FirkFest – A Festival of Firkins

First of all, firkins sound so much like merkins, tee hee. That said, it was a damn fine beer festival and I had a fantastic time with Sukhraj B. Held in the park by the Anaheim Packing House, it was manageable (read: not too crazy crowded and huge) and quite chill. We did have to wait in line to get in but not too long, and the festival on the whole seemed very well organized. At about $ 50 it’s a little pricey, but it’s all-​you-​can-​drink and in the end I felt like we really got our money’s worth. Not only was there plenty of good beers on hand (our favorite hands down was the Mootella by Anaheim’s Bottle Logic – so good!) they were also holding a chili cookoff with some of the most popular local restaurants throwing their chili hats into the ring. I think we sampled nearly all of the chili available and we got quite full. Slater’s ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ won (deservedly so) for their awesome spicy turkey chili topped with Fritos, yum! We had a great time meandering about sampling beers and chili, and afterwards we just walked over to the Packing House to grab a fancy popsicle at the Pop Bar (as did about 90% of the festival attendees, it seemed). The only low point for me was when they stopped the music (the DJ was great) to launch into a panel discussion that was unfortunately very hard to hear. It was like 30 minutes of Charlie Brown adult talk, unless you were like right next to the tent. I’m sure there was an interesting conversation happening, but very few of us could hear it. Oh well, at least the beer continued to flow! Had a very good time, would definitely check it out again if it’s the same kind of set up (minus the panel discussion, perhaps).
STEPH JUDGEMENT: A little pricey, but worth it.

Pretty damn great beer fest, if you ask me. Where else in the world are you going to get experimental beers like Grapfruit Sculpin with Japalenos? An IPA named after the event organizer? Or even debut beers like El Segundo Brewing’s Hammerhead DIPA that’s you can find on the same day but in an all inclusive ticket at this event?
There are no Groupon, Livingsocial, or whatever crappy website cheaper ticket sale for this, you can forget about that! But for $ 50, not only do you get to taste all the beers, you got to taste the 10 different types of Chili that they had going on here as well from local chefs. That was a plus!
It’s amazing how many people donated their time for this event. The Chefs donated the chilis, the breweries donated the beer, bloggers and writers and volunteers donated their time to pour. I believe even Unilocal helped spread the name of the event. Definitely worth it to check it out if you didn’t make it this year.
Afterwards, you can always go inside the Anaheim packing house to chill and have a few more bites to eat, being the location at a such a great spot.

Wow. I’m really surprised there aren’t many reviews for FirkFest. There must not have been many present the first time around or something but oh well.
I missed the first annual but was delighted to be able to attend the 2^nd round and I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.
Ticket prices were hefty about $ 50 but that’s not bad considering you can drink and eat to your heart’s content. This year, we got to sample chili from an impressive array of restaurants. There were supposed to be tickets for that but I guess they vetoed that idea last minute and I’m glad they did. I don’t want to keep track of tickets, my beer glass, etc. I’m too drunk for that nonsense.
Checking in was smooth. Line was long but don’t be discouraged. It moves very quickly. They were quick to scan ID, get us in the door, hand us our swag and off we go!
Upon entrance, you get a cool firkfest glass — a nice little collectible and it’s your beer glass for the day with plenty of water spots to empty out the glass, drink water as well, and get back on your way. I liked that. There were ample water stations. They ran out toward the end but eh, it was the end. C’mon.
Beer flowed strong all day long. It is a bit crowded near the beer stations but eh. I don’t think they can do much about that. My +1 and I thought of how they could manage that — maybe mix up the beer with the chili — chili, beer station, chili. I don’t know. Something to think about so you’re not just at a stop gap when you head back across the park for more beer.
Location was great. Weather was good. A little hot but there was some shade and we found ample spots to plop our butts down, enjoy our beer, the music, the crowd, sing along, and get going again. It was never really any issue. You can also bring in lawn chair and blankets.
This is a smaller beer fest so it wasn’t really crowded which was nice. I had a lot of fun.

