Midwest Brewers Fest

Really enjoyed the festival, a good mix of breweries and a variety of beers.
I arrived at 3pm (event opened at 1pm), and a lot of the «award winning beers» were long gone by then, which is a shame.
My only major complaints was our designated driver was never directed where she could get the «free» water at and it was really hot out in the sun. This should’ve been information given to her when she checked in with her DD badge.
The public parking information could’ve been clearer on the event page as well. We ended up parking on the main drag in town (lockport street) and it was quite a walk to the festival, and lots of cheap ($ 5 parking) we passed on our way there in the nearby fields we didn’t know about prior to the event.
The lines for beer were typically short, and most of the festival participants were well mannered and friendly, overall a solid event :)

Really well-​run festival, nice people everywhere … from the volunteers picking people up in golf carts to workers answering questions about beer styles. Great time along the DuPage River in Plainfield!

Great time at the fest this year! Very short wait for beers, food was very good, parking was a breeze with the VIP shuttle! VIP tent was very comfortable, cool and bug-​free! The overall layout was very easy to navigate and locate the brewery you desired. Looking forward to next year!
Good job folks!

Midwest Brewer’s Fest in Plainfield is at the Plainfield Riverfront Park with a ton of craft beers in 2 oz servings.
Parking is a good distance walk on a rocky, uneven path from the fest and costs $ 10! Good thing we had our emergency valet money in the car because we weren’t prepared for that cost as the website listed free parking. My friend wasn’t all that happy with paying for parking but I reminded him that the money all goes to a good cause. :D Plus!!! We got our tickets for free (Thanks, Candice!!!) — and they’re normally $ 40 when you prepay.
It was hot as balls on the day of the fest. Being hot as balls, it would have been nice to have more tents & seating set up for people to relax. Also, they had water kegs on the lawn, but were empty when I tried to get some water.
Other than the parking, water and bathroom situation, I thought the event was well put together and ran quite smoothly. Because there were so many breweries, lines were relatively short.
My favorite beer was the Watermelon from Horny Goat. I’ve passed Horny Goat in Milwaukee many times so was pleased I got to try one of their brews. They were out of their other two offerings by 3pm (two hours in) which suited me fine as I wanted the Watermelon… but others were leaving the line a bit crabby.
Because of the extreme heat, we didn’t stay the full fest and I couldn’t drink as much beer as I would have liked. I had 17 tickets left at the end of the fest (started out with 25) and felt a bit sad I couldn’t use them.
On the long walk back to the car, my flip flop broke! Eek! So I had to gimp back to the car, dying to go pee because I refused to go in the porta potties onsite.
All in all, it was a decent festival but could tweak some areas to make it amazing festival. I’ll probably skip the fest next year unless the weather is nice and cool and the breweries promise to offer some more unique choices.

