What a great day with great beer, great friends, and great little girl giggling! I honestly has a blast! I tried so many beers I now call myself a professional beer taster. I tried a few stouts, a few ales, I even dabbled in some cider. That is what I enjoyed about it was, while hops beers are not my favorite, they had other options. Beer pourers were friendly and knowledgeable and open to answering any questions they could. Even my stumper questions I like to ask. They weren't stumped. The only thing I didn't like was people huddling too close to the beers. You never knew if they were in line or not. Then you would try to walk around to view the beers but you couldn't because everyone was huddled under the tents. I don't know how you solve it, maybe spacing the pourers a bit more but I am sure that was planned for a reason. The food area was easy to navigate and hang. I found myself grabbing a mini beer and going towards the food section to chat. They took away the designated driver option (they may have done this last year.) I just wish they would bring it back because no one will pay the fee to be the designated driver/non-drinkers but no drink. ($35.00 to not drink.) While I get it sounds hard to manage, there has to be a better way so that non-drinking friends can join. This was a good day. read more

Hoptober Freshtival - Breweries Near Me - Boise, Idaho

Really enjoyed my time here. I tried a lot of beers here, and the best tasting was Lush IPA from Fremont. They straight up KILLED it. I was very disappointed to see so little foot traffic near their booth, all I drink are IPAs, and their Lush IPA was amazing. Very distinct hoppy taste. I just have to give them a shout out, they were the best there and no one was stopping by their booth!!! Come on now!!!! Music was great. The band "Blank Check" was blues heaven. They played one of my favorites "ain't no sunshine" and it was fantastic. The dude on the saxophone absolutely murdered that, damn was he ripping on that thing. Overall grade for the event was A1, even when taking into consideration the absolute madness it was with all the people there. read more

Hoptober Freshtival - Lush IPA, Best tasting beer here! Should've been a crime with how little foot traffic their booth got, it was the best here! - Breweries Near Me - Boise, Idaho

What a great festival! We won tickets from a yelp giveaway (thank you yelp) and made the trip. It was on broad st in front of Boise brewing. They had a huge canopy set up with all the different breweries in there. They had a couple of different food trucks and a few different local merch vendors from downtown. they also had some live music which was really enjoyable as well. We had 5 sample tickets to use so we walked around the whole canopy and then decided where to start. The selection was awesome with breweries from all over the west, and I learned that I didn't know there were so many breweries in Idaho! We walked around and sampled for a couple of hours before taking a stroll downtown for some dinner. Not much I would change, but if I did I would make the space bigger. It got really crowded after a while and it was hard to move about. Aside from that we really enjoyed ourselves. read more

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What a great little beer festival!!! Food, beer and tons of people....OH MY!! We had a great time sampling beers from all sorts of different breweries!! Tons of local breweries like Boise Brewing, Bear Island, Bella and more!! As well as breweries from out of state like Laguanitas, Sun River and Wallace. Over all a good showing,...I wish there would have been a few more breweries to choose from....but hey Beggars can't be choosers, and there was enough to choose from that's for sure! Overall...we had a great time!!! read more

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So much to learn, so many choices! Great music! I had a blast!! Classic flavors, fresh flavors plus honey,watermelon, jalepeno; something for everyone! I like the little taster mugs ;) read more

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First and foremost a big shout out to Yelp and community for hookin me up with VIP tickets! What a fantastic afternoon sippin suds from the numerous brewery vendors, so many IPAs! Special thanks to Boise Brewery for their organization and management. Was a great turn out, I suspect a larger venue will be required next year to accommodate all of the hopeful beer aficionados. read more

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Oh boy where do I start? What a neat small gathering! I'm not a huge beer fan but I got to try different beers that otherwise I would never have ordered. They even had Cider which is my favorite alcoholic beverage. I got to try a few and if you are into beer it's well worth the price! You get 10 shots of your favorite drink. I was unable to pass 5 but I believe I got the best 5! I was able to donate our tickets to someone else to enjoy on our behalf. Local breweries as well as CO, OR and WA. They had food trucks too. Good small variety of food! read more

