The Custard Factory Deritend reviews by real event-goers

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

An enjoyable, friendly day of sampling craft beer. Needed more seating.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

The venue worked well, light and airy. Tickets not over sold, a nice amount of people for the venue size. Impressed with the beers on offer. Not so impressed by the choice of food. 1 x stall serving savory dishes and only a small menu from them.
Disappointing that there was no "buy back" in place for the tokens, something that other beer festivals do. If the individual breweries accepted cash/card you would only pay per drink that you wanted. I understand completely why tokens are preferable, but it's a bit cheeky of Craft Brew to operate ths way.
Better info could have been provided regarding where entry to the venue was located as literally everyone naturally assumed entry would be at the front of the venue, through the main entrance, not a walk around the block in the rain and gale force winds to go round the back.
Nice little touch with the lanyard.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

The selection of craft beers was limited (so far as all of my friends who have different tastes quickly exhausted the drinks they liked at the venue). This forced people to try new drinks, which certainly isn't a bad thing, but when we had 25 token and only ~7-11 of them were on drinks we liked that isn't good.
The venue was clean, facilities (toilets) were clean and working, no fights, etc.
There weren't any directions to the venue so many (many many) people couldn't locate the venue accurately.
There weren't enough tables for the amount of people present.... German beer hall style tables would have been better for the event.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

No glass washing facility, limited beer variety, very little food so had to leave venue, overall high priced tickets for very little. Not to be repeated for us

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

£16 gets you a glass and a tote bag. I don't recall seeing that you had to buy tokens for drinks. So it worked out £6- £8 a pint. Only 2 food vendors, Shame really, we all agreed we would visit the tap houses for free next time.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

I went to the Saturday evening session, which apparently was a bit quieter than the afternoon. The selection of beers was good, and the food from the Smokehouse was tasty with generous portions. The prices were quite fair as well. While the venue itself was good, the acoustics were poor - the music tended to get lost in the high ceilings and didn't project well, so unless you were near the stage, you couldn't really her it too well. Despite this, it was still an enjoyable night out.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

I went to the Saturday evening session, which apparently was a bit quieter than the afternoon. The selection of beers was good, and the food from the Smokehouse was tasty with generous portions. The prices were quite fair as well. While the venue itself was good, the acoustics were poor - the music tended to get lost in the high ceilings and didn't project well, so unless you were near the stage, you couldn't really her it too well. Despite this, it was still an enjoyable night out.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

OK choice of beer, poor choice of food (only 2 stalls). Disappointed to find unspent vouchers couldnt be redeemed for a refund and had to spent on cans to take away.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Not many exihibitors in comparison to previous years, same with food. Music far better previously, couldn't even hear it this time. Cheaper and better selection of beers just by going out in city centre. Won't be bothering again (3rd year visitor)

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Really enjoyed the event. Could have had more food options and also surprised there weren't any bham breweries represented. Still good event just surprised not to see bham there.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Warehouse with limited choice of drinks with kids benches to sit on..not really worth the money for entry..
I'm not going to be returning to that festival.
Better off going to the Wellington pub in the city centre (way more selection of beers,ales and stouts)

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Over priced beers. One hot food stand with limited choice and expensive. £16 for wings! £8 for sausages! Difficult to find the venue’s entrance. One solo guitarist. Way too expensive overall. One hall only. Would not recommend.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Minimum viable product. Poor food options, a handful of decent craft brewers, poor signage, pints fixed at minimum £6 a piece obfuscated through token system. Felt designed to fit the most people in the room as possible, then the desperation of asking people to stay for the evening session too, presumably as the tickets hadn't sold out for the evening.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

I really enjoyed the event. Not too big but good choice of beer. Enjoyed being able to chat with the brewers. Also room to sit down to enjoy your beer and plan the next one. Music was good background not to obtrusive so could have a conversation as well. A good event look forward to the next one.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Really good atmosphere and excellent range of drinks. However, the venue could have been easier to find/better signposted.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

It was good beers were good but £2 for a third of a pint is a bit steep. Also, no signage so following the address on the ticket was no use as we just got told to go to other doors on a different street to what the ticket said.

Review of Birmingham Craft Brew Festival 2023

There was not much atmosphere on arrival. Could do with more seats and local breweries.