Paul Jones had waited two years for this moment, to finally drink it in. This was his second attempt at running a world-class brewery invitational, after the first one was nearly shut down due to licensing issues. He spent a significant amount of last year’s event in the back of a police van.
Undeterred, this year he and his team made Friends & Family & Beer bigger and bolder, while being damned sure nothing was going to go wrong. The result was probably the best beer list the U.K. has ever seen at a festival, and the perfect mix of painfully earnest geekery and relaxed vibes. I can't imagine how nervous Jones must have been as the doors finally opened, but it was very on-brand that he insisted on playing everyone in—at the center of everything, but somehow calm and unassuming at the same time.
