Mikkeller Beer Celebration (Boston 2017)

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Was this any good last year? I was out of town and didn't bother paying attention to it.
 
General consensus (I wasn't there) seemed to be it was great although the selection not on the same level as Copenhagen (which is stupidly good). In fairness the first year of the Denmark festival was full of shelf beers until Mikkel started hassling the brewers to bring their A game. I'm expecting the second year for Boston to be a step up now it's proven itself.

Here's a link to the app with the beers that were on in CPH last weekend.

https://itunes.apple.com/no/app/mikkeller-beer-celebration-copenhagen/id1219226987
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.mikkeller.mbcc

I'm planning on attending.
 
I thought it was a lot of fun last year. Awesome weather helped. It'll be interesting to see if they make VIP worth it this year. Last year it was nice getting in early, but since so many breweries didn't collect tickets, it wasn't really worth the extra money.
 
I thought it was a lot of fun last year. Awesome weather helped. It'll be interesting to see if they make VIP worth it this year. Last year it was nice getting in early, but since so many breweries didn't collect tickets, it wasn't really worth the extra money.

not to mention the "special VIP beers" were just run of the mill warpigs beers. I don't even think I went back to the VIP area once I had checked it out the first time. Would be nice if they made the VIP a bit better this year. Overall though I thought it was a great time (agree though that the actual list except bokkereyder was nowhere near the offerings of the Copenhagen fest)
 
Yeah - the VIP section was completely forgettable (didn't remember till you mentioned it!). Unless I know in advance that VIP will be worth it, i'll probably pass on it this year.
 
I'm not into beer festivals, but bought tickets on a whim. GF and I had an awesome time.

Place wasn't too crowded, the wait for beers was never too long, and the session length was really reasonable. Oh, and Bokkereyder!

Assuming the cost of tickets doesn't skyrocket, I fully intend on going again.
 
This is good news.

IMG_3386.png
 
Was this any good last year? I was out of town and didn't bother paying attention to it.

I was thoroughly disappointed. The first night they stopped pours insanely early (like 90 minutes before the listed end time), and a half hour early for subsequent sessions after widespread outrage. (For comparison's sake, Shelton seems to go pretty much exactly to the posted end time.) There were also far too few watering stations. The music was hugely annoying. The VIP offerings were a sad joke unworthy of the extra money. And given all of the above, the ticket prices were an especially poor value (again using the far better Shelton Festival as my primary point of comparison, since I attended both last year about a month apart).

If I were local I'd be hesitant as hell to go back; as an out of towner, I'd be reticent to do so even if I got free tickets, because it just isn't that good. The event is run by Crash Line, which is a concert promoter that, prior to last year's poor showing, had no beer event experience.
 
Very interested in attending this year. I was in Belgium on my honeymoon last year otherwise I would have likely attended then as well.
 
Last year in Boston was a really good time. Great brewers, nice layout, decent and plenty of food options. I feel like this fest had less of a ticker/craft beer psychopath vibe, just people enjoying the beer and weather. Definitely planning on attending again.
 
I was just at MBW and MBCC and had a blast. I had no plans to attend the one in Boston, but when they announced the dates, I realized I already had flights booked arriving that weekend from PDX to head up to HF that next week, and then a bunch of college buddies wanted to get together for a drinking weekend somewhere.... So I'm in! There are a few beer geeks in our group, but I doubt we'll do more than one session, and probably just regular plebeian tickets.
 
I had a great time last year despite the poor VIP experience. I definitely wouldn't buy into that unless they revamp it and post better information about it. Thinking unlimited pours would prove to be valuable in this situation didn't turn out to be that way.
 
Somehow missed this thread until now... which I'm somewhat glad about. I felt that last year's event was good, not amazing. I would have convinced myself to go again this year probably, because a trip to Boston is easy, etc., but I'm glad I don't have to since Zwanze day is the same time and I won't miss Zwanze.

