Houston Beer Festival
I attended the Houston Beer Festival yesterday and have to say it was an interesting experience. It was held downtown, in Hermann Park and started around 2:00 pm. It was hot and crowded, but had a great feel to it. There was live music and a ton of booths. Interestingly, there was far less beer and beer-oriented activities than I would have thought. Lots of food/vendor booths, but most had nothing to do with beer. The layout was a little funny, due to the shape of the park and the crowds were unbelievably large. I suspect that it is something that Houstonians are used to. I was there right at the start and had to wait 45 minutes to get a ticket to get in. The beer selection was decent. Crispin Cider was the winner, in my book. It was cold and refreshing in the heat. Simply delicious.
I'm Just Here for the Beer 
As an avid homebrewer and consumer of beer, I attended the first two beer “fests” in the Houston area this year. I decided they are nothing more than a vehicle for the promoters to make money. The beer selections, while large were the same old brands and styles. The number of beer samples (24) included in your entry fee came to about 72 ounces or 4.5 pints, only if you got 3 oz per sample. The official standard was 2 oz. which would equal 48 oz. which comes to about 3 pints. Now mind you, 2 oz is barely enough to form an opinion about a beer. The wait for a sample at the fests I attended were on the order of 5 minutes, or 2 hours waiting in line to get my 24 samples. The Houston Beer fest wait was far far longer. To make matters worse, apparently there were irregularities as to whether the charity the fest proceeds were to benefit is a legitimate charity under IRS rules, and there were TABC violations related to ticket sales as well. I’ve had enough of beer fests since the cost does not seem reasonable. $25 for 3 or 4 pints? Thats more than the $5 I pay at a pub, and far more than I would pay at a retail outlet, and so far they have offered very few that I have not already tried. So what is the benefit to me?
Good point, Keith. I have seen several different types of beer festival. Depending on what is done at the festivasl, and it can be a great experience or a dud. Houston Beer Festival was so oversold as to be rediculous. In addition, it really wasn’t about beer. It had some beer there, but had many more booths that didn’t really have anything to do with the industry. That being said, our festival is aimed at promoting beer as a whole, and putting people in front of beer that they might not otherwise have the opportunity to taste. You can certainly buy more beer, per pint, in a pub, but what a good festival can do it put a huge variety of beer, that would cost hundreds of dollars by the pint, in front of beer drinkers. We are also not limited in the way Texas is. Our tastings are not per ticket. It is unlimited tastings. Now, a person couldn’t obviously try two ounces of 150 beers. That would be 300+ ounces, but what it can do is allow someone to pick and choose and get a wide range of tastes. It also allows the public to interact with the breweries that are there. Not every brand of beer sends brewers out, but I know we are lining up a good number of breweries that will are sending out staff to interact, answer questions, and teach classes throughout the day at our Brew Univeristy.
As a side note, we are holding the 1st Annual Cajun Classic Homebrew Contest at our beer festival. Participants in the homebrew contest will get discounts off of the entry tickets to allow for tastings. I would ask that you consider entering some of your stuff, and participating in the tasting. I think you will find it a different experience than the Texas Beer Festival and the Houston Beer Festival.
Tod