Fremont Oktoberfest. Let's drink!

 So I finally make it to Fremont Oktoberfest! I tried to do this last year, but factors conspired to make me not able to work it, so I was glad to finally make it to this one as I really enjoyed Kirkland Uncorked and these boozy events always prove interesting. As usual doing the Friday of a 3 day festival is not always an option, therefore I sign up for Saturday and Sunday shifts.


I arrive to the gates:

As the sign says, this is in reality a fundraiser for the Fremont area arts groups, schools and community events. This is why one would pay such high prices for beer. You are getting sloshed and doing good for the local arts community! But you do have to work at getting sloshed as this is the glass they give you:

"Bob" in his HotWheels 2011 Camero, the can of Windows 95 Sapporo Beer and Lego Lord Voldemort are in the shot to determine scale. As you can see this is no giant beer stein! In fact it is more of a shot glass than a beer mug. Although since it is a 5oz mug, that would be a pretty stiff triple shot! (A shot of booze is typically 1.5oz)


Those tokens that are pictured above are what is used as the currency for the event. Every beer being offered by the various breweries is 1 token to fill the little mug. That was a lot easier to deal with for both us volunteers and the public than it was with the wine festival as the token prices at that event (Kirkland Uncorked) was variable. For instance the less expensive wines were 1 token, but the spendier the wine got then the higher to token cost was. So trying to remember which were 1, 2 or 3 tokens can get tricky!


As you can see I never got around to using all of my tokens that were my volunteer reward. If I keep collecting them, then in a few years I can get pretty hammered at one of these events :-)


After arriving at volunteer check in, we (the beer pourers) are taken to the booth we will be working at. I was assigned to booth 2:

I was pulling at that middle station. For the life of me I cannot recall what the beer I was pulling was, but I can say it was a red beer and an IPA. Since this was a morning shift things were pretty mellow and although the stream of people was brisk, it never got really crazy.


Here are my fellow volunteers (Kimmy on the right an Aaron on the left) serving up some customers:

The way it works is that each brewery get to offer two different beers. Each station then has a cooler with two taps attached to it and the tap hoses go through the cooler (filled with ice) down below the table to where the kegs are. Kimmy and I were working the same station. She had the IPA on the left while I pulled the Red on the right. Yeah, one person could do both, but they usually overbook volunteers to buffer against the dreaded curse of the no-shows! So they had plenty of volunteers and therefore we each got our own tap to pull.


Here is an action shot of the crowd!

Of note you can see the scale of the little mug in the hands of the Lady in Red. Of note is the Lady in Red herself! Did I mention I volunteer at these things as the people watching is usually rather grand?


The taps up there are the ones Kimmy and I were pulling, but since the logo's do not go all the way front to back I can't remember who the brewery was.


Things were going along pretty well with only the occasional too drunk creep trying to come on to the attractive female beer pullers.  The far too drunk women coming on to me was ok though.


Things were going along ok enough with people liking the IPA and Red beer well enough until a guy comes up and tells us that we must have the taps reversed. He was a brew master and totally knows his stuff! Lo and behold someone did screw on the taps backwards! What we were pushing as an IPA was in fact the Red and vice versa! Goes to show just how much the public really knows beer! As we are working we were not allowed to take a taste, so I dunno if I would have figured this out or not. Well actually after that I did sneak a taste and discovered I didn't like either one!


My shift ended around 1pm rather uneventfully and I head home.


On the way back to the car I see this:

Cool!


Day 2 started much the same as day 1, being led to the station where we will be pulling.

That day I was pulling beer for the Silver City Brewery located across the Sound over in Silverdale.
They were offering "Oktoberfest", a seasonal wheaty flavored special, and "Ridgetop Red Ale", a red, obviously! The people in the above pic in the red jackets are agents for the Alchohol Control Board. They are featured in this tale near the end!


The red is my new most favoritest beer ever!

I snuck a taste or three of this stuff and loved it! Tisk tisk! You know you are not supposed to drink any while working! Well exactly how am I supposed to sell the shite if I have no freakin idea wtf it tastes like?!?! Therefore when both the supervisor and the jack booted members of the Alcohol Control Board were not paying attention I would pull a bit into my bottle of "Pomegranate Tea" that had long been emptied of said pomegranate tea.

So with confidence I could sell the red as being "As smooth as glass!" I did indeed move an awful lot of the red. In fact I have many repeat customers for the red. 3 in particular were my favorites, but taking a picture of them for whatever reason slipped my mind, so all I can do is describe them. They were rather beautiful. Ok there you go!

So this day I worked the booth until closing time as I did not have to rush back home and I had a good free parking spot. The day went by without incident and many nice interactions until closing time. The alcohol control board folks were very strict that no more token be redeemed at closing time, and that we unscrew the taps to show no more is to be had. Most patrons were a touch disappointed, but in general they got it. All except for the actual company rep of the beer at the far end of the booth.

I forget what company it was, but the rep was there at first in the morning to set things up, but soon after left to party with friends only returning to pour himself free beer. This alone was in violation of the ACB rulez. They did not care that the beer was from the company you work for, you still had to give up a token. Well he kept it on the down low. That is until he wanted to fill his large beer stein from his companies taps AFTER last call! He was pretty lit and that may be why he decided to get into a debate with the ACB lady about why he did not have to unscrew his taps and how he could pour himself all the beer he wanted. Bad idea! After a few minutes of arguing with him she calls her supervisor on her radio. Seeing this, he backs down and changes his tune saying that he will no longer make an issue about it and will unscrew the taps. Well this did not sit well with the supervisor who came by who wanted to know exactly why he made an issue of this in the first place. She demanded to know who he was. At this he just walks away. She asks us who he was and the shift supervisor ID'd him as the company rep for that brewery. Knowing he would have to return to gather his promotional materials, taps, and whatnot, I am guessing he ultimately would have to pay for his actions with the ACB reps. I did not hang around to see. I wonder if he still works for that brewery!

I checked out, went back to car stinking of beer (much splashes on you as you work) and went home with another T-Shirt to add to the collection :-)

Here Emily models the shirt. I think she makes a far better model than I do :-)