The Midwest Brewer’s Fest seemed very well planned. For a $ 40 General Admission ticket ($ 50 at the gate) attendees received a beautifuly printed, perfect bound brochure containing detailed Fest info which included a foldout pocket map of the festival grounds/​beer tents and a description of each participating brewery with room for taking notes; a plastic beer ‘glass’, and 25 tickets for 2 oz. beer pours. If you’re doing the math, that’s just over 3 pints of beer. Of course it’s difficult to do just a 2 oz. pour from a tap, so I estimate if you used all your tickets you probably had 4 pints of beer.
I’m a lightweight and so is my husband, so we were more interested in tasting a variety of brews than in quantity of beer received, so the small pours were great for us. We got to taste a lot of beers, though we didn’t get to them all. Our palate and backs tired out well before we began to feel the beer.
There were four beer tents (A-​D) with 14 brewers each. That’s 56 brewers! Each brewery brought at least two beers. There were kegs of cold, filtered water all along both sides of each tent so attendees could wash their beer glasses, cleanse their palates, and stay hydrated. There was also a VIP tent, but not having VIP tickets I can’t tell you what went on there. The lines for beer were generally short. Even the long lines were not a long wait. It was smart of the organizers not to oversell tickets.
There was a designated smoking area occupied mostly by cigar smokers. It was not a smokers ghetto, but rather set up under a tree with some cushy outdoor couches and chairs. Cigars were sold on site. Now I have been known to appreciate a cigar with a stout or porter, but I do wish the designated smoking area had been at one end of the grounds or the other. Having it alongside the beer tents meant I often had cigar smoke with my ale whether I wanted it or not. There were also individuals who felt the designated smoking area did not apply to them and who hit me in the face with a blast of smoke while I was waiting in line for a beer. Not appreciated.
Food was exceptional for a fest of this kind. Way better than hot dogs spinning on a roller. Heaven on Seven was there, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Windy City Paella, Aurelio’s Pizza. I had paella and it was delicious. There was plenty of shade and seating in the food tent too.
I heard some folks paid $ 10 dollars for parking. We parked free near the Village Hall and walked no further than everyone else.
My biggest disappointment had nothing to do with the Fest itself, but with the brewers’ offerings. There was an overabundance of pale ales, IPAs, and wheat beers. There were quite a few pumpkin ales too. My husband and I had really hoped some of the brewers would bring out their less pedestrian brews. There was not one sour to be had. There were a few Belgian abbey styles. At least one porter and one stout. We thought surely with so many brewers and beers that we would be able to extend our experience of what we know as beer, but there was not the variety of styles that we had expected. We were pleased to find mead and several brewers of ciders and perrys.
The purpose of the fest (beyond celebrating craft beer) was to raise funds to restore the Plainfield Riverfront (the venue for the Fest) and support Pints for Prostates.
I confess I won the tickets as a (very new) Unilocal Elite. Had we spent $ 80 to find less variety than we expected, we might have been very disappointed because $ 80 buys dinner and a couple choice selections of beer at a good beer bar. I would still be impressed by the organization and experience of the Fest itself. Perhaps the organizers can persuade the brewers to take more chances with their offerings next year.

I chose to take my 21 year old son to this event.
Why?
To open the horizons and expand the palette of a young would be beer connoisseur?
No.
Free beer for the frat boy.
And my usual companion, my husband, experienced an untimely hospitalization.
Didn’t stop us though…
This was a great event. There was a ton of beer and short lines.
The only negative was the location. I made several attempts to find a logical economical way to not have to drive to this festival and there were none. Perhaps the event coordinators should consider this because it is an all day BEER festival. I do appreciate the discounted designated driver tickets, but I do not have a single friend who would want to wander around a 90 degree shadeless field and watch me partake in sampling 25 tickets worth of beer. I digress.
What I really enjoyed about the fest was the availability of the beer. All of the lines were totally accessible, not a truly long wait to be found. Each brewer had a couple or three offering’s. My favorite brew was the first I tried, Dragon’s Milk from New Holland. Lovely rich and dark. Apparently a bourbon barrel stout, it was love at first sip.
There were a few decent and some odd food choices i.e. Gumbo and Paella. Nothing says outdoor festival like the odor of saffron wafting through the air. Notably on a 90 degree day Gumbo would not be my first choice either. I did talk some friendly young men into letting me sample theirs and Heaven on 7’s gumbo was not good, it seemed artificially thickened. The paella was actually not bad, who would have thought?
Upon recommendation I did try Bixby’s pour houses muddy pig dessert pizza. It was not my cup of tea, no matter how many times I am persuaded to try bacon and chocolate it never appeals to me but I keep trying.
The gourmet sausages were the clear winner of the day!
Overall, I thought at $ 40 per ticket (the pre-​sale price) this event was a good value and would be a great day out with the guys, girls or children allowing that they are over 21.

We have always wanted to go to a Beer Fest and when we heard about this one we jumped at the opportunity to attend. Both my wife and I agreed in advance to go outside of our comfort zone with trying styles of beer and I’m glad we did.
The venue was decent. There was a lot of space and the beer tents were set up in a row with merchandise and food to one side and the stage at the end. What I didn’t like was that there wasn’t enough chairs. Really the only place was in the food tent and a few sprinkled around here and there. It would have been nice to have a couple of smaller tents with just groups of chairs to take a load off the feet once in a while.
The selection was great. We were «only» able to sample just over 20 beers each and had no problem finding types that we normally wouldn’t drink. Our favorite ended up being the meads from B. Nektar. Who would have thunk? The Dragon’s Milk was a close second.
Another reviewer mentioned small lines and I would agree. The only time we had more than a minute or two wait was in the B. Nektar line waiting for the Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser and Evil Genius. But, a number of the brewer’s ran out starting around 4:00. If you couldn’t make it till later in the event (Ran 1:00 — 6:00) you missed out on a few of the popular ones.
We didn’t really try the food as we ate before arriving. We did like the pretzel necklaces and those helped clean the palate between samples.
We’ll be coming back next year. We had a blast and we’ll be bringing friends. Maybe we’ll graduate to GABF some year but until then, this was a good «first time» beer fest for us.

