This festival was great! It was quite large, but not as crazy as the International Beer Festival (happens here at Fort Mason annually in April), so fewer sloppy people. I LOVE seasonal beers - winter has the best ones. Mmm, beers brewed with spice and everything nice! My favorite new find this year was the gingerbread beer. DELICIOUS! The pourer at the Sierra Nevada booth was flippin' hot, so it made the event more awesome ;) Can't wait til next year! :D read more

I felt a cold coming on last night so I decided not to risk getting really sick due to partying in the cold rain outside. I took the safe route and popped open an ice cold double chocolate stout, poured out a bowl of chips, loaded up on refrigerated party wings and a roast beef sandwich and watched firework bursts and rain drops from my living room window. That beer was good. No, let me correct myself. The Irondale Double Chocolate Stout (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/QWaHYwBl69zE7yJKiEAecQ?select=1eZvvidKG-E1pMvPq0P8gw) was awesome because free brews are rare to come by, and thanks to Jeff Moses I scored some at his 2nd annual BevMo! Holiday Beer Fest back in November 2010. Jeff is an awesome show producer. Not only did he put on one of the best beer festivals I've ever attended, but he kept it fun for those of us who volunteered to help pour beer by teaching us specific history of the products which we dispensed. It wasn't all work and no play though. All of the volunteers were given the opportunity to take a break and step away to sample other brews before getting switched around to do other things and dispense other products. When all was said and done he generously offered some of us free samples of our favorite brews to take home. The event is held just before the Thanksgiving holiday at the Herbst Pavilion in Fort Mason. A portion of the proceeds was donated to volunteer organizers One Brick for bringing together and managing the core of the volunteer group. Additional proceeds went to several other beneficiaries including the Monterey Culinary Arts Foundation. As most beer-pouring events offered by One Brick goes this one filled up very quickly. The timing on this event was perfect since I had been volunteering next door at the San Francisco Vintners Market during the morning and early afternoon hours. I know helping out at consecutive wine and beer festivals on a stormy Saturday is grueling work, but somebody's got to do it since alcohol doesn't pour itself. In all the Holiday Beer Fest showcased over 150 types of holiday, seasonal and special beers from over 100 breweries. All attendees received a 7 ounce plastic cup to sample with as outside cuppery was disallowed. Tickets were in the $35 to $40 range, and the event did not sell out as ticket sales were cut off exactly one hour prior to the show's closing. As a volunteer we were asked to show up a little earlier to sign in and have our ID's properly verified, get volunteer t-shirts (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/QWaHYwBl69zE7yJKiEAecQ?select=MP2A9tq7i4GDklnJm8hfIg) and get properly trained for our duties. Dinner was provided in the form of hot pizza with beer, soda and bottled water to wash it all down with. Along with fellow volunteer Winifred O we were put at a specific station where our beer was already enjoying a nice ice bath (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/QWaHYwBl69zE7yJKiEAecQ?select=wRdzbmyfIVEraFkvouLo_g). We started with Stoney's Beer (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/QWaHYwBl69zE7yJKiEAecQ?select=hWymas4dHyQFGWmdtPaGJw) to begin our shift, and since neither she nor I knew anything about this classic Pennsylvania lager Jeff came by and fed us tidbits of knowledge on the history of this beer which dates back to 1881. By the time we moved on to our next task we knew more about the beer and the town that it's brewed in than its website explained. Every beer I ended up pouring that night came with capsules of information courtesy of Jeff himself. Judging by the feedback of some of the attendees and volunteers alike I was not alone in expressing love for this festival. If you love sampling special limited edition beers be sure to check this show out next winter. For the record Jeff also produces the annual Monterey Beer Festival which presents its 10th edition in June 2011. read more

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A bit overdue but then again, most of my reviews are. Rainy days bring back excellent memories of rainy nights, and yes it was pouring cats and dogs on the night of this beer event. This was an excellent beer festival I attended back in November. All of the beers poured at the show that night are available for purchase at BevMo! Everyone attending got a little plastic cup to sample with, and I made good use of mine. Got to talk to the event organizer, Jeff, who is also a distributor of a lot of the beers showcased at the show. He had so much useful information about the products I sampled. I discovered so many great beers that night. For folks not willing to go outside in the rain for Roli-Roti's porchetta sandwich there was a table full of pretzels too because some snack with beer is better than no snack, and when the happy holiday crowd snatched it all up my friend who was volunteering there went into the storage room and replenished my pretzel fill. Connections! It's always best to have them! My only minor complaint was the long bathroom line because the beer had to come out eventually. My connection came through again when he saw me standing there walking me up to the secret "staff only" restrooms and standing guard while I did my thing. Like I said, it's always best to have connections! If you like sampling great new beers in a festive holiday setting don't miss this great beer event the next time it comes around. Happy Holidays and drink responsibly! read more

Awesome beer festival. I quickly learned DON'T DRINK YOUR WHOLE CUP! you'll get messed up pretty quick this way. Also i learned not to get anything you've drank before as there are so many good beers to try don't waste your belly room on those you've already tried. I must say it was very hard to resist not getting a cup full of Stone's double bastard for the sake of trying new beers! Anyway this event was well worth the $40 entry price, i ended up staying about 3 hours before i just couldn't handle anymore. Some of my new favorite beers, Karl Strauss's award winning red ale and their tower ten IPA. Also 21st amendment had some good brews i tried for the first time & their santa was pretty hilarious. I left with a fair amount of shwagg, some bottle cap magnets, beer opener key chains, pens and posters. :D read more

