South Denver Beer Festival

Super fun!
Well-​organized, with an easy layout, wide walking lanes, and plenty of space for each booth.
Numerous food vendors and freebie spots.
With my VIP ticket, I had access to a Spirits area, which was a good idea. Though I should have limited myself because it took me from slightly tipsy to drunk quickly. Kept me from enjoying more beer, which was the point to begin with. My fault!
A smaller, quieter, and more enjoyable beer festival that others in town. Nice day outside.

This is a fantastic beer festival. I went in 2014 and 2015, and it has only gotten better. The selection of breweries is great, it’s not overcrowded, and it is very well run. They did a great job of checking everyone while we were still in line so all we had to do was walk in when the gates opened. I’ll definitely be back next time.

We had such a blast at the South Denver Beer Festival! This is the first beer fest that I have been to in Denver that was NOT oversold! Gorgeous day in the park overlooking the lake. Plenty of room to move and hang out with friends. Parking was easy, bathrooms were never a problem, and generally the clientele was well behaved! I also enjoyed the live music and various contests and raffles throughout the afternoon!
In addition to three large tents full of beer, there were also a handful of tasty food trucks (pizza, tacos, ice cream, etc) to counter the liquid calories. I had purchased VIP tickets through LivingSocial, which was totally the way to go. VIP got you in an hour earlier and access to the distillery tent where they were pouring delicious local spirits, experimenting with some cocktail combinations, and also had a VIP-​only BBQ tent that was handing out free samples.
Really looking forward to this one next year! Keep it classy Littleton!

Over a hundred beers out at the park… great fun every year, not too crowded. Beer and more beer — super casual experience in an out door venue that has such a great view looking out at the lake!

Wow! A beautiful day, 3 tents full of delicious beer, and well organized! I am very impressed! The thing I dread most about these kind of events is chaos, but this was the opposite of that. I never had to wait more than a couple minutes to try a beer, people were well behaved and the park area was so big it never really felt crowded though I know there were hundreds of people there.
We had VIP via a LivingSocial deal, and though the VIP tent was pretty pathetic, getting in an hour before everyone else was pretty great! We blew through the VIP tent in 15 minutes, and still had a 45 minute head start at the beer tents. Not sure it’s worth paying full price though for VIP since it never really felt crowded and we stayed until the end.
There were a ton of local craft breweries and microbreweries, and even a few national brands. Sapporo was there, which I thought was very strange, and since I can drink it at any sushi joint in town, never mind buy it at any liquor store, I didn’t waste my alcohol consumption on them (and a few others). I was very surprised by the number of breweries that didn’t come prepared with any sort of marketing materials– just their beer; when I’d ask for a business card to help me remember brewery name and location of beers I liked most often they suggested I take a picture with my phone to help me remember– what?! Seriously… ok. Beyond that, everything was great! This was my 2^nd beer festival and I still found lots of new beers to try!
I found a few new local craft beers/​breweries I really enjoyed and will certainly be making a point to visit them soon. I also discovered sour beer, which may become a new craveable for me because I really like it! So, I will be hunting those down as well. See you soon Verboten (yummy caramel porter), Loveland Aleworks (sour w/​raspberries), Fate (watermelon kolsch) and The Bob (coffee milk stout)!! (Ha, just noticed how all of them are food based beers! I think they’re just more notable when they are «flavored» vs traditional because I do enjoy traditional reds, lagers, etc.) Also really liked the cider from Wild Cider in Frederick. These beers and breweries were all new to me, among many others, so this was a great festival in my book! I look forward to next year’s!
The bands playing were nice background music. Food trucks on site were key. As were the water stations and port-​a-​potties! Never saw a line for the port-​a-​potties so they obviously took note of the issues people noted on last year’s event. The port-​a-​potties were also quite clean and not super disgusting, which being there the second day of the festival I appreciated! Super cool that Über was offering $ 20 off to help people get home safely; thankfully my non-​beer drinking husband was my DD :) All in all a great way to spend an afternoon– but make sure you have a designated driver!

One of the best beer festivals to date. There was several new breweries that I hadn’t tried before, a little cider to break up the day, and even wine. The complaint I heard about last year was the lack of port-​a-​potties, but this was apparently addressed as there was no wait when I needed them.
The layout was small and linear, making it easier to find people and walk up and down the line sampling. The crowd really wasn’t bad, although I suspect it will continue to grow as the word catches on.
I really enjoyed this one, it was well planned.
Cheers!

This was a well put together and enjoyable event. It helps that I live in the neighborhood around the park, so I could walk there. =).
I sampled plenty of beer and felt like I got way more than my 20 bucks worth. I have already visited 3 new breweries that I discovered here.
Everyone was friendly and smiling while giving unlimited pours. I did ask for ½ pours and still managed to get pretty tipsy. The food truck selection was nice, and there were some other good vendors like jerky and dog treats made from spent grains! Cool!
Main complaint is that there was more than I could taste in just a few hours. I never even made it to the back tent. An extra hour would have been nice. I guess that’s hat the VIP folks paid for!
I will certainly be back next year!

Shea S. hit it on the head, «It’s rare these days that I can go to a beer festival and spend the whole time at places I’ve never heard of or tried before.» Sure, some great breweries I had heard of and tried before were there, but I loved the amount of new places that I’d never heard of before.
I found two of my new favorite beers that day, which was entirely unexpected and I felt that if nothing else, I’d made a serious accomplishment… sort of. See, there’s a mystery Scottish Ale that I thought «I’ll never forget the name of this brewery». What I failed to realize in that moment is that I was going to go to several other stations. Again, so many new breweries, so many new names, so much beer, I just can’t remember. So, if anyone knows what I’m talking about, please let me know :)
The other beer I loved was Twisted Pines’ Billy’s Chilies beer. I also enjoyed a sour beer from Paradox — Skully Barrel Number 1.
All in all, I’d be back!

