So I mentioned earlier that this year all beer will cost 1-2 tokens. It did say that on their site. Now it says 4%abv or below will be 1 token and anything above that will be 2-4 tokens. They claim again this year, like they did last year, that 90% of the 2-4 token beers will cost 2 tokens. I'd say less than 20% of the 2-4 token beers last year cost 2 tokens. It was 3 and 4 for almost everything. In fact, there were many 4%abv beers that cost 2 tokens and some even 3 tokens. Any real specialty beers or anything 8%abv or more was pretty much 4 tokens. Epic didn't have anything for less than 3 tokens.
I don't mean to bitch, but getting a pour into a 5oz sample cup means you're getting about 4oz of beer, so many of the beers would essentially cost $9-$12 per bottle in an event that you have to pay to enter. I want to try lots of samples. So I figure besides the two $50 VIP tickets I bought I'll load up my wristband with another $50 to spend on samples with the expectation that I might have to add even more. I could spend the night at one of the nice beer bars (The Bayou, The Beerhive, Beer Bar, to name a few) and spend far less and have a nice selection of beers.
Anyway, I'm happy with the venue change and I think the RFID wristbands are really gonna speed things up. I noticed a few local breweries have two booths, a 4%abv booth and a "High Point" booth. That's smart. You can serve samples on draft at the 4% booth and keep the lines really short without making people who want those samples wait behind people who are having their sample poured out of a bottle.
