Review, pictures of The Little Woody
Saturday was The Little Woody, the barrel-aged beer festival I’d been touting for awhile, and I was able to make it down there from 12:30 until 3. (The event lasted until 10.) I’ve written a more detailed review over at my beer blog, including notes on the beers themselves, but here are some general notes about the fest from a more Bend-centric angle, along with the pictures I took.
- The grounds of the Deschutes Historical Museum turned out to be a nice venue, I think, though it was apparently very packed by the time evening rolled around. In the early part of the day it worked out pretty well. The weather was perfect and you could find shade in the grass when you needed it.
- It would have been nice to see more food vendors there; the four they had were Ben and Jerry’s, Cafe Yumm, Pisano’s Pizza, and Los Jalapenos. I’m a little surprised they didn’t have the mobile pizza cart there—you know, wood-fired pizza.
- The “no kids, no dogs” policy is going to be a controversial topic. They were turning away people with kids, and the guy out front checking IDs said they were actually having more trouble with people trying to bring their dogs in. As busy as they were, though, it apparently didn’t hurt them any.
- Really cool to see all of our local breweries getting together for an event like this. I was also impressed with the commemorative glasses—I expected a smaller, four-ounce (or so) taster glass, not the full (shaker) pint glass they were handing out.
- I didn’t participate in it, but there was a drawing for a Breedlove guitar going on too; anyone who bought a ticket for the drawing was able to play “gnome games”: basically they had a few different kinds of plastic gnomes and you could, er, play carnival-style games with them. No prizes to win; I guess the real amusement would be later in the day watching people who had too much to drink trying to play.
- Kudos to the Museum as well for opening up their doors to the festival-goers. Besides being able to use the restrooms (yes, there were porta-potties also), they had the OPB documentary “Beervana” on hand for anyone who wanted to watch it.
If it’s as restrictive in future years, I hope it fails.
You spent $20 and they could have gotten more money out of us (we talked about this with Paul/Sandi later that night) if they had advertised food and more importantly, made it available to those who have children…but no babysitter. We’d have gone down and all had lunch while you tasted, meaning more money spent there, their loss I guess.
Yes, i’d have complained with only beer available, but both times (when I dropped you off and picked you up), the bouncer was talking to people with stollers, obviously telling them NO CHILDREN! There was no advertising of this, only when you asked about what beers and then you emailed again asking about the children/other beverages. They could have done a better job in advertising any restrictions and if it’s OLCC restrictions, then I have another opinion.
Trying to only appeal to one demographic and have a “festival” will only get you so far and they did not get as much $$ as they could have from us because of those restrictions.
Ps…Jen I just read your comment on thebrewsite and while I do agree with you that it must have been nice to get the "I’m not with my kids" vibe, think of all that were turned away or just couldn’t go cause they couldn’t get a babysitter (Shannon)…I just feel maybe outdoor venues that have an event going on most of the day, should not restrict/prevent people from enjoying it. We were at the Summerfest many years ago when all of a sudden, you couldn’t enjoy your beverage outside of the beverage tent and I remember holding the stroller and switching off so that Jon and I could chug our wine/beer…needless to say, my point of view changed and we didn’t go back to the summerfest for YEARS. They missed out on our spending money there for years! I can understand when Deschutes has their tastings in the Mountain room to limit what you can serve and have an age restriction and maybe they need to steer towards that and not have it like another "outdoor event in Bend" that is normally geared to families.
JMHO…I see both sides of it, but to not appeal to a broad demographic, they will be hurting in the long run because they could have gotten more $$ from us and really…..isn’t that the bottom line?
Jon, you can call me biased all you want…but if people who couldn’t go or who were turned away (because it wasn’t stated in the material 21 and over), then they might have the same issues as we did with the Summerfest and have distain and not give it a thought to want to try different arrangements the next year, if it survives.
I already posted my favorite beers on your other post… I just want to say again that I was impressed with how well run this event was for a first round! Everything seemed to go smoothly from my POV as a patron and I can’t WAIT! for the next one.
Thanks!!
We enjoyed it too w/o the kids. Someone had a good idea – maybe the Boys & Girls Club could do a fundraiser/babysitting thing in conjunction w/this (if it happens again next year), raising funds for two good causes & raising a toast to good beer:)
I know it is strange, but is it normal to think you will be taking the kids to a drinking event in Oregon.
Re: taking kids to a "drinking event"
It all depends on the nature of the event. In Oregon, "beer festivals" aren’t necessarily restricted to beer and adults and are often indeed family friendly; it’s part of a very open, responsible beer culture that is flourishing in our state. It’s not at all unusual to see kids at brewfests.
Whether people want to or not is up to them, but in this context, yes, it’s normal to talk about taking kids to something like this.