Beer Fests; Love 'Em Or Leave "Em?

[Chuck N]

So today they're holding the third annual beer fest in Mankato. I'm not going. The wife is concerned. She thinks that maybe I'm coming down with some kind of serious illness. And she may be right. That is if you consider common sense as a serious illness.

I went to the beer fest last year. I had a good time. But I would have had a better time if they hadn't crammed over four thousand (my estimate) into an arena meant to hold only three. I paid $35.00 to get through the door and stand in line after line to get a three ounce sample of - once in a while - some pretty darn good beers. I figured that in the end I consumed probably 36 oz of beer. Works out to be $10.50 a bottle. But the vast majority of them were beers that I had already had in the past or beers that I would never buy again. Of course it would have taken me a lot longer to find this out if it weren't for sampling them at the beer fest. Then there was the fact that all the really good beers went first. The crowd around the Laguitas' (sp) tent was nearly over whelming and I only got one sample of their "Sucks". Goose Island didn't even bring any of their "Bourbon County Stout" to the show. "We don't need to give that away to sell it," is what they told me. And the thing that really turned me off was the fact that I try very, very hard not to come across to anyone as a "beer snob". Apparently that doesn't cut it at these beer fests. I was actually laughed at by a person I had never met before because I stated how much I liked the Schells' Brewery "Chimney Sweep" (linky: http://schellsbrewery.com/beer/chimney-sweep/ ). (Schells' is a local brewery that, for some reason, is derided by a lot of the locals. In the past they had made some rather "not good" beer - I still do not like their "Original" - but they now make several very good craft brews and I anxiously almost all of their seasonals all year long. All of their beers are of German origin.) And there were more than a few who sounded more like we were at some kind of a wine tasting rather than a beer fest as they seemed to try to "out taste" the others in their groups.

I don't know. I like beer. I love good beer. And while my tastes seem to stay somewhere in the simple range I know a great beer when I drink it and I appreciate it for what it is: A great beer. I don't feel I need to break down and identify all the of the different flavors and then argue with who-ever may not agree with me. (I'll give you an example of one of the conversations I over-heard; I was not the only one to be dissapointed by Goose Island not have their "Bourbon County Stout" at the show. But there was more than one other brewer there that had a bourbon stout as a sample. At one of these brewers' tents - I don't remember which one - I heard one guy tell his buddies that that particular stout was not as good because the oak used in the barrels that the beer was aged in wasn't oak from the eastern United States and didn't have as good of tannins as the barrels used in Goose Islands'. And then one of his buddies had the audacity to tell him that, "oak is oak no matter where it comes from." Well let me tell you, it was on from there. ).

So, no. I'll save the $35.00 and put it in the gas tank of my Jeep and LOML and I and go out on a winery/brewery (winery for her, brewery for me)cruise and try the samples at our own pace.

[DirtRacer]

I'd agree that the $35 can surely be spent better. It sounds like a terrible experience even if it had been a free event.

[Inkleg]

I try not to hang out where there might be a lot of Richards.

But with that said. What I will do is volunteer and be a steward for the beer competition that usually accompanies these festivals. Not only is the help truly appreciated, but i get a pass for the event and get through the gates earlier that the normal public. Something to look into.
Plus I get to taste some pretty awesome home-brews during the judging.

[Gymrat]

The beer fests here sell a limited number of tickets you might wait behind 1 or 2 people. I always end up absolutely blitzed. I drink more beer faster than I have since I was 18. I love the environment at them. Specifically the female part (I AM single n all). The bus depot is 2 blocks from where it is held so I dont have to drive. And there are always several brew pubs and microbrews from Kansas and Nebraska represented. So I get to try a lot of unusual beers.

[FedoraDave]

Even though I attended the first three beer expos at the Meadowlands, I skipped last year, and won't go this year. I'll probably limit it to once every three or four years, actually. Last time I went, it seemed there were a lot of college-aged and slightly older people who seemed to think it was a way to get "free" beer and drink too much. They weren't sampling or tasting, they were just drinking as much as they could.

If I wanted to hang out with drunken college-aged yabbos, I can do that without driving all the way down to Secaucus.

