I really need to come up with a smarter way of handling beer festivals and other beery-like events.
It’s a conclusion I’ve come to after experiencing the Meet the Brewer event at Harts Pub as part of Sydney Craft Beer Week and, before that, the Trainworks Beer Festival.

I need to come up with a beer festival strategy so I don’t end up like this one day.

In both cases, what essentially happens is that I think ‘‘it’s free beer!’’ (I was lucky enough to score a media pass for both events) and so I race around trying as much beer as I can as quickly as I can.
It’s as though I figure the beer is going to run out soon and I have to get around to it all in the shortest possible time.
There’s also the wrinkle problem of being a newspaper beer reviewer and knowing a number of the brewers. I’ll go over to their stall to say ‘Hi’’ and they’ll offer me some beer, which I accept because to do anything else would seem rude.
So that tends to speed things up too. This all results in three things happening
A) I get drunk far too early;
B) I miss out on some beers I really wanted to try; and
C) I have to leave and go lie down somewhere
So I’ve been creating a strategy to make things a bit easier on my stomach and head (and maybe even my liver).
I’m not sure how to politely decline a beer when it’s offered by the guy who made it, but I’ve come up with a few other plans of attack.
The obvious one is to drink more water. Surrounded by loads of beer at a festival I tend to think water is just taking up valuable stomach real estate that could be filled by beer. But drinking from a water bottle through the day would help with the staying power – as well as slow down the headlong, frantic ‘‘Jesus Christ! There’s free beer!’’ rush.
Then there’s the idea of taking smaller samples. I learned that one – albeit too late – from Endeavour’s Andy Stewart at the Meet the Brewer event. While I was knocking back schooners of great beer, he was drinking from a half-pint glass. So he was drinking much less than me with each beer – and I’d bet he didn’t have to leave to go and lie down as early as I did either.
There’s also the idea of having something to eat, which both puts food in the belly to slow the absorption of beer and also means I take a break from imbibing.
And having a plan would be an idea too, so I don’t miss out on any beers I wanted to try (I got this idea from googling ‘‘surviving a beer festival’’. The internet really has the answer to anything you could ever ask). It could be as simple as just having a look around at all the offerings before trying any of the beers.
That way I don’t wake up the next morning full of regret at missing some particular beer.
So now I have a strategy of sorts. All I need to make sure that I’m smart enough to follow it.