Beer Forum

Ok, I am probably going to miss every other local beer event going on this summer. This is the one festival that I will be able to attend. Frist of all, have any of you other local BN'ers been to this festival in the past (is it worth attending?) and who is going to be there? Lets hang and have a beer my friends!!!!

BREWERS UNITE!!!

YeastWhisperer wrote:Ok, I am probably going to miss every other local beer event going on this summer. This is the one festival that I will be able to attend. Frist of all, have any of you other local BN'ers been to this festival in the past (is it worth attending?) and who is going to be there? Lets hang and have a beer my friends!!!!

BREWERS UNITE!!!

I've gone to this fest 2 years in a row now and will be there again this year. I'm working it on the 3rd then going on the 4th to drink. I love working at it and it was a lot of fun. Its all imported stuff and its fun to try certain beers I've yet to try since I've been trying to get into more imported stuff as well as local stuff. Its a lot more fun than Fremont Oktoberfest, thats for sure.

I've been the past 2yrs, and am debating going this year. It certainly is better than the Fremont Octoberfest and Hop Scotch fests, but pales in comparison to the Cask Fest and Washington Brewers Festival. I never really feel like it's worth it. There are a few really good beers, but it's more international swill than anything. Very crowded in a small area too, which starts to suck when you start stumbling around

The thing I like least about it is that no breweries are truly represented. There's just a long line of tables with taps in seemingly no particular order being poured by volunteers who usually have no idea what they're serving. So if you find some kind of great rarity, there's nobody there to tell you that beer's story.

Honestly, the beer selections at bars like Uber Bar in Seattle are just as good or better than this fest. I don't think the "festival" atmosphere part of it was good enough to justify spending the money on it again. Just my opinion though, I know there are plenty of people who enjoy it.

I just wish we had some fests that could compare to some of the big ones in California and Oregon

Evan Burck wrote:I've been the past 2yrs, and am debating going this year. It certainly is better than the Fremont Octoberfest and Hop Scotch fests, but pales in comparison to the Cask Fest and Washington Brewers Festival. I never really feel like it's worth it. There are a few really good beers, but it's more international swill than anything. Very crowded in a small area too, which starts to suck when you start stumbling around

The thing I like least about it is that no breweries are truly represented. There's just a long line of tables with taps in seemingly no particular order being poured by volunteers who usually have no idea what they're serving. So if you find some kind of great rarity, there's nobody there to tell you that beer's story.

Honestly, the beer selections at bars like Uber Bar in Seattle are just as good or better than this fest. I don't think the "festival" atmosphere part of it was good enough to justify spending the money on it again. Just my opinion though, I know there are plenty of people who enjoy it.

I just wish we had some fests that could compare to some of the big ones in California and Oregon

I think it has a better festival vibe than anything that Bold Hat does, the people that does the Fremont fests. At least they have more suitable music and food stands and a cigar booth. Fremont's had nothing special and playing KISS 106 all day was stupid as hell. And the indie bands they had playing.

Twinsbro wrote:
I think it has a better festival vibe than anything that Bold Hat does, the people that does the Fremont fests. At least they have more suitable music and food stands and a cigar booth. Fremont's had nothing special and playing KISS 106 all day was stupid as hell. And the indie bands they had playing.

I agree completely. Like I said, I think it's the right in the middle one. Not as cool as Washington Brewers Festival and the Cask Fest, and far better than the frat boy parties in Fremont. Either way, there's still a lot about it I don't really enjoy, mainly that it's not at all about getting you to learn about the beer you're trying. Just walk up to the clueless volunteer, get your sample, and move on. I like it when you can chat it up with the brewers and really learn about the beer they just poured for you.

Evan Burck wrote:I agree completely. Like I said, I think it's the right in the middle one. Not as cool as Washington Brewers Festival and the Cask Fest, and far better than the frat boy parties in Fremont. Either way, there's still a lot about it I don't really enjoy, mainly that it's not at all about getting you to learn about the beer you're trying. Just walk up to the clueless volunteer, get your sample, and move on. I like it when you can chat it up with the brewers and really learn about the beer they just poured for you.

I volunteer at all the fests so I can go in for free the next day to drink. Except I won't do any for the Fremont ones. I won't even bother to go to them. I mean its mainly the same breweries at the Fremont one as the WABL fests. Just not as many and the vibe sucks. So I'll skip their fests for now on. The only people at the SIB fests that really know about the beer are some of the guys or girls you see in the "beer police" shirts. Some of them are distributors or friends of ones, and some of them really know about the imported beers. But as for the volunteers, they don't know anything, me being one of them.

Fest is this weekend. Anyone else going?

I've gone Friday and Saturday, and going today to hang out for a bit. I've seen a lot of people with either a BN hat or BN shirt. One of the "Beer Police" guys noticed my hat when I was volunteering and he was really cool. He's not on BN much but listens to the show. He works with WAHA a lot though.

As for the fest. I haven't really tried a lot of the beers. I kind of went for the atmosphere and just hang out really. As much as I like import beers. I'm more interested in local beer fests. OBF just around the corner.