Annapolis Craft Beer and Music Festival

Bottom Line: A good beer festival but I hope to see some improvement in 2016.
I’ve been to various beer festivals, mostly centered around craft beer meccas like San Diego and the Pacific Northwest, so I weary about a non-​craft brew town throwing a craft beer festival. Even though Annapolis is not a strong contender in the craft beer scene their festival did not disappoint but there is some room for improvement. Here are some observations from the 2015 festival that I hope will let other Unilocalers know what to expect in 2016 and steer the organizers towards an even better event in 2016.
— Parking and Logistics: Parking is only $ 5 and there was plenty of it. The gates opened at noon and the line started forming about fifteen or so minutes before hand. I actually had a «voucher» rather than a ticket but we relieved to know I did not first have to stand in a Will Call line to get my ticket and then stand in the entrance line to turn in my ticket. However, there is a second line for ID checks and to pick up your glass.
— Beer Festival Only: This event is billed as a beer and music festival and there is even some mention of art. Really, this is just a beer festival which is ok with me! The music was hard to hear unless you sat right in front of the stage and the art was few and far between.
— ½ Price Tickets a Must: Tickets for unlimited tastings were priced at $ 40 but I suspect most people used Groupon, Living Social or similar to pay about ½ price. Admission is worth $ 20 but not $ 40, in my opinion. $ 10 for DD ticket seems way to steep as this really is a beer festival and a DD would probably be bored here.
— Brewery Diversity: The diversity of breweries was great! Most of the breweries that advertised were there and I would say 75% of the advertised beers were available too. I thought that was a great turnout as breweries and beer lists often do change between publishing of the list and the actual event. I am understanding of that and was ok with the no-​shows, additions and overall beer selection. I really enjoyed trying beers some some local breweries like Long Trail (awesome pumpkin beer), Calvert Brewing (delicious crème ale) and Assawoman Bay Brewing (Angry Brown Clown is pure delight) with which I was not previously familiar. Most booths were supported with volunteers but a few breweries did have their own reps there.
— Generous Pours: For a tasting event, I found the 5 oz. pours to be very generous. It would be easy to get wasted here but I really wanted to taste beers so I usually asked for a ½ pour or a splash. I tasted 42 beers in about five hours and left mostly sober. It seems many other people were largely tasting too as no one seemed obnoxiously sloshed (just hungry and dehydrated).
— Draft Pours: Sometimes when you go to beer festivals they are pouring from bottles or cans. I am glad to say that most of the breweries had their product on draft.
–Optimize with a List: As a beer nerd I went with a list. Make all the jokes you want. If you are serious about trying certain beers, or just want to be the butt of your friends’ jokes, then check out the beer list in advance and make a list of what you want to try when you are there. I proudly carried my list around me and tried almost my entire list plus a few bonus beers. A couple people even asked me where I found my list. :-)
— Operation Dehydration: The event rules said no outside food and drinks. As a rule follower, I did not bring my water. I guess I am a sucker as many people brought water in, as they should be allowed, since bags were not checked. I think if you are hosting a beer festival it would be smart to allow people to bring water. I am sure the event was proud to be charging $ 3 for a bottle of water but let’s be smart about this and encourage hydration.
— Dismal Food Situation: As other Unilocalers have noted year after year, the food situation here is dismal. There is only one vendor with real food. This translates to very long waits for mediocre, over priced food. I am trying to figure out why the food situation is so bad. Maybe its because all of the good vendors are tied up at the concurrent Renaissance Festival? For those wanting chow at the festival, I recommend you order a pizza and have it delivered to the fence. Maybe for a generous tip the pizza guy will shove it through the chain length fence into your mouth since outside food is not allowed.
–Port-​a-​pots: There was plenty of port-​a-​pots and there were zero to little lines. Thank you! Unfortunately, there was only one or two port-​a-​sinks and of course they ran out of soap and water very early. More hand-​washing stations would be awesome.
Despite intermittent rain I had a good time. I absolutely believe in the City Dock Productions and the Annapolis Craft Beer and Music Festival and hope to see improvement in years to come.