Firkfest was definitely one of the smaller Beer Festivals I’ve been to but it was still a great event and a good turnout, probably no more than 250 people. What was awesome though was that the people there weren’t there to get shitfaced (well maybe… hahaha), but a lot of people were in the beer industry or beer connoisseurs. I learned so much more about beer than what I thought I knew already.
It was fun just to chat along with a lot of them and actually get invited to their breweries for some more tastings!
The venue wasn’t too big but it was enough to find your own patch of grass and just lay about after having one too many. There were practically no lines, maybe about 4 – 5 people deep at each beer tap, except for the Leche Mole which looked like a 30 – 40 minute wait when they released it. Don’t know why people all flocked to the line when you couldve just waited until the line died. No wait at all…
The food vendors were all unique and really into that new fusion type of food with tons of flavor. Indian food, herb sausage, chicken n waffles, tater tots, braised short rib poutine. Huge variety. Favorite had to be the poutine, though it might’ve been because I was a bit turnt… lol. Would definitely come back since the environment was so chill compared to the Drink Eat Play Events.

Woo Hoo! A beer fest just down the street from me!
Over 25 breweries from Orange County, San Diego, LA and Nor Cal repped! Full drunken report later!
Too drunk to report… maybe tomorrow… It’s tomorrow …
Ok so I went a calculated 20 min late to avoid the insanely long line I saw when I passed by 15 min earlier. Got there ta-​da no line. Me a smart one! Get my wristband, beer glass and I was off to the races. This was a very unique beer tasting as all of the different breweries brought many «one off» casks of brew. What is a cask you ask? A cask is simply a vessel filled with liquid meant to be served within a day or so. There were probably 60+ different beers to choose from so I did not get to try them all. Most but not all.
It was crowded but in a good way. Lots of people there to enjoy the same thing. Fine handcrafted beers. The lines were seldom more than 1 – 5 deep with two exceptions; The bathrooms the later it got the longer the line got. I watched many people doing the Pee-​Pee dance. The other line was the Leche Mole (see below).
There were a few food vendors as well I tried the Beef Shortrib Poutine from the Kroft,
The shortrib, mushroom, cheese curds and fries were off the hook good!
There was a DJ pumping out some (mostly) good music. People dancing, people playing corn hole and jumbo Jenga.
but mostly people drinkin beers!
Are a few of the many beers I tried at least the ones I photographed to remember.
Fig. Mntn’s … Lizards Mouth
a surprisingly good fruity IPA 3.75***Stars
Bravery’s … Mocarova
a yummy vanilla coffee milk stout NOT VEGAN LOL 4.25****Stars
Karl Strauss’s … Big Barrel DIPA w/​green chili. Me being a green chili head this was one of my favorites with a nice G.C. finish. 4.5****Stars
Golden Road’s … Wolf in Heat
Another tasty IPA chili beer but this one had a habanero kicker 3.75***Stars
LA Alework’s …Karma Kolsch

An odd mix with kumquats, chrysanthemum buds, & Masala Chai tea. I know it sounds hippie weird but it tasted good! 4****Stars
Bootleggers … Love the legendary Knuckle Sandwich 4.5****Stars and the heaviest at the gig Galaxian Barleywine. ABV at 11.8
a surprisingly mellow tasting heavyweight with a knockout punch 4****Stars
Monkish … Shaolin Kick, yet another odd mix of peppercorns, thai basil and Sriracha this Belgian Dubbel was a interesting treat.
3.75***Stars
Hangar 24 … Local Fields Palmero, I hate dates but liked this Belgian Dubbel
3.75***Stars
Ballast Point … Sculpin IPA You can never go wrong with one of these IPA’s in your hand!
Noble … Simcoe Showers and 101 English Pub Ale were both solid beers from the local Anaheim Brewery
Bottle Logic … The Anaheim new kid on the block. Started with a nice Anaheim chili ale 4****Stars
rolled out a barrel of its Leche Mole Stout and a line soon formed that rivaled the bathroom line. This was the fest favorite for many 4.5****Stars
There were so many more! Good thing I was walking home because after almost 4 hours of sampling it added up to something like 173 brews I consumed! Burp!
All the staff were super cool.
I’ll be back!