Why does Beer Advocate’s annual Extreme Beer Fest sell out of tickets almost instantly? Let’s see. Beers brewed with Japanese sake, with dandelions and elderberries, with chipotle peppers; beers inspired by cocktails like Bloody Marys or White Russians; kombucha beer, pineapple upside-down cake beer; sour beers, smokey beers, pretty much anything you can imagine. Tickets for this year’s event, to be held March 21-22 at Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center, go on sale for $55 at noon on Saturday, Nov. 16. Need more reasons to pick up a pass? Read on.
A ticket provides you with unlimited samples of over 240 “extreme” beers from more than 60 breweries, doubling the amount from previous years. Beer education seminar tickets are also available for an extra $20, for the scholar among all you functioning alcoholics. Sponsored by Dogfish Head, a brewery known for throwing typical stylistic guidelines for suds out the window, EBF will also include local Massachusetts breweries like Samuel Adams, Night Shift, Jacks Abby, and Tree House Brewing, as well as favorites like Allagash, Crooked Stave, The Lost Abbey, and Cigar City.
Mostly, this is an event that every self-proclaimed beer geek should go to at least once. A warning: this isn’t a festival where you bring your Bud Light buddy. You will probably lose a friend and turn someone off of beer forever — picky palettes need not apply. Come sample the rare and unusual, and be disgusted and inspired at the same time.
[Photo credit: Laurie Swope for The Boston Globe]