It was SO ugly outside. And yet the crowd was out there with umbrellas in droves!
There were so many beer options. It actually took us a while to get to all of the tents, but each of them processed us pretty quickly. I skipped the old faithful beers I’d already had (Yuengling, Bud) for the newer options and was rarely disappointed. The vendors were knowledgeable and patient, and each one gave me a great pour (thought that would be automatic? Nope. But appreciated.)
A couple things to note:
Parking was cheap but a little complicated. Didn’t have any parking attendants, so, driving down to a dead end was kind of inevitable.
Not enough food! Do not go hungry (although all of that beer won’t help this). There were a few snacks, but the only real food I saw was BBQ, for which the line was a mile long. We ended up driving not to far away to Downtown Annapolis to grab a bite, but it would have been more convenient to just be at the festival.
Not enough bathrooms. I, myself, personally, refuse to do a port-​a-​potty situation. But for those that couldn’t hold it, more options would have potentially kept the line from winding across the park.
I plan to go back next year, hopefully with better weather.

Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain!!!
No fault of the festival, which still went on in full force, but the rain put a dampener on the mood.
Aside from that, there were at least 50+ beers to choice from. My wife and I love going to events like this because it gives us a chance to try new beers, try some old beers we haven’t had in a while, and see what other local vendors show face. The festival handled the line of at least 150+ people rather well. We stood in line from the time it opened for maybe 15 minutes and then we were in and ready to enjoy the goodness. Aside from just drinking beer, one of the vendors offered alcohol infused cigars. Cool concept, but I didn’t get a chance to try one. The lines to get beer weren’t long at all. They moved pretty quick giving everyone a chance to get the libations. I would definitely go back next year, or next time they have this. I only hope the rain stays away.
If you like craft beer, this place goes without saying. Just get your friends together and go!

Except for the fact that it rained like crazy. This was a nice event. Oh and they could have had more porta John’s. C’mon people you know what happens when we drink beer. Lol I enjoyed the beer glass that we got to keep and they had a very good selection of beer. Especially liked the pumpkin ale. Very tasty indeed. :-)

Went to the first festival a few years ago, and figured that they would have worked the wrinkles out. Particularly the porta potties. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calcluate how many porta potties are needed for a large crowd drinking beer. This year it rained but there was still a large turnout. the lines for the porta potties were so long we just decided to leave. Good thing we got our tickets for $ 17 via a Groupon Deal versus the $ 40 face value. Worth $ 17 even with the rain, but would feel ripped off if we had paid the full $ 40. Choices and access to food were short comings as well. This has the potential to be extremely fun if they can do the math on the porta potties and food. The music was also better at the first one with two stages going. May need to give it a few more years to let this mature a bit.

While I have been to plenty of wine festivals, the Annapolis Craft Beer was the first beer related one I’ve ever been to. Overall, it was a fun experience (despite the rain but that’s not something they can control!) but there were several issues with the event:
* Parking. Most large scale events like this have people in the parking area directing traffic. No such thing here which made it a bit of a scramble and it was made worse by there being a large section being blocked off for a wedding.
* Food. This was the biggest issue there. With no ability to walk to a place to eat due to the location, we were stuck with what the festival was offering. Which was two actual food vendors (selling BBQ and hot dogs, respectively) and two or three selling things like donuts or funnel cake. The lines were ridiculous because there was nowhere else to go, my vegan friend — who had read on the website that there’d be things to eat for vegans — gave up because they didn’t want to stand in a line for 40 minutes only to be offered BBQ, and for the crowd size, there should have been way more food.
* Bathrooms are always an issue at these events — they probably could have stood to have double what they had. The lines were so long I waited until I could find a Subway in town!
Would I go back? If they offer more food vendors, certainly. If not, I don’t know. It was a lot of fun but that was a huge issue.

We stood in the pouring rain waiting in line to get in for 40 minutes, then went to get in another line for food for 45 minutes. There was one thing for kids to do, the painting tent, even though kid’s tickets were $ 10 plus a service charge. Good thing non of us had to pee, since beer lines were 10 – 15 minutes long, because the portipotty lines were at least 30 minutes long. Overall, my family spent over a hundred dollars for tickets, five dollars for parking, 40 dollars for four sandwiches with fries. We got a total of 4 4oz. beers for tasting and gave up. A complete disappointment and a total waste of money. Wish I could give negative stars too!

