Naperville Winter Ale Fest

I've gone the last 4 years, and it's gotten significantly more organized. The first year I went there was an extreme shortage of porto potties so people were waiting in line for 45 minutes.......not great when the entire fest is only 4 hours. The next year I think they tripled the number of them.
Think they underestimated how many bathroom breaks thousands of beer drinkers will need.

There will be 4 big tents with the brewers spread out but everything will be on the map once you get in the venue. Then there are some of the local one's (Pollyanna I know did last year) with their own section. The line to get in the fest will fill up in a hurry, esp if they have BCBS again. We got there about 11:30 and already several hundred people waiting to get in. It might be a little cold waiting to get in, but once you do, it's not so bad. Between drinking, the amount of body heat of so many people, and space heaters in the tents, I was plenty warm with just a couple layers on.

Usually about a week or two before the fest, they'll post the beers the brewers are bringing. Take it with a grain of salt. It's probably 90% accurate, as a couple times the brews listed failed to show up.

It's quite easy to get trashed at this too. Think you get 18 3oz pours. Well, your "tickets" are marked off a sheet, but more than half the time for me, the vendors don't even mark my pour. I probably had 25 to 30 pours last year and still didn't have everything marked off.

 

Some real good stuff last year.........there were 4 BCBS, did 1 an hour til gone (lines were insane for this), I remember BOMB! (had like 5 pours of this), Transient Neckbeard Necktar were a few of the high end brews. Of course you'll get plenty of regular shelf stuff, but nice to try some stuff you don't want to fork $12-15 a sixer.

Pollyanna brought out some real good BA stuff and variants. I'll try and find the brew list and post it, I know I saved it somewhere.

 

I've gone a couple times..I admit I usually wait until the week of to see how the weather will be and what beers will be there. AS mentioned of above, there's usually a good seleciton of barrel aged stuff along with most of the shelf beers. It's a good time.

The Uber cost for me though makes it a bit cost prohibitive at $19 each way if I'm going solo :/ (the fest is on the far south side of Naperville)

 

You'll be fine if you wait a week or so beforehand..I don't recall this one ever selling out in a manner like FOBAB etc. By waiting a week before, the only thing you'll miss out on is saving $5 for an early-bird purchase.

 

http://napervillewinteralefest.com/2016-beer-list/

 

I've gone every year and it's always a good time. Very well organized and quite a few food trucks to choose from. There are patio heaters scattered about and a few bonfires to sit around as well.

 

The list of beers being poured has been posted.

 

Sucks no Transient but knew that was gonna happen once he moved out of state

 

Already eyed Abraxas and BOMB as my first two brews

 

Prairie Paradise too!

 

Yeah the goose island line is insane right from the start

 

Did no one else see chaos?

 

lol apparently not!

 

I seen and enjoyed several pours of Sump.