Well, if we could see the proposals.. 
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What is preferred, or just what has always been done? I seem to remember the last RBSG beer dinner being quite a bit of a flop.
NYC may not have tons of local breweries (though we do have some very local (Brooklyn/Sixpoint/Chelsea), as well as Captain Lawrence/Southampton that are easy train rides out and perfect for a Saturday or Sunday morning event), but we’ve got incredible bars and distributors with fantastic contacts that will no doubt pull in stellar line-ups for us for the weekend. We are talking 20+ lines of rare beer from a ton of different brewers at 10+ bars, with everything being a 10 minute walk from others bars in the local groups we’d be hitting them in.
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I’d rather stay up late than get up early. That’s every day of the year, not just during RBSG. When I’m in Vegas, which runs 24 hours a day, I sleep from 9am to 4pm. So brewery tours at 9am and grand tastings at 11am just don’t make sense to me.
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You’re not gonna have a choice in Michigan, everything is so far apart  
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Yeah, last year’s beer dinner was hit-or-miss, and overall mostly a disappointment (at least for me). I had hoped it would be much better than that. The beers were good, the food was, for the most part, just mediocre. But I think that was actually the FIRST time a beer-pairing dinner has been done as a part of the RBSG, so it should by no means be seen as a REQUIREMENT. But if there is a way to set up a GOOD ONE (like a Sean Paxton dinner, for instance), then hell yeah! I’d love to get in on that!
I actually really like the idea of RBSG’s changing up the "model" for what an RBSG should be based on what their specific scene can offer. Back in ’05, Montreal featured a ciderie tour on Sunday morning, something pretty much no other beer city could offer (even if it’s not beer). And the bulk of the weekend had the group stationed at one hotel, where we could then venture off (largely on foot) to various smaller pockets of beer activity at bars and brewpubs. In 2007, San Diego’s tour was designed around spending large chunks of time soaking in the wonderful hospitality from a select few great breweries around town (namely, Stone, AleSmith, Lost Abbey, Pizza Port-Carlsbad, and Ballast Point), but it was at the cost of visiting some other great breweries (such as Alpine and Green Flash, for instance), and the whole weekend featured roving locations from day-to-day, which were aided by the coach bus and/or private caravans. I like to think that each of these approaches was pretty much the BEST way to showcase the beer culture of the given city, and I’d hope future proposals (and this year’s NY and MI proposals) will do the same for their cities, even if it means shaking up the traditional formula.
I also think it’s great to showcase the CITY, if possible, and not just the beer scene there. Obviously, just being IN the city and traveling from place-to-place is enough a lot of times to get a good feel for the uniqueness of the place, but I was talking with a couple of guys about this last year, when we were discussing the uncertainty about the final location of the Grand Tasting in San Francisco-- how badass would it have been if we had somehow found like a small family eatery or a dumpy little building somewhere that could have been rented out, and where we could have hosted the Grand Tasting on the rooftop with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge? I know this wasn’t actually a practical option that was even explored, but it’d be a hell of a way to have a memorable beer experience in San Francisco, and one that you couldn’t reproduce elsewhere.
That’s why I like Mike’s promotion of New York’s 4 AM bar closing time. It’s a unique thing about New York, and if NYC gets it this year, I hope I can make it so I can stay out until 3 or 4 AM and take in the vibrant bar scene there. And I sure as hell hope there’s not a "CAN’T-MISS" activity the next morning at 9 or 10 AM that will prevent me from getting a decent amount of sleep.
Shit, if we had an RBSG in the south somewhere, I’d hope there were a badass BBQ throwdown that weekend. Or if we had it in Alaska, I’d hope there was some kind of outdoor component, or even at least just a decent train ride to showcase some of the scenery. If we had one in Seattle or Portland, I’d hope it rained like a freaking typhoon that weekend. "Sort of". . .
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And I’m not saying all of this as a way to support New York and denigrate Michigan-- I’d love to go to either place. I’m anxious to see both proposals. I just want to push that, at least speaking to what / would love to see out of an RBSG (and proposal), it’s not just about throwing the best beer party, or having the best local breweries, or whatever. A lot of the event is what the individual participants (many of whom would *hopefully* be coming in from out-of-town) bring to it, and we all have shitloads of sick beers that we’d surely enjoy drinking. So great beer is sort of a given. I’d love to see creative and inspired schedules and unique events, and I’d love to hear how the weekend is going to offer a one-of-a-kind and memorable experience that just so happens to be centered around awesome beer culture.
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I just want to say I’m an old motherfucker and there’s no way I’m making it to 4 am. I wake up at 7 am with no prompting, just like and old geezer. So there.
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Obviously most people don’t stay up all night, or on the flip side, wake up at 7am unprompted. I think both cities will offer plenty of beer activities for the average crowd. Obviously New York folks and Michigan folks (such as myself) have a bias in these conversations. I hope the proposals will speak for themselves. I think cquiroga is right on with the idea that the region hosting should include their culture in the event. Even if it was hosted in a beer wasteland, guaranteed RB folks would make sure the event had way too much beer to consume in one weekend. The culture of the beer region seems to be what makes the event really special.
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SCREW NYC!!!!
Michigan is where it needs to be.
NYC is a god damned Hassle, it’s expensive, too many damn people everywhere, and unless we’re all doing coke like last year, no one’s making it to 4am anyways...we need a more relaxed mid-west experience.
VOTE MICHIGAN OR DIE!
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You just want to "bunk up" at Walt’s place for a few days before you guys trek up to Michigan..
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