Greetings, wondering if anyone has an opinion on this festival. It's May 11th at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion. Anyone been to previous SF Beer Fests? The brewery lineup looks OK, but the home page says they stop serving 15 minutes prior to close, which means a standard ticket is only 2:45 of festival time. Interested in any opinions, since it's possible I'm going to be in San Fransisco that weekend. SF Beer Fest (sfbeerfestival.com) Thanks.
My opinion on beer fests is if the price exceeds how much I can pay to just drink at a bar, then it isn't worth it. In 3 hours, how many beers can you drink? This is $45, and a full pint of beer is roughly $10 in SF. So unless you are drinking 5 pints of beer in 3 hours then it might not be worth it unless there are rare or special beers being poured. These festivals RARELY have that (unless they are special festivals like Firestone or something). And those that do have rare/special beers cost more than twice as much for the privilege. Even someone like Modern Times is only going to be pouring the same beer you can buy in a grocery store. That said, with a group of friends it can be fun to be outside and drink in the sun.
Looks pretty lame. If you’re making it part of a larger trip or going with friends could be fun. Alternatively just going to 2-3 beer bars in SF in an afternoon would almost certainly produce much better beer options.
This was pretty much my thought as well. Looking at the current lists (for example) of draughts for Cellarmaker, Toronado, etc. makes me wonder how much fun my buddy & I could have for about $60 outside the festival. But if this were a great festival - & I've been to many - it might be worth it.
Holy Water is the other one that’s worth checking out if you go that route. That’s the one my friends up there frequent the most.
