2014 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Rumor: Beer Pour Sizes

August 18th, 2014 by in Walt Disney World Beer Reviews

Brewer's Collection 6oz

8/20/2014 Update: Additional sources have said the 6 ounce pours will be limited to the Food and Wine Festival booths themselves. Other World Showcase locations will serve their normal selection and sizes. It sounds like decisions are still in flux a bit, but y’all have shown a lot of interest in this. Original article below.

I’m not one to just post everything I hear, but today I received some information from a reliable source that has interesting implications if it comes to pass.

According to this source, during the Food and Wine Festival both the festival booths and the normal beer locations will be limited to six ounce pours when purchasing a draft beer. There will be no 12 ounce cups or 22 ounce souvenir steins available as you walk around World Showcase.

Extending this to the normal beer locations makes sense as you could go to Bier in Germany instead of the Germany booth and purchase a regular sized Altenmünster Oktoberfest. It’s unclear whether this would extend into the table service restaurants, but I doubt it will. Who would want to go to eat at Biergarten and not be able to get a stein of beer?

What are the implications? Disney seems to be encouraging tasting different beers through six ounce pours. Perhaps they’re trying to reduce the number of beers that run out early by spreading out the supply through smaller pours. Whether this works remains to be seen.

On the other hand, if someone finds a beer they would like more of, they’re limited to purchasing another six ounce pour. The previous arrangement of $3.00 – 4.00 sample pours, $5.00 – $7.00 twelve ounce pours, and $12.00 – $13.00 22-ounce steins provided a small discount to those who want more than a taste. For example, all the beers at Craft Beers last year had $3.50, $6.75, and $12.25 price points. Under the new arrangement, 24 ounces of beer (as close as you’ll get to the 22 ounce stein) will be $14.50 and won’t include a stein assuming the same prices. However, moving from a sample to a twelve ounce pour is only saving you a quarter (which is nothing when you’re at Disney), which might be why they would do away with it.

My source is pretty solid on this, but things can always change between now and when the festival begins. If this does come to pass, all I can suggest is to just go with it. Give some different beers a try, or get a flight where available. They’ll probably be slightly cheaper than buying four separate pours and maybe you’ll find something new to enjoy.


  • Melissa

    I don’t mind the tasting size pours at all, as I usually do not order more than the six ounce size. I’m still a little bummed that we won’t be able to add to our collection of souvenir steins, though. It’s always fun to order one big stein of our favorite festival draft.

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  • John

    Please tell me that this is a nasty rumor that will dissipate quickly…

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  • Keith

    Ehh, not a big deal. I think I would rather have the 6 oz if I were sampling different beers throughout. If one must have a gallon of a particular beer, then just go back for more 6 oz pours till you get your fill.

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  • Scott

    Hopefully this will cut down on the drunks I have to deal with in lines at the end of the day.

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  • Kim

    Terrible idea in my opinion. This is only going to make the lines longer. People will drink the same amount but now they will need to be in twice the number of lines. They better keep the size of my Unibroue at the Canada Popcorn Cart the same!

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  • Beck

    I think it’s a step in the right direction. Perhaps if the power drinking teams showed any level of decorum, and quit passing out in their own puke covered in urine in the bushes, there could still be large beers sold. But due to these forever 21, 40 plus year olds who relish in spending all day Saturday and the majority of their paycheck on getting pass out drunk, ruin the experience for the rest of us.

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  • JR

    Bad idea in my opinion. You can save the crying about drunks because I have seen plenty of drunk guests (though laying in vomit in the bushes is an exaggeration) over the years when wine was king and craft beers weren’t around. I agree with Kim, this plan is just going to make the lines longer. If the point is to get people to try “more” beers then that is what they’ll do, they’ll drink the same amount of beer they’ll just drink a larger variety of beers. Do I buy 22oz beers? No, but I do enjoy a couple of beers while walking around the countries and I’d rather only get in line twice instead of four times. And if I buy two 6oz beers at once to remedy this then I won’t have a free arm to wave my magic band over pay terminals while I try snacks from different countries!

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  • Eve

    This makes sense to further limit Disney’s liability. Of course, risk reduction is not perfect, there will still be the bros and their girls drinking ~8%ABV beers like Pabst in there matching shirts. I agree with Kim’s comment above– I love that I can still get my Trois Pistoles in Canada.

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  • Stefanie

    This article is also true for the 2015 Flower & Garden Festival. I learned that I could just keep my cup from the last real sized beer I had, order 2 6 ounces & pour them into my cup. At least you’re not walking around trying to balance your tiny beers.

    Reply

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