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Great Austin Beer Festival pretty great
It’s wise to go into any “first-ever” event — especially sizable ones — with a lid of your expectations. The unexpected happens, stuff runs out, chaos and madness unfold.
Which was not the case at all Saturday at the first-ever Great Austin Beer Festival at the Austin Music Hall downtown. We got there about 10 minutes before doors opened at 4 p.m. to find a line running around the building and into the tandoori oven of the parking lot. But things moved quickly and soon enough we were inside where it was cool. And where there was beer: Dozens of beers, almost all of them in bottles but what the heck, from dozens of breweries, a DJ, food and a collegial atmosphere. How could people not be in a good mood. Armed with our sampling glasses we tried: St. Arnold Elissa and Summer Pils, Allagash Tripel, Dogfish Head Midas Touch and Palo Santo Marron, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (thanks, Jody), Ska IPA, Victory Golden Monkey and (512) porter. The lines weren’t bad, either, but it was the usual beer fest routine: Get a sample and get in line for the next one because the one you just got will be gone by the time you get to the head of the next line.
As predicted the event sold out and Blake Richards, one of the promoters, was — get this — calm and content. (That’s him in the picture. Doesn’t he look so not freaked out?)
“It’s been phenomenal,” he said as he kept an eye on the front door. “I’d call it a success.”
Same here. We got out of there a little before 6 so I couldn’t tell you if stuff started to run out and things got ugly. Did anybody stay late and care to report?
Let’s do it again next year. Outside and in the spring. And all-draft would be great, too.
UPDATE: The comment below makes a good point I neglected to address. The punch cards were a surprise to me, too.
(American-Statesman photo by Patrick Beach)
Comments
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By Brian Fuller
June 28, 2010 1:23 PM | Link to this
I think we went to a different event. I went to the Great Austin Beer Fest that did not tell anyone that the $30 ticket (or $40 later) came with a 10 drink ticket. At my $30 a ticket, this turned out to be $3 per each 4 ounce taste ( which was only 2 ounces with foam). In other words, I would have been paying $9 for one 12 ounce Shiner. Nothing against Shiner, but there was not a single beer at the event that I couldn’t buy at HEB or my local liquor store. I’m used to beer events that bring out the unique, not the stuff you bring from 7-11. And the lines … which one was which, for my tepid beer. You think they’d ice the beer down a bit earlier than 10 minutes before it starts. Bottom line is that this was a total rip-off.
By Sean
June 28, 2010 9:12 PM | Link to this
@Brian they gave out the cards, but then no one actually punched them (at least not mine and I was there from 4:30-8). They also said that if you ran out you could go get another one. I think the idea was just to check on you after 40 oz of beer to make sure you weren’t far too drunk.
I had a great experience and after 6:30 it got a lot better. I think a lot of people left, maybe because they thought they only got 10 samples or they got some warm beer. Maybe I was lucky, but I got tasty beer at good temperatures.
(512) really came through, they had an aged version of their One and later they broke out some of the whiskey barrel aged pecan porter. Brookly also wasn’t messing around with Local 1 and 2 available.
I think they did a great job overall. My hope for next year is to have signs with the brewery names up high and maybe some form of line control, it got a bit confusing knowing which beer you were watiing for. Also, I would love to see kegs instead of bottles and some local brewpubs. But I was pleasantly surprised with the way the evening went.