My Rant About (the royal) You and the RareAffair™

While we are all waiting for the Four Peaks shoe to drop, let's all take some time to do the right thing.

This BeerPHXation byline is, "A local Phoenix Metro beer culture celebration and admonition." Get ready for a dose of admonishment. It's been over 2 weeks and it's starting to make me sad. A call has been made to get the Beer for Brains page 1001 likes on Facebook. That should be easy enough to do. Doing this should be it's own reward. It should not take this long to get it knocked out in a healthy beer culture.

I wrote about The Beer for Brains Off-Centered Experience last year. It was Louis Dolgoff's first event to raise money for Brain Cancer. The event had disappointing attendance given the overwhelming number of  rare beers that were to be freely poured that evening. If you've been in the beer scene for the last 2 years you know the story of Laurie Dolgoff. I'll repeat it here for those that are new:

In 2009, Dolgoff lost his wife of 30 years to an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma ultiforme - the same cancer that killed Senator Edward Kennedy. Laurie Dolgoff died shortly after her 55th birthday – 29 months after her initial diagnosis. Dolgoff, a craft-beer industry sales manager and event promoter for Dogfish Head Breweries, created the Beer for Brains Foundation because of the cutting-edge care she received at Barrow Neurological Institute. Through fundraising events like the Off-Centered Experience, Dolgoff hopes to help them find a way to extend the lifespan and quality of life for brain cancer patients.

There is another event coming November 5th re-branded as The RareAffair™. Presumably some might have scaled the event back after such a set back. Fortunately for those that have made a commitment to the  RareAffair™ the event is even bigger and the beer list it more expansive. Again, getting 1001 likes is child's play. I'm not sure where they were on October 3, but they are at 870 as I write this.

The Beer For Brains Foundation

First contest is easy...It's late but we will roll it out this evening anyways. The 1001 person to LIKE our page will get into RAREaffair FREE! Tell your friends to spread the word about this great cause~

 ·  · Share · October 3 at 10:24pm · 

Again it should be it's own reward, but there is a FREE ticket to someone that is able to click a button and yet there it sits. Pathetic. We have 5 million people in the valley. If this was Philly this would have been done in a single day.

A SINGLE DAY!

Rewarding the nth member to click isn't the best strategy because it rewards late comers. I get that, but Fuck. Go do it. Help someone else win, right. All I hear about is how craft beer people are good people. This isn't right.

Secondly there is an individual, Cara, on that page giving away her ticket for a convincing post:

Hey everyone! I have won a ticket to RAREaffair and do not need it because I am already VIP! I am giving my ticket to the person who tells me why they deserve it here on The Beer For Brains Page. Tell me why I should give it to you! I will pick the winner on October 21st. :) Happy Posting~

Bless her, but there are 9 posts. Most of them just to tell her thanks. Additionally the post is up on the private Arizona Craft Beer Lovers page, a group with 250 some odd members. Many of them are going, I'm sure, others are in the industry, but these are supposed to be beer taste makers. (That's market speak for people who are supposed to influence others.) There are a handful of responses in that post. There are more posts on where to find Angel's Share.(Crisis Averted! He found it.) Somewhere deep in the bowels of that group in a post I pointed out that there is a big difference between showing up and doing something. Cara is doing something. Lots of others are just showing up.


I have challenge the members of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers (ASH) to have 100 members come to  the RareAffair™. We are over the halfway hump and I still believe they will come though. Once they hit 100, I am doing a raffle to pay one member's money back even if it is a VIP ticket. I've been using the bully pulpit in the club and everywhere else. As President of ASH, I often tell people that I have to be a dick to everyone as a group and love everyone individually. I imagine that people are tired of listening to me. That's OK. Listen to these people. Don't take it out on Lou or the RareAffair™.


Take it out on cancer.