Belmar Beer on the Pier

        This past Saturday, September 25th, I attended the 1st annual Belmar Beer on the Pier festival on the pier on the Shark River in Belmar, NJ.  Fellow blog contributor, Josh, and I decided to purchase the VIP tickets that allowed us early entry and access to a special VIP tent that was to feature some rarer beers, a small buffet, and a commemorative beer on the way out.  We pretty much learned that all of that was BS.  Yes there were more beers in the tent, yes there was a small, VERY SMALL, buffet and yes there was a commemorative beer, for some people, on the way out.  The special beers were brought out to the general admission ticket holders after the VIP period ended.  The buffet was enough for maybe 20 people and they did not brew enough of the commemorative beers.  All in all they just underestimated how many people purchased VIP tickets.  They should have limited the VIP tickets to the amount of gift bags they had available and then planned food accordingly for that many people.
         Ok so that was the one negative of the event.  Everything else was overwhelmingly good.  The beer selection was limited to two drafts for every brewery represented, most breweries were just represented by Hunterdon Distributors sales reps.  A few of the local breweries and brewpubs sent actual brewers or other brewery employees.  Of those two beers per brewery, the selection was amazing.  Our consensus overall beer of the day was Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, with a close 2nd for Oskar Blues GUBNA.  A few of the other rarer beers included Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog, Lagunitas Maximus IPA, Stone Cali Belgique, and River Horse Hippolantern.  There are way too many pictures to post so just click here for a picture of every beer sampled between the two of us.  The big surprise of the day was newcomer East Coast Beer Company with their Beach Haus Pilsner.  East Coast has only been brewing for a few months and this is their first offering, available on tap and in bottles, but it tasted like they've been doing it for years.  It was a very clean, simple, crisp pislner.  I've never really been wowed by a pilsner, but this was as close as it gets.  I'd absolutely recommend picking up a 6-pack of this very drinkable pilsner.
       i'd absolutely recommend this event to anyone who loves hanging out down the shore with some great beer.  Next year's event is already scheduled for September 24th.  I'll definitely attend, but might think twice about shelling out the extra $10 for VIP.  Although VIP ticketholders have received an email about another special gift to be picked up at a later date.  I'm thinking it was the beer that was being brewed during the event as part of what was supposed to be a homebrewing demonstration, but looked more like a few guys making beer quietly and answering questions if asked.  I'm giving the event 3.5 pints out of 5 but I'm assuming there were just some first year glitches.  Next year promises to be bigger and better and its a must attend event in my book.