Bend Brew Fest
The Bend Brew Fest starts today, August 17th, from 4pm til 11pm, and continues Saturday from noon til 11pm. It’s at the Les Schwab Amphitheather. Entry is free, but you’ll need to pony up for beer and food:
A $5 one-time purchase of a 2007 souvenir mug is required for tasting. Mugs from previous years will not be filled. Tasting tokens are required for beer purchase. Tokens cost $1 per – sold in packets of five – and equals a four ounce taste.
A variety of food is available from outstanding local vendors. Cash is required for food purchase. There is an ATM on site.
The pricing in and of itself is pretty standard—the Oregon Brewers Festival charges $4 for the mug—but you have to buy tokens in packs of 5? Seriously? No offense to the organizers, but that’s lame, they should absolutely let people buy single tokens if that’s how they want them (or if they need an odd number not divisible by 5…6? 7? 3?).
Kids can attend, with a caveat:
ALL AGES are welcome until 7pm each night with a parent or guardian in attendance. Parent/guardian is required to sign a pledge acknowledging the responsibility of preventing children from consuming alcohol and the penalties for the parent and child.
They’ve got a really impressive lineup of beers available, too. The Source has an "official guide" insert in this week’s issue with the music and beer lineup (which is online, too, but the internet isn’t as practical when you’re actually there). They also have an article online about it.
Sadly, I won’t be in town this weekend to go. It’s a camping weekend for me that I can’t change. Too bad too! This was an event I’d really like to go to again someday.
Send me your reviews of the Fest—I’ll publish ’em here.
I’ve gone a couple times in the past and been entirely unimpressed. Felt really half-assed. This year though, I think, was the turning point. The whole thing felt better organized. There were (in my estimation) more beers than previous years, it was a better setup, there were more food vendors, and the live music was pretty good.
Living in Bend, I get pretty bored with the local micro selection. I was happy that while the local guys were well represented at the beer fest, there were a fair amount of "outsider" brews available too (were there any NOT from Oregon/Colorado though?)
My one big complaint: lack of eductated/interested workers. I walked up to the Roots brewery line, and asked the guy serving "hey, can you tell me about the Heather ale?" "It kind of tastes like rice or somethin, I wouldn’t recommmend it". Fair enough, but that’s not really what I was getting at. Why aren’t there brewery representatives working the booths? Maybe it’s because it’s a charity, I don’t know, but it would be nice to have folks familiar with the beers they’re serving to answer questions for those of us who aren’t just there to get hammered. Or, maybe are there to get hammered, but also to learn a little en route…