Not bad, especially for being so close, but many opportunities for improvement exist. We went the VIP route, but only because we found a half-​off deal, making the VIP tickets the same price as a regular ticket. Were it not for that deal, we would not have attended.
On the upshot, there were numerous local breweries. Loveland Aleworks, Lone Tree, Colorado Cider, Crazy Mountain, and Pike’s Peak all top my list of favorites explored and enjoyed. The were no lines for the first hour — VIP hour. Even when the crowd got larger, around 3 p.m., I never waited more than a minute or two to get to the front of the line. Nearly all servers were smiles and full pours, so that was great. I didn’t see anyone out of control or completely drunk, though we left at 3:30 p.m. All breweries were very friendly — some we spoke with at length. I really enjoyed that.
There’s room for improvement as far as water stations, signage, check-​in organization, and most important, bathrooms. Let’s cut to the last one in that list. It’s a beer festival. Beer is a liquid. The more you drink, the more you need to pee. The bathroom lines were about 2 – 4 minutes until 2:15 p.m. By 3 p.m. the line took nearly 15 minutes, and getting longer, to get an open porta potty. The bathrooms lines were encroaching on one of the beer tent lines. This was the only crowded area of the event. In between both lines was the water station, which went empty sometime before 3 p.m. I do not know if they refilled this later or not. They simply needed more bathrooms spread out around the event.
I dropped a star on my rating because of the VIP tent. When the gates opened at 1 p.m., nearly all of the VIPs went straight for the beer. We, and a very few others, went for the VIP tent, which had spirits, cheese, and chocolate. There was one cheese and one chocolate vendor. There were six or so spirit vendors. It was all pretty awesome. I’m glad we went here first, because when we returned at 3:15 p.m., the cheese and chocolate vendor and half of the spirit vendors were gone. I talked with one of the remaining servers and he told me that at 2 p.m., vendors started leaving. The chocolate ran out quickly and others said they were done when general admission started — mind you that only VIPs could enter this tent. Had we done beer first and returned for spirits, and found out that most vendors were gone, I would have been furious, especially had I wasted $ 80. I was under the impression that the VIP tent would be well stocked all day. It wasn’t and that was very disappointing. I almost dropped my rating to 2 stars because of this. I didn’t find anything on the website to sugest that VIP service was only for 1 hour. Glad we went there first.
I don’t think I’d return next year, but, next year is next year, so we’ll see who is pouring and what shakes out next spring. In the interim, I have a few more breweries to visit as a result of what I tasted here.

It’s rare these days that I can go to a beer festival and spend the whole time at places I’ve never heard of or tried before. It’s also rare that a first-​time event goes smoothly. Both of these rarities were a reality at the South Denver Beer Festival.
It’s clear that the organizers wanted to give a stage to the newest of the new breweries in Colorado, but also bring along the veterans. Despite the removal of several about-​to-​be breweries due to some shaky legal warnings from the State, I was kept plenty busy with what was there. It was the first time I got to try such breweries as Brewery Rickoli, Paradox, Gravity Brewing, Crystal Springs, and more. And I got to do so with perfectly sized pours (imagine the GABF glass ¾ full — perfect to get a real idea of what the beer tastes like but not get sloshed 30 minutes in).
I had feared that the festival would be too crowded, but that wasn’t the case. The park provided ample space, while lines were very reasonable. The setting really allowed people to walk around and enjoy the day and view. SDBF also did a great job with getting some awesome food trucks. As always, there could have been more portable bathrooms. And the location meant you had to ride a bus from the Littleton light rail station. But it all worked out, and I was grateful they did provide that free transportation.
SDBF was one tasty afternoon event that was far better than any of the Denver Beer Fests at Mile High Station. In fact, this was one of the best beer fests I’ve been to. Will look eagerly forward to next year’s event.

This was a very well put together beer festival. The biggest plus was there was room to walk around away from all the crowds, but the biggest plus was there was great beer from all around that everyone could enjoy including a couple sours, and barrel aged beers. Hopefully this event will continue to grow and become a annual tradition in Colorado.

This was a really fun event and 5 minutes from our house! It was well organized, could accomodate the crowd and had plenty of awesome breweries to sample and choose from. I wish some of the breweries had more to sample but I was very pleased with the variety. The crowd was cool and had a laid back vibe, unlike the GABF where it feels like amateur day. For $ 40 a ticket, unlimited sampling, live music… I’ll take it and go again next year!

This is my 3^rd Denver beer fest. I first hit the Denver Brew at the Zoo (top notch) and then the Great American Beer Fest (amazing).
The south denver beer fest is the most reasonable priced of the 3. I was able to score tickets for $ 20 though general admission is typically $ 40. They also had a VIP tent, with liquors/​cheese/​and chocolate (but I can’t review it — we did base)
The place is 90% Colorado beers, and that can serve you just fine. Avery, Breck, Wits end, boulder brew, the list goes on (3 tents full).
Some of the standouts — a Colorado Cider Company Lemon Grass cider…Paradox brewing barrel aged sour AND IPA.
This event has one more day, score a ticket and go. Its fun.. .though get a designated driver. ..