But is drinking at home while staring at a computer for four hours really fun? Simply put, I was skeptical to start, but by the end, I was reluctant to leave my screen even for a toilet break and continued chatting with beer fans online for hours after the event. I even met a couple of beer-loving peers nearby, making a tipsy agreement to check out their local pub when coronavirus restrictions lift. Truth be told, I’ve been to in-person fests and not gotten this much out of the experience.
Was all the content perfect? No. Was the chat coherent? Well, not really. But here’s the thing: Time flies when you’re drinking beer, and 12 beers is plenty of beer. My wife and I watched the fest together, and by the end, we still managed to only finish one of the beers completely. Meanwhile, I wasn’t the only one who was engaged: When the first beer was cracked, about 2,100 people were viewing the YouTube stream. I occasionally jotted down the number of viewers across the evening, and it remained steady. Even by the eleventh beer, over 1,900 people were still tuned in.