For anyone who's on the fence, the main reasons I thought it was "good, not amazing" are:
  • Some breweries really brought incredible things, many did not. Some of those that did ran out very fast, some brought enough beer for everyone.
  • VIP section wasn't amazing, as others have said, but that didn't bother me too much. It was still a bunch of ticks, many of which, though "regular" war pigs beers, were very good.
  • Overall, I got a feeling of the festival as a money grab. I think partly this is because the Euro-style of beer festivals doesn't appeal to the ticker in me (thankfully this doesn't apply to VIP tickets), but also partly because taps closed early (but the Mikkeller pay-tent was still open the full time).
  • Organization wasn't amazing, but this is probably a first-year pain, not something I'd expect to see in the future.
I'd probably still have gone again this year, but of the various festivals I go to every year, this would probably earn the "least exciting festival I'd still return to" label...
 
Seems like tickets are delayed over a month from where they were last year :oops:.

Planning a trip out east for CW pickups and trying to decide whether to hit Portland (never been) or head into Boston for this. Seems like a packed weekend of festivals on the east coast (CBC+ barrel aged beer fest in Portland + Zwanze). What a time to be alive....
 
We’re returning to Boston 9/22 & 9/23. Specially priced early bird tickets available for the next 48 hours! New this year is unlimited sampling for ALL attendees. Grab your tickets now:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copenh...ston-september-22-23-2017-tickets-35755232864

MfGIRSr.png


edit: planned on doing Saturday day session, as I did last year, but w/ Zwanze being the same day I might opt for Friday evening.

Also looks like ticket price increased pretty significantly. Paid $40 for an early bird last year & this year it's nearly $70.
 
Last edited:
We’re returning to Boston 9/22 & 9/23. Specially priced early bird tickets available for the next 48 hours! New this year is unlimited sampling for ALL attendees. Grab your tickets now:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copenh...ston-september-22-23-2017-tickets-35755232864

MfGIRSr.png


edit: planned on doing Saturday day session, as I did last year, but w/ Zwanze being the same day I might opt for Friday evening.

Also looks like ticket price increased pretty significantly. Paid $40 for an early bird last year & this year it's nearly $70.
Looks like GA includes unlimited sampling now. Same prices as EBF early bird except they don't have fees.
 
Looks like GA includes unlimited sampling now. Same prices as EBF early bird except they don't have fees.

Honestly, if you go at a normal pace, the lines prevent you from drinking much more than the amount of tokens we were given last year. Granted, I didn't use the tokens at a handful of the stations last year, but even so, I don't think the unlimited samples justifies a 75% increase in ticket cost... I'm not saying it's a deal breaker for me, but that it's a substantial increase no matter how you look at it.

Either way, looks like a nice lineup of breweries and I might make the Fri. evening session.
 
Honestly, if you go at a normal pace, the lines prevent you from drinking much more than the amount of tokens we were given last year. Granted, I didn't use the tokens at a handful of the stations last year, but even so, I don't think the unlimited samples justifies a 75% increase in ticket cost... I'm not saying it's a deal breaker for me, but that it's a substantial increase no matter how you look at it.

Either way, looks like a nice lineup of breweries and I might make the Fri. evening session.
I definitely agree. Unlimited sampling just leads to more drunk people and someone throwing up in a trash can.

How big were the pours last year?
2oz., which I believe is the limit by law in Massachusetts for sampling. Though a lot of people were just filling your cup to the brim. I'm not sure how these larger glasses for the Guld tickets work with the law.
 
Looks like the VIP/one-hour early entry comes with a "larger sampling glass". Seems like the perfect way to measure my VIP dong vs. the plebeian GA attendees.








Really, though, I'll be there with a bunch of old-school college friends, half of which are TB-approved beer geeks, and half of which are getting away from their families and likely to be the "drunk people throwing up in a trash can." It all adds up to 100% fun. We're all VIP for the Saturday day session.
 
Terrible drunk jokes aside, I am curious to see how this one compares to the one over in Copenhagen. I definitely like the one hour early entry for VIP vs. 20 minutes over there. The tickets are cheaper here too, although there seems to be quite a bit fewer breweries on the list. One of the highlights for me over there was the international area with a bunch of countries you would not think of as beer destinations pouring some pretty decent stuff.
 
Hey guys! We're a bunch of Norwegians flying in to Boston on September 19th. Would love to link up with some locals for a beer/share/trade or semi-consensual intercourse.
 
Look for 1 or 2 "cheap" Saturday Night (Bla) tix if anyone is looking to unload. Can also trade beer for them. Let me know!
 
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