The biggest question on the minds of beer geeks after attending Saturday’s beer festival at the Echoplex: Have any of the organizers actually been to a beer fest before?

For all the things that were right (great beer, great food, great people), there were just as many things that went wrong (long lines, cramped venue, sweltering heat).

On the heels of such a successful beer festival last month, its perplexing that the organizers couldn’t foresee the inevitable popularity of their own event.

But before offering up our too much of  our own opinions of the festival, let’s take a look around the web and see what other people had to say.

Before making it through the gate, beer geek Ben Wideman waited in line for over 3 hours.  Once he made it in, he got to try all the beers he was there for, but most of the pub grub was gone.

Pat from EatingLA started her post by praising the taco truck, which offered up sustenance for the omnivores in the crowd.  She finally braved up and tried the lengua!  Nice work Pat.  You’ll be eating cabeza in no time.

Pat tried about 12 of the 28 beers on tap and it’s obvious she knows how to pick ‘em:

My favorite beers? Of course, I didn’t get them all, but I’d have to say the most interesting were the Bruery’s Cuvee Jeune Young Lambic, Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA and Uncommon Brewers’ Siamese Twin Belgian style Dubbel. Also notable were Taps’ strong but well-balanced Barleywine and Craftsman’s tasty Scotch Isle Ale.

Veggie food blogger Kirby Von Scrumptious knew this was an event she couldn’t miss, and bought her tickets online as soon as she heard about it. She managed to take some great food shots, and enjoyed the Hefeweizen cupcakes.   But most important, the beer:

There were varieties for every taste, from light and smooth TAPS’ Belgian White, to Telegraph‘s bold 10% ABV Rhinocerous Rye Barleywine. The most unusual beer that I tried was definitely The Bruery‘s Cuvee Jeune Young Lambic: the sour notes were so strong that it tasted like orange juice. My favorite beer of the day also came from The Bruery: the Tradewinds Tripel, an interesting Golden Ale with a touch of rice and Thai basil.

The Uncouth Gourmands praised the event as a Wonderland of Beer, and even made a little beer report card!  At the top of their list was the Telegraph Rhinoceros Rye Barleywine, which was “bold, resonant and delicious!”

It also looks like they got to try some of the elusive Firestone Parabola that made a brief appearance. This is an incredible oaky, vanilla-y, boozy stout reminiscent of one of their Anniversary beers (maybe one of the main blends?  Beer geeks, help me out on this), and anyone who got a pour was very lucky.  From the Uncouth Gourmand blog:

The boys below are the ones that checked the time and had us rush to the Firestone Walker booth for the rotating tap that only came once around 6p. They are sort of our heroes as they introduced us to our favorite drink of the day. It was dark, refreshing, and yummy and so were the fellows!

Uncouth indeed.

Foodventures had a good time at the event, and realized, like many others in attendence, that waiting in line was for chumps.

Sorry to all the folks my friends and I cutted in front of… multiple times! Seriously, after one 20-minute wait for 3 ounces of beer, we decided to wise up Echo Park style and just weaved in where we could. Thankfully, folks were to oblivious, shy or drunk to call us out.

As for the beer?

Given how hot and crazy crowded the spot was, my faves of the day were definite on the light and refreshing side, including the juicy, citrusy Orange Wheat from Hangar24, the Tradewinds Tripel from Bruery and the Carlsbad Hefeweizen from Pizza Port.

The LA Times Daily Dish had a great post that you should read next, that highlighted plans for next year.

An outdoors, nighttime event is the eventual goal of the festival’s organizer, the Los Angeles Craft and Artisanal Beer Appreciation League, said member Ben Ling. For the first year, however, he and his colleagues decided to do an indoor event, initially expecting perhaps 300 attendees. There were logistical bumps: Until last week, LA CABAL thought it would have four pouring locations to spread out the 28 beers on tap; there were just two. Ling said that an hour into the festival, around 3 p.m., the lines were longer than he’d hoped, but said it was sorted out quickly: “People who showed up early probably had a rougher start.” Ensuring a quality experience for such a quantity of people was a tricky negotiation: “We’d rather have 500 happy people than 1,000 disappointed.”

By 1:30 p.m., half an hour before the doors were to open, the line of people wanting to buy tickets stretched more than a block. Amy Krider and Rich Shiba arrived at 3 p.m. and heard it would be a two-hour wait. They left, walked up the stairs from Glendale Boulevard to Sunset and had a few drinks at nearby El Prado. They returned at 6 p.m. and got into the festival quickly. Both expressed positive opinions about the festival and volunteer bartenders, but Shiba said he thought he’d have more opportunity to interact with the brewers. “It’d be awesome to go talk to the guys from Green Flash.” (read the rest at the Daily Dish)

So what did you think of LA’s first Craft Beer Fest?  What were your favorite beers, what did you like, and what would you change?  Share your thoughts in the comments.

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