A friend of mine had the excellent idea to start hosting beer potlucks.  If you didn’t know, a potluck is traditionally an event based around food. Everyone brings a dish big enough for the themselves and then everybody shares in whatever everyone else brought.  The same principle applies here, everyone brings enough beer for themselves and shares.

You might think this sounds like a bad idea, and I suppose it could be depending on the overall quality of your friends and acquaintances.  In this case, it was great.  There were no greedy bastards drinking everyone else’s beer as fast as they could.  Everyone there was social, convivial, and in the mood to share some quality beer.  Also, considering the event was centered around beer, everyone there was up for a party.

Fridge in living area, full of craft beer

Gavin, my friend who hosted the event, also happens to have created the Bridge Brewing website.  Bridge were kind enough to supply tasting glasses and a few growlers of their beer to help get the party started.  I managed to taste their fresh Black IPA (excellent) and their Northwest Pale Ale (seriously off, something went wrong here).  Anyway, thank you Bridge Brewing.

A few key decisions enhanced the event tremendously.  First, it was stipulated that craft beer only would be accepted, though someone ironically brought a six pack of lucky lager.  Second, they moved the fridge into the living area! The genius of this was immediately apparent, in stark contrast to the overly crowded kitchen of the previous beer potluck.

Potluck table, opened beer goes here, then help yourself

What did I bring?  Well, I didn’t want to intimidate my fellow party goers with my incredible taste, so I didn’t bring anything too good.  Also, sharing incredible beer with those who might not appreciate it is a crime preventable by both greed and passion.  I ended up bringing three big bottles of decent stuff that had been in my fridge for a while, only because I didn’t want to drink them by myself in one go.  I brought Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, Tree Redwood Wine Barrel Aged Ale, and The Commons Flemish Kiss.

Keys to a good beer potluck:

• Stipulate craft beer only, shame those who disobey
• Put the fridge in the living area, really opens up the party
• Get a brewery to sponsor the event, distracting your friends into leaving you all sorts of leftover beer
• If you have excellent taste, open the beer you brought first
• Don’t invite freeloading douchebags
• Provide snacks, everyone loves snacks

Cheers,

Chris