We were excited to attend the beer fest, although I was a tad apprehensive about beer, as wine and vodka are my poison of choice. My husband however will try anything, and has been exploring the craft beer world.
We enjoyed being able to taste beers that we see in stores but were hesitant on spending $$ on something we never heard of. It is a great way to step our your comfort zone and try everything!
With the two of us attending, we had over 50 tickets and each beer was (1) ticket. We ended up giving away 8 or so tickets because we had enough and someone had to drive back!
The food vendors were also a hit. Whole Foods was doing a great fondue and bread dip as well as pretzels and mustard which are great beer foods. Our favorites were Gilbert’s Sausage and Ruth Chris Steakhouse.
Everyone seemed to be fairly friendly and we chatted it up with quite a few people.
I know someone mentioned the drinking cups being plastic versus being glass, I completely agree, but also have to debate that saying with 1000+ people in attendance and 75% of them under the influence, glass would not have been a great choice in the long run.
I do wish it was a swipe card or punch card versus tickets as they were a pain to rip.
I also wish for next year there is a central location that has a level ground versus dirt and grass.
We will be attending again next year!

As a beer drinker and not a beer connoisseur, I was excited at the chance to sample all sorts of craft beers from around the US… but first thing’s first… we needed a designated because as a ligthweight drinker, I knew I was not going to be in any condition to drive at the end of this fest.
General admission ($ 50) got us 25 tickets a person to be drank out of little plastic «commemorative» cups that were pretty much drink and toss. Sadly, general admission didn’t get us any water/​pop outside of the water kegs set up throughout the festival. Only the DD ($ 10 to get in) had access to unlimited pop/​water. Ticket prices definitely felt a bit steep considering what we were getting, however since the funds were going to a good cause to help Plainfield, we were most comfortable.
They had an excellent selection of different styles… Belgians, IPAs, and my personal favorites — Stouts and Ciders (the two couldn’t be more different, I know). Short lines overall (2 min max wait for a beer) with the longest line being with the mead producer (probably a 15 minute wait) and they ran out of 3 of their 5 offerings by the time we got there. (About halfway through the fest). Being a cider fan, I think the three-​four producers that made hard cider did me in, especially after polishing a bunch of those quickly…
Foodwise, they had some nicer options than expected (hand crafted sausages, paella, standard pizza) and prices were slightly overinflated as to be expected at fests… ($ 5 for a sausage wasn’t bad, but $ 8 for a small tray of paella that was about 8 bites???)
And a shoutout to Candice and Unilocal crew who were there to represent Unilocal!Hot day like that, and you’re still repping your Unilocal pride… nice!
Verdict: At $ 50 a pop for general admission, unless you really enjoy your beer and you can handle your beer like a normal person (read, not a lightweight like me), this would be a fun festival for you.
Protips: Freeze some water bottle to bring with you in a backpack, as the water kegs will inevitable run out of water. Backpack or deep pockets is a must so that you can carry your tickets more easily… or just take the tickets and refold them so it fits better instead of the way they handed it to you as five stacks of five.

