World Beer Festival - thoughts? experiences?

Discussion in 'South Atlantic' started by jampics2, May 15, 2013.

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  1. jampics2

    jampics2 Pooh-Bah (2,414) Dec 19, 2008 Ohio
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    World Beer Festival is coming to Cleveland, OH for the first time. I thought I'd ask those of you in the South East what to expect since they've only done shows in NC, SC, FL and VA before. I'd much rather support a home-grown event, an event thrown by our Ohio brewers or someone with an interest in our craft beer scene, but I'm also happy to check out a new fest if it's worth it.

    Has anyone attended one of their events? How was it? Worth $40 for general admission? $75 for VIP?


    Thanks for your thoughts!
     
    #1 jampics2, May 15, 2013
  2. jpmclaug

    jpmclaug Savant (1,007) Jun 6, 2008 South Carolina

    The one's in Columbia, SC the past few years have been very poorly run and I haven't heard anyone say anything positive about them.

    Three years ago I was in the first session and wanted to try one of beers and was told they were only serving this at the second session(this was never stated in advance). I know two years ago they ran out of most of their beers in the second session and lines were really long. Last year they said people would get to try Utopias in the VIP room but it didn't show up. A few weeks later the World of Beer here had the Sam Adams rep giving free samples of it to customers and people that had a VIP ticket from the festival were given first dibs on the samples. I'm not sure if that was organized by World Beer Festival or Sam Adams though.
     
    #2 jpmclaug, May 15, 2013
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  3. alysmith4

    alysmith4 Pooh-Bah (1,738) Feb 11, 2005 District of Columbia
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    #3 alysmith4, May 16, 2013
  4. jampics2

    jampics2 Pooh-Bah (2,414) Dec 19, 2008 Ohio
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Thanks for the feedback guys, looks like I won't roll the dice on this one! Cheers!!
     
    #4 jampics2, May 16, 2013
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  5. ewright

    ewright Initiate (0) Oct 25, 2007 North Carolina

    I swore off WBF Raleigh and Durham years ago for most of the same reasons as alysmith4. My only point of disagreement is about volunteer knowledge of the beers they are pouring.

    My experience is that servers at breweries/brewpubs don't necessarily know what hops are in what beers, the origins of every beer name, etc. Expecting a volunteer assigned at random to know that is unreasonable. If you happen to meet a brewer, great. Chat him/her up as and when possible. Case in point, right after Jolly Pumpkin opened, Ron Jeffries was at WBF Durham and I got to chat with him for a few minutes. That was pretty sweet.

    The rest, though ... spot on. Mostly BMC drinking bros looking for a quick drunk. In our neck of the woods, Raleigh Rare and Vintage Beer Festival is where it's at now.
     
    #5 ewright, May 16, 2013
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  6. alysmith4

    alysmith4 Pooh-Bah (1,738) Feb 11, 2005 District of Columbia
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    Agreed. And I didn't mean to come off like I was expecting the brewer him/herself to regale me with stories of how the beer being served came into existence - I was just totally surprised that all the servers were volunteers (with zero ties to the brewery and/or beer in general). Any fest I've been to in the DC area has been the opposite. Employees of the brewery are the ones standing behind the table, and it's a completely different experience to be able to talk to them about their offerings, the brewery, etc.
     
    #6 alysmith4, May 17, 2013
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