I just wanted to take a few seconds to talk about the Brewfest Riding Ram repeatable quests because - even though it’s now been almost  a week - I still see people screwing these up.

Riding Ram Basics:

There are two repeatable quests during Brewfest that allow you to take the reins of a Racing Ram. One is a ‘barker’ quest given out by brewers in the Brewfest area, and the other is a ‘keg run’ given out by the head ram guy.

By default, the Ram moves at a very slow pace. Clicking the reins makes the Ram speed up. Here are the speed options, nabbed from the WoW Forums:

CONTROLLING EXHAUSTION: There are four speeds to the Ram. Crawl, Trot, Canter and Gallop.
Crawl is the slowest and does nothing to manage exhaustion.
Trot is faster than Crawl and will allow your Ram to regain 2 energy per second.
Canter is “cruising speed”. For endurance quests Canter is going to be your friend. Uses 1 energy per second.
Gallop is as fast as the Ram will go and also spends the most energy, 5 per second. 

The author of that post talks about the Ram quests, but does so a bit disjointedly. I want to make sure these are clear, because Brewfest has some awesome kit; everyone should be able to buy a Ram by the end of the festival because of Blizzard’s generosity. Y’see, originally the Dark Iron Dwarf attacks were going to be one of the primary ways of getting Brewfest tickets. The bugginess of the quest required that it be taken out, though, and as a result the Ram rides are the only way to get tickets now. Luckily (if you do it right) you can earn up to 100 Brewfest tickets in a single day by riding smart. Alliance folks are out of luck for this post, as I’ve not done the Brewfest activities over in Ironforge at all. I assume, though, that they are equally ‘easy’ to do, and so a similar number of tickets can be earned by a smart rider.

First, let’s talk about the easy one …

The Barker Quest:

Grab this quest from the orc or troll stalls on the Brewfest grounds. I prefer the troll, personally. Either way, the quest will offer you 40 tickets as a payout. Before you grab the quest, open your backpack up. Make sure you have a hotbar slot clear, and then accept the quest. Immediately, you’ll mount up, the reins item will appear in your pack, and the quest timer will start counting down. Quickly drop the reins into the hotbar, and double click to get moving. At the start of this quest, I prefer to stay near the edge of the Trot/Canter barrier. You’re going to have to work at it a bit to find where that is, but there’s a definite rhythm you can find to stay at a certain pace. Head out of the Festival grounds and run into the city. The first goal is the Auction House, so veer right as you come through the gates. You’ll whiz past and do your bark as you go. At this point you have a straightaway to your next bark; go on up to a Canter and sustain that to the Valley of Honor Gate … but do not under any circumstances hit a Gallop. Galloping during this quest is basically straight out.

Once in the valley you’re going to want to try to veer even more right to make a nice U-Turn back onto the Drag. Keep a close eye on your energy at this point; if you’re creeping up on 50 you probably want to drop back to a Trot as you move down the Drag towards the Valley of Wisdom. Don’t worry about the time; just concentrate on your speed and energy. When you hit the Valley of Wisdom, you’re going to want to veer left. There’s a trail that leads right up through the valley onto a raised path overlooking the Valley of Strength; don’t try to go back out onto the Drag and through the Cleft of Shadows, it just takes too long. Once you’re on the path, open her up again a bit and hit a Canter if you can afford the cost. As you turn the corner near the Officer’s Hall, take a quick look at your time. You want to be right around a minute, with some spare seconds after that. I’ve gotten to this point often around the minute and a half mark, and that’s plenty of time.

Make your run around the Valley of Spirit flags, and you’ve completed the quest … but you still have to make it back to the Brewfest booth. Head back up the path towards the Valley of Strength, and then over the rooftops to the ground. As you head towards the edge, stop egging on your Ram; you’ll probably hit the ground at a Trot or Crawl, but that’s okay. You don’t need speed to go down. Once you hit the ground, you want to be back at the Trot/Canter barrier again. You still have to reach the booth without exhausting your Ram, and you should have just about enough time to do it. Make sure to veer right as you exit the gate so that you can jump right over the barricades near the festival grounds and into the fray.

When you hit the booth, you should be right around 20-10 seconds on the clock; make sure to stop moving forward or autorunning at this point. :) Congrats! You have 40 more brewfest tickets.  That just leaves us with …

There and Back Again, Again:

This is the fun one, and if you do it right can net you almost as many tickets as the barker quest. The key here is speed: basically, you want to be at a Gallop the entire time you are running this quest. Just mash that reins hotkey over and over again, and you should be able to earn up to 30 tickets or so, with 3 tickets netted from each circuit. Here’s how to do it: From the quest-giver, open her up to top speed and point the ram down the path towards Razor Hill. As you come past the Brewfest grounds gate, you’ll see the first apple barrel. Aim your ram just to the right of that apple barrel, and mash the reins key again. You don’t need to do it continuously, but you really do want to alwasy be at a Gallop; anything slower is a waste of time. As you pass the barrel you’ll see a red particle effect around your character, and your Ram’s exhaustion will drop to 0.

Keep Galloping down the path, and take note of the mound of dirt to the left of the path. Aim your Ram just to the right of that mound; the next apple barrel is just hidden behind it. This is a crucial barrel to hit, as if you don’t your going to have to slow down during the long run past the goblin. Run past the barrel, then quickly move back to the right so you can do a U-turn near the goblin. You don’t need to run through him, or really get anywhere that near to him. Just get within throwing distance of the little guy and he’ll toss you a Brewfest keg. Head back the way you came, and aim your Ram at the gap between that large mound you passed earlier and the rock wall. Make sure you almost brush the apple barrel again, as this is another critical hit. With that barrel activated, you should have a straight shot back to the Ram pen.

Make sure, again, that you’re at a full Gallop, and leap the barrier holding in the two example Riding Rams. There’s an apple barrel in the pen; brush past that and make a quick left out through the tent and onto the path, angling further left to be aimed down the path towards Razor Hill again. As you pass by the goblin he’ll take the barrel from you and you’ll see a yellow flash as some tickets are put in your inventory. Hit the reins again, aim for the first barrel and repeat as many times as you can. I’ve gotten a full ten passes (for 30 tickets) out of this quest, and I’m sure that someone more skilled than I could eke out an 11th or even 12th pass if they wanted to.

I have had a great deal of fun with these quests, and wanted to make sure you could get the most of out them; hope this was helpful.