Zoo Brew

Beer and wild animals all together in one place. Who could ask for more?
This is the best organized, smoothest beer festival I’ve been to.

Went here for the kids halloween thing in the evening. My 2 girls loved it! The park was nicely decorated but too bad we didn’t get to see any animals.

For what it’s actually quite amazing. A perfect little zoo nestled into a hill in a smaller city then most people realize. It has a wide collection of animals in a fairly small space, and unlike other small zoos feels bigger then it is. Its not the scope of the zoos in San Diego or LA, but you can spend a surpisng amount of time here if you let it and have a good time

This year (2013) was my first time attending Zoo Brew, and it definitely won’t be my last!
First things first: if you want to go to this event, find out when tickets go on sale and GET YOURS THAT DAY. It sells out fast, is what I’m saying.
Secondly: If you want to be like all the other cool kids, make yourself a pretzel necklace. (Or fruit loops, or cheez-​its, or whatever floats your boat.) And if you want to be REALLY cool, wear some sort of animal print or costume. I missed both of those memos this year, so next year I’ll definitely hop on that super fun bandwagon.
In my opinion, I didn’t miss out on anything by not getting the VIP pass. I have no idea what perks those folks got besides getting in an hour or two earlier, but my General Admission experience was absolutely fantastic. I had plenty of time to taste all the beers I wanted (and taste them again… and again…) and mosey around meeting fun people and basking in the Santa Barbara sun. Previous reviews seem to indicate that there was free food, and either I missed that completely (wouldn’t put it past me) or they changed it this year and were charging for food. Fortunately, I survived on stolen pretzels from the smart kids.
I was sad I missed out on the temporary tattoos from Fig Brewing, but that was my bad for waiting too long to stop by their booth. Loved all the stickers and coasters from each place… except now I have a butt-​load of stickers and coasters and I don’t know what to do with them.
One small thing I’d suggest for future years is for the organizers to announce a designated hashtag for those of the social media persuasion (Twitter, Instagram, etc) so that it’s easy to see a compilation of everyone’s great photos and comments on the event. I ended up browsing Instagram for #zoobrew, #zoobrew2013 and a couple others just to make sure I saw as much as I could. (Hi, my name is Tabitha and I’m obsessed with Instagram.)
I seriously CANNOT WAIT for next year. Can’t we just make this a monthly thing? Or even twice a year? #justsaying

Some improvements in 2012 but a long way to go. So much potential. It’s making money so why change?
Ran out of food at 4:45. By 5:10 all that was left was beef ribs and sad nochoes
Better layout this go round with tents up top and plenty of room to move around it. The bad was continuing to have tents below. With what looked like double attendance of last year, it was very hard to walk though this stretch.
The House DJ was hard to listen to. A few dance moves broke out but most sets were lame. Just give us sounds from the 70 80 90 and today and do try to mix it up. Saves money too.
The direction is poor. Once up front, had to ask what’s on tap. No signs or literature.
Bathroom lines still bad at about 15 for port-​a-​pottys but great conversations while waiting. The guests are a fun mix of all ages.
An improvement over previous years but so much to learn.
Please let me help organize this fest and take you over 80k
Oh, and for the third year, most of the kegs were floated by 5:30 with only a few still pouring at 5:45. Overall I’ll keep my ³⁄₅ star review.

Came here for the 2012 Zoo Brew and had a great time! We bought VIP tickets to avoid the regular admission dash and get some food in before the drinking began… when I drink, I get hungry… real hungry. We were given a 12oz glass for the beer pours and allowed early entrance to the zoo if you wanted to explore before the Zoo Brew fest started.
VIP admission started an hour earlier and there were a couple of tables with hors d’œuvres: pork spare ribs, turkey meatballs, chicken wings. In addition, servers would come by offering chicken won tons, chicken flautas and quesadillas… we sat down with a group and really felt bad for the vegetarian. The food wasn’t spectacular but definitely edible. There is definitely a world of difference between beer fest food and wine fest food which is pretty unfortunate because i think beer drinkers would enjoy some great food to go with their beers as much as wine drinkers!
Regular admission began at 2PM and got pretty packed… lines moved fast however and I never felt like we were waiting long periods of time to get beers. There was a café stand (nachos and wings) and a photographer so you could get your cheesy picture in.
Beer choices were pretty good… most from the surrounding region. Breweries that I remembered (sorry if I forgot some): Stone, Firestone, Figueroa Mountain Brewing (we really enjoyed the Double IPA here), Karl Strauss, the Lab, Wolf Creek, Telegraph, Sequoia, the Brewhouse, and many more I forgot!
Wish there was better food options but other than that I had a great time and would def be back again!

Der Zoo in Santa Barbara ist mit dem Zoo in San Diego nicht zu vergleichen. Viel weniger Tierarten :-!
Viel kleiner und familiärer dafür die Preise auch nicht sooo hoch.
Erwachsene zahlen 12 Dollar Kids 10 Dollar
Parken kostet 5 Dollar
also für hier durchaus gute Preise nach dem Zoo kann man hier auch weiter parken und zum Strand laufen der in 10 min. entfernen liegt eher weniger –wer gut zu Fuss ist.
Ein wenig sehr amerikanisch ist die Dino-​Show :-) Da läuft ein ganz nett gemachter Platic-​Baby-​Dino durch die Gegend allerdings nur zu speziellen Vorstellungen
Fütterung ist kurz vor Schluss gegen 16 Uhr :-)
Für Lauffaule gibt es auch einen kleinen Zoo-​Zug :-) Der muss jedoch extra bezahlt werden :-)

Well, I think this is a great little zoo. Maybe I’m biased. However, every time I visit, I do enjoy myself. They pretty much have your standard animals. The famous giraffe with the crooked neck did pass away, which is unfortunate as that was always the highlight for me.
It’s has a nice layout, with nice grassy spaces to relax, or in the case of one friend, have a wedding. My company also held a luau here once. If the winds are right, you can’t smell the animals. (Otherwise, saying I do or sipping a mai tai with the aroma of elephant dung hanging in the air just isn’t appealing.)

Nice zoo that the kids (that I went with) enjoyed very much. Especially a girafe with broken neck looked interesting. There is also a small train to take a ride around the parkcute!
Just take a look and make up your own opinion.