The Bar Towel

If you don't follow the Toronto Craft Beer subreddit, there's been quite a bit of negative feedback over this event that took place this past weekend in Toronto. The theme was collaborative beers between Blood Brothers and other breweries.

Apparently, it was $15 to get in to this ticketed event. This included a souvenir glass, a shot of sour beer jello and no tokens. Many who attended were shocked upon entry to find that 4 oz pours were priced between $7 and $12 each. I guess that included taxes and tip, but it does work out to $35 to $70 per pint. Prices were not advertised in advance, so attendees were not aware of the pricing structure for pours until arriving and entering the venue. Not only that, but it seems many of the beers weren't even draft and poured from cans.

Relevant thread is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/torontocraftbe ... irst_time/

That's brutal.

cross-posting from reddit, but when did we revert to paying per pour at festivals? seemed like everything moved away from that to all inclusive ticket pricing years back.

This pricing seems to be inline with what Volo charges for fancy bottle pours of Lambics (around $10/5oz.). That's certainly luxury pricing, but it seems like what this event had was not in that orbit. Local stuff at those prices seems quite rich.

I saw a couple of tweets (x's?) from Max Morin (Godspeed) but he didn't name names so I wasn't sure what he was referring to.

$12 for 4oz from a can is wild.

Between insane pricing and overcrowding, I'm generally put off of most festivals and special events these days. I'm much happier having a beer or two in a taproom, grabbing some cans to-go and drinking at home or a friend's place lol. I know there are still good ones out there, but this just sounds egregious.

I remind myself that it costs nothing to walk into C'est What, to give but one example, and have thirty taps to choose from. That is a beer festival to me.

Mind, some pours are getting expensive there as well.