We are keeping ourselves busy in exploring different events and places in Calgary. Since we both like our beer, Beer Festival was a logical place to go. They promised lots of different beers from local brewers, tasty snacks and entertainment. We purchased the Beer Geek VIP tickets, so that we could get there 1 hour before everyone else and taste beers that normally run out after a few hours.

The event itself took place at the Stampede grounds – area with lots of different large halls and entertainment areas. The weather was nice – sunshine and +16, so even the weather was supporting the event. When we got there, we expected to pass by all the queues and march right into the festival with our VIP tickets. It turned out that we were not the selected few who had paid 5 CAD extra to get in early. We found a really long thick queue that started moving with fits and starts when the doors opened. The organisers had not really thought out the logistics – there were girls who checked your tickets and took them away and the next one who was supposed to give us our passes did not see if we had had tickets at all. There was also a separate guy who was checking ID’s. Funny enough that we were asked as well even though we hardly look less than 25 years’s old these days. But when my husband showed his, I wasn’t asked for one thankfully – I did not even have it on me!

The crowd was quite different to the Wine Festival that we had attended a couple of months ago – younger, rougher around the edges and definitely dressed down. The audience probably warranted a different system as well – when on the Wine festival everyone got a glass and the wine producers gave you 3 oz for free to taste, then on the Beer festival everyone had to trade in tokens – 3-5 for each sample. Tokens were not expensive – .50 c a piece, but if you had to give up 5 tokens = 2.5 CAD for 100 ml of beer, then the price was roughly the same as in pubs in town. Then again, I am sure that if it had been any cheaper, there would have been a lot more people who would not know when to stop.

It was quite easy to get to talk to the producers and have sample and enjoy it in the beginning of the festival, once crowds started pouring in, it became more difficult to get to the stands and even less likely to have a longer conversation.

The variety of beers was excellent – every producer had many varieties and there were some we’d never seen before. We loved Tin Whistle Brewing Co Peach Cream Ale, Whistler Paradise Valley Grapefruit Ale, Mexican Tequila Cask matured ale, Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale to name a few that we bothered to take the coasters or cards from. We could also taste some homemade Mead – looked and tasted more like wine rather than mead we might have had in Europe. There were a few that were horrible to our taste – one of them actually an English beer that tasted more like liquid from pickled ginger. Also quite few that tasted like the typical North-American beers – close to water.

Our 80 pre-purchased tokens were not enough, so we got a few more and had some empanadas and spheperd’s pies to help ground the liquid lunch. Really interesting about that was that we got to pay by credit card that was run through a device attached to the clerks mobile and then they sent a receipt via e-mail – that was really cool!

We were quite tired after 3 hours of tasting and talking and decided to get a cab home. In summary I’d say that it was interesting to participate and see for yourself what the event is like, but we doubt we’ll go back again. Wine Festival for sure, but not the beer one. Main reason – we are probably not that much into beer as we thought and it was not an event where we felt at home. I have a T-shirt, though!