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Big Texas Beer Fest 2016 (Houston Official)

Discussion in 'Southwest' started by thirdeye11, Feb 23, 2016.

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  1. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    I've just added this to the BA calendar here:

    http://www.beeradvocate.com/events/info/78324/

    This event is coming to Houston for the first time and is produced by myself and my wife. We're a husband and wife duo that loves craft beer, and have been doing this in North Texas for 5 years now. We wanted to bring a great new beer festival to Houston. It'll be the first city we've added since we got started.

    Slow and steady growth is important to us, not just growth for growth's sake.

    We appreciate any support you all can give us in the way of word-of-mouth, and advance ticket purchases. Hope to see some of you guys out there!

    Cheers,
    Chad
     
    #1 thirdeye11, Feb 23, 2016
    Beernerds, jtk, rainerschuhsler and 1 other person like this.
  2. Smokingtony

    Smokingtony Initiate (0) Nov 14, 2014 Texas

    Beer is indoors and music is outdoors?
     
    #2 Smokingtony, Feb 23, 2016
  3. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas

    For all that I have been to in DFW, it works much better that way.
     
    #3 aschwab, Feb 23, 2016
  4. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    That's correct for the most part. At our Dallas event, we also have select canned beers for sale at a tent outside, but Aramark is really fighting us on allowing this at the Houston event.

    EDIT: I don't go down without a fight though.
     
    #4 thirdeye11, Feb 23, 2016
    rainerschuhsler likes this.
  5. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    #5 thirdeye11, May 6, 2016
    rainerschuhsler, Beernerds and mattisloco like this.
  6. Koshkin

    Koshkin Initiate (0) Nov 2, 2014 Texas

    Any idea what the tap list will look like yet?
     
    #6 Koshkin, May 10, 2016
    cfh64 likes this.
  7. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    I have most of the beer list at this point, I just need to finish formatting it. When you have to format 300 beers, it just kinda sucks :slight_smile: So I'm working on it. Hopefully by week's end, or early next.
     
    #7 thirdeye11, May 11, 2016
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  8. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    I just published the downloadable program and beer list. Please understand we did the best we could for special beers, and there are a lot of great ones. Most festival organizers won't even buy these because of the cost. Next year (and in subsequent years) our list always gets better. Give us a try this year, I've almost never had someone be disappointed with our events.

    http://houston.bigtexasbeerfest.com/wp-content/uploads/BTBF-Program.pdf

    Cheers,
    Chad

    PS: We're indoors, so no chance of being canceled due to rain!
     
    #8 thirdeye11, May 16, 2016
    Beernerds, champ103, Smokingtony and 1 other person like this.
  9. Smokingtony

    Smokingtony Initiate (0) Nov 14, 2014 Texas

    Nice line up. A lot of the usual suspects with some hidden gems. Rye on rye, Parabola, Black Butte XVII...
     
    #9 Smokingtony, May 16, 2016
  10. donspublic

    donspublic Poo-Bah (1,993) Aug 4, 2014 Texas
    Society Trader

    going to be in SA this weekend, hope you have a good turnout
     
    #10 donspublic, May 16, 2016
  11. champ103

    champ103 Poo-Bah (4,901) Sep 3, 2007 Texas
    Society

    No need to question the good list you have. Looks great to me, I am just not a big festival goer, but if there is one in the future I will be looking for, this is the one. Looks like a great lineup and from what I have heard from the Dallas festival really well run as well (everything north of the Woodlands/Conroe is Dallas for Houston people :wink:)
     
    #11 champ103, May 17, 2016
    thirdeye11 likes this.
  12. beerfurious

    beerfurious Initiate (0) May 29, 2013 Pennsylvania

    Given the very limited number of top end items, think there will be any Parabola left after the VIP hour? Also how does the list of beers for the Houston event compare to the Dallas event? I'm already hearing lots of grumbling on how Houston is getting the second class treatment and thought I'd come here to see if that needed clearing up.
     
    #12 beerfurious, May 21, 2016
  13. beerfurious

    beerfurious Initiate (0) May 29, 2013 Pennsylvania

    Parabola all out well before general admission doors were opened.
     
    #13 beerfurious, May 21, 2016
  14. beerfurious

    beerfurious Initiate (0) May 29, 2013 Pennsylvania

    I respect the fact that the coordinators tried to put something together for Houston, but wow this was very visibly inferior to the Dallas event. Houston is the redheaded stepchild.
     
    #14 beerfurious, May 21, 2016
  15. tjmodica

    tjmodica Initiate (0) Oct 2, 2007 Texas

    I can't believe this is going to make or break your day with that many beers available.
     
    #15 tjmodica, May 22, 2016
    mattisloco and Show like this.
  16. beerfurious

    beerfurious Initiate (0) May 29, 2013 Pennsylvania

    I find your lack of faith disturbing :wink:
     
    #16 beerfurious, May 22, 2016
  17. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas

    While I do think the DFW events has been superior, it has also been going on for a couple more years. Along with that, there are more breweries in the DFW area, which causes there to be more booths.

    I did find it odd that some smaller Houston area breweries were not present along with a lot from the are out towards Galveston.

    But, I still had a great time. I was mainly going just to try the Houston breweries that we do not get in Austin.
     
    #17 aschwab, May 22, 2016
    Beernerds likes this.
  18. djd07

    djd07 Initiate (0) Oct 3, 2012 Texas

    Had a great time, good lineup, a lot of great food trucks, looking forward to next year
     
    #18 djd07, May 23, 2016
    thirdeye11 likes this.
  19. Beernerds

    Beernerds Initiate (0) Dec 7, 2011 Texas

    Super bummed I couldn't make it this year, but I'll definitely be there next year.
     