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I'm currently trying to find a way to either cut down my enormous review, or post a link to the full thing. Sorry, Yelp, I had some strong opinions here. Anyway, here are the first few paragraphs: I'm not shy when it comes to bragging about attending my fair share of beer festivals. From Oregon to California to my main festival spot, Boise, ID, I've imbibed, quaffed, begged, cajoled, drank to excess, poured out swill, swelled with joy at tasting new creations and wept with sorrow at the feet of porcelain gods. I also drank some beer. If you don't read any further, I'll cut to the chase: IPA Wars was much better. This wasn't the worst festival I've ever been to, but it definitely wasn't the best. I am a pretty harsh critic, so I assume that quite a few folks won't have the complaints that I had. However, I'm not the type to show up just to pour it all into my mouth mindlessly. Yes, excessive drinking does occur, but I do my best to remain thoughtful and articulate about what I taste right up until that giddy point where I start seeking out dropped "tokens" and food wagons, and begin taking selfies with strangers. The Hoptober Freshtival, following quickly in the wake of 10 Barrel's IPA Wars, arrived on a grey, drizzly day in October. To my mind, I couldn't think of finer weather for a craft beer tasting. After all, who wants to guzzle seriously alcoholic, heavier-bodied ales when it's 105 F. When my wife and I arrived, we were excited that we didn't bring our baby son (who we almost didn't find a sitter for; however, after being told this was a 21 and over event, and given how serious breweries are about us not bringing in our baby, we took the advice seriously... more on that later), because it was soooooo stinking crowded. People were up against the chain-link fence that surrounded the block on Broad Street between 6th and 5th. This would dissipate as people diffused throughout the festival area. We stepped in line to present our printed out tickets (the will call line). The table was arranged so that a corner greeted you; step to the left for will call or the right to buy at the door. A gentleman was perched on that corner, so we didn't know what line he was in. We stepped left, to try will call; they told us to get back in line behind that gentlemen. So we step behind him. Seconds later, a group of five or six enormous men make the same move we did by moving off to the left; however, they were helped while we stood there helplessly. To be honest, it was just two gentlemen who "cut" in front of us (truly, the event people should have spoken up and helped who had arrived first, so not really the customers' fault). As time went on, these two gentlemen called back to their friends. Six guys later, none of which had their tickets out and had to dig around in their pockets and fanny packs for them, and probably seven minutes later, my wife and I are finally helped. This did not bode well. Finally, we enter the event space. My first sight: Deschutes Brewery. Cue the brilliant shafts of light illuminating their tap handle, angelic music, and butterflies in my stomach. They almost immediately stop as I see the adjacent tap handle, which was supposed to be Deschutes' "Chasin' Freshies," only to see a Hop Valley tap handle. Now, the gentleman working this booth was either deaf, mute, terrified of me, or some combination of the three. Throughout this ordeal, with a deer-in-the-headlights expression, he points back and forth between the Deschutes and Hop Valley tap handles, muttering, "Hops... hop hop hops... uh, this... hops?" It would have been hilarious if I weren't so worked up. He had no idea who had created this beer. After three or four minutes of him fumbling around and asking for help, I reach back behind the booth, wipe the ice off of the label on the keg. It's Hop Valley. Four million college students could have settled that dilemma in seconds flat. At this point, I probably sound like an ass, but my reaction goes something like this: YOU HAVE ONE JOB! DO IT! Quick note: about ten minutes in, we see several couples at the event pushing babies in strollers. One couple even had twins. I guess the 21 and up rule only applies in some situations, and we didn't have to break ourselves both finding a sitter and paying even more money to attend this festival. Can we please post when rules are flexible? My wallet and cortisol levels would appreciate it. I won't regale you with any other stories of negativity involving intense, tedious description. Suffice it to say, the event got better as we spoke to some actual brewery reps and some volunteers who just downright knew their stuff. A few of the volunteers I had to ask if they worked for the brewery; no, but their reps equipped them with the right info. This leads me to another complaint: I was led to believe that we'd be speaking to brewery reps, but a large number of them (more than half, in my experience) bailed before the event started. Shame on them. read more

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Fun atmosphere, and lots of great beers to sample! I had a blast and got more than enough tickets for tastes, so the value was good. Ran into some friends unexpectedly which is always a good time. I love attending events like this in Boise. You always run into a friendly face! read more

Great event that Boise brewing out on. Tons of great beer and ciders to choose from. Food trucks from mac n cheese to brats to Greek. There was even a dj. Had a great time, sun was shinning, very happy I went there is something for everyone to have a good time. read more

You would think that a beer festival for someone that can't have gluten would be torturous...but this is sooooo not true!!! There were 2 different companies that catered to my need for beer. Groundbreaker brewery had a very good Gayle beer and they also had Epoch, but that one was a little too hippy for me. Meriwether Cider Co. never disappoints and definitely did not again with the Sidra Sangria and the Hop Shot. I also loved that some of the food vendors had great gluten free choices and that you didn't have to wait too long in line to get a beer or use the bathroom!!! This was is a great location and a great event...I will be back next year!!! read more