Ale Fest 2008

After spending a few months in sunny, tropical Bangkok, I returned to Indy last week just in time to spend most of the week scraping ice off my car. What a treat.

Fortunately, I also returned just in time to be part of Ale Fest 2008, at The Egyptian Room in the Murat Centre.

There has been a bit of controversy -unfounded and unnecessary, if you ask me - about the "motives" of the organizers and sponsors.

I read and heard allegations the event was nothing more than a marketing ploy to promote World Class Beverage's stable of products.

In the interest of full disclosure, WCB distributes our beer.

These allegations are false if you ask me, but if you were going to have a beer festival, wouldn't you want to partner with a company that sells more craft beer than anyone else in town?

In addition, WCB "donated" more than half the beer served at the event, with no expectation of any profit, except for the hope of future sales.

The bottom line is attendees had the opportunity to sample and enjoy 4 ounce glasses - real samples - of every style of craft beer available from over 75 different breweries.

Beer enthusiasts turned out in greater numbers than anticipated - the consensus was over 700 people.

As a fledgling brewer, we're glad we were there.

Comments

[Rodney]

I don't understand what all the commotion is about. As pessimistic as it sounds, no one was there to donate money to a charitable cause. I agree that it's wonderful that they've chosen to support a charity, but people were there to try beers. They could have called it World Class Beverage's Beerfest 2008 and had the same turnout. I'm happy that charities frequently benefit from a beer festival but it's kind of dumb when people get in an uproar over something as trivial as this.