Anyone going this year? Tix going on sale today. Line up looks a little less exciting than last year. There is apparently a VIP section though can’t tell how much extra it costs yet
Planning to go Saturday. Looks like VIP sold out yesterday to presale I assume, was $65 extra for an additional 45 minutes and some perks.
I’m planning on Saturday as well. I am not going for any VIP or anything. I’m stretched for money as is with the current ticket price being what it is, couldn’t justify anything more than the base ticket price.
I’m going to see if I can still get tickets with the pre-sale since I’m part of the American Homebrewers Association.
Wife might not make it this year as she’s already on the hook for babysitting our niece that weekend so I might be flying solo.
General Admission is open. I bought one ticket.
If it’s like last year, there should be no rush to buy.
Saturday 6/2. 7:30
I hope SAVOR week looks good…
My wife and I are going for the first time (with her parents haha)… any advice on how to make the most of this fest?
Which night are you going? Donnie and I are attending Saturday.
Protips:
- Drink a lot of water if you want to try a bunch of beers, it sneaks up on you.
- Try the food parings. They’re often just as good, if not better, than the beer. The food also goes a bit early (usually by 10 or so), so don’t come too hungry or you’re going to have a bad time.
- Arrive about 45 minutes early to get in line. You can enter on either the north or south sides of the building, unless they’ve changed this year.
- It’s going to be game 3 of the Stanley Cup Championship, playing just a few blocks away. This area of town is going to be a nightmare…
Additional beer tips:
- Map out what you think will be the longest line and get there first. It’s easy to get caught up and forget to go to any breweries you’re really interested in.
- Usually it’s the “well known” breweries that have the longest lines, even if they have nothing interesting (Sam Adams is a good example, but a few years back I saw James Koch opening bottles with his teeth, so there’s that). I wouldn’t bother standing in any line longer than 4-5 people. (I waited in a long line for an Avery beer one year that was really good, but certainly not worth the time wasted)
- “Unknown” breweries might not have any line at all all night.
- If you care about rating the beers, try jotting quick notes somewhere and move on. I like to socialize, so I’ve used some small custom tasting sheets for the event in years past. It allowed me to circle all the attributes of the beer that applied, and only had to write down the name of the beer and then add them online the following day(s). I probably still looked like an idiot. You might be able to pull off rating on RB or Untappd if you don’t mind doing that.
- In previous years, there is a hard cut off to when they’ve stopped serving, though they can sometimes sneak a few extra pours in, though that is very rare, and I think only happened in previous years.
Dress:
- My brother-in-law who usually over-dresses went last year and didn’t realize it was a dressier event and came in a t-shirt and flat-brimmed hat. It can come across as a bit pretentious, but the bros seem to be kept to a minimum for the most part, so that’s probably my favorite part about it.
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Thanks. Yeah, the caps game is going to make getting there a bit of a shitshow… are the lines really so long that you have to be 45 minutes early?
How about rinse stations… do they have those? Plus is that water potable or is there other water for that available?
Oh and I will be there Saturday. I’ll be the guy in a sling.
Getting there early is more about getting in quickly. It doesn’t really matter all that much. Getting in just takes a little while so I usually like to get there earlier to get in as fast as possible.
There are stations at nearly every set of 4 tables that have water and small buckets to rinse your glass.
Clearly we need to coordinate better, because there was a strong RateBeer presence there last night.
@GenDV138, @mansquito, @maniac, @books_n_brews, @mcart034 …
If @solidfunk wasn’t wherever he is…
I’ll draft an updated version of the Guide to Surviving SAVOR (and SAVOR Week) for next year…
At the next tasting I’ll try to bring last Year’s SAVOR X beer, which most of the group hasn’t had. I’m sure one of us will bring this year’s as well.
Yo fooooollzz im back from eastern Europe. Whatd i miss at Savor and related events? Were events better than the relatively poor showing last year?
I suppose at a quick glance, it’s not nearly as impressive as it had been in years past. I suppose that kind of happens after 10+ years of doing an event like this. I could only get downtown one night, and I had a good time.
SAVOR itself was actually pretty nice. Didn’t drink nearly as much as I had in the past (only about 30 new “ticks”), but I felt great later that night and next day, so it was probably worth taking it easy. Food was probably the best it has ever been, and they had plenty of it.
