I'm STILL gloating about this awesome brew fest! I seriously cannot believe that this was my first time ever attending. It has honestly given me a whole new appreciation for beer. I've really grown a strong love for beer; particularly for wheat, sour, saison, kolsch and pretty much anything on the lighter and less hoppier end. What's nice about this festival is that you get to explore a variety and try so many different beer types. With over 60 different breweries on deck, you won't be able to taste them all. This makes sense as this isn't really the point (well... at least not for most people who come here). You get to try some new beers (some unreleased) and some popular favorites. It's also a great way to discover some local breweries that you may not have heard of before. Went with a group of friends and we had an absolute blast. The line to get in looked pretty long when I first arrived, but it moved seamlessly once they opened the gate around noon. We were greeted with a souvenir glass and made our way to the beer stands. The big names like Lagunitas and Russian River Brewing weren't present, but most people have either tried their beers or at least heard of them before. They're so big now that they really don't need to "advertise" at brew fests at this stage of the game. We tried LOTS of beer and for the most part, it was all pretty tasty. There were a few that really stood out to me that I have to mention because they were so damn good! *Old Caz Beer Orange Crush Imperial Sour: INSANELY scrumptious! Went back three times for this and ended up finishing the last of it. I have never heard of an Imperial Sour before but absolutely LOVED it. It's like a slightly sour, nutty, crispy, and fruity flavor. Looked up Old Caz immediately and found out that they're in Rohnert Park. Already planning on visit their brewery soon! *Canyon Lakes Brewery G.I.R. Cucumber Wheat: Sooo refreshing!!! That cucumber though! Geezus! It was like heaven in my mouth. I would sip this down so quick on a hot day. This brewery is located on a golf course in San Ramon, so I already know that I'll be there soon to check it out. *Bartlett Brewing Invoking the Muse Mixed Ferm Saison: Amazing! A very oaty and wheat forward Saison which a smooth finish. Something that I'd easily order at a pub or brewery if I saw it on the menu. Also really enjoyed Firestone Walker's Cali Squeeze Blood Orange Hefeweizen and a lovely triple IPA from a brewery that I can't remember. Had sooo much beer, but these were ones that truly stood out to me. They had a good amount of food trucks out but my friends and I ended up dining at the Old Spaghetti Factory instead. When the event in 4 hours long, it makes sense to eat before, spend most of the time drinking, and then eating afterward to get the most bang for your buck. Although I must mention that I didn't have to pay to enter this year, thanks to my free ticket from Yelp East Bay! Woot woot! The live music was great and we met some really cool people. At one point, one of my friends starting serving beer to the other patrons. It was funny to watch but she was enjoying herself. The weather was great too which was awesome since it's been raining like crazy lately. All in all, I'm impressed! I have some new breweries to check out too now and I'm excited to make my way there. I will definitely be back next year and hopefully every year after that. Such a great local brew fest! read more

See all

We go to lots of beer festivals (Covid surely slowed that down though). Been to this one six or seven years in a row (up to Covid). There are good festivals and bad festivals and this one is one of the best. Really well done and always has a lot of breweries. We prepay and get there early and get in first. For four hours we'll drink as much as we can. I've come across so many beers at this festival that I drink regularly. Nothing better than discovering a new great beer. Love the Hop Grenade home brewery tent too. Always buy the shirt. Since we cannot drive after slapping down 40 small beers (if we haven't taken an uber) we'll go to Spaghetti factory and get some ice cream for a bit. Super fun, very well run and one of the best beer festivals in California. read more

