The Calgary Beerfest was shitty

Hey beer fans. Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I’ve been distracted by research and hangovers and lacking in motivation to blog.

But I just attended the Calgary Beerfest at the weekend and it inspired me to publish something. But not before thinking a few days on just the right headline.

Anyway, I wouldn’t even call it a beer festival. It was more like a beer flea market. There was a lot of crap that vendors were trying to sell for way too much money. The place was full of sketchy people and you left feeling dirty and ripped off.

The good thing about a flea market, however, is that you don’t normally see dudes just bend over and lose their lunch in the middle of the aisle. But, that happened a few times while I was at roaming around the Big Four building. I guess that makes Calgary Beerfest cool, if you’re in the cast of Jackass. Otherwise, it’s a sign that people aren’t drinking responsibly.

It’s a bad omen for a beerfest when the biggest lineups are for a brand like Corona. I worked in the industry before, and believe me when I say it doesn’t take much to get big guys like Labatts or Molson off the couch and at your event. They don’t necessarily make good beer, but they bring legitimacy to events like this. Otherwise you’re on a used car lot full of Ladas without a Toyota or Honda in sight. But I guess the big brewers are as picky as I am.

I tried a few good brands that you don’t see a lot of around Calgary, like Half Pints (Winnipeg, MB), Grizzly Paw (Canmore, AB) and Cannery Brewing (Penticton, BC). But otherwise it was the same stuff you can get anywhere in Calgary – Big Rock, Wild Rose, Brew Brothers – or previously unknown European brands that probably should have stayed in Austria or Belarus or wherever they came from.

Anyway, I don’t think it was worth the $25 they charged to get in or the $2.00 most vendors charged to fill you’re little beerfest collectors mug. But I’ve been wrong before.