I’m a big craft beer fan so finding this festival near by was fairly exciting. I didnt have a lot of expectations going into this so I definitely wasn’t disappointed but there are definitely some things they could improve on.
My $ 30 ticket got me unlimited beer samples, the opportunity to listen in on 3 different seminars, live music, and a commemorative engraved flight glass. As I was only able to drink the equivalent of 1.5 beers, I didn’t listen in on the seminars, parking wasn’t included (cost an extra $ 5 per car) and the fact that the glass wasn’t full size (not sure what I’m going to do with a small flight glass at home?) I think the ticket was a bit pricey. The lack of easily accessible food was also a huge negative, we didn’t even attempt to stand in the ridiculous line. We ended up leaving the festival all together and went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
Now with the negative out of the way, onto the positive. I thought the location was pretty good. It was a good size for the event, I didn’t feel like I was bumping into people constantly, which is huge for me as I hate crowds — yes I know, why would I got to a festival if I hate crowds? Well I dont want to miss out on the fun so I deal with it. Anyways, so even though I mentioned the $ 5 parking cost as a negative I have to say at least there *was* ample parking and $ 5 isn’t all that much. I also thought the choice of beers was satisfactory, I really enjoyed trying beers from all the different breweries I’d never heard of before. The Long Trail Imperial Pumpkin was my favorite!
All in all this festival has a lot of potential, and hey, it’s only 2 years old so I’m confident they will reach that potential eventually! I’d definitely like to check it out again next year.

This was a great festival. the price for what you get was well worth it. We had a pretty large group and everyone had a great time and enjoyed the vast selection craft beers. I discovered breweries that I had never heard of and aren’t yet offering their product in the area, so now I know to be on the lookout.
I think they should have a fest like this in the spring so that the spring and summer seasonal beers are represented. This was all about autumn, which was still very good.
Next year, they need more food vendors because the line to the solo food tent was insanely long. There were other shop vendors there, but I didn’t even bother with that stuff.

This was the second year for the festival, our first time attending. Based on previous reviews the past year’s festival had a noticeable shortage of porta potties and long lines for beer samples.
It appears for this years festival the organizers addressed and corrected those issues.
The glaring drawback to this years festival was the lack of food service available … And poor quality to what was available. The «Food Court» consisted only of Bo Brooks catering and a kettle corn truck that had a few other choices. What was worse was the festival opened at noon but yet Bo Brooks catering didn’t have any food available at that time. When you have people consuming alcohol at lunchtime you need to have available food service to reduce overindulgence. By the time the food came out the line just continued to grow throughout the afternoon. By about 2 o’clock the wait was well over an hour to get food. That’s just unacceptable! And as far as the choices and quality went it was average at best.
On to the BEER …
Numerous breweries were represented and most had anywhere from 2 to 4 choices on tap. Out of the 40 breweries that were supposed to be there a few canceled … This was not the organizers fault and they updated their website to reflect the cancellations … Breweries such as Magic Hat, Evo, Full Tilt and Pyramid did not show up for whatever reason. But there still was a great selection of numerous beers from those that did attend.
In regards to those that were serving the beer their knowledge of the product varied immensely. I know the festival uses volunteers to serve but you would think the brewery or distributor would educate the individual some in the product. For example I heard an individual ask one of the servers at the Terrapin brewery tent if the beer was available in Maryland and the person had no idea. But at the other end of the spectrum you had the owner and head brewer from Burley Oak brewery in Berlin Maryland there talking and discussing his beers with everyone!
I didn’t attend any of the three seminars offered so I can’t comment on those but they did have them on «Styles and food pairing,» «craft beer 101» and «craft beer and cheese.»
The craft exhibitors were your typical fair exhibitors you see anywhere.
The only other thing I saw questionable was the designated driver ticket was $ 20 to get in and the only nonalcoholic beverages I saw being sold were at the Food court and it was $ 3.50 for a soda/​water that you had to wait an hour to get.
I would definitely go again next year and hopefully the organizers as they did with the issues with the Porta potties and lines will address the food court issues and hopefully expand upon our choices and reduce the wait time next year. It was a great event overall.

