Results - Microbrew Fest

This weekend was WQLN's fifth annual MicroBrew Festival. I blogged about back in February and at the time I wasn't sure I would be attending, as I am not really a beer drinker.

Well, I went. Along with more than 1,400 other people (both day and evening events were sold out). Tom New, WQLN's creative services director, said this events raises as much money as a week's worth of fundraising efforts on the radio. That's nice. But also, really? There were 1,400 people who paid $30 a ticket, and it only raises a week's worth of bank?

Nonetheless, it was fun. But CROWDED. Attendees were packed in like sardines in The Brewerie's special events room. There was plenty of beer to go around, no one went home dry.

Each of the 33 craft breweries had at least two beers to sample, but most had more than that. There were 98 different brews to sample. And the samples were large - they filled the entire (free) festival glass, which I estimate was 4-6 ounces. You do the math. No one was sober. Even a novice beer drinker like me.

The winning beer was Titusville's the Blue Canoe Brewery for its Milly Vanilli Chocolate Milk Stout. It was actually the first beer I tried (as Blue Canoe was the first brewery to the right when attendees walked in).

And the most popular brewery was Sprague Farm & Brew Works of Venango for the third year in a row. (Sprague was situated as the first brewery to the left as everyone walked in.)

Coincidence?

So what were my favs? My beer preferences are stouts and wheat/white beers.

I liked Blue Canoe's Milly Vanilli.
Also, I liked two from Ellicottville Brewing Company (which had at least six beers). Blueberry Wheat ale and Chocolate Cherry Bomb stout.

A few pieces of advice:

• Bring patience. There is plenty of beer to go around. And plenty of time to sample.
• Eat before you go. There are some things to nibble on, but I was happy to have planned ahead and not attended with an empty stomach. Wegman's was on hand selling a full meal and Max & Erma's was handing out its chicken tortilla soup and cookies.
• Don't wear a coat. Otherwise, you'll be wearing it or carrying it the entire time. And maybe this should be advice for the event coordinators (have a coat rack and charge a dollar to check it to help raise more money for WQLN).
• Go early (at least for the evening session). We got there at 4:45 and the line was already stretching outside, to Peach Street. And the line continued to wrap around Union Station building as the beginning of the event approached.
• Write down the beers you liked. You get a checksheet and a map, but I didn't feel coordinated enough to juggle that and my beer. But now I wished I had at least marked the others that I liked, because I can't remember now. I only remember the ones I really liked and went back for seconds.
• Don't drink the entire sample or ask for a smaller sample. Unless your prerogative is to get completely smashed. After the fifth brewery, I learned. There wasn't enough room in my stomach to fit all that beer. Plus I didn't want to down a beer I didn't like, and not be able to enjoy a beer I did like.

It was fun. And I found myself not waiting a long time to sample a beer. Unlike at Wine on the Lake, where the event location is spacious, but you stand in long lines to finally make it up to the winery's table and then you don't move until you have sampled many.