I love craft beer, so when the opportunity to attend this fest was presented in the form of free tickets, I jumped on it.
It is held next to the river in a patch of grass. Parking is not close so you have to walk a fair distance from Lockport St. to get to the main entrance.
I’ll do the rest of this review as a pro/​con list.
Pros:
beer — there was plenty of beer and the lines were short to non-​existent. I never had trouble getting something to taste.
breweries — I liked the variety of breweries that participated. I was pleasantly surprised to discover several local breweries that I had not previously heard of. In particular, I liked what I had from Atlas.
water kegs — there were numerous clean water stations all around the beer tents. They were sponsored by several businesses such as Binny’s, Two Brothers, and Whole Foods. This was very much appreciated and made for a much better experience. It allowed me to cleanse my palate, stay hydrated, and pace my drinking.
porta-​johns — there was an adequate number for the number of attendees. Almost no lines. There was even porta-​sinks to rinse your hands afterwards. None of this is the same as modern plumbing, but it was about as good as you could expect.
Cons:
tasting «cup» — I hate drinking out of plastic cups. It wasn’t a Solo cup, but I still prefer glass when sampling beers. Because it was plastic, I didn’t bother to keep it either, so it just became trash after 5 hours of use.
drink tickets — you basically trade your entrance ticket for 25 drink tickets. Each sample costs 1 drink ticket. I know it is not a huge thing, but I did not like managing a pocket full of tickets. Handing a cup and a ticket over at each station irritated me and I don’t like to be irritated when I am sampling beer.
many brewers didn’t bring their A-​list stuff — I was disappointed in some of the breweries that I was familiar with because their selections were just not the best stuff that I know they can make. I am talking about you Lagunitas, Dark Horse, and a few others.
seating — There was almost no public seating in the center of the fest. There were tables under the food tent, but that was at the far end away from the beer.
no shade — it was hot as hell, with little shade. My only sanctuary was sitting on the grass under the radio station tent because it was big and generally open.
water kegs — these were a great idea, too bad they ran out 2 hours before the fest was over. A few of them were later replenished, but it felt a little post apocalyptic with everyone searching for the last of the fresh water.
Overall, I had a pretty good time, but it wasn’t great. I like that craft brew events are gaining popularity, but it takes more than a bunch of beers to impress me. I can sit at a quite a number of fine establishments and enjoy good beer in air conditioned comfort on a comfy chair. And the price is about the same since two tickets would have cost me $ 80. I don’t know if I will be back next year.

Let me be honest, I’m not a beer snob, nor would I even consider myself a beer «person». When it comes to al-​kay-​hol, I just like what I like. And that’s really the rule, right? The Midwest Brewer’s Fest was a great way to sample some interesting (and new to me) beer, meet some great people and enjoy the sunshine.
For our General Admission Tickets, we each got a small plastic sampling glass, 25 beer tasting tickets (you could buy more tasting tix if you needed more), a map of the layout and book with the list/​names of the Brewers represented. There were about 60 Craft Brewers from East Coast to West Coast, set up under about 4 – 5 large tents, each offering at least 2 of their different brews. There were water kegs set up courtesy of Two Brothers so that folks could rinse out their glasses between pours.
I am a sucker for cute/​tongue-​in-​cheek/​punny names so besides the Hard Ciders (love Hard Cider!) and the Pumpkin beers (Fall is just around the corner!), I tried some fun ones like a Chicago brewers «Tramp Stamp» (I do NOT have one) and Oskar Blues «Mama’s Little Yella Pils» (which I loved! and Ed from Bigby’s said they just put it on tap – yay!). B Nektar’s Mead had the longest line and they ran out of all 4 – 5 of their different offerings. I loved their Zombie Killer and will look for their Vanilla Cinnamon because several people told me it was really good. I also learned that I am not a fan of IPA’s. See? I learned something about myself that day! It was also fun talking to some of the brewers and merchandisers.
There was a food tent with picnic table seating. There were only a few vendors but Bigby’s was there with their desert flatbreads and there were sausages from a local vendor (and I can’t remember their name, but their spicy pork sausage with lime cilantro was out of this world!). Some of the vendors were also selling water, gatorade and soda. There was some merchandise vendors – like vintage beer t-​shirts and re-​purposed glassware made from beer bottles. There were also some «classes» like Craft beer 101 and a Home-​brewing Q&A.
I thought the event was well laid out although the setting isn’t the prettiest, but a great thing about this event is that they are helping to raise funds in restoring the river front park which never regained it’s natural glory after the tornado back in 90.
Tips? Bring water (for hydrating yourself and for rinsing your glass in case the water kegs go dry, which they did) sunscreen, pretzel necklaces and be prepared to walk a bit from the parking lots to the river. Some folks brought their own folding lawn chairs.