The Austin Beer Fest - A Complete Disaster

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

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  1. jamescain

    jamescain Initiate (0) Jul 14, 2009 Texas

    This is the reason I don't really plan on going to a beer fest in Texas anytime soon. Unless there are special kegs that I can't get locally, aka special one-offs etc. I don't see the point to stand in line to get a sample of something I can buy at a grocery store or get at a local bar. I hope things can chance and Texas can actually have a legitimate beer festival.
     
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  2. wagenvolks

    wagenvolks Initiate (0) Sep 23, 2005 Texas

    There were several beers at the TCBF last fall that were not available in bottle shops. Maybe you meant 'on-tap locally or in bottle shops' ? I recall having some unique pours from Real Ale (barrel-aged porter), Twisted X and Austin Beerworks which I'd never seen before. I believe you guys (Jester King) even had Boxer's Revenge there, no?

    I thoroughly enjoyed the TCBF, despite the heat and crowd it was a pretty good day and I didn't feel ripped off in the slightest.

    I also went to last year's Great Austin Beer Festival, when it was indoors. It was poorly run then, and it seems like the organization just became worse with new management. I don't think we should all completely abandon the idea of having a good craft beer festival in Texas, we just need to do our research beforehand so as to not get burned (i.e., this year's Austin Beer Fest)
     
  3. kmello69

    kmello69 Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2011 Texas

    Update - Austin Beer Fest Facebook page finally issues an "explanation" (not really an apology) concerning what happened yesterday. I won't recount the whole thing here, but basically their argument is "none of it was our fault. It was because we contracted with the Travis County Expo, and they run everything there, and they screwed it all up." You can actually read the whole explanation here: (and also important to note is that they are apparently planning on suing the venue, but make no mention about offering refunds)

    http://www.facebook.com/theaustinbeerfest/posts/270440049709310
     
  4. BAbaracus

    BAbaracus Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Texas

    I definitely remember reading in several different places that the guys were affiliated with Houston Beer Fest and were taking pains to distance themselves from that event, so at best that was an open secret.

    Also, the pricing on the FAQ made it pretty clear that this was going to be a ripoff even if all of the other contingencies hadn't sprung up. I don't wish to make light of anyone who got taken by this, but for those who are saying they're afraid to go to ANY beer events in Texas now, don't get too paranoid: the writing was on the wall from the beginning with this one.

    [EDIT: oh yeah, they also posted a full list of the beers that were going to be available in advance, of which there was nothing remotely rare to be found. Couple that with the fact that the pricing in the FAQ made it pretty clear that you would be paying prices much higher than any beer bar in town - for beers that you could find in most beer bars in town - and I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone thought this would be anything OTHER than a total ripoff.
     
  5. hankbenzenberg

    hankbenzenberg Initiate (0) Feb 1, 2011 Texas

    Wow. What a disaster. SO glad I didn't go to this. Thanks for the info guys. Now I know to avoid this fest in the future.
     
  6. BAbaracus

    BAbaracus Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Texas

    I doubt if there will be a second festival. Most likely it will end up like that ill fated Great Austin Beer Fest from a few years back, where the second edition is postponed while they look for an alternate venue, and the whole thing just quietly disappears without ever being rescheduled.
     
  7. kmello69

    kmello69 Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2011 Texas

    Here's where things weren't as advertised - the website says that each person would receive 6 tickets, and 3 tickets could be redeemed for a full beer. So while I knew $25 was a high price, I knew I would also get at least 2 beers out of the deal, and I was hoping that it would be an "event" worthy of a higher price - good bands, good food, etc. Since I bought my tickets in January, and they just released the list of beers last week, I went in hoping that there would actually be some unique beers offered, but ultimately that was my mistake - should have known what I was buying into before buying into it.

    When they changed the policy on tickets (without notice) and I couldn't even get those 2 beers, THAT'S when I felt ripped off. And they still, despite their lengthy diatribe of finger pointing on Facebook, haven't explained that change in ticketing policy, and why no one was actually able to get BEER at this beer festival. They did, however, explain that, despite advertising that there would be over 500 beers available, there were actually less than 300 (another huge change not full explained)

    Lesson learned - we were all taken for suckers. At least the people that bought through Groupon and Google are apparently getting refunds. I think the rest of us are screwed, as the ticket company is telling people that they don't give refunds, and we have to go to the event promoter to ask for them.
     
  8. Onslow

    Onslow Initiate (0) Apr 12, 2007 Texas

    no surprise here in the least.. looking at the website awhile back- disaster was written all over it..

    plus - any beer fest that advertises beer pong and flip cup deserves to fail, just sucks for the chumps who paid money..
     
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  9. BAbaracus

    BAbaracus Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Texas

    Understandable, but that's one of the reason I never buy tickets for events too far in advance if it's an unknown commodity. I guess my point is that even what was posted on their FAQ from day one sounded like a rip off without some kind of guarantee that there were going to be rare, otherwise unobtainable beers there. Even if they had let you cash in all six of your tickets for two full beers - at which point you're back to paying $1/oz for each additional drop of beer you want - that's still a pretty terrible deal.

    I realize they didn't even fulfill the promises that they did make, but even if they had this still would have been a pretty shitty beer festival.
     
    kmello69 likes this.
  10. jesterkingbeer

    jesterkingbeer Pundit (841) Jun 28, 2010 Texas

    You are correct. I should have been more precise. Unique/special beers from licensed Texas breweries are a nice festival feature. For example, we brought a gravity keg of JK/Mikkeller Beer Geek Rodeo to the festival this past weekend. This is a beer that's not yet available in bottle shops.

