Sure it sounds like we're pampered and spoiled but it's actually a pain because all of the journalists are corralled in the same room and journalists in the same room with limited Ethernet ports (Wi-Fi never works at conferences), hopped up on carbohydrates and coffee, is a powder keg.
The owners, a Scottish chef and a Catalan whisky expert who met in Edinburgh, have restored chunky oak beams, made bedheads from doors, lampstands from wine kegs and a coffee table from a baker's chest.
That said, there are roasters out there who take enormous pride in their iced coffee, going as far as kegging nitrogenated single origins.
For Brodie's boldest brews look to the keg fonts where, among coffee and bacon flavoured beers, I opted for the Hoxton Special IPA (half £2.90).
He took salt, tobacco, Mackinnon's precious coffee, and one of the remaining kegs of wine.
Denver brewers can also haul kegs of their latest pale ales, coffee stouts and other creations to a seemingly endless selection of city bars to serve on tap.
Geeks are best grabbing a seat at the bar, under dangling legs of jamón ibérico to best scrutinise the exotica – for instance, Bristol Beer Factory's 10% Wheat Wine aged in bourbon barrels and blended with cold-brew coffee; or Mad Hatter's Cranberry and Beetroot Wit – offered across 10 keg and four cask lines.
And from there, you can channel said boredom or awkwardness in a different, more useful direction—say, towards that novel that hasn't moved from your coffee table in weeks, or into a conversation with that tall drink of water standing by the keg.
Nitro Coffee, which he launched this summer is coffee that "has been cold brewed 500 litres at a time for a number of hours before being filtered then charged with nitrogen before being filled into kegs".
