Calgary Beerfest

[winson2001]

a friend askes me to goto the beerfest at bmo center, trying to buy tics online and was asked if i want some tokens, so it works like taste of calgary n use tokens for trying beer both to both? or what the tokens are for? if they are for drink is 40 token a lot? or should i buy more? does someone have a discount code for the event tics? Thanks in advance for any useful info

[Mitsu3000gt]

Beerfest is a rip off and you spend 90% of your time waiting in lineups. The beerfest event Willow Park puts on in November is much better, and cheaper.

Beerfest works with you buying tickets, and then each beer is 5-7 or more tickets for a pretty small taste. The better the beer (eg. the Belgian stuff) the more tokens it costs.

It's expensive, you probably won't be drunk unless you are there for a super long time, and you will spend almost the entire time standing in line. I wasn't a fan, personally, but yes it is ticket based and that is how it works. 40 tokens will get you about 8 small domestic beer tastes.

[winson2001]

ohhh~ so at a buck per tic i'd be paying $5-7 for half size beer.... I think I'll try to talk my friend out of it haha, thx for the heads-up

[schocker]

I thought this would be like oktoberfest but I guess not as we got pretty big portions but there wasn't much to choose from

[Mitsu3000gt]

I haven't been in a few years, but I did go two years in a row before. I really wasn't impressed. Portion sizes may be better now, but still it was a rip off when Iwent and most of the time was spent waiting in line. Tickets were $0.50 each when I went (plus whatever door admission was), and you got maybe 1/4 of a beer. A buck a ticket is a lot unless they changed their trade-in value for beer.

[ercchry]

6. How do the sample tokens work at the event?

All beer and food can be sampled by first purchasing sample tokens. Sample tokens are $1 and sold in blocks of ten. Each sample is a minimum of 2 tokens but food and more expensive beers can be more. A sample of beer is legally 4oz, which is 1/3 of a bottle of beer.

last time i went we did VIP entry an hour early.... were hammered in 2 hrs on ~$60 worth of tickets (at $0.50 each) and went for lunch on 17th and probably offended a few soccer moms who were out with the kids

[DEATH2000]

I went last year and was dissapointed in the cost per sample size ratio. You were basically paying 1/3 the price of a beer for 1/3 of a beer. The lines were for some were so long I didnt even get buzzed off the $40 in tickets we spent. I would have had a better time at 1600 Beer Haus sampling different stuff.

[BrknFngrs]

Another vote from me as well.

My previous employer used to let us buy tickets at half price and I still found it wasn't worth it.

[2Legit2Quit]

Go to Zyn and buy 4 or 5 beers for tasting and get drunk for cheaper haha.

[jsn]

I think it depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to get drunk and party with friends there's cheaper alternatives. Even bars and pubs aren't "worth it" if your goal is just to get drunk. Just buy cheap beer/alcohol and get drunk at someones house. Doesn't get much cheaper than that.

I got to try alot of beers that I normally wouldn't have tried. I think I sampled around 10 to 15 beers last time with those tokens. The portions are smaller, but had they been full beers at full price, I wouldn't of been able to try that many at that price. I didn't get drunk but I had abit of a buzz and spent an afternoon sampling beers and hanging out with friends. I still had a great time

[chkolny541]

Originally posted by jsn
I think it depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to get drunk and party with friends there's cheaper alternatives. Even bars and pubs aren't "worth it" if your goal is just to get drunk. Just buy cheap beer/alcohol and get drunk at someones house. Doesn't get much cheaper than that.

I got to try alot of beers that I normally wouldn't have tried. I think I sampled around 10 to 15 beers last time with those tokens. The portions are smaller, but had they been full beers at full price, I wouldn't of been able to try that many at that price. I didn't get drunk but I had abit of a buzz and spent an afternoon sampling beers and hanging out with friends. I still had a great time

Well said, you don't go there exclusively to try to get drunk, your 40$ wont get you there. Its just great to check out all sorts of different beers that you wouldn't have tried otherwise, I've gone the last few years and expanded my personal beer selection drastically. I've never had a big problem with lines either, everything moves rather quickly.

[winson2001]

we ended up making our own beerfest, each of us were asked to bring 2 kinds of beer 2 of each, and post pics on a group chat so theres no duplicates. problem is, everyone thinks 4 beer per person is not enuff, so almost everyone brought extra lol fun night! was gonna name the best n worst beer of the night.. but couldnt remember much from it lol

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by winson2001
ohhh~ so at a buck per tic i'd be paying $5-7 for half size beer.... I think I'll try to talk my friend out of it haha, thx for the heads-up

Yeah, I was blown away to hear my co worker spent most of his Saturday in the cold, waiting to get in, only he never did.

Im actually quite happy I didn't go.

[lasimmon]

Went. Spent about $70 all in. Got a girls phone number. Tried about 20 beers.

Not sure how it's different than a bar.