Beer festivals; am I getting old?

I'm 28 and would never consider this behavior acceptable, nor would I have at the age of 18. It's not a matter of "young people" but rather "stupid people", and that applies to any age.

That being said, the Mondial de la Biere in Montreal is pretty fun! Went last year and, while there are the occasional people who lower the group IQ, it was quite a bit of fun with lots of great beer to taste.

 

for those local to southern california or the hardcores willing to travel, i'd recommend any of the following:

sourfest
oakquinox
pizza port strong ale
woodshop

 

There was one festival I went to last year that had a shuttle from BART to the area, and on the shuttle so many dudebros were talking about how drunk they were going to get. I don't understand why they wouldn't just buy a 30 rack of Natty, or a fifth of cheap vodka if they just want to get fucked up. Festivals are SUCH a bad value for that.

 

The $100 fee for the Eclipse party, while I scoffed at first, actually is perfect.

Keeps the broke bitch poutins & bro's out bc of the price, allows the cool kids to have unlimited drinks.

 

Setting up a ticket system won't fix anything. The assholes are just going to get "smashed" before hand, and ultimately the respectable people who aren't assaulting others will get "cut off" because they technically had 10 (or whatever arbitrary number) of samples.

I'm torn on the subject because on one hand I cannot stand the frat boy, jersey shore type that needs attention by being overly obnoxious. On the other hand, I have never, and will never even consider how much I've had to drink at one of these events. I "taste" from the second I walk in until the second I leave. However, I've never put myself in a situation where I've embarrassed myself or anyone with me due to my actions. Drinking doesn't turn people into dickheads. It turns dickheads into bigger dickheads.

 

I've learned the hard way to stay away from anything in SF labeled "Oktoberfest." Total sh!t show.

 

That is inappropriate to do to any lady. Maybe it's my bedraggled sense of chivalry speaking, but 'more groping of females' should equal 'more beatings about the face and head.'

 

I'd wager there will be fewer of them in attendance. The ones that are at least minimally intelligent will figure out that it's a costly way to get drunk. There's no perfect fix, but that doesn't mean there isn't substantial room for improvement.

 

All of those fests are wonderful and run the right way.

 

I'm not sure what beer festivals you've been to but the problem may be that you've only been to them in Texas. Thanks to our ridiculous laws there is only so much you can offer at a festival and there is generally a limited amount of samples. My perception with most festivals is that there is a limited amount of time to try as many different beers as you can, which does lead to some intoxication, whereas, in Texas your samples are limited by the number of tickets you are allowed to have. But I can see where you're coming from, I think the scale needs to be reduced.

 

The more popular craft beer gets the more you're going to continue to see this. It's completely unavoidable as craft beer goes "mainstream".

It really doesn't bother me that much, so long as people aren't completely obnoxious and/or puking on the floor. Nothing wrong with imbibing a bit too much every now and again.

 

is this actually true? interesting if so

 

Largely agree, though there are certainly exceptions. Russian River Beer Revival, for example, is a really good time, and filled with people who are there for the flavor, not getting hammered.

I have very high hopes for the Firestone Invitational, but it remains to be seen.

 

Local codes should designate that all beer festivals include a row of these specially designated vomit-nals like you find in the bathrooms at German beergardens. Please note that the special grip handle must be installed in its proper place and height as well.

 

First the wheel, now this! when will the human race cease to amaze me. Oh, look it's deep enough to prevent blowback!

 

I've been to a couple fests in Nashville but the second one I went to was far more drink, drank, drunk nonsense (not to mention oversold like crazy). I love fests for the tasting and experience, but like many others have said I despise the sheer amount of douchebaggery that can occur from unlimited samples and irresponsible jerks (gentlemen and ladies) a drunk bro and drunk woo girl hold the same level of annoyance to me.

 

well it should be true

 

Yep I don't think it is possible to stop it entirely. I'm rather confident that a non-buffet method will still be better though, and it's worth the minor hassle of a ticket system.