Going to HopNBarley festival? What breweries/beers should I try?

Here are the breweries:
Boulder creek brewing
Gordon Biersch
Lagunitas*
Santa Cruz Ale workds
Santa Cruz Mountain
Seabright
Uncommon Brewing
Corolitas Brewing
Santa Adairius Rustic ales
Sierra Nevada*
Big Sky
Redhook
Deschutes
Fualtline
Full sail
Grand Teton
Happy Brewing
Dogfish Head*
Firehouse brewing
Napa Smith Brewing
Bards Beer
Rck Bottom
Trumer Pils
Lhasa Beer
Mad river
Sudwerks
Speakeasy
21st Amendment*
Firestone Walker
Ninkasi
Tied House
Blanco Basura
Corona
New Castle
Guinness
Bear republic
Kona
Green mountain brewing
Saporro USA
Rouge
Stone*
North Coast

I'm pretty new to beer tasting and the ones with a * are the ones that I've heard of and plan to taste.
What are you guy's suggestions to taste and not to taste?

Firestone Walker is a must if they have any of their specialty brews like 14 Anniv., Parabola, Ucuba (BA barley wine) their stuff is top shelf. Love North Coast as well, Bear Republic again if they have Racer X is a must. Dechutes is another great one. Then hit Stone, Sierra, & DFH

Avoid Corona ;0

Full Sail has some great brews...I'd definitely recommend hitting that one, in addition to the others you already have highlighted

Thanks guys, I'll have to write down these names as I'm not familiar with them.

I bought a 12pk of Firestone Walker Double barrel ale once because my professor talked about how it was made with two connecting fermenters and I thought it was ok. Hopefully they have their specialty ones.

This is also my first beer fest. Pretty excited and couldn't sleep much. Any tips?

geeyoupee said:

Here are the breweries:

Lagunitas*

Sierra Nevada*
Big Sky
Redhook
Deschutes

Grand Teton

Dogfish Head*


Firestone Walker
Ninkasi

Bear republic
Kona

Rouge
Stone*
North Coast

Click to expand...

I like these. I haven't tried several of the locals I deleted from the list.

geeyoupee said:

This is also my first beer fest. Pretty excited and couldn't sleep much. Any tips?

Click to expand...

Get some sleep!

Definitely make sure you eat a good breakfast, eat along the way, and be sure to drink some water along the way too (especially if it's outdoors and/or hot out...)

Definatly try lagunitas,Dogfish,bear republic,Ninkasi,stone,rogue. Alot i havent heard of but if it were me i would be trying the ones i cant find or cant get easily.

Blanco basura yay for white trash beer. That is what blanco basura means in case you don't speak Spanish.

Ok I'm off.
Thanks for the tips. I plan to bring water and petzals to snack on.

Hope you got to try Sante Adairius. They make some really unique barrel aged and brett. beers. They are not yet distributing beyond their tasting room in Capitola. They make some really creative beers!