Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest 2015

I thought the collab was pretty good but can't really comment much further on that. Tried it on my way out the door and my taste buds were shot by then.

My first ever beer fest and it was a great time. The Alchemist line moved at a snails place compared to everyone else. Sucked that side project barely made it 2 hours but that line moved quick.

Call out the line cutters. The same DB who was hoarding beer at barrelworks the day before knocked my wife's glass out of her hand, started the "oooohhh" chant and quickly ran off to get his special pour. That didn't happen. I yanked his ass out of line and made him get another class. The look on his face was priceless. Can't believe I did that, but if you're on BA and see this then props to eventually owning up to your mistake. Don't be THAT guy and I guess I won't be, either.

I know it was expensive but I recommend early admission. You guys are already waiting in line before the early admission crowd shows up. Cut back on beer and plan ahead. Not really an excuse to whine about the extra cost with what most of us spend on beer any ways.

I ended up checking in to about 30 different beers and would imagine half that (at least) occurred in the first hour. Bus ride home was a bit fuzzy. Will be back next year assuming I can get a ticket. I know I met a ton of you on here, but can't remember any handles. Cheers anyways!

 

Also why am I up?

 

Probably same reason as me expelling the demons out of my body.

 

Anybody else have insane heartburn??

 

We flew in from Oklahoma for this event and to see some friends. The whole week has been awesome, but yesterday was incredible. I agree with the others that the early admission was worth it. Although some breweries held some stuff back (which is to be expected) we were able to blow through a ton of stuff that had long lines the rest of the day.

In addition, we met some great people this weekend. Thanks for the great time.

 

PLEASE HELP:

A buddy of mine lost his wallet somewhere between Adelaide pool and Black Oak last night. If you have it please contact me and I can provide his information. Thanks!

 

Holister Anniversary was a solid beer with a short line. Kept going back to that one. Boneyard's Triple IPA was delicious. Everything else is a fuzzy memory.

 

The worst kind of ISO. Good luck.

 

For those that did early admission, how many people were in there for that? What were the lines like? What beers were being held back?

A few people I know who did it last year were rather upset with how it went then. I'm guessing Firestone Walker managed to sort out some of those details this year. Every year it seems like they manage to solve even more things from the previous years. So much great planning and prep goes into the event and it shows.

 

No clue if these numbers are correct, but a FW employee told me there were 3300 total tickets sold and only 100 of those were early entrance. We were about 9-10 deep so when it opened up we had a free shot to everything. The Bruery held the BT variant until 12:08, RR held the 2009 Temptation into around 3:00 and FFF switched out the DL'd each hour. Other those I can't recall anyone holding anything else back. Overall I thought the early entrance tickets were well worth it as I probably knocked out 20 beers in that first hour alone. It's crazy looking back, but I felt like I needed to maximize that hour if I was going to try everything I was hoping to try.

 

Judging by the line, I'd say early admission was closer to 200 people than 100 but i could be wrong. They did a great job of getting everyone in right at noon. I'm definitely going to try to get it again next year.

 

Yeah, I thought it looked more than 100 as well. Regardless, it was empty in there for the first hour. Then, extremely busy by 12:10. Great time though.

 

Some of the extra people may have been brewers and media. Seemed like the special held back pours were few but the great beers mostly poured all day.

 

No doubt. The first hour was great. Got just about everything I wanted during that period. A little bummed I didn't get to The Bruery for the Rum BT but I didn't want to mess with that line. So much amazing beer.

 

Wicked Weed had red angel as their early entrance pour. Side Project only had thicket and saison at 11. Wife and I hit up all the available sours and often still had full glasses by the time we made it to the next line. Was a pretty good problem to have.

 

Too many lines, too many line cutters. Only way I would do it again is if I could afford early entry.

Normally I would just go get other beers to drink while waiting in one of the mega lines but there were lines mostly everywhere. My go to non-line place was Intelligentsia's Parabajava but I can't drink that all day long.

 

Forth year going and this was my second favorite after the first year. (That is mostly due to less people and lines.) I felt the lines this year were not as bad as last year. I also didn't bother to wait in the 3 Floyds or The Alchemist line. I did wait in the Side Project line right when it opened as I'd heard rumors of the limited amount of beer they had. It took 20 minutes or so and there were line cutters that my wife and I called out. They weren't really drunk yet so they would either pretend they weren't and walk away or just say, "oh, ok" and leave. With a lot of people complaining about line cutting I'd guess that this issue will be somewhat high on FW's lists of way to improve the fest next year.

The food was great again this year and lasted a long time. We paced ourselves and got to try pretty much everything we wanted and got some great food while doing it. I felt that the weather was great this year. The breeze mid-way through was awesome and even when it opened and waiting in the sun it wasn't that bad at all. I still wish they'd move the fest up to the middle to end of April but it seems they have this thing pretty set in stone going forward. Great time and can't wait until next year!

 

This was my first year and honestly alot of the complaining I am hearing about cutting is overblown. Aside from the temptation release, pappy masterpiece release, and 3F near the end lines moved smoothly and with little issue. I get that everyone is mad that they might have missed out on a very small few whalez because people cut, but really what can you do?

IMO the special releases need to be given in special areas where a real single file line can be enforced. Until then people will never stop cutting. If the pourers refused to serve them then maybe it would be different but that doesn't seem to be a thing.

 

I don't think it is overblown at all. You aren't going to stop 100% in all lines but I think it is possible in the more hyped booths. Firestone clearly knew which were going to be the big booths and put them near the end of areas that would allow for a line to form and not block other booths etc. Excellent planning. Going forward it would seem there might be some way to place staff/volunteer near the front of those lines to police it to some degree. I say this without knowing how hard/costly it is to get said people so there is that. I also saw only one belligerently drunk person this year so I don't really think that there would be an issue with fights starting because a staff/volunteer member stepped in to tell someone who was cutting near the front of the line to get back. I could be very wrong on that but I know Firestone's staff are incredibly hard working on this event so I look forward to 2016!

 

I also wanted to comment on the location of the big booths/lines. I think they did a much better job with that than they did last year. The other people I was with said the same thing. Much better spacing than last year.