    #19 Beernerds, May 23, 2016
    thirdeye11 likes this.
  20. chaser85

    chaser85 Initiate (82) Jan 20, 2009 Texas

    Any standouts from Houston breweries? I was down there this past weekend and looked for some local bottles/cans and couldn't find much. Next time I'll try a bit harder/go to better stores...
     
    #20 chaser85, May 23, 2016
  21. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas

    Most of them were pretty straight forward in their offerings, but I did enjoy 11 Below, Spindletap, and Back Pew. I can't say anything was ground breaking, but for new breweries, they had some good offerings.
     
    #21 aschwab, May 23, 2016
    chaser85 likes this.
  22. tx_beer_man

    tx_beer_man Initiate (0) Jan 22, 2013 Texas

    Great time. From all that I tried, Braindead and Oasis took home best brews from participating breweries.
     
    #22 tx_beer_man, May 23, 2016
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  23. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    I'm sorry you felt that way, but the truth of the matter is that these things take time to build. We have had 5 years to build the event in Dallas, and I knew that the first year event in Houston would be smaller. I also knew that the types of beers available would be a little less "rare" because we haven't proven ourselves yet. I don't feel that blame can be put on organizers, though clearly my perspective is biased. We ask for the best beers, but we don't always get them. Once distributors and breweries realize we are real craft beer nerds, we start getting better and better stuff as time goes on. If I were to compare the year 1 Dallas list to the year 1 Houston list, I'd actually give the nod to Houston having a better beer lineup.

    Our second year event in Dallas was a huge improvement from year 1. If we can find a way to come back to Houston, I'm certain it will be a big improvement also.
     
    #23 thirdeye11, May 24, 2016
    zizouandyuki, tx_beer_man, Beernerds and 7 others like this.
  24. mattisloco

    mattisloco Disciple (303) Feb 13, 2007 Texas

    100% truth. I went years 1, 2 and 4. There was a big step up between 1 and 2 and I was blown away year 4. For the beer community I think VIP is the way to go and let your friends meet up with you through general admission. I look forward to going next year!
     
    #24 mattisloco, May 25, 2016
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  25. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas

    I would happily go back in future years to the Houston one solely due to knowing how much the Houston beer scene is growing, better connections for the beer festival down there, and how much better our distribution will be in a year for these types of festivals.
     
    #25 aschwab, May 25, 2016
    tx_beer_man and Beernerds like this.
  26. bleeng

    bleeng Initiate (0) Aug 16, 2005 Texas

    I spoke to an employee of one of the Houston area breweries that was represented at the festival. He said that the distributors, not the breweries, decided on which beers to bring to the festival. That being said that brewery's best beer was not available at the festival.
    Thirdeye: Correct me if this information is incorrect.
     
    #26 bleeng, May 25, 2016
  27. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas

    I can understand distributors being stingy about some limited stuff for a new festival since they continue to pop up randomly.

    But, I think there is a huge difference between a no-name festival deciding to do something in Houston with no experience....versus this.

    Based on the track record, I would hope that distributors would be more than willing to help with this one...but it sounds like they weren't?
     
    #27 aschwab, May 25, 2016
  28. tx_beer_man

    tx_beer_man Initiate (0) Jan 22, 2013 Texas

    I'm just gonna say that Silver Eagle blows
     
    #28 tx_beer_man, May 25, 2016
  29. winegourmet76

    winegourmet76 Initiate (0) Jan 6, 2009 Texas

    What happened with the Rye on Rye keg? I was looking forward to that one. Glad I only missed out on one beer (Parabola) by going GA, might go VIP in future years if the list looks stronger
     
    #29 winegourmet76, May 25, 2016
  30. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    The rep wanted to pour it but they were out of stock.
     
    #30 thirdeye11, May 26, 2016
  31. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    It's all over the map. Most reps submit a list of beers they want to pour, we submit our order to the distros, then they say well we don't have all those so let's sub this for that, etc. We try to honor what the reps want to pour since it's their booth, but most experienced reps know they should pour something limited because that's what gets booth attention. Not all recognize this and most Houston reps just don't know us yet. The rare beers we did have, mostly came because we specifically asked for the beer by name or we know the rep.
     
    #31 thirdeye11, May 26, 2016
  32. Ishie1013

    Ishie1013 Initiate (0) Sep 20, 2014 Pennsylvania

    Parabola was well out. Some good offerings but virtually all available locally in cans or bottles. I used a lot of stamps to check out beers I didn't want to spend 30 on a bomber to try ((Brooklyn old fashioned) but not a lot of whales or difficult beers to get.
     
    #32 Ishie1013, May 30, 2016
  33. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Initiate (0) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    As even the limited beers become more available, it's becoming more and more difficult for festival organizers to get unobtainable beers at our events. 3 Casks from Oasis, Parabola, Bishops barrel offerings from SA, rare bottles from BrainDead, brewery only beers from Peticolas, very unique stuff from Buffalo Bayou that all came from their cellar, a few random one offs from other breweries, brewery only and just released bottles from Jester King, all can't be had from your local bar or package store. This is just from memory. I'm certain there were others too.

    But you're right in that a lot of the beers were year round offerings. Most breweries like to pour these as that's how they make their bread and butter. Limited offerings are just what they use for beer money :slight_smile:
     
    #33 thirdeye11, May 31, 2016
    tx_beer_man, Beernerds, JJFoodie and 4 others like this.
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