OC Beer Festival

Don’t let the 3 stars fool you this was a fun event, 3 – 4 hours of beer sampling for $ 40-​$ 50 is a great time but I am grading on a curve scale by comparing the OC beer festival to the LA beer festival (both were run by the same organizer «Drink Eat Play»). The Phoenix club venue was a good location right behind the Anaheim pond aka Honda Center, parking in the Honda center was $ 10.00. The Phoenix club had plenty off room for the 48 beer vendors that were there & a sitting area that came in handy if you got something from the food trucks.
Out of the 48 vendors in attendance this year only Shock Top, & Stella were the major brands there, the rest were local craft brewery’s which is cool because you have a larger option of new beers to experience.
Granted the LA fest had a lot more people than the OC fest there are still a few things the OC fest could have done to be close to perfect. The food trucks were inside the festival so if you showed up early to try & grab something to eat you had to wait for the start time. The LA fest had the food trucks in the waiting area so you could get your ID & tickets checked & wait for the event to start by the gate or get food while you wait. For tickets I didn’t see an option to purchase non-​drinking admission prices so if you had someone come with you as your designated driver they still had to pay full price. They weren’t giving out or even selling water like I’ve seen at other beer fest, my cousin luckily got a bottle from one of the beer vendors but next time I’ll be sure to bring my own water just incase.
Besides those little details this beer fest is a must do if you want to try some new beers, & have a good time with your friends & fellow beer lovers.

So much win is wrapped up into this event that you should have someone slap you in the face if you knew about this and didn’t attend.
1. Dozens of great breweries with 2 – 3 beer types per brewer booth.
2. $ 40 to drink all the great beer you want for 3 hours (compare to bar hopping or even buying a few cases of different variety packs at BevMo).
3. Food vendors on hand if you get the munchies.
4. Friendly people manning the booths.
5. Friendly people drinking the beer. No «bar fights» or angry drunks.
6. Good live music playing in the background.
Remember though, people under 21 aren’t allowed and bring a DD!

O-​M-​G OCBF, you’re so SEXY! OCBF is comparable to Disneyland for adults. It is Magical and the Happiest place on earth. OCBF is my Utopia where you have happy people and unlimited frosty beverages to go around.
For $ 40 you get to drink as much as you want until you pass out. You start off with a plastic 4oz «Drink, eat, play» beer mug. I was like, «Hold up wait a minute let me put a nipple on it.» This mug reminded me of a baby’s bottle. Since it was my 1^st time at this event, my friend told me, «Trust me it’s big enough.» Now it’s time to DRINK!
There were 50 different great Micro Breweries serving IPAs, Stout, and Lager Ale. All my favorite breweries were at the event — Ballast Point, Lagunitas, Flying Dogs, Stone Brewing and Bootlegger. The lines were really short merely 5 – 10 minutes wait.
Everyone was SUPER friendly and HAPPY. There were groups in costumes, homemade t-​shirts and they were all sporting their Bling, BLING Pretzels necklaces. The best thing about this event is that the Beer Goggles are FREE-​99. We all know once you have these on EVERYONE starts to look REALLY good!
You can indulge yourself in heaven with the delectable treats from the Lime and Fries Truck. The lines were pretty long but it was worth the wait. It is always too GOOD to Carb up!
In the last hour, I started to sing the OCBF anthem with a few patrons:
Its a Beer World After all
Its a Beer World After all
Its a Beer World After all
Its a Beer, BEER world!
This definitely is the HAPPIEST place on earth!

Woo Hoo! OC Beer Festival was so much fun! tickets were $ 40 and there were unlimited 4 oz. tastings once inside. overall, a good deal!
This was my first year going, but i want to go again next year already! It was a great time, it wasnt too over crowded, I thought everyone was really friendly and there were SO MANY different beers available. Just rows and rows of tastings. $ 40 got you a long way, lemme tell you.
They also had a bevy of food trucks on standby, and incredibly, the lines werent even that bad for them! I got dos chinos in about 15 minutes, and the lime truck line was actually shorter! Nice!
The cover band was awesome, they were playing a lot of classic rock and had everyone in a good mood to enjoy the beer and have a great time.
only bad thing honestly was getting there, it took us about a half hour of sitting in traffic to get into the irvine lake area. My advice would be to show up early, and if possible approach from the south, not the north on Silverado road.

This event was a good time. It’s basically a marketing blitz put on by the breweries, but well worth the trip.
The festival was not what I expected. I figured there would be a few beer stands and that you would get your beer and just hang out. Well, when you first get there they give you a tiny little cup. At first, you’re thinking that this is some type of joke. But it isn’t. It’s kind of like wine tasting but with beer. There were about 50 breweries being represented each with 2 or 3 types of beer. They had some interesting one too, like rice beer and beer that looked like a Bloody Mary. There was a cover band and lots of good gourmet food trucks. We had fries with nacho cheese and jalapenos and a hot dog. All delicious.
It’s $ 40 and it’s all you can drink. Do not let the little cups deceive you as you will get a buzz pretty quick. The event is 3 hours long but plenty of time to get your drink on.
Word of advice, get there early, the traffic was horrendous. Park in VIP, it’s $ 5 more, but you get to park at the entrance and are the first out at the end. Even though the food was good, the lines were long, so it may be best to eat before you arrive or eat early.
We will be back next year.