Just bought my tickets. Been wanting to go for years, and this year it finally fits into our schedule. My question to previous attendees is whether there are long lines at the gate like at the Autumn Fest? The Winter tap lineup was stellar, I hope All Pints North has similar selections.
Smaller lines but smaller selection than ABR. Awesome venue and your glass will not break if you drop it.
My wife enjoys beer and this will be her first event, so the more laid back atmosphere with smaller lines is probably worth sacrificing selection. Gotta break her in slow before I ask her to start muling at bottle releases.
Did you get a room yet? They were all but sold out over a month ago... It is my favorite event out of the three, love being on the water in Duluth. We ended up with a two bedroom suite for like $250/night.
No my parents live on a lake up there. The tickets and gas are still cheaper than a babysitter! I was surprised when I saw this one is only the third event, they have enough events up there with Black Bear, Lutsen, etc. Hell, I remember going to sampling in the old Fitger's Taproom in the basement way back in the 90's.
Getknit has a bus that runs up there from Roseville - $99 includes transportation, lunch and tastings at Bent Paddle, "no-wait" access to the festival, etc. My husband and I will be on the bus, and can bring a bottle or two of something decent if there was any interest!
Went last year for the first time and it was unreal good. I actually preferred it way over ABR just due to the lines, venue and well I just straight up love Duluth and whenever I find a reason to go up and hangout with my awesome family which usually turns into a block party, especially so now that my uncle installed a 3 tap system and they live near Bent Paddle. But alas I will not attend this year, was going to go with my buddies again but one of them decided to volunteer for deployment and is getting married on the day of APN, no beer fests for me this year (the entry line for ABR last year was enough for me to not care to go back). Have fun, I thought the selection for the money and serious lack of lines was well worth it. Plus Bent Paddle had a really sweet APN Eve gathering of various brewers from the cities and all brought growlers and such to share. Was super fun.
It's an awesome fest - not quite the quality lineup of ABR (nothing rare or anything anyways), but it's a great time. Right on the lake, wide open space so there's never a crowd, and there isn't much of a line for anything. This will be my third one, and I'm definitely looking forward to it again. Definitely had to pay a premium for a hotel room this year... not sure why, but it was much harder and more expensive than the past couple years.
Amazing venue and decent enough selection.....last year had Imperial Grain Belt on cask lol, real tasty
You must have missed out on the Imperial Grain Belt on cask aged on Pappy Van Winkle 23-year old white oak barrels huh?
