Oregon Brewers Festival: Brewers Brunch Review

I’d never been to the Brewers Brunch as part of the Oregon Brewers Festival tradition, so when my friend Ben asked four months ago if we wanted to go, I said “of course!” I wasn’t sure what this brunch might entail, but I imagined a reasonable breakfast spread, a bunch of beer enthusiasts, and of course some of the delicious beers we’d sample at the brewers festival once the event got under way. The OBF site said we’d get tickets for beer, a t-shirt, food, and then get to be in a parade. Sounds good so far!

First, someone didn’t tell them that “brunch” is served at a different time than breakfast; or mainly that 9am is really early for brunch. Ugh. You don’t set the alarm to go to a brunch!

Kathy and I got to PGE park, locked up our bikes, and waited in line with Ben and LK to get our mugs, tickets, and shirts. Since Ben had purchased the tickets, his was the only name on the list. At no point did they make sure any of us were actually 21! Plus, we got wristbands that would allow us into the festival without being carded! Nice little OLCC age-check loophole for those that would abuse such a thing.

The mug came with three orange tickets and a blue one. Nobody told us what they were for. We opined that the OBF had finally moved away from wooden tokens and gone to paper tickets just like the Winter Ale Festival. We figured that our tickets would also be good at the festival. Not so! They were only good for Widmer beers served at breakfast!

An interesting discrepancy: our t-shirts called it the “Brewers Lunch” not “brunch.” What’s that about?

Now, a brewers brunch should have beer, right? Maybe special beer that nobody else will get, or at least early samples of beer that will be at the festival? Yeah, not at this brunch. We could have Widmer Hefeweizen or Halo IPA. Not even their OBF beer was on tap! What gives, man? What did my $20 get me?

At least the food was pretty decent. Your basic eggs, sausages, potatoes, and fruit brunch with some muffins and danishes. Nothing fancy, but the fruit was really good. Dining at the Widmer beer garden in PGE Park was a little weird, what with the folks at the MAC Club exercising overhead and watching us, but it was a sunny morning so that’s not too bad.

All in all, I wouldn’t spend the money on the brewers brunch again. It was fun to hang out with my friends, but we were going to do that all afternoon on the waterfront anyway. The shirt is nice, and the parade afterward was pretty fun, but I didn’t need to get up early to get a shirt, a mug, and go for a walk downtown.

Next time, I’d like to see the beer tickets be transferrable to the OBF for beer there. Who needs to ruin their tastebuds early in the morning on boring beer you can get any day of the year? I’d also like to see more communication around what’s going on and what the brunch is about. And for god’s sake, start the brunch at 10am at the earliest! By the time we got to the waterfront and entered the festival, it was 11:30 and none of the breweries were able to serve beer until 12pm. Brunch could last an hour and a half, then we parade, then we enjoy delicious beer.

The lesson learned is that I can use the time to sleep in and prepare myself for a day spent trying interesting beer and hanging out in the sun.

Maybe next year we’ll try the Brewers Dinner…