Oregon brewers Festival

Im planning to be in Oregon the last week of July and have been told the Oregon Brewers Festival is a must. Looking at past beer lists it looks small and many of the beers on the list look to be stuff that is not that difficult to track down. Am I missing something? What makes this fest so great?

Just about any beerfest these days is nothing too special. We're spoiled with a plethora of fantastic beers always at our disposal. It's a good time though. I'm trying to recall how many beers there are usually but I'd say around 70? And there's usually a handful of excellent ones you've never heard of before. It gets very crowded though, if you can make it during a week day that'd be best. Otherwise go early.

You're not missing anything... It's not a rare beer fest at all, not sure why you'd think a big fest needs to have a bunch of rare or hard to find beer pouring.

Look at the GABF... it's usual offerings by usual breweries, it's nothing "Special". Us as oregonians do not get many chances to gather outside very often as the weather is somewhat... fun... haha.

With that being said, there are either breweries that do not make their way to oregon often if ever at all, or breweries that do distro here with a few minimal options bring out their beer is also fun

- Lost abbey has been here previously, we never see them
- Dogfish head brought in some of their beer we do not get over here
- Terminal gravity, who is in oregon, but only really has 3 beers they distro brought in a lager
- Logsdon Farmhouse Ales brought in beer that doesn't make it into distro
- Sprecher Brewery brought beer
- etc etc

Plus, it takes place outside on our waterfront, next to a river smack dab in the middle of town.



Also, downtown partially closes for the march that takes place during the opening festival



Why wouldn't you want to drink "easy to get beer" with views like this?

Not looking for rare stuff just stuff I cant get where I live. I enjoy GABF because I can try new things, same with Great taste of the Midwest. Most of the offerings at the Oregon fest are things that I can find pretty easy at home. Just wanting to find out if it's worth checking out. Thanks

Personally... it's worth it.
Especially if you haven't been out here before. You'll get to see what oregon is all about.

One note though... one year i showed up in the early afternoon. Don't do that.
Show up early and then do a brewery crawl is my vote!

The reason to go is that 80,000 other people are going and its a big party with about 100 beers. There are a few hard to find beers, but not many. They've also brought in overseas brewers the last 2 years, who have brought their own beers for the festival, and who usually do some collaboration beers with local brewers.
It happens during Oregon Craft Beer Month, though, so there are lots of other things going on, and around 60 breweries in Portland you can visit. Few Portland breweries distribute outside the immediate area.