So this was my most anticipated event since everything had been on lockdown post pandemic. Beers and good weather is always a great excuse to get out and enjoy a perfect Saturday afternoon with Friends and family. They were a lot of Beer booths and Breweries which were local and some I had not recognized. It seemed like a good amount of California beers and styles were represented and n the NorCal region. There were also food trucks and live music. It generally felt good that a lot of people were just glad to be outside and be festive without worrying about wearing masks. The line to get in went smoothly and grabbing your beer tastings were a breeze. I had only stayed 2/3 through the event, but was able to try a plethora of beers from Russian River, Altamont, United Beerworks, Shadow Puppet, Pizza Port, Epidemic, and Calicraft to name a few. Dr. Hops and Persuasion from Modesto stood out. They had a triple 10% abv beer called Essential oils which was pretty smooth. Dr. Hops had Hard Kombuchas like a Mimosa and Rose with a 11% abv,. Great outing and thank you Beers Beers and More Beers for sponsoring/ hosting this event and all Beer vendors for sharing your products. Thank you City of Concord for letting the festivities be held at Todos Santos Park. read more

Another year, another great Winter Brews Festival in Concord! I am so glad that the Brewing Network chose Concord for the festival location once again. I loved all the beer booths, but I really enjoyed the home brew tent, which had a variety of something like 20 different home brews to try. Awesome! I had an amber which was very tasty. We lucked out with amazing weather. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits. Looking forward to the Summer Brew Festival...I hope they come back in June! read more

Spring Brews Festival - Festivals Near Me - Concord, California

A lot can change in a year. & in the case of the Winter Brews Festival, it was all for the better. Gone was the online prepaid ticket admission debacle of 2014 (see tirade in my previous review). I showed up right around the start time. There was a line to get in. The line moved quickly. I was inside & knocking back tasters before I even knew it. The brewfest organizers really nailed it this year. Great job & please do the same thing next year as I'm looking forward to being back for the 2016 Winter Brews Festival. I'm looking forward to being back because, as brewfests go (& I've been to quite a few), this was pretty freakin' fantastic. Lots of breweries with lots of beers? Check. No, I mean seriously, lots of breweries with lots & lots of beers? You know it. & for me, personally, there was also the maximum coolness of hanging out with Jeremy from Knee Deep, Chris & Mike from White Labs, & Jamil from Heretic at various times during & just after the brewfest. Like I said, pretty freakin' fantastic. Now, it wasn't all immaculate perfection. Ideally, there could've been more food trucks, hand wash stations & even more porta-potties (there actually were a lot of porta-potties but the wait still got long later in the brewfest). Though these things could've been better, they weren't glaringly bad compared to other brewfests. Hence, 5 star rating. Not quite perfect, but really just about as good as it gets. read more

We've been coming to Spring Brews Festival for several years now dating back to when it was known as the Winter Brews fest. By "we" I mean myself and my lovely wife, kicking and screaming the whole way. The things she does to make me happy. This being our fifth year attending in a row, we were very fortunate to score a pair of tickets courtesy of Yelp. It doesn't really factor into review since I had planned to go anyways. This just meant we had some extra dough to buy an early dinner afterwards in order to soak up all that delicious beer. Even though we went to the front of the line, I noticed that they reorganized the line in a much more orderly fashion. In addition, they began allowing people in slightly before noon even though the pours weren't too begin until the magic hour. This seems to be an improvement over years past with the line snaking around the block. Once the brews began pouring they didn't stop. All the big names you could ask for were there. Okay most of them. No Moonraker in sight. Most of them were pouring stuff I hadn't tried yet. A few phoned it in with kegs of stuff you can buy at your local grocery store and some just sent cans which is kinda lame. However as a whole, most breweries brought unique beers to try. Which is really the whole point to a craft beer festival. With 60 or so breweries offering 2-4 or more beers on tap it's difficult to try it all but I sure gave it a go. The key is to begin with the lighter stuff, then slowly move to the heavy hitters. Of course this could also mean missing out when the beer n00bs suck up all the DIPA and Triples before you get the chance to try it. Since 2018 is the year of the haze most breweries seemed to offer one of those this year. Nobody did it better than Almanac with their Don't Call it Frisco. I enjoy that Drake's usually does a special beer at predetermined times. This year was Black Label Drakonic. More breweries need to change it up like this. This has always been my favorite Bay Area craft beer festival. Even still, there is room for improvement. I think they've officially hit ticket capacity as this year seemed more crowded than ever. Also the layout seemed to put more vendors in the middle near the sidewalks which means there was almost no room to walk with lines on both sides. Why was Rare Barrel right in the middle? You know they've gonna have a big ass line! The water for the portable sinks also ran out before the event got started as did the hand sanitizer in the port-a-potties. The food vendors are an after thought filled with mostly no name food trucks. That could use improvement or just make room for more drinking space and get rid of them altogether. None of this keeps the event from being five stars. I'll be back again next year regardless if they make these few minor improvements or not. 10th Annual Spring Brews Fest here I come! read more

