Get Real NY Belgian Beer Festival

I wasn’t particularly impressed with this event, though maybe that’s because I shelled out the cash for VIP tickets, then the next day they offered really cheap Groupon tickets. The VIP option offered early admission, and I knew we weren’t likely to be there early enough to take advantage of that, but the website said there would also be a separate VIP area with additional beers. That was completely false, as there was just the one general admission area. Fortunately the beer lines moved pretty fast, but I can’t say the same for the food lines; we had to wait quite awhile for food, which then ran out pretty early in the night. I enjoyed the event, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to attend again.

Amazing awesomeness. A killer set of beer options — do your research beforehand on the list because once you get there it’s a free for all. A pen to make checks on the brochure is the best you can do.
Great venue with easy flow — for such a big event there were never bottlenecks or waits, except for maybe in the bathroom. Never saw any sloppiness either, even though you could tell people were wasted.
The food — amazing. Killer belgian waffles, then water. Good food, although they pulled it halfway through the general session.
It has all of the good things you could have expected and none of the bad things. Those who ran it, did very well. Go to any Get Real beer events in the future, you’ll be glad you did.

I was doing real well for a while and staying away from alcohol. On a Thursday night after coming back from the gym I got this email from Eric C via Facebook and Unilocal mail. It confirmed the end of living a healthy lifestyle with two VIP tickets to the NY Belgian Beer Festival. Unilocal found my Achilles heal as I am an ex-​Belgian beer drinker who slowly was able to get off the sauce. One day back to the wagon is something like taking a vacation so why not? I got my bottle of eye drops from Duane Reade and was all set to go.
I took one of my old friends who is not such an active Unilocaler and we went. As I walked in it wasn’t very crowded due to VIP admission. So I went to anything that resembled a line as I knew it would get worse later. So first stop was the Naked Cowboy Oyster booth. Yes they named an oyster after that guy in the underwear and cowboy hat in times square. I popped two of them in my mouth and they were just OK. I may be spoiled on eating big oysters in my normal life. But after walking away from the booth I made a couple of rounds as I was bumping into old friends from past food events. My friend wanted to hit the oyster table again and so we went back. As I was approaching the table I notice a familiar blonde woman. Yes it was Jane K going for some Naked Cowboys. I got a chance to chat with her and Thank her. I was trying not to slur my speech as I was talking. I hit Petite Abellle and got some of their Mac N Cheese, beef, potatoes, oh and those waffles. I never really thought I would be exxcied about waffles but they were pretty good to munch on. We then hit Murray’s Cheese Shop and my riend had a field day with the Salami and Cheese. I told him about the shop on Bleecker Street and suggested we go for a visit one day. I popped a couple of eye drops in my eyes and asked if I looked normal. He said yes, and it was time to drink more. My old time favorite is the Corsendonk which probably still is. I was drinking mostly Saisons that day and was trying to look for a good one. But to be honest I didn’t run into any I liked that day. There were lots to experiment, and probably impossible to try them all even with me armed with two bottles of eye drops. I introduced my friend to some Lambics which are made of wIld yeast — something similar to a wine coolers. I tried the other Abbey’s that were available and stumbled on some sours which I thought were pretty good.
There was a Unilocal table in the basement with a «Wheel of Fortune». The prizes were a bunch of Unilocal paraphernalia. I had most of the items that they were giving away as prizes since I’ve done time at Unilocal for a while so I took the time to chat with Steph H and Kevin M.
My friend was impressed with Unilocal and the people he met that day. He said they were very friendly people. We sat around downstairs and they were giving lectures about micro brews and had samplings. Godiva was around giving away bags of samples. We decided to give our chocolates to the Unilocal interns as a way to thank them again. My friend told me he had a great day and I must say I did too. On my way out I popped in a couple of more eye drops and still had a stupid smile across my face.

«I’m never drinking again»
That was the first thing that went through my head as I woke up at 6am Saturday morning, having attended the late session of the Belgian Beer Festival the previous night.
This was a very well organized event. I was expecting massive crowds and long lines for beer and food. There was a pretty long line outside to get in but Phil H. and I got there pretty early and were lucky enough to be entertained by a crazy, screaming drunk girl from the afternoon session.
They took care of checking everyone’s tickets and stamping our hands while we were on line so at 8pm we were shuffled in with no delay. Once inside we were given a souvenir tasting glass, which I ended up way to drunk to keep track of at the end of the night. For three hours we were treated to tons of great Belgian and Belgian-​style beers, mostly on tap and a few in bottles. The toughest part of the night was picking what to drink. I didn’t have the same beer twice the entire night! In addition to the beer there was plenty of good snack from Luke’s Lobster, My Friend’s Mustard, and a few others.
I did just read on their site that the first session was apparently littered with problems. Fortunately they cleared those up or did a great job of masking them by the time the evening session began.
All in all it was a great night! The organizers put on a good event. It was crowded but nowhere near packed. We didn’t wait more than a minute for anything. I look forward to attending more of Get Real NY’s events.

Ok — here it is Saturday afternoon and I am finally sober enough to type this review of the beer fest. I was absolutely blotto last night after this. Even more so after downing more drinks at Raines Law Room afterwards. I literally forgot my own name last night.
My friend Sean and I got on line at around 7:30 and had to wait until doors opened at 8. Yes, it was raining out but at least we were kept entertained by some crazy drunk girl that was kicked out of the earlier session. She was actually foaming at the mouth while screaming out stupid nonsense to everyone. When doors opened we got in quickly and proceeded to get a few beers within a minute. Yes!
The event was held in a nice event space in the Altman building. Well air conditioned, bright, and clean bathrooms. There were food and beer stands along the walls, and a main beer area set up in the middle with about 100 beers on tap all labeled and numbered. Terrific variety of beers to choose from. Light, dark, malty, creamy, reds, ambers, stouts, you name it. At one point near the end we were just calling out numbers to slug down beer after beer, With some of these in the 7−10% alcohol content we were feeling no pain. There was also a band playing throughout, and a downstairs area with communal benches and tables.
I honestly can’t remember too much more as I lost my mind by the end of the night. All I know is that we sampled a lot of terrific Belgian style beers. All the servers working the stations were cool and the event staff was nice and helpful. The crowd was not too bad either. It was busy but they did not oversell it. Never had to wait too long on lines. Plus, waited until the day before and Groupon put up a $ 40 ticket deal so we saved big time.
Now I have to drink more tonight at a UYE German restaurant event. My liver hates me.
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Hitting this up tonight as the beer festival started today! Located in the Altman Bldg on West 18^th street. Afternoon and evening sessions Fri and Sat. Hundreds of Belgian style beers to imbibe and sample. Good God this is gonna be epic!
Will update review when I’m sober!