The Austin Beer Fest - A Complete Disaster

Discussion in 'Southwest' started by kmello69, Apr 1, 2012.

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  1. kmello69

    kmello69 Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2011 Texas

    I haven't seen any posts on this yet, so I don't know if anyone else here attended, but this was the poster child for how NOT to run an event, from start to finish.

    Organizationally, I don't think you could do things more wrong than they did. Despite moving the event to a larger venue, they only allowed traffic to enter through 1 gate at the entire facility, so the backup was anywhere from 30-60 minutes just to get on property. After that came the surprise that parking was $10, a bit of information never made clear before this.

    OK fine, so a light hassle getting onto the property. That was only the beginning. There were 3 lines to enter: (1) pre-bought tickets, (2) Groupons and Google Offers tickets, and (3) those buying "day of" tickets. Unfortunately, there were NO signs as to which line was which, and no one directing people into the appropriate lines. There was also only *1* person at each entrance with a scanner for the tickets, so it took literally 60 minutes standing in the hot sun on open asphalt just to make it to the gate.

    The event itself cost $25, which was supposed to include a mug, a shot glass, and 6 drink tickets, which could be used individually for 2 oz samples, or 3 tickets could be combined for a 12 oz pour. After that, you could buy more tickets, at $2 each.

    Once we got inside (almost 2 hours after arriving) a lot of the breweries hadn't event shown up, and some were not given tents, meaning their beer was just sitting out in the sun (it was 90 degrees here yesterday). Those that WERE set up were not marked with any kinds of signs, so you had to go up to the table to actually even see which brewery was which (because no maps were provided).

    OK fine, huge hassle so far, but time to drink some beer, right? My plan was to skip the tastes (2 oz isnt enough to really taste anything) and just get 2 fills with my tickets, and then buy more. I see the tent with the Old Raspy, so I figure I'll start there. Ask the girl for a full beer, and she says "that'll be 7 green tickets." Wait, what the hell is a green ticket!? My tickets are orange! "Sorry," she says, "they changed the policy. You can only use the orange tickets for tasters. If you want a full beer, you have to pay for green tickets, which are $1 each." Holy hell, I just got screwed! So I asked for a taster, figuring I wasn't walking away with nothing, and she pours me what can't be more than *1* oz of beer into a tiny cup (you know the kind they have at Williams Sonoma that they put little samples of olive oil, etc., in? Yeah, those).

    So now I'm pissed, because for my $25 I'm going to get about 6 oz of beer, and if I want more, its going to cost me $7 a beer!! And they had NOTHING special or unique that I couldn't have just picked up at Specs. At least I didn't pay $200 for the "VIP" tickets, but my brother-in-law won one, so i saw the crap they got, which was almost nothing as well.

    This event was clearly a cash grab. They charged a lot of money, and provided almost nothing in return. Apparently, even the vendors were pissed - they wanted to give beers away, but were told that they couldn't, and that in order to get paid, they HAD TO collect the tickets the way they were instructed. Half the people serving beer didnt know a thing about the beers they were serving, and there was a general sense of confusion on the part of the people working there, and ANGER on the part of those attending.

    If you want to see more, check out the Austin Beer Fest Facebook page, their Yelp reviews, and/or the twitter hashtag #austinbeerfest to get a real sense of the anger this event generated. I'll be very surprised if this event is back next year, and even more surprised if ANYONE who went this year goes back again. It was a complete disaster, from beginning to end.
     
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  2. Frozenmoses

    Frozenmoses Initiate (0) Nov 23, 2010 Texas

    Sounds exactly like the Houston Beer Fest last year. Sorry to hear about that.
     
  3. kmello69

    kmello69 Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2011 Texas

    Apparently, run by some of the same people. Wish I had known that beforehand!
     
  4. Frozenmoses

    Frozenmoses Initiate (0) Nov 23, 2010 Texas

    Doesn't surprise me in the least. Looks like they're trying to capitalize on the craft beer movement without actually trying to provide a good experience. They're just scamming people. These people should be prosecuted.
     
  5. canadianghetto

    canadianghetto Initiate (0) Oct 15, 2011 Texas
    Trader

    Houston Beer Fest was equally as horrible. I would not go this year if I had free tickets. The TX Beer Fest in Houston later in April sounds legit and actually associated with the TX brewers. Might go, but I have such a bad taste in my mouth from other Beer Fests I just don't see the point.
     
  6. lokieman

    lokieman Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2011 Oklahoma
    Deactivated

    Sucks to hear man...I was hoping for the best so we could have a decent beer fest locally but sounds like it was a debacle. Our local brewers should team up and throw a fest for craft beer people and not the masses...bet JK, (512) and Live Oak among others could put together a much better party relevant to the "good beer" drinkers in the Austin area...
     
  7. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Pundit (973) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    From what I understand, Jester King already puts on some pretty awesome beer events at their place.
     
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  8. jumpjet2k

    jumpjet2k Initiate (0) Feb 18, 2009 Texas

    The Texas Beer Fest last year was very successful - I had a great time there. That said, they have switched venues this year, so there's no guarantee it'll be the same. But the lines and crowds were very reasonable and the prices and pour sizes were good. They had a selection of "regular" beers from a large number of breweries and some "special" beers tapped at a particular time. Those "special" beers were the only thing they ever ran out of, too, which I thought was reasonable when they were serving beers like Tokio.
     