See all

First, the good stuff, which mostly outweighs the bad, hence the four stars: - Walking distance from home (for us) and plenty of parking or BART-able (for others.) Yay, Concord! - Fantastic beer options, including home brew, all with short and/or fast moving lines. - Gorgeous weather and location with plenty of shade for those of us who burn just thinking about sunshine. - Plenty of porta-potties (port-o-potties?). - The live music provided a nice soundtrack to the event. Now for the areas that could use improvement: - The line to get in was a mess. Thank goodness we bought pre-sale tickets and someone told us we could awkwardly move up through the day-of ticket purchasers. - I wish they had communicated/enforced smoke-free downtown. If they work on those two things, I think their subsequent beer fests can be five star ones for sure. Looking forward to June! read more

I gave 3 stars for 2014 and it should've been 2. For 2015 it should be 5 stars but I'm going to hold back until next year before I am comfortable with 5 stars. One huge issue with last year was the line. It took almost 2 hours to get in. This year it was pretty smooth...get your ID checked, ticket scanned and you're in. The wait was minimal. The organizers clearly realized what was wrong with 2014 edition and corrected most issues. There was no lack of breweries present and good beer to be consumed. There was some major players present and interesting conversations to be had if you're an aspiring (home)brewer. I had a good time. Great time even. But for perfect rating I would like to see more bathrooms and food trucks. Waiting for 10 minutes for a No 1 in line is no bueno. And so is not 30 minutes for fries. Blaming the organizers for food truck line is probably not fair. But next year they should have more and that will surely help. If they correct those two things I will have no problem correcting the rating either. Good job but let's keep it going... read more

This was my first time going to the Spring Brews Festival and it was sooo worth it! All the different vendors were so nice and friendly and open to answering questions. I'm glad there were so many toilets but sad that we ran out of water to wash our hands so soon. Is that gonna keep me from going next year? Heck No!!!! Can't wait till next year read more

See all

So happy the WBF was in Concord this year! Ample parking available and lots of local restaurants surrounded the area which made it ideal for dining after the event (ie, sober us up ha.) It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we got there about 12:15pm. The lines were a bit long but they moved quick enough. Once inside there was ample beer to be tasted followed by the awesome live music. I supported the event and bought a brown hoodie for $30, yahoo. Hope they have the WBF here again next year!! read more

Spring Brews Festival - Good times! - Festivals Near Me - Concord, California

A fun festival with lots of beer options, good music (the Jimi Hendrix tribute band rocked!), and a couple of food vendors. The beer lines moved surprisingly fast given the number of people attending. The longest I had to wait for beer was under 60 seconds. Not a lot of annoying drunkards, either! I didn't see any puking or fighting. Overall, a great scene and a beautiful day. Since there wasn't a lot of food here, it's probably better to fill up beforehand. I mean, how much beer can you drink on an empty stomach? Tickets were $35 in advance. Not bad for what you get! I hope they'll do this again. It was a blast. Todos Santos Plaza is a great spot for an event like this. read more

