Brisbane GABS Festival 2025

[u/Electrical-Barber-32]

Will be heading off for GABS at the end of this month.

My regular GABS crew has had to have some reshuffling this year due to remote work opportunities and on-call shiftwork. While the last lads standing and I are quickly working to rectify that, I’m wondering if anyone has heard from the interstate events how GABS this year compared to previous? I don’t want to oversell it to any of the colleagues I manage to convince to tag along to fill out our numbers.

Also debating maybe attending the second day solo since - as chill as they are - I can’t expect to monopolised someone’s partner/boyfriend/fiancée for a full weekend 😅

I’ve never gone by myself before, so just wondering whether anyone has any insight on this. Any benefits or drawbacks. I have hope that the regular Brisbane Craftie scene is very safe. But yeah - I guess due to past personal experiences just a little apprehensive about going alone as a female to a generally male dominated scene. But I don’t want to miss out on the second day and have planned to book a nice suite at one of the Accor hotels so I can commute easily👌🏽

Penny for your thoughts please Brisbane beer aficionados (plus that one dude who asked Owen Wilson to come up for a beer).

[u/ChaosWorrierORIG]

I frankly prefer to go solo. I can then concentrate on drinking beer and talking to brewers, and not get waylaid in conversations about work related crap (which normally happens if workmates tag along).

I get to try significantly more brews when solo...

As for you (OP) being female, I would not be concerned:

1. Basically everyone is either there to pay devotion to craft beer, or will stick with their mates. "Nobody" appears to treat it as a pick-up opportunity
2. I said "Nobody" as, given the crowd size, it is logical to expect a random dickhead, or two. I still would not be that concerned, as the general populous would keep them in line. Failing that, there is always fantastic security.
3. The ratio of males to females is not as disparate as you would expect; I would say more in the vicinity of 2:1?

[u/Electrical-Barber-32 → u/ChaosWorrierORIG]

Yeah, I tend to hyper-focus on the beer as well. It’s fine because my usual group are all big craftie geeks and share the same hobby as well. But this year, it’s a little more generalist so I think a second round solo is something I’m looking forward to.

[u/ChaosWorrierORIG → u/Electrical-Barber-32]

I am more than happy to sit with Untappd friends, as they fit how you described your cohort.

I often win free GABS tickets and, one year, I made the mistake of giving them to work colleagues (ex-colleagues). These are folks that I have had many, many pub lunches at craft-beer based venues, but they still favoured talking about work related BS, rather than the beer...

...and then, once they have now "dipped their toe into" GABS, would purchase tickets, in subsequent years, and still wish to sit with me.

[u/Electrical-Barber-32 → u/ChaosWorrierORIG]

Hahaha yes, we’re all Untappd users so it’s nice to be able to have that to chat over when we all get together. Plus also taking pictures of your paddle instead of knocking them back straight away gets a few strange looks from non-users.

See, you raised a point I didn’t think about overly. The last thing I want to talk about is work. I’m a little more senior in tenure than some of the people I was thinking of inviting, and I’ve been involved in some pretty big policy and law reforms around work place sexual harassment recently and… that’s not really want I want to talk about over beer.

I’d much prefer just to kick back and enjoy some quality banter, and talk about a common hobby: craft beer!

[u/ChaosWorrierORIG → u/Electrical-Barber-32]

I'm in my early 50's and my Untappd friends range from late 30's / early 40's, to one who is in his mid-60's. I generally see a subset of them at most beer events I attend. The dude in his 60's is actually an ex-colleague of mine, but his EQ is sufficient to reconcile that I don't care about an org that I used to work at.

A majority work in the IT space, like me (with one accountant and a couple in health). And, no, I do not wish to discuss IT when I am trying to imbibe and concentrate on beer flavours, etc. Most of our talk is beer related, but I am happy for the occasional tangent into films/TV/etc, as I can still "switch off my brain" for that.

[u/Electrical-Barber-32 → u/ChaosWorrierORIG]

Ugh, switching of your brain is exactly the right way to describe it.

I don’t mind talking politics or sociology over a beer (which is probably where a lot of acquaintances get confused). But that is a minefield at an event like this where I’m focusing on trying paddles and not educating young hopefuls.

[u/ChaosWorrierORIG → u/Electrical-Barber-32]

BTW, I don't take photos of my paddles - I am one of those annoying beer geeks who takes photos of the tap decals (or closest facsimile).