Northern Lights Rare beerfest 2016

Definitely thinking about this. Lot of money but seems well worth it.

 

http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwes...ol-Ridge/Hotel-Overview.do?propertyCode=24104

 

Anyone have any insight as to which breweries will be represented? The website says all but six brewery spots have been filled, but the links provided do not lead anywhere.

 

Hmm. IIRC, that was the longest line of the night. Maybe only 5 minutes though!

 

Close to the fest they start releasing the names each day

 

The best beer fest in the cities in my opinion.

 

Man I was so about to finally go this year, then saw the date. I'm either at roller derby or skiing in Tahoe enjoying a 50/50 so not bad either way I suppose

 

I went last year and had a great time. Surly was pretty much the only booth that was out of their beers early. Both "3" and Darkness '09 kicked super fast. Hope they learned their lesson and bring more next year.

Seemingly everyone went for Vanilla Rye right away and that line was ridiculous. It was more like a 15-20 minute wait, but once that initial rush ended, you could simply walk up and get Vanilla Rye, drink it and fill back up again. It was great. VR kicked maybe 30 minutes before the end of the event. The consolation price was 2008 bottles of BCBS. How awful for us.

The food was great, except those fried hops. As was mentioned, the event space is beautiful and since it is a smaller crowd, you can really interact with the brewers.

I know $100 seems like a lot to pay for a ticket. I struggled with it last year. But if you're on the fence, I would strongly suggest buying a ticket. It's a fantastic event.

 

The brewery list for 2016 has been posted. Thoughts?
http://www.rarebeerfest.com/breweries

 

Looks awesome! Really cool to see Alpine and Sixpoints. Looks like I'll probably be getting a ticket after all...

 

Interested to see what Crooked Stave will bring.

 

Sad to see Bent Paddle is out this year after two great years, but excited to see what Alpine brings.

 

For someone who isn't into the whole:

- barrel-aged (sours, yes. Bourbon, whiskey ETC, no)
- high % alcohol (like 9%+)
- Russian Imperial types
- IIIIIIPA beers

is this worth going to?

 

No, while there were a few sours there last year, the focus was much more on high abv beers in barrels.

 

I agree with Doner24, I would skip it if I were you. I've gone both years and really enjoyed it, but it's definitely a lot of big bold beers.

 

Or....

I could go to see if I might actually like some of them. Considering I would only be getting a small amount....

Hmm.... I'll have to drink it over.

 

My wife only likes sours and sweeter stouts. She seemed to get her fill when looking for things to try. Glancing over last years brochure maybe about 20 things for sure that fit your criteria. Nice venue, smaller crowd, and the food is usually good. Last year they had these deep fried hops that were disgusting though.

 

My marvelous wife bought tickets for me (us) for my birthday, so I'm in. Looking forward to barely being able to get down the stairs the next morning.

 

Clark doesn't think TG got an invite. I was really hoping they would make an appearance.

https://twitter.com/TGBrews/status/684931183822544897

Fortunately, they will be at the Casanova Dark Beer Fest. Luckily I'm going to both.