Craft & Import Beer Festival

A brew-filled blast! We arrived at the iwantabuzz.com's 3rd Annual Craft & Import Beer Fest at 6:00pm with VIP tickets in hand. Upon our entrance we were happily handed complimentary 5oz. suds sippers, and me and my beau then took a beer-filled bounce around to every area (some twice!). With virtually no waiting I was able to actually discuss each food and frothy sample with the vendors. Granted by 8:00pm that would have been an impossibility because at that point it did start to get crowded -- as expected! But I love that compact, high-Octoberfest energy!!Hopefully next years people projection for the event will be more accurate so vendor's can be more prepared to accommodate more beer-curious folks!!Early attendance was definitely the key for this years event!

I am a self described craft beer lover and this was my second Jax Craft and Import beer festival.I did see when trying to secure a last minute ticket for a friend, they sold out again this year... and the ticket sales were set at 4,500. We almost had a panic attack when we pulled up... the line to get in stretched around the block!!!! (We decided to cab it to and fro this year... which was super smart considering parking can cost $$$ and take forever and of course didn't want to risk driving after a few too many.) But the line moved very quickly and soon we were in! We grabbed our little "shot" tasting glasses and went straight to the third floor to meet up with some friends. I am so glad they opened another floor this year. The top floor was less crowded and yes... even though you wait a bit in each line, it wasn't bad at all. By the time we made it to the floor level, the crowd had thinned out quite a bit... and (lol, we may have started a Journey sing-along.... everyone was in good spirits by that point.) A few standouts: Not usually the biggest Leinenkugel fan, but had a sip of a friends Summer Shandy... not usually a fruity beer kind of gal, but this was stellar. Lemony, but not too sweet. I'll pick some up next time I see it, a great, refreshing summer beer. I am, however, a HUGE Bell's Brewery fan and really enjoyed their golden rye Smitten. Had a few in-between awesome snacks (Da Big Kahuna's chicken made me and my boyfriend seriously do a double take and the beer cheese soup from new spot Zeta really hit the spot) We did run into a few buddies that were drunkenly blathering about how awesome the VIP tickets were... LOL and it made me jealous with their schwag bag of goodies. Next year, I want to go to there. :)

First time at this festival and I have to say it's one of the better ones I've had the pleasure of attending. I did spend a bit of time working at one of the tables, but I did have a chance to make a couple rounds of the joint and check out all the goings-on. I've slung some martinis at Martnifest. I've chugged some beers at Jaxtoberfest. And I've driven out of my way (Orlando) for Baconfest. This beer festival just had a nice flow to it. It wasn't uber-crowded and the lines - when you did have to wait - moved quickly. It was nice to see local representation from Intuitioin and Aardwolf as well as some of the bigger bears like Bell's and New Belgium. As with any festival that involves imbibing, the crowd got more...uh...entertaining(?) as the night went on. I would definitely consider hitting up this festival next year for another round of adult beverages.

I really liked having the opportunity to try all the different craft beers. Would be nice to have a program or booklet to mark the one's you tried and mark them "like" "not liked" or rate them. There are so many it's hard to keep up with. It's well worth paying for an upgraded ticket to get in early because it gets very busy and lines get long. They had food tastings from various restaurants around town and a good way to try them out and get coupons. Having only one small sample glass, you stand in line and they have 4 or five to try so presents a problem or you stand off to the side and feel you are holding up the line. Really enjoyed it and discovered some good ones and a couple great ones. If you like craft beer definitely need to go. With new innovations it can easily be an every year visit.

