Now in its sixth year since starting up again in 2011, the Texas Craft Brewers Festival (TCBF) descended upon Austin on Saturday September, 24, 2016 bigger and better than ever. The TCBF is a product of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild (TCBG), with some proceeds benefiting various charities each year.
This year's festival featured over 100 Texas craft brewers with more than 470 unique brews for attendees to enjoy. Whether a novice to craft beer or a seasoned vet, the festival certainly had something for everyone, with special tappings on the hour from many of the participating breweries.
VIP attendees were able to get a two hour jump start the festival allowing them more personable on-one-time with the brewers and virtually no lines at all (that in and of itself would be worth the VIP ticket price of $75), both of which allowed VIPs to get some of the special tappings all to themselves.
Once the hordes of beer fans were let loose a few hours later, the party picked up quite a bit and the lines certainly reflected this. Despite the record attendance for the festival, the TCBG and participating brewers did a bang up job with festival organization allowing beer lines to move quickly and the beer flowing, allowing all a good time.
To help keep folks at their best, avoid accidents, and unnecessarily embarrassing themselves, food trucks and water were readily available for attendees. Even the food truck lines moved fairly quick considering the attendance.
The culture of the festival has evolved each year with more and more attendees educated on just what craft beer is, how to differentiate styles and evaluate what they are drinking. What began years ago as a way to bring awareness to the State's craft breweries seems to have become that and so much more. It's a party, it's industry networking and it's like minds getting together to enjoy the best beer that Texas has to offer. It was amazing to see folks from all over Texas meeting for the first time or catching up with friends from around the state. All over a few beers.