Brew Woo is a mediocre beer fest, and in all honesty, if it wasn't the only beer fest in Worcester, is really not worth the cost of admission. Tickets this year were up to $45+ per ticket, which makes it more pricy than some of the premier beer fests in New England (VT Brewers fest is $35, American Craft Beer Fest has 140+ breweries and is only $50).
When you take away the ciders, and the mainstream beers that you can get at any bar in Worcester (Blue Moon, ShockTop, Sam Adams, Harpoon, Yuengling, etc.) There are really only 25 craft beer options. While this festival is billed as "Central Massachusetts Only Craft Beer Festival", some of the more prominent beers in Central Massachusetts are completely excluded from the fest. Medusa, Jacks Abby, 3Cross, Treehouse and Battle Creek are nowhere to be found. Also, many of the premier breweries from New England are excluded. No Trillium, No Hill Farmstead, No Maine Beer Company, No Stoneface, No Smuttynose. In my opinion, the DCU Center relies exclusively on their distributor to organize this event, and misses some opportunities to bring some of the best beers in New England to a Worcester audience.
Also, this event now requires patrons to use drink tickets to get samples. This is presented as "Massachusetts State Law". I've been to plenty of beer festivals in Massachusetts where this is not required. I'm not sure why, but keeping tabs on your tickets is a royal PITA in my opinion. Samples are 2 OZ at best... I have three hours to work with... I'm not getting sloppy drunk from this kind of event.
The event does have a unique atmoshphere... the live music and peanut buckets spread throughout the convention center are a nice touch. The food vendors, and local artists are also a nice touch.
Overall, this is an average event which could be dramatically improved by adding more breweries and eliminating drink tickets. I honestly may look into other beer festivals to attend next year instead of this one, which is too bad, since its 5 minutes from home. I've gone for 5 years, and it seems like every year the cost goes up, and the number of breweries goes down.