Salt Lake Beer Festival

I've wanted to go to this event in the past but have always worked nights/weekends. This year I'm on a new schedule and I bought tickets for my wife and me.

Having never been just wondering if anyone has any pro tips for doing it right. We're going to stay in a hotel downtown within walking distance.

I see that they say it's okay to bring chairs and blankets. Is that the only way to get a place to sit down or would I be okay not lugging in chairs and then having my wife worry about leaving them unattended?

Anyway, hope it's a good time.

Cheers!

Are you talking about City Weekly's Utah Beer Festival? I went the first year they had it, back before Senator Valentine forced the token system on us.

It's a good time, but if you've ever been to a real beer fest outside of Utah...well, you'll see. Long story short, it has some major limitations due to our nonsensical alcohol laws. For example, since you can't pour anything from a keg over 4%, participation from breweries outside Utah is very limited. The reason being it simply costs too much to transport cases and cases of bottles compared to a keg. That said, I looked at the list of participating breweries and it's definitely getting longer, but I wonder if these are breweries that are actually participating, or if they've simply ordered a variety of beers through the state liquor store.

Another problem at the first one, the lines were a joke. I seriously waited 30+ minutes between pours. That's been remedied a bit by having more bottles from more breweries and by charging per pour. So my understanding is the lines are much better now. My biggest complaint is the token system sucks...you pay the same at the festival that you would for a beer at the state liquor store...at least at the state liquor store I don't have to pay admission. I guess the upside is you don't have to buy a whole beer, so you can save a little money by buying a prorated taster size versus a full 12/22 ounce beer.

Not to be a Debbie-downer, you will have a good time especially if you go with friends and family, but IMO if you really want a good beer festival experience, you have to travel outside the self-righteous state borders of Utah. Tomorrow is the Evanston Beer Fest. It's small but I think it's way better than Utah's (I keep going back even though it's 90 minutes away). Tickets for GABF go on sale next week. it's pretty much epic, and there are tons of other beer-related events during the week. The first Saturday in June is the Mountain Brewer's Beer Fest in Idaho Falls. Unfortunately, all of these events are way better than anything I've ever found in Utah, which is a direct result of our screwy liquor laws. Hopefully one day the State legislators will get tired of me taking all my tax dollars across state lines and they'll do away with some of the stupid laws we have...ok, getting off my soapbox now.

I went 2 or 3 times to the City Weekly one before they revamped it. My understanding is that the lines are better now and there are non-waiting-in-beer-line things to do that helped make the lines shorter.

My other problem with it (back then) was that almost all the breweries were local which meant I had already tried 90% of the beers there. I understand that they have made more effort to bring in out of state breweries.

These days... I realized it's the same weekend as the opening weekend of Snowbird's Oktoberfest. For my money, I'd rather get out of the city and have a couple beers and brats. Plus I don't have to find a sitter for my daughter.

One good thing about the Beer Fest, though, it's where I met the Salt City guys. I've been going to their shop ever since.

Ahh, well. I'll try to have fun despite the issues.

I completely agree that Utah's laws are nonsensical and dumb.

Gameface said:

Ahh, well. I'll try to have fun despite the issues.

I completely agree that Utah's laws are nonsensical and dumb.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't mean to be all doom and gloom

It's not that it's a bad time at all. You're definitely going to have a good time. But I'd definitely try to check out other festivals too. Have a good one and report back on your experience. I'm interested, especially if they've resolved some of the issues.

I'll report back. Despite the hoops there is still going to be beer there, so I'm sure I'll have an okay time, at least.

Gameface, did you see Mikey's post today? Definitely check out 2-Row, especially Brian's IPAs

http://utahbeer.blogspot.com/2015/07/2015-utah-beer-festival-participating.html

I hadn't until I just read your post. Yeah, 2 Row is going to be one of my very first stops. Pretty cool.

I got the VIP pass so I'll be in early, hopefully that means I can check out a few of my top choices without standing in much of a line.

Okay, probably my first and last year at this thing.

Without the VIP pass my wife would have died of heat exhaustion. After 3pm the lines were ridiculous. They said 90% of beers would cost 1 ticket for a 5oz pour, that was false, 90% of beers cost 2-3 tickets for a 5oz pour.

Oktoberfest at Snowbird is far better. Far, far better.

I'm sorry your experience was the same as mine four years ago. I had heard that it was better. I was hoping your report back was going to be that it was awesome and I could plan on going next year.

I didn't make it to Oktoberfest today. I haven't finished back to school shopping for my daughter. She needs new shoes and you have to wear closed toe shoes to do some of the kid activities. I also spent most of the day moving half of my wife's shop. At this point, I don't think I'll make it to Snowbird until Sept 5 or 12. At least it will by cool by then and the trees will be turning.

