Beer Festival Attendee Advice?

If they allow food, making a pretzel necklace is always a good idea and bottled water. Plus, I always eat a big meal before.

 

Have fun. Don't overdo it. Eat before you go. Pace yourself.



I always like to look for shorter lines. The big lines will probably be there all day, so hit up a few of the shorter ones first.

 

Eat a decent meal beforehand. Drink water between beers. Look at the program and determine a few "must have" beers. You can't drink them all, don't try. Enjoy yourself.

 

Make arrangements for transportation so you can really enjoy yourself and not worry about driving.

 

Like others said, have a good meal, and drink plenty of water.
DD you said is taken care of, otherwise I would have said to use public transportation and or find someplace nearby for dinner afterwards.
I always like to go in with a plan. The beer lists are nearly always available beforehand, so check it out and look at what you want to try. You don't have to have every beer there.
I always scratch off first ones I've had before, then prioritize what's left. You can usually tell what's going to go first - KBS, BCBS, that sort of thing (I don't know what's there) so if you're interested, hit those first.
also, look at the lines that are going to be extra long all day, and unless theres something REALLY good, you can usually skip those - I haven't been to the Dogfish booth at a fest in at least 5 or 6 years.
Basically my advice is to plan ahead.

 

Eat a hearty meal beforehand. Drink lots of water during.

 

Wear stretchy pants.

 

drink lots of water

/thread

 

Be patient and relax. It will be crowded and there is a tendency to get frustrated. You will be surrounded by a lot of people who are drinking and, let's be honest, beer festivals are full of assholes.

 

Having not been to a "real" beer festival, how long are the "long" lines? Are we talking 5 minutes, or 30? And are the lines long due to the sheer number of people, because people want to chat with the pourers, or because the pourers want to talk to you about the beer?

 

when you get to the front of the line and get your sample ,if you have questions step to the side and then ask .That way your not holding up and pissing off those behind you.

 

Other than what has already been said, make sure to do your must haves early on.
Sometimes breweries run out of popular beers so don’t run the risk of missing out of those.

People also frequently give the advice to start of with lower ABV beer & build up.
I never do this, I run around like a headless chicken at beer festivals, ticking as much as possible tasting any glasses in the proximity of my mouth. Not good…

 

Closer to 5 minutes. I usually get a beer and get in the next line, that way you have enough time to taste the beer and sip some water.

 

Yes thank you so much I hate it when people do that.
Even worse are people who get their beer then just stand there. They are not talking to the brewer or staff or anything no they stand there, blocking the whole line & drinking their beer.

 

IDK, Ive always found the pretzel necklace to look rather silly. And, although I can't find the article, I do recall it being said that carbs actually have the opposite affect as conventional wisdom. They act to not soak up the alcohol, but get it into the blood stream faster. Again, I can't cite the article, so I'm only going on memory. For me, I usually carry a bag of some sort of jerky, lean protein is the way to go. Oh, and most definitely, WATER, say for every 3 tastings have one glass of water.

 

Get there a couple minutes before it starts and try anything you don't want to miss first. Preorder tickets if you can.

 

I'm going to a beer festival in Dayton, OH Saturday. Mine is limited to 20 beers so I plan on picking out those beers beforehand and hitting up the ones I think will go quickest first. Based on what has been advertised so far I've already researched the reviews here to weed out the undesirables. If it's unlimited pours remember you don't have to drink the entire pour if you don't want to.

 

Ask other people what beers they've enjoyed at the fest, and then tell them, "the barrel-aged/dry-hopped/brett version is better". Assert your beer geek dominance early and often.