Josh Christie

Hop Press Invades the American Craft Beer Fest

80 brewers! 325 craft beers! No rules*!

In just two short weeks, Beer Advocate is hosting the American Craft Beer Fest at Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center. Although the event is being thrown by our distinguished competition over at BA, don’t think that we won’t be covering the event. Steve Koenemann, Carla Companion and I will all be at the fest, covering speakers, brewers, and the beer. With the fest on June 18th and 19th, expect plenty of Boonville-level coverage during the following week.

So what exactly is the American Craft Beer Fest? Quite simply, it’s the east coast’s largest beer festival. Entering it’s third year on Boston’s waterfront, the event spans two days and features booths for over 80 breweries, many of whom are pouring samples of at least four or five of their beers. Despite the size of the fest, brewers aren’t shy about breaking out the white whales – last year I had the opportunity to try Surly Darkness, Foothills Sexual Chocolate and Deschutes Abyss at the ACBF. In addition to the many, many beer samples, each of the festival’s three sessions features speakers and panels talking about beer, the craft beer industry, and brewing. Although this year’s schedule isn’t up yet, past speakers have included Garrett Oliver, Sam Calagione and Andy Crouch.

Tickets for the fest are $40, which may seem a bit steep until you factor in what they include. A ticket will get you entry to one of the three sessions (Friday night, Saturday afternoon or Saturday night), a tasting glass, a fest guide and unlimited (within reason) 2oz samples. Coming from Maine – the land of limited, ticketed samples – the fact that the entry ticket buys you all your samples blew my mind the first year of the fest.

Now, I apologize if this is coming off like an extended advertisement for the festival. I swear, that isn’t my intention. The fact is, the ACBF is one of my favorite beer festivals. This June will be my third time going to the festival, and the crew at Beer Advocate did a good job working out the kinks (overcrowding, bad food selection, long lines) by the second year – hopefully, everything will go even more smoothly this June with a doubled floor size. The breadth of the beer selection is just unreal at the ACBF, and the combination of good local craft beer, beer from brewers not distributed in New England, and rare and one-off beers will make the most sullen beer geek happy.

As I mentioned in the intro to this post, we’ll have three Hop Press writers at the event. I’d like to ask – is there anything in particular you want us to cover? Between the three of us we’ll probably be seeing all the speakers, meeting many brewers and trying most of the beer, so we can report on nearly any aspect of the show. Since we’re here to improve the beer drinking experience for you RateBeerians, let us know what you’d like to see. And, of course, track us down and say hi at the festival!

Also in the comments, let me know if you have any questions about the experience of the ACBF. Although most “official” questions are probably answered on the event’s FAQ, I’ve been to the fest twice before and can give you the inside scoop on how the fest goes.

See you in two weeks!

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Username (required) :
Email (required) :
Web Site :
Comment :

CAPTCHA Code