    I don't mean to belittle this festival attribute. The larger point however is that there is no festival exception in Texas. That means only licensed Texas breweries may participate. Therefore you won't see unique beers from out of state breweries that send some kegs to Texas just for the festival. For example, we're sending beer to the Shelton Brothers/12% Fest in Massachusetts in June. We don't need a Massachusetts license to do this. Beer drinkers in New England will get to experience our beer, which isn't available in their market. The converse is illegal. If we were a Massachusetts brewery wanting to send beer to a festival in Texas, we'd need a Texas license to the tune of about $7K for two years. No brewery is going to purchase a $7K license (for beer and ale) just to send beer to a Texas festival. The result is that Texas beer festivals are less diverse and exciting as they should be and as they are in other states.

    Jeff Stuffings
    Owner/Brewer
    Jester King
     
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  11. kmello69

    kmello69 Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2011 Texas

    Thanks for the explanation, Jeff. Wish I knew more about how these things worked beforehand, but I've learned an important lesson, and thankfully at not too high of a price. When I heard "festival" I went in with certain expectations and ideas in my mind, but it sounds like those expectations are more fantasy than reality. Your example was rather ironic to me, since I'm a guy from Massachusetts now living in Texas. Looks like I might be better off the other way around! :slight_smile:
     
  12. kcbearkat

    kcbearkat Initiate (0) Jul 3, 2011 Texas

    That sucks! It may not be run by the same organization that put together the Houston Beer Fest but the horror story sounds the exact same as mine. Guess I'll just have to look forward to GABF again this year for a proper festival.
     
  13. pnogrl

    pnogrl Initiate (0) Jun 7, 2007 Texas

    A friend bought the tix to this scam from Groupon so at least she's getting a refund. Money grab/clusterF*&k doesn't even begin to describe what was going on. I'm glad the traffic on Twitter and Facebook, etc. is busy about this...hopefully, it'll keep these dickhead "organizers" from ever attempting to put on another festival.
     
  14. lokieman

    lokieman Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2011 Oklahoma
    Deactivated

    In case we missed it the first time?
     
  15. Maddogpiper

    Maddogpiper Initiate (0) Jul 20, 2008 Texas

    I wanted to jump in and say thank you for the positive mentions of the Texas Beer Fest. We have always striven to further the cause of craft beer, and are proud to put our names out to the public as responsible for the festival and the decisions we make. We are one fest among many that truly support craft beer, and we proudly post ALL our press from last year.

    We are one of many beer festivals and events that look to support the craft beer industry, not take advantage of it. Feel free to peruse our website, we update the info as often as we can, but if there is any question that you wanted asked, please feel free to email me, or post on our facebook.

    We're proud to put our name to what we do.
    -Clif Wigington
    info@texasbeerfest.org
     
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  16. starrrrrrrrr

    starrrrrrrrr Initiate (0) May 6, 2008 Texas

    i want to buy an early ticket for next year who wants to go with me next year?
     
  17. johnsaulrubio

    johnsaulrubio Initiate (0) Dec 2, 2006 Texas

    Watching those involved in creating this implosion is just getting more and more entertaining.
     
  18. SSW117

    SSW117 Initiate (0) Jan 21, 2009 Texas

    There are a lot of laws that stand to keep beer festivals lame here in Texas. It is very hard to throw a fun and exciting beer event with restrictions limiting the maximum number of ounces of beer one can sell for one price. Chad, aka ThirdEye11 has come up with a very nice way of structuring his festival pricing for the Big Texas Beer Fest that will be emulated by others in the future i'm sure. As Jeff was saying above, the craft beer scene in other states sets precedents for traveling beer geeks like all of us that are illegal in our state. Texas laws prohibit us from going to Founders, Bells, Russian River, Cantillon, Midnight Sun, Hair of the Dog, Foothills, Lost Abbey, The Bruery, Drei Fonteinen, Captain Lawrence, Hopping Frog, and now even breweries like Allagash that no longer can support licensing their beer here because they don't make enough to send and cover the costs. I hope the frustrations, angers and negative feelings that people have towards this festival and other poorly run Texas festivals can be redirected towards something that is just as easy to do. Put this energy into support for groups like openthetaps.org that will help those of us that do throw festivals be able throw something more like Great American Beer Fest where everyone that walks in gets to try something they have never had before. With the laws the way they are now, that is just a fantasy.
     
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  19. BAbaracus

    BAbaracus Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Texas

    Austin Beer Fest Turns Into Houston Beer Fest Disaster, Redux

    Over the weekend, some of the same organizers responsible for Houston Beer Fest created a nearly identical fiasco in Austin at the Travis County Expo Center.
    ...
    Houston-based Brent Villareal with Llama Productions LLC was one of the organizers involved in the Houston Beer Fest, and was also responsible for the Austin Beer Fest. Initially, the Austin Beer Fest organizers sought to distance themselves from the Houston Beer Festival fiasco, but
    Eater Austin called them on this
    and got Villareal to admit his involvement with both.
    http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2012/04/austin_beer_fest_turns_into_ho.php
     
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  20. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas


    Exactly what I was going to post BAbaracus

    They can pretend that they are not affiliated, but it is pretty damn obvious that they are.
     
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