Nice, relaxed beerfest with views of the bay thanks to Faction Brewing as the host. I won a pair of…read moreVIP tickets from the Yelp East Bay (@yelpeastbay) Instagram -- WOOOOO! VIPs got in an hour early, and it was totally awesome to get your first beers in, pick up a bunch of sweet stickers and other brewery swag, chat with brewers and hit the more popular food trucks before the beer-thirsty hordes descended. LOL. It wasn't THAT terribly crowded, but a festival without lines is pretty magical.
Brewbies benefits the Keep a Breast Foundation, supporting breast health education, so we got a tote bag full of little trinkets that read I heart BOOBIES. Breweries were encouraged to bring a pink beer if they had one, as that was the color of the festival, and many actually brewed special beers for the occasion, with fun names like Tough Titties (heyyyy Woodhouse from Santa Cruz).
Lots of local breweries from the East Bay, SF, and quite a SoCal presence as well. It was really fun to try some breweries that we hadn't heard of, like Iron Springs from Fairfax/San Rafael, which made our favorite beer of the day, Not Your Uncle's Dunkel.
Onto the food... We tried a "gourmet corn dog" from Sticks -- tasty, definitely, was it worth $6? Well, it was a festival, and I am a sucker for a corn dog. You could actually bring your own food in, which I thought was great. Some dudes showed up with pretzel necklaces. Go on with your prepared selves! We also got a Grilled Cheez Guy sandwich ($9) with "the works" (+ $6 gets you a bunch of stuff, but I just remember avocado, pickled pepper, tomato, and bacon). It was a good sandwich, again, a bit pricey at $15, but I couldn't really taste the cheese. I'm thinking that might have been our fault for getting "the works" but we expected the grilled cheese flavor/texture to be more prominent. I'd try them again, though.
Bonus round: Do the Bay had a fun little photostation with cute signs, rainbow balloons, temporary tattoos and stickers. There were skeeball machines which you could pay for using your phone/contactless device. Raffles for skate decks painted by local artists. Fun times!