The vast majority of beer booths were located along the west side of 200E, with their backs to the city county building. So the lines stretched across the street and people standing in the lines were completely exposed to the sun. There were just a couple booths set up on the east side of the street and they were the SCBS, a bloody mary mix company, and sound wearhouse. Then there were a few food trucks and a few more lined up on the sidewalk along the north side of the Leonardo building. Then they had two more groups of three beer booths each scattered in sort of random spots near the library. Almost everything was totally exposed to the sun. They didn't set up any sort of shade anywhere. If you wanted out of the sun you had to huddle under the shade of some small trees or in the shadow of a structure somewhere.

They had some water stations set up, but when we tried to get some they were out of water.

I would have expected maybe some tents or something to offer a little shade, or some misters or something. Naw, none of that. Just stand out in the hot August sun in long lines.

So if a beer was 4%abv it cost 1 ticket (1 ticket costs $1) for a pour into a 5oz cup. Anything at all over 4% and it cost at least 2 tickets. There wasn't much rhyme or reason to the ticket cost at that point. Everything at Epic was at least 3 tickets, so at least $3 for ~5oz of beer. Everything at Rouge was 3 tickets, which I found to be ridiculous, $3 for a sample of Dead Guy Ale. If a beer was in the 10% range it was 4 tickets.

So they start you off with 5 tickets. So, you can get two samples with that. Then you've got to go stand in the ticket line for more tickets.

The VIP experience...

Starting at 3pm people who had payed $50 for a VIP pass were allowed to go into the Leonardo. There really wasn't much going on in there and it was really dark. The lights were low, all the tables were covered in black table clothes and all the chairs were black. Not really sure what they were going for, but it was dark. Coming in from outside it was hard to see where you were going. Every 30min they released another beer sample. With the VIP pass you got eight VIP tickets to pay for these samples. The majority of the VIP samples were also available outside. Along with each sample they put out snacks as food pairings. Then someone from the brewery would do a Q&A, but the table I managed to get was behind the stage and a wall, so I never was able to hear any of that. And no offense to the Beer Professor, but who the hell is he? He was the host, but I don't understand why.

The best part of the VIP pass was getting inside and having some AC. Many people in there were saying the same thing.

So, to summarize, the vast majority of beer samples cost $2-$3, that's more than what you'd expect to pay per ounce at a bar. You had to stand in a long line fully exposed to the sun in order to get them. The selection was just okay. The atmosphere wasn't really very good. The activities like the karaoke and live band were in weird spots out of the way and didn't seem like many people were involved in any of that.

I just don't get it, honestly. I'm not sure how they came up with the ticket prices but it's crazy. I'm all for not worrying about that and having a good time, but you still end up looking at your sample and realizing you paid $3 for it. But more than the money it was the inconvenience of it. Running out of tickets so quickly and having to go back and stand in the ticket line. Ugh.

Was the "Brew Professor" Dr. Charlie Bamforth? He teaches brewing courses at OSU. I've listened to Bamforth on the BeerSmith podcast a couple times.

If the "Brew Professor" wasn't Charlie Bamforth, then he needs to change his title.

Again, that was almost exactly my experience in 2011. Only I didn't have a VIP pass, the stands were all clustered around the City-County Building (so there was shade), and 90% of the breweries were from Utah and only had stuff I had already tried.

Oh, and I like Rogue's beer, but I've always thought they were overpriced. Even in Oregon, it seemed like their beer always cost $1 or $2 more than everyone else.

EDIT: I googled him. "The Brew Professor" is Bob Twewartha. He teaches communications at Broadview University. He needs to change his title.

Not the same guy. Pretty sure he's a local Utahn.

To be fair, he's the Beer Professor, not the Brew Professor. But I have no idea what his credentials are. He kind of reminds me of a cross between that guy who used to do the local outdoor stuff (he passed away a few years ago) on the news and Gephart.



https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Beer-Professor/277857772421660

I just looked at the 5 Spot they did in City Weekly on him. His credentials appear to be teaching at a for-profit university, homebrewing, and having a blog.

I'm not saying that he doesn't know his stuff. But you would think City Weekly could find someone with more credentials in the SLC area. One of the local brewmasters or brewery owners.

Sorry to hear it more or less sucked. I was really hoping I was wrong and that it had gotten better.

Definitely check out The Mountain Brewers Festival (http://www.northamericanbrewers.org/) the first Saturday every June in Idaho. IMO, it's the best festival for Utah folks. They have a huge beer tent (like circus sized) so shade is available all day long. Also tons of water stations. There are so many breweries that you hardly ever have to wait more than a minute in line. Also, no tokens, so your entry fee gets you unlimited tastings of whatever is there.

About the only thing that isn't so great is there aren't any great food options in town other than your typical chain restaurants. My wife and I are kinda foodies, so that's been the only disappointment for us.

The Evanston beer fest is pretty awesome too. It's small but still better than the Utah one. Same kinda thing as far as food goes, although I love the Chinese place in town after a day's drinking.