Tasting beer from local breweries, what can be better than that? The location was nice since it was just a few blocks away from the Concord bart station. Being close to mass public transportation is definitely more safer to the public because most people took the bart instead of driving. They also had a thing where designated drivers didn't have to pay to get in which was nice. Once you get in, it was a free for all. Unlimited pours of delicious beer from about 15 microbreweries. Quite a few of them were serving their winter brews which was really cool because I love seasonal beers. There was also a tent serving oatmeal raisin flavored beer, chocolate stout, and champegne honey ale. I loved the uniqueness of those beers. I wanted to try all of them, but they had about 30 different kinds! One bad thing was they ran out of the glass cups they were giving out by 1 pm. The festival started at 12 pm! How can they run out so quickly?! They gave us another festival's left over glasses later which was better than drinking beer out of a plastic cup, but I prepaid for my admission, I feel like I should have gotten the correct glass. All in all, it was a nice day, was able to listen to great live music, and was able to drink delicious beer. I think this was a Saturday well spent! I would definitely come again next year. read more

It's in my hometown so that's 3 stars right there. From the outside looking in I was unsure if beer tasting in the middle of town would work but once I got in I was pleasantly surprised. It was a very well organized event with plenty of beer to taste. The lines for beer were all quick and efficient and there was plenty of room to hang out or lounge around with your friends. Bathrooms were surprisingly plentiful and moving efficiently considering the amount of people there were. I couple issues I had were the beer vendors should have some line management as it was sometimes hard to decipher the lines from the people simply just hanging out in front of the booth they just got their beer from. Also, the food to beer ratio was off. About 4-5 more food options would have been ideal. Overall it's a fun event to have in the city I grew up in. read more

TL;DR: 2014 was a great timet! Get there early, because the lines do start to get a little long. 50 craft breweries dispensing a reasonable variety of beers. We had every intention of getting there early, but managed to only arrive right on time. I had previously heard complaints about issues with the line, but the staff seemed to have the entrance necessities down pat. We waited less than 5-10 minutes to get inside. Once inside, the various distributors we're lining the plaza in such a way that no area seemed too crowded. There were lines, to be sure, especially as the day crept on, but it never was too difficult to walk around. A few things keeping me from a 5 star review: seemed like pretty much everyone was offering IPA's, or variety of IPA's. Some brewers ONLY had IPA's. I do like them, but a larger diversity of beer styles would have been appreciated. Secondly, more port-o-johns. The lines for these started to get a little ridiculous. They were clean for the most part (due to respectful patrons?) but there just weren't enough. 4 hours of beer drinking leads to a lot of folks who need to use the bathroom. A few food vendors helped you put a decent base in your stomach so you wouldn't get too tipsy. I didn't see anyone particularly acting out of sorts or obnoxiously drunk. Again, wouldn't have minded more choices. Overall I had a great deal of fun, and would do again. I think there's a summer one coming up :) read more

Super fun event :) If you like beer make sure you make it next year (last Saturday in January). Walking distance form BART, great food inside and great food at restaurants after. We've been lucky the last few years and had gorgeous weather! Adn the bands are always so much fun! read more

I had a great time at the Winter Brew fest last weekend in Concord. I hope it returns next year! The line to get in was a bit long and mis-managed but they eventually got it right and we got in. The beer was great and there was plenty of it. read more

I went to the Winter Brew Festival with a couple of friends. We got there a little before the gates opened and didn't wait long to get in. The breweries were organized in alphabetical order. The beer selection was great and we certainly tasted our fair share. The music was good, I really enjoyed the Jimi Hendrix band. My only suggestion would be to add one or two more food trucks and more porta potties. The lines weren't bad during the first half, but it was crazy during the second half. Other than that, very well done! read more

We went to the festival for the first time in Todos Santos Plaza and it was well-worth money worth spent if you love beer. Weather was great, the lines are not bad at all, and live music was awesome! read more

This festival was the shit! Tons of great beers all delicious and it was down the street from my house. One of my favorite bands (Fortunate Youth) came all the way from LA to play the festival. I got so wasted by the end of it. Overall it was a great time and i just bought my tickets for 2014 read more

2013 was awesome. 2014 = FAIL. Buying an advanced ticket online and showing up on time gets you nothing more than a kick to the junk. We missed out on an hour of beer tasting (that we already paid for), because some idiot decided to change the admissions process. The apology was nice, but a refund would have been better. read more