Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Philly Beer Week 2013 is ready to throw down the hammer

If 2013 has taught me anything, it's that I likely won't get caught up with much of anything until well into the next year. Still, I promised before I hit the sack tonight, I'd get the first look (well, my first look, at least...finally) of the PBW '13 schedule out to you. I'm sure that many of you have had several looks at it already.

Plus, I took a piece of the survey response into account (ha, like I already didn't know what the answer would be!) and threw together another one of those ever-so-handy-dandy spreadsheets that many of you have loved in the past. Here's the link to the spreadsheet.

Of course, my standard disclaimer holds again this year: "this spreadsheet was assembled using information as of early Sunday morning, May 26. For the most up-to-date and "official" information concerning PBW '13 events, consult PhillyBeerWeek.org or, better yet, directly contact the host establishment/organizer."

Here are a few more links that you may find handy. I know. I'm apologize; there's a lot going on here in this one post.

~ A Philly Beer Week Keepsake from Philadelphia Weekly. You're sure to come across the printed copy during the next couple of weeks. Here's a link to the PDF version.

~ The all-important Hammer of Glory Route Guide. Looks like they might plan to use the Twitter Hashtag #HOG to follow sightings of it on Friday, May 31. Though, it seems to be fairly commonly used elsewhere but I'm betting on May 31 it could be trending in Philly.

~ Opening Tap is usually a see-and-be-seen kind of event. Plus, the annual Brewvitational Awards will be presented. I was honored to be a judge and will be anxious to discuss your thoughts of the winning beers/breweries.

Oh, right. And how about a few observations from this May 26 list of events?

I count...
* 164 unique locations

* 1,089 listed events
* though, 896 what you might consider "unique" events when reducing by the total number of multi-day duplicates

* 748 in Philly (83.5%)
* 148 events outside Philly (16.5%)

* Counting only the "unique" events, you can spot nearly a perfect bell curve that peaks on Thursday.

  • Fri. May 31- 90 events
  • Sat. June 1- 79 events
  • Sun. June 2- 80 events
  • Mon. June 3- 82 events
  • Tue. June 4- 95 events
  • Wed. June 5- 105 events
  • Thu. June 6- 110 events
  • Fri. June 7- 94 events
  • Sat. June 8- 80 events
  • Sun. June 9- 46 events

* 24 listed as Free
* 653 listed as PAYG
* 105 with a dollar figure up from $5-$150 (47 of them $25 or under)
* The rest are either over $25 or not listed with a cost approach

* Some other anecdotal observations, that appear obvious to me but may or may not be substantiated by a more careful comparison. In 2013, I seem to see:
  • greater use of CAPITAL LETTERS to get the customer's attention
  • more scheduling on the :30, perhaps in effort to stand out when filtering based on time of day
  • more jockeying for first events by gaming the calendar with either what seem to be very early start times or long spans of time like basically "all day"
  • more late night events. Can't explain the drive behind this, but I like it since there have always been, and will be understandably, so much competition in scheduling "prime time" events.
  • a lot repeating events. In other words, the same thing every day which leads me to cast suspicion on some (not all, mind you, some) of the events.
  • more specials/sales for the sake of an event. For example, I find it difficult to argue that serving a particular food item, discounted beer, or special pairing for ten days counts as ten events.
But, make of it what you will. It's beer week for the people. There's so much choice, it'll be hard for you to go wrong. For sure, you won't be able to argue that there aren't enough options.

No matter how you slice and dice it, Philly Beer Week 2013 will undoubtedly once again put on an unequaled display of great beer and people.

(Did you miss the spreadsheet link up above? Here it is again.)



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