Split Rock Beer Fest 2011 – Wrap-Up

The annual Split Rock Beer Festival 2011 was held this Sat & Sun at (you guessed it) Split Rock Lodge. This is an event that I have attended EVERY year, and prior to the merge of the American & International beer events, I also attended every year of the April (now defunct) “International” beer fest @ Split Rock.

Personally I’ve watched the progress of this festival, and I’m sad to report I suspect it has run it’s course, or as I heard all day on Sunday…”Split Rock has jumped the shark.” I spoke to quite a few people on both sides of the table, and quite frankly the “thrill is gone.”

Now don’t get me too wrong here. Yes we still had fun drinking beer, and chatting about beer with the attendees and friends, but this festival has changed. Back in the beginning, breweries like Dogfish Head, Rogue, Sierra Nevada and local breweries like Weyerbacher, Troegs, Victory & Ottos not only used to attend but they also poured their own beer. Jump forward to this year, and sadly Split Rock has become a distributor-fest…and what really drove the point home for me was seeing Troegs reduced from a custom labeled Troegs-Canopy pouring three different tapped beers (including Mad Elf) in previous years, to some poor guy from their distributor standing behind a table without even a Troegs sign, sadly pouring Dreamweaver & Pale Ale out of 6-packs.

Back in the day, Weyerbacher would do a special pour of Blithering Idiot at 3PM, Troegs would do a special pour of Mad Elf and even Dogfish Head would release Worldwide Stout at 4PM to crowds and scenes resembling a mosh pit at OZ-Fest. Jump forward to 2011, and there are no specialty beers, no exciting releases, barely any real brewery presence (other than Fegley’s Brew Works, Long Trail, JJ Bitting, Straub & maybe Boulder) and if you eliminated the bus-crowds from AuRants, Bart & Urbys, Ice House & Carls Beer Tours, the room was woefully empty on Sunday.

So what beer DID people have available?? While this is not a complete list, I personally saw or sampled: Stone Arrogant Bastard & IPA (tap-distributor), Boulder Mojo (tap-brewery rep), Green Flash Nut Brown (bottles-distributor), Troegs Dreamweaver & Pale Ale (bottles-distributor), Samuel Adams (bottle-distributor), Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat (tap-distributor), Long Trail Double IPA & Seasonal (tap-brewery rep), Blue Moon various beers (tap-distributor), Mendocino (bottles-distributor), Straub dark… (tap,brewery reps), JJ Bitting Raspberry Wheat, Chocolate Cherry Stout & IPA (tap-brewery reps), Fegley’s Brew Works Rude Elf’s Reserve & Always Sunny Pale (tap-brewery reps), Yuengling Black & Tan…(tap-distributor), Franziskaner (tap-distributor), and Samuel Smith Winter Welcome (bottle-distributor.) Add in various other bottle/distributor brews like Abita, Fullers, Paulaner, Bitburger, Singha, Zwiec, Youngs, Spaten, Corona and even a few 22oz canned “malt-beverages” like Cold Springs and it was simply a distributor & macro dominated festival.

With all the great beer festivals popping up in (or within driving distance) of NEPA, it seems sad to see our closest festival struggle like this. With so many well-organized, well run, and limited ticket/brewery-stipend events with great craft breweries out there, it just seems such a shame to see Split Rock Saturday look like a frat-party and Sunday be so dead.

So why no breweries and no excitement?
It’s actually pretty simple. First off this event has lost it’s reputation as a craft beer event loaded with brewery personnel, and has now gained the reputation of being just a beer party with mostly distributor’s. Instead of the average craft beer lover getting to sample some rare & unusual beers, and chat with the brewery staff, it’s now become more of a shoving match to sample 2-ounces of a beer most of us have either had 100 times already, or don’t want in the first place.

But why is it like this?
That’s actually pretty simple too. Money! A typical brewery burns through over 20 sixtels in a weekend…and even at an average cost of $60 for a sixtel, that’s over $1200 of free beer. Without giving up too much info on last year’s festival, lets just say that after Split Rock’s “Stipend” the brewery is still out over $1000. This causes breweries to bring only their cheapest beers, many of which get burned up on Saturday, and NO expensive or rare beers…and why would they do any differently? It just seems as though the event is meant to generate income for the organizers and that’s pretty much it. Not that there’s anything wrong with profit, but from a craft beer standpoint, an event like this should culture new craft beer lovers, and excite people about the art of brewing…and it simply no longer does either.

It’s been very difficult to watch the transition of the Split Rock Beer Festival over the last 10 years, but I think it has run it’s course. It’s always been a useful craft-beer event and a fun day, and it is my hope that someone with some knowledge of how to balance good crowds and happy breweries with “profit” will find a way to either fix Split Rock, or start a new festival somewhere else in NEPA….but I’m sad to say that unless that happens, I’m afraid that Split Rock 2011 will be my last…