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It is upon us. Take shelter. Boost your internet bandwidth. Update your ticketmaster information. Begin training your livers. 2014 Great American Beer Festival tickets go on pre-sale to AHA members at 10 a.m. MDT Tuesday, July 29.

General Public tickets are available to the general public on Wednesday morning, July 30 at 10 a.m. MDT. through Ticketmaster.

Special thanks to the Parlour Pickers for music considerations.

Here are the quick facts on this year’s Great American Beer Festival aka GABF

When:

• Thursday, Oct 2 evening session. Doors at 5:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 3 evening session. Doors at 5:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct 4 afternoon session. Doors at Noon – 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct 4 evening session. Doors at 5:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Each session has it’s own feel.  Thursday night is in my opinion the best night to attend.  Everything is available, there’s an insane excitement felt by everyone, and come on, you can afford to take Friday off to recoup, then hit all of the outside beer activities.

Friday is neat because most of the rare stuff is still available, plus if you can’t take a day off, you can go all out and not have to worry about the repercussions.

Saturday’s day session is great for those who want to try the award winners immediately after they are announced.  The award ceremony wraps right as this afternoon session begins.

Saturday’s night session might as well be Spring Break or Mardi Gras.  Avoid at all costs.

Cost:

$80 prior to taxes, $84.50 after initial fees. Prices rose by 5 dollars from last year to fund operational costs.

Where:

 What?

692 breweries and over 3,000 beers on hand.

The big change in this year’s fest is that every brewery who wanted to pour and attend the festival had the chance to apply to a lottery system to participate. All breweries who will be pour have been notified however the Brewer’s Association has not yet released that list to the public. We’ll be sure report back as soon as we find out!

Find out the full list of breweries attending this year’s Festival as well as those who won’t be back.

How to buy tickets:

• Tickets will once again be sold through Ticketmaster here.
• Tickets will sell out immediately so as Sam Jackson once eloquently put it “Hold on to your butts.” We’re talking less than 30 minutes, and perhaps even faster. 
• Absolutely make sure you have a Ticketmaster account, and if you already have one make sure all information is up to date.  That includes, address, and more importantly credit card information.
• Make sure you are completely ready at 10 a.m. If you need to block off your Outlook from 9:30 to 10:30 do it.  Last minute meetings kill dreams.
• Prepare! Login to Ticketmaster 30 minutes prior to the sale, but also have your credit card info typed out and ready to be pasted into a text field just in case. Oh and getting numerous friends to try for the entire group doesn’t hurt either.
• Remember AHA member pre-sale generally only allows 2 tickets to be purchased per transaction and general public sale allows 4 tickets to be purchased per transaction.
• Watch the clock. I generally keep my phone on hand and count down the literal seconds till 10 a.m.  Don’t knock it, it works. 
• If at first your refresh doesnt work, refresh and refresh and refresh again. I generally will keep trying for a full hour.
• Gamble. This methodology is a bit risky.  I’ve heard that buying tickets via mobile devices for Ticketmaster events may be easier. The logic is that they set aside a certain allotment of tickets just for mobile purchases and it runs through a different server, so you aren’t battling with all of the other traffic.  While I’ve only really had to try this once, it did work.  Last year tickets were available through Ticketmaster’s mobile app, this year that will NOT be an option.  If you wish to buy via mobile it has to be done through a web browser.  Again, this method is risky, don’t blame me if it doesn’t work, and buy me a drink if it does. 

Is it worth it?

The short answer is YES.  For a full write up check out last year’s GABF recap.

If you attend the festival Thursday or Friday night you’ll get to try some extremely rare beers that you’ve been dying to try.

If you attend Saturday, you’ll get to try this year’s medal winners.

You’ll always discover something amazing that you didn’t expect to try.

Brewers and founders have recently done a better job at manning their stations, meaning you’ll get a chance to meet several of the brewery celebrities who make your beer.

It’s a circus! Essentially the event is the adult version of Disney world, all of the beer is included, there’s schwag everywhere, people dress in ridiculous costumes, random things happen, like last year when Frank Thomas showed up to promote Big Hurt Beer.

In the end, if you don’t get tickets it’ll be ok. During the week of GABF the entire city of Denver raises their collective glasses to celebrate beer.  The week is filled with beer dinners, meet the brewer events, special tappings, tap takeovers, brewery tours, and much more. We’ll keep you posted with all of the happenings around town in our special GABF edition of the Denver Beer Beat. Be sure to watch for our Fantasy Brewery Draft again, and as always we’ll have full coverage of the festival so stay tuned!