Sucreversary Recap

Great event, only waited in one long line ( but I chose to do it at a time when I needed a break anyway). All around no complaints, missed a couple but tried all my top wants, I thought it was well executed.

 

First off, I had a good time and I'm listing this so maybe The Bruery can improve even further next time.

The Good (because I better not start with bad):

- Lines moved fast. I stood in some awful lines but they moved quickly.
- Rum Stoutfire was great! Bottle this please.
- Got to try many beers. I wanted to have stuff from a few new/difficult breweries and could.


The Bad:

- The food portion was a joke. Really? You instructed the vendors to give a "child's portion" of food? Not cool.
- You told security people we could not have snacks/water. I watched people pour out water bottles and dump oranges/apples/granola as a result.
- DD Value was awful. See 1 and 2. Lower the price or fix the value.
- I'm a Hoarders member and had to cover my face when you made 100+ people leave "my" line for the Reserve line. Really? Way to alienate people who support you.
- You made this an unlimited beer event and then didn't tell the guest brewer's to bring larger kegs? Why? They tapped out and felt awful.
- Don't bring a food truck into the event which isn't prepared. I'm not going to stand in line 45 minutes for an ice cream float.
- Don't promote beers at a location and bring a few cases. Haven't you learned from GABF/FWIBF?
- Lines went all over the place and nobody had any idea where they started. They wrapped this and that way. Spread out the desirable Bruery beers at least, because it will be hard for account for the Rare Barrel...
- (You guys will love this one) Rare Barrel is so overrated. Jesus. SARA is where you need to spend your money because good god Rare Barrel isn't much more than "meh" yet.

tldr You're a lazy f****.

 

tldr

 

Sorry to hear about your experience OP - I thought the event was their best yet. Lines were manageable, and even when there was a bit of a wait, you could grab a pour from Kern, Societe or Noble (and lots of others) to sip while in line. The pours of DL from Tyler, Patrick and Matt were an added bonus. Loved the rum barreled Stoutfire and thought the dry hopped sour from Rare Barrel was really tasty. Also really liked Fluffer Nutter, Kerns session ipa and (as always) naughty sauce. Looking forward to next year's!

 

How dare the Bruery cause me to be dehydrated on this Sunday morning! FOR SHAME ON THEM!

 

I thought the event was fantastic. I received a large number of great pours, even if I missed out on a few things I would have liked to try. Lines were avoidable if you were willing to look around. I thought the location was great, and parking is inevitably a pain in the ass at large events so no fault there.

I agree that Rare Barrel was not worth the long line. I waited once, and wish that I would have spent that time trying other beers. Their beer was great, but FW Lil Opal was better and had almost no line for it (while it lasted).

Biggest surprise - Monkish Serah. I've though beers from this brewery were good, but not great before. This was the first one to really impress me.

 

Sad I missed out on the DL pours! I didn't see that while I was there.

 

i got there an hour late and had no problem parking. lines were long but moved really quickly. i had pretty much everything i wanted to have except for Pugachev's Cobra w toasted coconut which tapped out while i was in line.

the ice cream sandwich line wad a debacle but, big deal. if it was me and it took that long i would have just left the line but my girlfriend wanted some ice cream so we waited. i would say that was my only complaint, which is not much for a huge festival like this where so much can go wrong

will go again.

 

I guess I can be the dissenting voice on the Beachwood situation. I was in line towards the end of the event and I got a plate with pork and chicken, a solid serving of beans, and a shitload of coleslaw. I was able to make a robust sandwich on the pretzel bun that was nothing to scoff at. Perhaps it's because towards the end of the event, they were in "get rid of food" mode?

 

some good pics by Craft Beer Guy (you'll probably find yourself in one - I did)

http://craftbeerguy.com/the-bruery-6th-anniversary-photos/

 

Great weather. Great booze. Great people.

By far, one of the most eclectically mixed beer events in CA. It was casktastic!

