10 rules for doing a beer festival the right way

Use these 10 tips to make a beer festival fun — but also to not be that guy. You know which guy we mean.

1. Eat before the festival begins

Put down a base for your beer, particularly the high-alcohol brews. You might think you’re drinking an ounce of beer, but you’re drinking an ounce of beer at each booth with the potential to drink more than 100 ounces of beer. Math isn’t that hard.

2. Plan ahead

Have a plan, said Curt Foreman, who founded Brewfest Partners, a company that arranges beer festivals in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Florida.

Acknowledge that you need to be disciplined going into it. Don’t hurry along. Beer festivals are set up as “a paced social event,” he said.

Most festivals have a website and information on what breweries will be at the festival and where they are located.

3. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate.

We can’t say it often enough. Drink water between beers. Start a pattern. Time yourself for eight ounces of water each hour or have a glass after every five booth visits.

4. Be adventurous.

“Look for things you wouldn’t normally drink, sours, darks, whatever,” said George Jahn Bluvas, brewmaster for Water Street Brewery. “This is the time to experiment.”

5. Ask questions.

“You are there to learn; don’t just hold out your glass like you are at a keg party,” Bluvas said. “Ask the brewers. We like to talk about our beer and, presumably, that is why you are there.”

6. Snack.

It looks dorky, but that pretzel necklace is really a good idea. Pretzels help fill your stomach but they also help cleanse the palate. Breweries offer a variety of styles at beer festivals. Barrel-aged beers rich with bourbon won’t let you get the full taste of a lighterthan-air wheat beer, and a double IPA is likely to burn your taste buds for the next three beers you try.

7. Pace yourself.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Bluvas said. “If you are there to drink as much as you can in the allotted time, then you are in the wrong place.”

8. Take notes.

Use an app (untappd comes to mind) or take notes on which beers you enjoyed; who made them; and where they’re available. Add information on what you liked about each beer. And if there’s a beer you don’t like, note it as well so you don’t make the mistake of buying it or ordering it again.

9. Be in the moment.

Take notes, yes, but don’t let it get in the way of anyone else’s chance for beer. Some beer festival workers recount people who asked them to hold the bottle so they could take a photo of it like a trophy. Meanwhile, the line grew behind them.

10. Bring a designated driver.

Designated drivers get in for a discount, and they’re often feted with snacks and sodas to keep them going. Do not get a designated-driver ticket and expect to drink.