Taste of Brews

Oh Taste of Brews, after this event I've pretty much been a legacy beer drinker at all of your events. Yes, I've been to the first one at Lantern Bay Park, the second one in Long Beach, another Dana point one the year after with the BBQ trucks and now this one in the middle of BFE. Yes, this should not have been called Taste of B R E W S, more like Taste of B F E. If you had to drive out eastbound on the 60, and exit Archibald, you would've encounter what I had to go through. Some detours that made you loop an additional 3 miles. I would've loved if there was some kind of update on the website stating traffic conditions. This, and the fact that the location was close to SC village, my GPS kept looping me back and forth. So I was already 30 minutes behind. Once I found this place at Riverview Park, it was $5 to enter. Oddly enough, you can probably park across the street and walk over if you didn't mind walking in the heat for about 1/2 mile. I paid the $5 and we were given a paper stating:"Please be careful. We have had a bumper crop of invasive weeds and squirrels due to the drought. The ground is uneven and there are a lot of holes. Park only on cut areas"WTF? You know you're in cowtown when you have weeds and squirrel problems. And after I parked, I still had to walk through 800 yards of dry nothingness. It looked like a night time, it could pass for one of those ghost haunt houses. So that was all what's wrong with this, here are the great parts. I was lucky enough to be given tickets from YelpOC to this event. I was given a cup and the usual plastic 5 oz cup for the taste of brews with 10 tasting wristband. I met a couple who also won but the tickets were given to her friend Ivy. The event seemed small enough that there was practically NO WAIT. I saw two food trucks and there were ample shade from the buildings. I saw a lot of Inland Empire breweries and I was excited as I never usually get to taste most of them since they were so far away from each other. Some of the brewers were cool enough that once they got my ticket and I came back, they poured me additional without taking an additional ticket. There was Bootleggers-pumpkin ale and Hefe on tap. Always solid brew, wished they had Knuckle.JT Schmid-Strange they are here, I always see them at the Anaheim events since they have good food.BlackMarket brewing-This is my favorite brewery currently in the IE. Love Love their Rye IPA, 4th anniversary, 1945. But they poured 4 taps including Aftermath, Superstition (I think), Invasion (TIED for best beer of the day) 4 Sons Brewing-Had a Not so Dum Rasperberry Blond (which was ok, too sour for me and doesn't quite taste like a sour) but the one that blew away was their double IPA (TIED with Blackmarket on best beer of the day) Full body and malty in your face goodness. Firestone Walker-Served Pale 31 and Union Jack. I love your beers FW but honestly I would've preferred something like Velvet Merkin, Lil Opal, Bretta Weise, Sucaba and pretty much anything else beside what your brought.I also had Sons of Liberty and Wiens Brewing which also had some decent beers. There was Sam Adams (didn't try) as well as Shocktop (didn't even bother)I didn't find anyone with anything really different. Right by the entrance there was a truck that had a stout. I believe it was a blueberry stout. It didn't taste like blueberry, nor a stout for me. Either that or I was just given a bad batch. There was also a ginger beer by the entrance poured by the bottles. That was quite refreshing, maybe a nice beer as a finisher. There was small bottles of water, music , and that horde of ladies with a bachlorette who had a wristband full of tickets. I bought her a drink because frankly, I had to leave early for a wedding. I hung out with a couple of new friends Luis and Frank throughout my time here and I would say this felt more like a small, intimate event. It reminded me of my time back in UCR when I was going there for undergrad. One of the reason I chose Riverside was how intimate the institution was. I really enjoy the fact you can just talk to people and enjoy the beer. Maybe not by manure (I kid you not, there was a pile of free manure that is about 3 miles away) land since the other Taste of Brews are all by the beach. I can easily come up with 3 or 4 possible alternatives to this location that would've been so much better. I hope Mike , the event organizer, will consider another location that is easier on navigation and view. However, I did enjoy this event because I would never be able to drive all the way to Temecula or Redland for a beer. Thanks for organizing and thanks to YelpOC for the tix!

Thought it would be bigger but it was big enough. That's what SHE said! Plenty of beer, lots of breweries I didn't know existed that were so close by that have excellent beer. Had a band that was kinda blocked by a tent but you could hear them just fine. There were only 4 food trucks but we still got our fill and you know it was good food! This location had you walking around in the dirt and baking in the sun but there's shade from trees and the beer kept you cool. Reminded me of camping. It was awesome. Staff drove around with free water bottles and kept things tidy. Had a great time 10/10 would do again.

Taste of brews '15It was good but not great. Last year was better. I did not like that the brewery booths were setup in the dirt pit area where there was absolutely no shade what so ever. Plus having the volunteers driving around in the motorized carts delivering ice and water to the booths made the dust kick up worse. Had the booths been in the same area as the year before it would have not been so bad. It also seemed like there were less breweries this year. The big breweries like Sam Adams, Firestone, and curious traveler were there but not as many smaller breweries as the year before.It would also have been nice if there would have been rinsing stations or the booths would rinse out the glass prior to pouring. Kind of a standard thing at most festivals, or so I thought.Next year hopefully they make a segregated smoking area so I don't have to deal with all the nasty smokers in the only shade areas available. That was what kept us moving.I must say next year I will think twice before buying tickets again.