This was my first beer festival. We didn't have tickets, so we rolled up to buy some at the door, only to find they were sold out. So we hit up the guys on the street until we got the deal we wanted. We were handed some print outs, and when we got to the door, they hardly looked at them and then allowed us to enter. We kind of chuckled and thought to ourselves that we could've easily doctored something up in Word and got in for free LOLAnywho, we get in and the place is packed! The lines for each beer station are LONG. Immediately, I was thinking that this was going to be a damn nightmare, but after the first line, we realized they moved rather swiftly. After all, it's not like they were cooking up meals. Hand them a glass, they do a quick pour and keep it moving. The trick was to drink the beer you just got while waiting in the next line. We got to try a lot of new beers, so it was definitely a worthwhile event. At the end of the day, my fav was either the Chang f rom Thailand or the UFO wheat beer. But seriously, unless you had a notepad, it would be difficult to keep track of all the beers. We probably sampled 50 each. Can't wait for the next one!

First time at this festival and it was okay. The food closed down by 7pm while most of the beer was still serving until 9:00pm. It would be helpful to only advertise food if they ensure it will be sustained until the end of the festival. Some food vendors were done before we got there at 6pm. Most beer vendors barely filled the 5 ounce cup. What is the point of a tasting cup if you are only going to fill one ounce pinglehead, aardvark, sierra Nevada, and yeungling? That being said some of the standout vendors were; veteran's united, Bell's, New Belgium, Intuition, and Palm. They were friendly, knowledgable, and had people pouring perfectly.The lines were pretty long at times, my husband timed it one time and it took us six minutes to get a pour from Sierra Nevada which was about average for the night. Overall, an interesting event but not sure if it is worth attending next year.

Had a great time at this sudsy event with friends in tow! There was more than enough beer to go around, so the value was there even thoe we got hustled for questionable Groupon tickets right outside the door. Not to worry, no tickets were scanned, so rest assured that even a hand painted rendition of a ticket could probably have gotten you in this thing. For an event this crowded, it was handled very well, and thank goodness it was held at such a spacious venue with clean restrooms for all, and the big name brews that beer brats demand. There were even some small tastings of food here and there, and non-alchie options when we needed to take breaks. Judging by last years' reviews this event has come a very long way. Can't wait to go again next year; legitimate tickets purchased far in advance of course.

The First Annual Craft & Import Beer festival held at the Touchdown Club at Municipal Stadium was kind of a bust. I don't think they were prepared for the amount of people who showed up. Admission was $25.00 for all the samples you could drink and food samples you could find. The key word here is "find". Food was scarce and if you found a vendor, they were already aware that they were going to run out so the portions were tiny. Beer pours were just as skimpy and seeing as they ran out of commemorative glasses by 7:30 (doors opened at 7) it was just not as tasty in a Dixie cup. We did manage to get a buzz, but it was work. One new find was a brewery called Warsteiner Premium German Beer. It was new to me and quite good. Still family owned for over like 250 years. So, I suppose the event was not a total bust, but after we left, we ordered a couple of pizzas to take the egde off. As my husband said, a cocaine-spoon full of Tabbouleh and two wings did not cut it. All in all, they need to plan better (try kegs?) and maybe have food vendors that will actually let you purchase something to eat if they expect to have a Second Annual...........

Attended the 3rd (& for me last) Annual Craft & Import Beer Fest in Jacksonvillle tonight. Waited in lines about 30 minutes just to get in the door. Way overcrowded, could barely move then you had to wait in long lines to get a sample. Worst yet by 8:30 pm a lot of booths had run out of beer and or food (Event started at 7). By 9 pm may be only 10 places were still open. Event was to end at 10 pm. $30 a ticket for at best 1 1/2 hours of long line beer/food tasting. Not good.Now for the good news...All the craft beer booths that I got to visit had good beer and the food booths had good tasty food. I found a few restaurants and beers that I will seek out and try.I think the organizers need to cap the number of people at the event so to have a quality event over a jam packed event. I think that at best I was able to visit 15-20% of the booths before everything shut down.

What a waste. They sold too many tickets. Even though they knew how many Groupon tickets they sold, they had 2 windows for it. It took 45 minutes to get the tickets, another 20 minutes to get into the door. It was way too crowded to get a beer or any food. We tried 3 sipper beers (which took forever) and gave up..