[Gman20]

went to something like this a while back and entry fee was $50 bucks it was fun tho and they had food and live band too

[swenocha]

I tend to be real selective on which fests I attend. In Nashville, there are so many festivals that I lose track of them all. Many of them, however, simply have beers that you can buy at your local Kroger. When you see beer lists at an international beer fest, for instance, include Corona and Modelo as their only Mexican options, it's not worth going IMHO. Or when the promotion poster looks like this one from the Zombie Beer Fest, you know it's going to be a college aged drunk fest whoo-party:



On the other hand, Yazoo puts on a Funk Fest every year that includes their own funky beers, as well as from breweries from around the world, funky cheeses, funk wranglers and funk music. The East Nashville Beer Fest has the widest range of breweries, and every one of them brings specialty beers and casks that they bring out throughout the day. There are so many breweries that the lines are seldom longer than 5 people at a booth. I find that I really have to pace myself with food or walking to avoid becoming a drunken whoo-girl myself. 12 South Winter Warmer? Brew at the Zoo? Nuit Belge? Same thing. Those are the ones I tend to attend or work at (I pour for breweries at a few festivals per year). There may be a small whoo-girl contingent at some of these fests, but mostly it is more the beer-lover crowd.

Here in Nashville, there are two major promotion companies that put on the vast majority of the festivals (outside of the ones that the breweries run themselves): Hootenanny, who put on the ones like the poster above, caters to the party-kid crowd, while Rhizome runs the more focused, specialty events that aren't overrun by the 'get drunk' crowd. A quick bit of research as to who is promoting usually gives all you need to know when selecting your fests.

[joechianti]

I'm glad I saw this thread before I went to one of these beer fests. I've been curious for awhile but have been holding back. I am mortified of crowds, despise standing in line, and hate spending money. Luckily, there are a whole lot of small local breweries in central Texas, and most of them have open house on Friday or Saturday. It's usually only a few dozen people, it's pretty tame, you get to actually talk to the staff, and the standard procedure is usually that you buy a souvenir pint glass and you get a bracelet that they mark on for each sample until you've had 6 half-pints. I've never been disappointed by the quality or the selection. That's about all the beer fest I think I'll ever need.

[RickBeer]

Many states have 3 oz sample max sizes I believe. I also am not paying $35 or more for a few beers.

[BlackDuck]

I've seen that max sample size too....but they sure don't pour that. They seem to always pour more.

[Gymrat]

You guys who wont go to one based on what others say are really missing out. There are always obscure brew pubs who dont sell outside thier establishment at the ones I go to. Yeah the samples are 3 to 4 ounces but I get to try 40 samples in the 3 hours I spend at one. Whence the bus there and back. Its worth every bit of $35 for the beer and the experience.

[joechianti]

I wish there was a bus I could take when I go out drinking. Last time I woke up and couldn't find my car anywhere. Could not recall where I parked it at all. When I told one of the women at work about it, she said that was nothing, when she got home she blew chunks. I didn't think that was so odd until she told me her dog's name is Chunks.

[John Sand]

Count me in the reluctant crowd. Beer fests, like everything else, cost more on Long Island. Prices tend to run around $55. Just a quick search revealed one feb7, $65-$85. And millions of people live here. I went to only one, a very small local cask festival in my own town, last winter. It was full of hipsters trying to get drunk from very odd beer. There was nothing I tasted that I would seek again. Now I know that was one bad experience, but I could spend the same money on hockey or baseball tickets and have great fun. Or go to a craft beer bar and get a couple of flights for a quarter of the price, with a server waiting on me, instead of waiting on line.

[swenocha]

Some fests here are still $35-40, but the good fests here are more like $45-50, or $75ish for the upgraded experience (private casks, food pairings, etc.). One coming up in a month or so, Nuit Belge, is $99, or $150 for the upgraded experience, but it includes rare Belgian beers paired with small plates from 14 of Nashville’s top restaurants, a Speigelau tulip glass, a seafood and sausage bar, an array of artisan chocolate, and a cheese tasting. I'm not going, but it sounds incredible, and it's limited to 500, so definitely not long lines or party kids. The upgrade for this one is limited to 50, and is an additional hour with world-class chefs from Blackberry Farm resort, sampling their foods and world class beers. It all depends on what you are looking for. I tend to really like going to the specialty fests, working the big fests, and we also attend our hometown fest in Franklin simply because we've gone for the last decade.

[FedoraDave]

See, Swen's description is something I'd pay the money to attend. It's what I would be looking for in a beer expo. The Meadowlands one is very similar to what John Sand described. While I was able to seek out some smaller local craft beers (distribution in New Jersey seems kinda weird; they brew the stuff 15 miles from my house, but they can't distribute it to the stores here), there were also booths for Corona, etc., and there were all the idjits who rush from one booth to another trying to get slammed ASAP.

They usually have one here in the county at the local minor league park. I've heard it's good, and probably will be a pretty decent crowd with good beers for not a lot of investment. I may go to that one if I'm not working that weekend.