Great Taste 2015

This is the first year we'll be getting in line as well. We're leaning towards Capital Brewery sometime around 4 in the morning. If anyone has any experience to share that'd be great.

The forecast is for 70% chance of thunderstorms overnight, 40% in the morning. Hopefully that changes.

 

Have sales always started at noon? For some reason I thought they started earlier last year.

 

Yes, ticket sales start at noon, and have for many years.

 

Were tickets $60 last year? I can't remember.

 

Yes, I believe they were.

 

We've done Capital a few times (and likely will this year as well). Middleton has some weird laws apparently (or they enforce them, I don't know) but every time I talk to the folks at Capital about lining up overnight they advise me not to because city ordinance prohibits it. Having said that, everyone lines up.. and you kind of have to if you want to get a ticket, so.... take that with some sort of a grain of salt I guess. I kind of want to bring a tent up since it's supposed to rain, but I'm pretty sure they REALLY won't like that.

As far as the specific Capital experience. It's not a bad place to line up at all. In years past, the brewery has opened up their beer garden and let folks in prior to the 12:00 cutoff and handed out numbers so you know if you've got a ticket or not. There's a pretty decent breakfast/coffee shop in the shoppes on the other side of the railroad tracks that we made a good bit of use of 2 years ago when we were up there. I didn't get up last year, so I'm not sure if it's still there or not but hopefully it is! When we got in line 2 years ago, we were there at 5:30 and barely made it, so I'd plan on being there dark and early (as in, if the sun is up, you're gonna be SOL probably).

If anyone else has experience/info, by all means, chime in.

 

Public Service Announcement: If you're waiting in line for Great Taste tickets and you see someone get in line ahead of you who wasn't there when you got in line, please call them out! The cutting in line at some locations last year was rampant, and caused people who seemed to be very solidly within the available ticket range to be unexpectedly frozen out.

 

Totally agree, but make sure you have your facts 100% straight. We don't need any drunken fist-fights!

Would the locations selling tickets or the Great Taste volunteers do anything if this was pointed out? We've always been up near the front, so haven't noticed this problem, but it seems to be an issue anyplace beer-related stuff is limited.

 

I think they have in the past.

As far as having facts straight, I'm thinking this year the way to go may be to take periodic photos of the line in front of us, to use for reference in case there's any question.

 

So with the potential for some mucky weather, does anyone know any of the locations and their policy regarding throwing up an awning or tent or something? I've only ever purchased at Capital, and I know that's a residential neighborhood and the vast majority of the line is on a city sidewalk, so I'm inclined to believe that won't be an option there. Other places may have private lots that might be a little more amicable to the idea? Thoughts? Opinions?

 

Question about the mail order ticket request. It says that there is a limit of 2 tickets per household. Does that include both the regular tickets and designated driver tickets? Would I be able to put in a request for 2 regular tickets along with 1 designated driver ticket?

 

Thinking about trying my luck for the mail-in tickets. Anyone have any idea what kind of success rate there was in the past for those?

 

Just about everyone else in this world has a better memory than me, but if my memory serves they've claimed it's about 25% get tickets. My anecdotal evidence seems to confirm it's in that ballpark.

 

IIRC MHTG folks said it's been somewhere between a one-in-three and one-in-four chance for the mail order lottery the last few years.

 

Cool, thanks guys. I'll give it a shot.

 

They have, & it seems like it's been going down. Our group used to go 2/4, 3/4 pretty regularly. Last year our group went 0/4 & I know tons of other people in MN that struck out.

Maybe I won't stick a Vikings sticker in with the check this year.

 

Can anyone clarify the postmarked rule for the mail in requests? The site states they have to be postmarked May 4th. Am I to interpret that as I go to my local post office on Monday and drop the request in the mail then regardless of where I'm mailing it in from?

 

Yes; it'll get postmarked whatever day you drop it off (so long as you drop off before their last pick up). Location doesn't matter.