Reprrsentin' At Hyde Park Brew Fest

We got the following email. Anyone interested in representing CHAOS down there?

Hello,

My name is Kyle and I'm currently the beer buyer at Kimbark Beverage Shoppe in Hyde Park. I have had the pleasure of meeting a few of CHAOS' members over the past couple of years in our store. We just finalized the lineup for Hyde Park's Oktoberfest beer garden, deemed Hyde Park Brew Fest, and I had mentioned to my boss a few days ago that I thought it'd be cool to get a homebrew club involved this year. Hyde Park is growing in its wealth of great food and craft beer with Trader Joe's moving into the neighborhood and the recently opened Promontory, so we wanted to try something a little different and see if you guys would be willing to come represent and kind of educate the neighborhood about homebrewing during our sampling event?

You could bring some samples (although we could not expect festival attendees to redeem drink tokens for homebrew, as it is not government regulated), some information about your club and maybe find a few new people signed up as members!

Please read the following invitation which includes all of the event details and forget the deadline as we have already gone to press on the event. Let me know at your earliest convenience if you and/or anyone at CHAOS would like to show up and represent!

I look forward to hearing from and working with you.

You are receiving this e-mail because Kimbark Beverage Shoppe has just been given the go-ahead to start planning the beer portion of the 2014 Hyde Park Oktoberfest (late notice I know, I'm trying to do my best with it!) taking place on Saturday, October 4 from 1-5pm. It is my understanding that this year’s event will clash with the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO and that some of you may not be in the region at the time of event.

We would like to extend an invitation to you all and your respective brewing establishments to join us and have your brands represented at this year’s event! The Hyde Park Oktoberfest will take place in Nichols Park (see attached map) with the beer tasting session in the Bank Financial parking lot (access from Kimbark Ave just north of 55th St).

Each vendor should plan on pouring a minimum of 2 varieties and a maximum of 3. The reason for this is due to our tent and table space; each brewer will be able to utilize 5ft of table space. We are working to have signs made for each brewery to have signage at their table, however it might not be within our budget so I ask that you tentatively plan on bringing your own table/backdrop signs.
We are going to press for this event this Friday, September 5, 2014. Please keep this in mind because if we do not receive a definitive response by this time, we will move on to our next option(s).
The event will have a total of 24 breweries/cider-makers and should be a great time for all who are involved.

On top of this festival, Kimbark has a big marketing push for a series of tastings we’ve deemed “Tap Room Thursdays” running from September 25 through October 30 in which each week, 5 breweries will be doing in-store samplings side-by-side one another with a primary focus on local tap rooms and local (IL) breweries. With the success of these events we will be expecting a crowd between 5,000 and 10,000 people for the Oktoberfest with the proper marketing. These expectations were taken from averages based on past year’s events when the event was two days. Please plan accordingly, as we do not wish to run out of beer!
Differing from the Tap Room Thursday events and other events that I have had the pleasure of working with some of you on, Kimbark Beverage Shoppe will be purchasing ALL of the beer for this event and we are not asking for donations.

If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to ask. I will respond to any and all inquiries to the best of my ability and in a timely manner. If your questions are urgent, please call/text my cell phone and I will get back to you as soon as I am able.

Cheers!