I recently attended the 6th Annual Brewbies Beer Fest at Bagby Beer Company in Oceanside with a large group of friends. We took the metrolink down and walked to the event so everyone was safe and overall it was a really fun event.

It was my first time attending the Brewbies beer event. I had been to Bagby once before and was stoked to be going back because it’s a beautiful space and there is lots of seating and shade. Here are my likes and gripes of the event overall:

Likes

– I love going to charity events and I am happy to contribute to Keep A Breast. Why don’t more events donate to that charity? Get it together people!

– Bagby kicks ass. We had a pre-event beer and their wait staff was attentive and knowledgeable. The outside patio bar is great for drinks and people watching.

– Great beer selection. There was so many impressive beers to choose from and I was never board with any of the tasters I had. I had sooo many tasters of the Tustin Brewing Milk Stout…. I sucked back all the Sculpin I could handle, and I really liked the Pizza Port “Hakunama Ta Tas” beer. It was mighty tasty.

Shirt, Beard and Hand model Charlie Perez

– Liked that there was multiple cold coffee taster options from a local roaster. I needed that wake-up call as I had forgotten to get coffee that morning.

– Enjoyed taking the train down to Oceanside and walking to the event. It was only a 1/2 mile from the station and getting a pizza at Breakwater before heading back was so satisfying.

Grips

– It took really long to get into the event. We waited like 45 minutes or something and the line wrapped around the building and into the street. We discovered that the possible source of the delay was that the entrance was checking names instead of scanning the printed tickets….WTF?

The Lines! The Lines!

– The event had to be oversold. The space would probably hold 500 comfortably but I think they had 900ish in attendance. I haven’t been at a more crowded event since my days going to shows at Chain Reaction. It was a constant through the crowd fight to get beer and I spent most of the time combating an impending anxiety attack. There was nowhere to stand and you were constantly “in the way” so you ended-up doing the waltz around strangers.

I had a lot of pictures of the back of people’s heads.

– Bagby has large, beautiful bathrooms with several stalls. Not sure why porta-potties were needed at this event? I guess this is not really a gripe more a question of curiosity. I would’ve stood in line to pee in a cool, un-cramped bathroom with fun wallpaper.

Despite the grips I still had fun at the end of the day. I hope that they do make some adjustments to the time it took to get in and the over-crowded nature of the event because I would love to attend again next year. I am happy to report that they were able to raise almost $50,000 in donations for the Keep A Breast Foundation that is a wonderful charity. It’s very admirable the work that was put into this event and that they were able to make a difference. Cheers 🙂