OMSI After Dark hosts a Beerfest

OMSI After Dark presents Science is Brewing, a look at and taste of the science behind Beer. $25 purchased admission, a souvenir glass, and 10 tokens for Beer (1 token for a sample up to the line, 4 for a full Pint.) I've been looking forward to this for quite a while and had already purchased the tickets/glass/tokens online.

The premise of Adults Only access to OMSI + Beer from a lot of great breweries + Beer Science Geekery sounded great, however in execution it kind of fell a little short of my expectations. There were some enjoyable Beers being offered (Ft. George's Spank Stout [brewed with chili peppers] and Natian Brewery's Big Block IPA) alongside quite a few familiar Beers (Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Overcast Espresso Stout, Avatar Jasmine IPA.) Most of the Beer selection was made up of worthy but familiar offerings which I did not feel a strong desire to wade the crowd for... which leads to one of my two major complaints.

This is Pre-"OMG it's crowded in here!"

This was a crowded event made even more uncomfortable by the arrangement of the tasting booths crammed into the main lower hallway. It was impossible to navigate from one end to the other without shoving people in line for Deschutes Brewing into the line for Widmer Brewing so that you could have a face-to-face collision with someone coming from the other direction as they were pushing someone from the Oakshire Brewing line out of their way. It started out heavy and seemed to stay at it's peak between 8-10pm. It didn't help that the large exhibit hall on the main floor was closed (in prep for a new exhibit) leaving more people mulling about in the hallway with their Beer rather than moving on to less congested areas (like the Turbine Hall, which at least had space to breathe.)

The second issue I had with the event was that the Beer Science Geekery wasn't as cool as I had hoped it could be. There were some "cute" or interesting presentations here and there throughout the halls, but I didn't need my hair did by the Paul Mitchell students nor did I need a Key Bank logo key chain bottle opener. FH Steinbart and Seven Dees Nursery shared a row of tables that were worth stopping at, and the Walnut Studios folks had some neat Beer transport accessories for show. There was an Ag-Science Prof from OSU discussing Hops and some "Beer-Goggles" you could try in the lobby. The Beer Pong Physics was banal and rather uninteresting. Overall I felt it lacked some of the real nerdiness I was hoping for - more demonstrations and interactivity with something other than lines for the Firestone Walker or Burnside Brewing Tables.  At least the Narnia Exhibit was open and offered a reprieve from the sweaty masses downstairs.

Fortunately, the event offered plenty of quality Beer and the opportunity to wander the aisles of the Science Store with a Beer in hand and no crying children within hearing distance. You didn't have to feel bad about pushing little kids out of the way to play with the brain-teasers or the bottle launchers, either. I did enjoy the Taiko Drummers, they were fun to listen to and observe. The pint glass even has a cute commemorative logo on it. I enjoyed going to the Science is Brewing night, but I hope that in the future iterations of this event a little more emphasis is placed on easing crowd flow and adding a little more thought-provocation to the "Brewing Science" part of the program.