Here's a few pics of the pours I've been privileged to consume. I tried to take full advantage of the unlimited pours, so imagine duplicates or triplicates of some.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...u-drinking-now-568.177841/page-3#post-2416939

 

I'll admit - with a price tag of $65, my expectations might have been a bit high. However, my first Bruery event and knowing it was at the Phoenix Club, I couldn't have expected more and was ultimately pleased. Just like everyone else, I read the beer list before, but didn't set a strategy so I missed a few things I wanted to try (Almanac Blackberry, the Bottle Logic combos, etc), but tried a bunch as well (Rare Barrel, Rum Stoutfire, and a tiny bit of DL13). Unlimited was great because I got to sample non-stop and ultimately, yes, poured quite a few (to stay soberish)

As for the food, I arrived having skipped breakfast and beelined it to the food table. I was pretty disappointed by the portions and basically conspired to nab another ticket from the entry booth for the first few hours. Eventually, my friend found someone's ticket on the ground (sorry/thanks) and we managed to satisfy ourselves with seconds. Sad to say, but when my friends asked about the highlight, it was when they ran out of plates and I managed to hit the food table free for all and filled up two "meat cups". All in all, a good time

 

I don't know where you guys were getting food but me and my father in law each got full plates at 1:00pm. Heck, I couldn't even finish all of my food.

Ice cream line was too long. Big deal. No ice cream for me. I don't care.
Rare Barrel line was too long. Big deal. Bunch of other good beers available that made me happy.

The Bruery lines were hit or miss. We got 3 pours of Griffen each. Got Rum Stoutfire. Got Gray Monday. Got a bunch of Oui Oui. Got Raspberry Macaroon. And honestly could have gotten other Bruery offerings but we were pretty drunk by 3pm with everything we got.

We didn't wait for more than 15 minutes in any line other than the one to get in. We bypassed Rare Barrel because that line was stupid and probably not worth it and we hit the Bruery lines when they calmed down.

Pours of Pugachev's Cobra, Naughty Sauce, and countless other beers... I mean really... There isn't anything more that we could ask for. Great event. Worth $60 IMO.

 

Oh - I did have to say - I ran into a weird hiccup coming in. My name wasn't on the list and it took me a few minutes to get in. Really weird too, I had a receipt, proof of charge on my AMEX app, kind of embarrassing actually.

 

Lines were not bad, I would get lil opal, dairy tank or Archer DIPA before getting into a line, enjoyable!

 

only semi complaint with my group was food portion size, other than that it was perfect. missed out on a few things I would have liked to try, but thats my fault for not making them a priority. Tried so many great beers, Black Tuesday on oreos was delicious. naughty sauce is fantastic.

Hope next years is the same set up.

 

Bruery employees were walking around with pitchers of Dark Lord to pour for people in long lines. I don't think I'd ever see something like that in another beer event and it says all I need to know about whether I'd come back.

 

Great beers, awesome food, friendly people, not having to wait too long for any beer and having Michael Rue pour me a generous amount of Dark Lord and an informal Q&A about The Bruery and it's history with him = definitely worth $60.

Great Job Bruery.

 

Great event - tried more beers than I could possibly count. Favorites were Grey Monday (only BT variant I'd never had), Griffon Brux, FW Lil' Opal, NAW Naughty Sauce, both SitRs, RB Egregious, and that hoppy ale from Societe.

Just a small suggestion for future events - would be nice to have some music being played overhead. Doesn't even need to be a live band, but some music would add to the festive atmosphere.

Also, the food portions were disappointing. We ate around 1:30 and got child sized scoops of the pulled pork and 2 slivers (1" x 2") of the brisket. I just stood there and asked for more and they eventually (somewhat) acquiesced.

 

Fantastic event! So many great pours all day...
Yeah there were some long lines, but with so many great beers, you could choose to wait or not!
Flew in from Ohio & it was well worth it!
Great job Bruery!