Here's how to tap the best brews at the Calgary International Beerfest

It's easy to get lost at the biggest beer festival in Alberta so here are some tips to help make sure you don't miss your next favourite brew.

There will be 120 breweries and distilleries to sample at the Calgary International Beerfest, which takes place on Friday and Saturday at Calgary's BMO Centre.

"It's over two full exhibition halls at the BMO Centre, so you don't just want to stumble around and hopefully find the brewery you want," beer blogger and CBC columnist Haydon Dewes told The Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday morning.

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"You've gotta be prepared for this. You need to have a strategy."

Dewes, founder of The Daily Beer blog and a veteran of the festival, offers his advice for making the most of it:

1. Get there early.

"Consider buying a VIP ticket. You get in one hour early and, for me, that's totally worth it.

For that hour, you don't have to deal with the crowds you can get the lay of the land and look around."

2. Have a game plan.

"Track down what sort of beer and what breweries you want to find. If you go onto the website

Albertabeerfestivals.com, they have a map of all the vendors. So my advice is go on there, print that off figure out what you want to see and what the shortest way there is."

3. Start with the lighter stuff.

"Your palette gets overwhelmed pretty easily. So I say I'm going to start with lagers and then move on the pale ales and then do the IPAs and dark beers."

3.(a)If you ignore Rule No. 3.

"Have a glass of water in-between because if you drink too much of the same style of beer, your taste buds just become numb to that kind of flavour."

4. Talk to people.

It's a festival, people! Take time to socialize. Dewessays, "I'll talk to the brewer or the staff that are working there, and talk to strangers as well ... and that's totally part of the fun."

5. Don't be That Guy.

"You've gotta eat food. Friday is seven hours. Saturday is eight hours. That's like a full work day. You wouldn't go to work and not eat lunch. And it will keep you from getting drunk. We've all seen that guy at the end of the day. You don't want to be that guy."

Top new breweries to check out at Beerfest

The Calgary craft beer scene is exploding, and several new breweries will make their debut at Beerfest on Friday.

Here are Dewes' top 5 picks to check out:

• Born Colorado Brewing: "Opened just last weekend in the city's growing Manchester brewing hub. Born in Colorado, the owners now call Calgary home and have put down roots in the form of a brewery and taproom. Track down their milk stout for a taste sensation."
• Prairie Dog Brewing: "The old St. John's Music store on Centre Street is now home to Prairie Dog, a large BBQ restaurant joint with its own brewery attached. They have Canada's largest meat smoker, which they've called Clifford the Big Red Smoker. [It] can handle 1,800 pounds of meat in one go! They open next month, but have two beers and nine casks to serve at Beerfest."
• Paddy's BBQ and Brewery: "When Sorrenti's Catering saw business slow down in the last economic downturn, they diversified and Paddy Sorrenti, son of founder Jordan Sorrenti, got to bring his dream of a brewery and taproom serving BBQ food to life. Their brisket is killer and their beer is brewed to pair nicely with BBQ food."
• Revival Brewcade: "Canada's first retro-style craft beer brewery arcade and pinball parlour opens soon in Inglewood. Brewer Jamie Archibald makes big bold hop-forward beer that'll send your taste buds into hyperspace."
• New Level Brewing Co.: "This colourful new brewery also just opened last weekend, south of Glenmore Trail on Fairmont Drive. Brothers James and Drew are beer nerds and metal heads and are already pumping out some strange and wild brews. Expect the unexpected."

With files from The Calgary Eyeopener

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