One of THE most fun I've had in a long time and everyone was so nice. I expected people to get belligerent by the end of the night and people getting rude, but that was not the case at all! Everyone was there for the same reasons: to drink beer and have a great time. I was really excited about the ciders that would be there, but disappointed that my favorite cider, Hornsby, was still my favorite by the end of the night. There was NO competition there. Hopefully BevMo will look into getting some "Original Sin" cider that I had in Socal. Now THAT, was a front runner against Hornsby. The guy at Karl Strauss was really nice and gave us tips on attending beer tastings such as these: Do not drink all of the tastings. Taste, then dump what you don't like so you can try out all the beers you went there for. Smart guy! We also got some grilling advice from the Alaskan Smoked Porter guy! Thanks man! read more

What's the best way to ring in the Holiday Season? Drinking holiday brews from some of the best breweries in the world. This event definitely expanded my beer knowledge. I've been lovin' me some craft and microbreweries as of late, and this event had it all: killer location (Fort Mason has the best view of the bay, hands down), great price, and most importantly, incredible beer. My favorites of the night: Bison Brew's Gingerbread Ale Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde Ace's Joker Cider & Anchor Steam's Christmas Ale I know what I want in my stocking... read more

FANTASTIC! Highly recommend. Awesome event and great venue. Thanks for those pretzels to help absorb some of the beer. Everyone had a fantastic time and can't wait for next year! Wish there were more bathrooms cuz that line was ridiculous. read more

Yall, beer fest is the real deal! $40 for all you can taste for 3 hours...seriously, what's not to love? (aside from the debilitating next-day hangover, that is...that was not cool.) This event is very similar to the Vintner's Market (aka Wine Fest) offered in Spring / Fall of each year, except obviously it's beer instead and also refreshingly unlike the wine vendors who are kind of peddling for you to buy a bottle right there, the beer people leave you alone to enjoy their stuff. There is a good mix of well-known and lesser-known breweries from all over -- local, from other states, and even international. Most stands (there were probably around 80 stands) have at least 2 varieties for you to try, and the pours are pretty generous. A live band was performing as well and there are a few food stands. Since the event is usually like late November / early December time frame there are a lot of good seasonal beer choices available. It's rained both years I've went, which perhaps helped keep the crowd under control. It's certainly well attended, but I never found that it got too crazy in terms of lines or waits in order to get the beer. Most all of the vendors are very friendly and a lot have schwag to give away as well. I don't think it sells out either (nor do the prices increase unlike wine fest); a few friends bought tickets day of or day before and got in just fine. Definitely check out this event if you are in town! read more

Awesome event organized by a true visionary - thanks for your hard work Jeff. We are happy to be associated with this event as a participating mobile app "We Love Beer" Participating breweries in the BevMo Holiday Beerfest are uploaded into the We Love Beer app. Find us on the App Store for your iPhone. Take a tour of some of the beers being poured. read more

I was here on Sat and had a great time. Got in early with a VIP entrance. The beginning was a little boring. Lots of beer snobs walking around and taking teeny tiny sips of beer pretending like it was wine or something. Some smarty pants asking about the brewing process..gimme a break! As the night went on and the normal people started showing up it got more fun and by the end of the night there were lots of drunken zombies walking around. There were no fights and it didn't turn into a huge vomitorium like some of the other beer fests I go to ( but I like those hahaha ) Dont worry about the small cups. You WILL get bombed! read more

My husband and I attended the BevMo! Holiday Beer Fest on Saturday, 11/8/14 at Fort Mason. We decided to pay the $15 extra per ticket for VIP as we would have an extra hour and (according to their website) "access to the separate VIP area for the entire event". However, when we arrived at the start time of 5pm, we stood in the line marked "VIP Entrance" for 15 minutes. Someone working the event finally told everyone that we had to get a wristband first, which meant standing in a different line for another 15+ minutes. Then we ended up going back to the original line just to get into the event. This means, our extra hour we paid for turned into only 30 minutes. When we entered, we asked around for this "separate VIP area" and they pointed to a table next to the entrance. Nothing roped off or informing anyone of this. After 6pm when the general admission was let in, anyone had access to this table we paid extra money for and we saw many people with red wristbands (not VIP) getting served. The event has a huge variety of beer to choose from and will make any beer lover happy. Just don't purchase the VIP tickets and fall for their false advertisement. We feel ripped off and let down. Plus, the lines for both the men and women's bathrooms were horrendous toward the middle of the event and there was a lack of seating available for anyone who can't stand for 5 hours straight. read more

I Myself was there and remember the rain all too well. It was raining frozen Cats & Dogs and my shoes were frozen, soaked sponges. The People were very nice. The Staff was very well informed and generous and the music would've made me dance if i could. The only thing was the long bathroom line. Which i solved by walking out back and aiming my prick to Alcatraz. All in All a great night had by all. I just wish Roberto was still here to see it. He loved drinking beer. When's the next one? i just have to get there already, baby! Signa@ read more