  9. lokieman

    lokieman Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2011 Oklahoma
    Deactivated

    Yes they do...I'm talking guest brewery type events. I know it's a pipe dream but it would be cool if a bunch of craft breweries teamed up to put on an event instead of organizers who do any genre of festival for the right price...
     
  10. BgThang

    BgThang Initiate (0) Dec 23, 2007 Texas

    the texas beerfest, great austin beer fest, the austin beerfest, texas craft beer fest are all different events
    This sucks because now Im not sure if I ever want to go to a beer fest in texas. because no one can be sure who is running it
     
  11. thirdeye11

    thirdeye11 Pundit (973) Feb 3, 2009 Texas

    Well I'm in Dallas, but I encourage you to come try our festival. The Big Texas Beer Fest is organized by myself and my wife. We're just a couple of craft beer enthusiasts, as opposed to a corporate events planning organization. I've been to lots of beer festivals, and planned our event based on the awesome time we had at Great American Beer Festival. I hope we can do the state right, with a proper beer festival. We've been planning for 15 months so when the event happens in about 12 days, we'll know how we did.

    Cheers,
    Chad
     
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  12. lokieman

    lokieman Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2011 Oklahoma
    Deactivated

    Awesome man...keep up the good work. I wish I could make it up there but weekends suck for me. Best of luck and hope your festival is the future for craft beer fests in Texas. We need a solid beer fest...no pressure. Cheers man,

    Keith
     
  13. jesterkingbeer

    jesterkingbeer Pundit (841) Jun 28, 2010 Texas

    We'd love to see a beer festival featuring great artisan breweries from around the U.S. and around the world. Our own desire would be to have a sour beer festival at Jester King with beer from Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin, Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, etc. Unfortunately the high licensing fees keep these breweries and other out of state artisan breweries out of Texas. There's not even a festival exception. When we send beer to the Great American Beer Festival, we don't have to get a Colorado license. GABF in its current incarnation would be illegal in Texas. The TABC licensing fees and requirements mean you only see beer at Texas festivals that is already available at Texas bottle shops.

    There is the Texas Craft Brewers Festival, which is put on by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. It's a brewer run event, and I think it's a good one. Unfortunately the TABC code keeps brewpubs from participating, which cuts what Texas beer has to offer in half.

    As for this weekend's debacle, we're embarrassed we even brought our beer to it. We'll be more selective going forward. I should have known better when I heard a radio spot beforehand mentioning "beer pong". Fool me once...as they say. We'll be putting up a blog post on it later today.

    Jeff Stuffings
    Owner/Brewer
    Jester King
     
  14. jesterkingbeer

    jesterkingbeer Pundit (841) Jun 28, 2010 Texas

    We'll be sending a cask of Das Wunderkind! Sour Saison and a keg of barrel aged, sour Black Metal!
     
  15. H0rnedFr0gs

    H0rnedFr0gs Initiate (0) Mar 12, 2012 Texas

    So your saying I need only visit your line? :wink:
     
  16. kmello69

    kmello69 Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2011 Texas

    Yeah, the "beer pong" should have been a dead give-away, but I somehow missed that information!

    Rather than coming out and addressing the issues with the event, they are simply deleting comments from their Facebook page, and the "owner" of the festival, Brent Villareal, even went so far as to remove his affiliation from his own personal Facebook page. Thankfully, they can't do anything about all the chatter on Twitter and Yelp, so they can't totally make it go away.

    I've learned my lesson, and will stick to those I know. I have had a great time at Jester King, Independence, Circle, Austin Beerworks, Thirsty Planet, and other local events, and will stick to those unless there is some way to know for sure an event won't just be a cash-grab like this one was.
     
  17. wolffman17

    wolffman17 Initiate (0) Jul 14, 2005 Texas

    What a mess. Unfortunate that they seem to be giving all Texas beer fests a bad name. In Houston, I can vouch for Texas Beer Fest and Monsters of Beer (renamed to The Draft, I believe) as legit fests.

    HBF also has a "Houston Beerathon" planned for April 14th. 26 beers at 26 bars in one day. :rolling_eyes:
     
  18. bentwookie

    bentwookie Initiate (0) Jan 13, 2008 Texas

    I had free tickets to this Austin Beer Fest and once I saw they were having a Beer Pong tournament I lost all interest in going.
     
  19. bentwookie

    bentwookie Initiate (0) Jan 13, 2008 Texas

    The Texas Craft Brewers Fest in Austin last year was great.
     
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  20. NickG

    NickG Initiate (0) Apr 2, 2012 Texas

    A complete disaster is being polite. I got there a little before 2 since we were in Lockhart for BBQ. Probably closer to 3 when we actually got past the "entrance"; half of the vendors were not even setup and the delivery trucks blocked half a row of tables.
    And those 2 oz tasters were a joke. The best part was when you did buy a beer, they would not give you the can or bottle.
     
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