Fun time, great beer, not much waiting, portopoties were easily available, crafts were good, the bad the uter lack of food is ridiculous! 20 minutes to get a microwave soggy pretzel! Horrible!
The event was great other than the fact that you could not eat!

— - — 3.5 STARS — — - This event was the first year for the Annapolis crew and there were some pro’s and some def con’s. Overall, for the REAL beer connoisseur, this event should really excite you.
The GOOD: This event was advertised with Living Social and the regular tickets (1pm-​5pm, 5 beer tickets) sold for $ 15 and the VIP tickets (12pm-​5pm, 10 beer tickets) sold for $ 20. ALL BEER REGARDLESS OF WHAT IT BREWERY was only a SINGLE BEER TICKET! This made the event one of the cheapest beer festivals this year. Most beer festivals offer beer drinkers tickets for sale but each beer can coast between 4 – 7 beer tickets (aka Snallygaster or Shirlington Beer Fest).
In addition, the brewery selection was strictly CRAFT BEERS (as noted by the name) so there were no «FUZZY YELLOW BEERS» onsite anywhere! The brewery list was a little small compared to the normal festival but again, this was the first attempt — It will hopefully continue to grow & expand next year and for years to come.
If you showed up actually on time (aka noon or 1), then the beer lines were not long at all. The beer lines did grow during the day and reached their peak around 3pm. All beer festival go-​ers know know not to show up late b/​c (a) the rare kegs could kick (b) the standard beer lines could grow.
The BAD: Needs better organization: As noted previously, this was the first annual Annapolis Craft Beer & Music Festival. With this, there was pretty poor organization for the entry into the event. There was very poor signage, the volunteers or staff could not answer questions nor could they direct human traffic. The VIP event (with VIP only beer) was supposed to start at noon and the normal event to begin at 1pm. There were not two different lines for VIP & standard tickets — The staff allowed all ticket holders in (VIP or not) starting at noon. But again, the beer lines were not long until around 3pm.
In addition, all Beer Festivals typically hand out small tasting glasses — This event did sell out prior to the day of the event and they completely ran out of glasses. This is UNSATISFACTORY! The Late Arrivals (aka those that showed up around 3pm) did not get a beer tasting glass but instead a tiny glass cup.
Lastly, there was only one stop for food — I would suggest multiple food stops (or food trucks maybe?)
BOTTOM LINE: The event organizers need to really re-​think about the logistics of this event. It could have been much better. Once in the door though, the fest ran smoothly.
The UGLY: Only 2 port-​a-​johns for the entire event! Again, this event SOLD OUT prior to the day of the Beer Fest and there was only 2 bathrooms on-​site. This was a HUGE CLUSTER!!! The organizers need to PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN for beer drinkers (aka what does fluid do after consumption?)
OVERALL: This Unilocaler enjoyed his day starting at noon with short lines and a good variety of CRAFT BEER only (no fuzzy yellow beer here)! The weather was great and the lines were standard. Plus, this was done at a venue that was spacious enough for people to actually walk around. The PROS: Map Of Breweries Provided, large space, pretty inexpensive, & reps from breweries on-​site (vs random volunteers to pour beer) The CONS: Poor organization, and not enough bathrooms. I am def looking forward next year’s festival but hopefully with better staff & organization.
HIGHLIGHT: Starr Hill Double Platinum Cask!
List of Breweries:
Old Dominion
Oskar Blues
Union
Crispin
Lagunitas
Eastern Shore
Heavy Seas
Boulevard
Port City
Yards
Flying Dog
Burley Oak
Widmer Brothers
Weyerbacher
Sierra Nevada
Goose Island
Starr Hill
And more…

Too bad you can’t give negative stars. I can’t express enough what a total rip-​off this thing was. We paid full price and it was $ 32 for 5 drink tickets. The entire festival was nothing but lines, and that’s no exaggeration. I spent my entire time there waiting in lines. I drank my 5 samples and left. I’m glad someone measured those puny glasses. What an absolute joke. I’m really pissed off about it. People need to form a class-​action suit against the organizers. It sucked, sucked, sucked sucked sucked sucked sucked…