. I'd think having something about the Limbo would be great. Maybe we could get a couple of our winners to bring a couple of steins for display purposes.
9. Club Flyer. I've already talked with Megan Lewis about putting together a two side flyer. Need help with coming up with the content. I think the second side should be a list of our events through the end of the year.
10. Club Education Videos. We have several videos that have been posted to YouTube from the BrewDays. I figured we could run those in a repeating loop at one end of the booth.

With all of these suggestions it looks like we could take up a 10 x 20 booth easily. Rob had also said that we might be able to do a short 30 minute presentation about the club. Is anyone up for putting one together and presenting it?

Is there anything else we should include? Should we try to meet again, if so, when and where?

[RobDrechsler]

How about somewhere in addision? BJ's , the Tavern?


Also, the list looks good... Maybe a couple of trophies?

[jlavin]

How about we meet next Wednesday night 4/27 at BJ's or the Flying Saucer in Addison around 7 PM.

Any preferences?

[BigWally]

I vote for the Saucer. Another option would be the Londoner.