Ugh, what a waste. Went to the festival today. SWMBO and I decided not to get the unlimited samples for $25 and just bought beer tickets. After walking over to the first beer truck we were told we had to go to the truck with the white tent since we had tickets. We went over to the truck with the white tent and were then told we couldn't use those tickets there and had to go over to the truck with the red tent. We went to the red tent and were told we couldn't use those tickets there either.
I went back to where I bought the $4 beer tickets and I was told I could only use them at the tent next to them. Out of the 25 brewers present, my options were Bud, Bud Light, and Red Hook ESB. I told them that would have been nice to know when I bought the tickets instead of the $25 mug.
None of the other beers present were anything special, nothing I couldn't pick up at Kroger. I'll do my best to recall the other beers; heineken, magic hat #9, magic hat circus boy, magic hat HIPA, murphy's, richbrau griffen, amberbock, a wheat with a big W on the label. That's all I can think of right now.
This was my first time going to this festival so i guess I was expecting 25 breweries with 25 tents, not 3 beer trucks with a bunch of taps. I didn't think the Shockoe Beer Festival could look better than it did last fall but I guess now it does.