Brewfest 2010 runs from Monday, Sept. 20 (3:00 a.m. server time) through Wednesday, Oct. 6 (again, 3:00 a.m. server time). We don't anticipate any major changes to the holiday this year, but how you get to the holiday boss (Coren Direbrew) has changed slightly. I've updated and expanded our coverage past the cut.

While I organized the achievements alphabetically in 2009, this year, I've put them in the order I feel they should be completed. There are a few that are definitely easier to do at the beginning of the holiday than at the end. While I've included all of the achievements attached to the holiday, only six are actually required for the meta, and they've all been marked as such. As always, I'll be around when the holiday goes live to see if there are any unannounced changes. If so, the guide will be updated.

Down with the Dark Iron (required for the meta)

I would do this achievement before anything else; unless Blizzard's changed something, it's significantly harder if there aren't a lot of players around to help fight off the Dark Iron attacks. Try to get this done on the first day or two that Brewfest is live, and preferably around server high time.

Every half-hour like clockwork, Dark Iron dwarves will attack both the Alliance and Horde Brewfest areas. If a sufficient number of people help defend the camp, the attack is thwarted and the Dark Irons will leave a large cog in their wake, giving the daily quest This One Time, When I was Drunk. Turn this in, and that's all you need for this achievement. Incidentally, the quest also rewards 10 Brewfest tokens, so it's extremely helpful while you're saving toward Brewfest clothing and/or the Brew of the Month club membership.

So how does one help defend? On tables around the central festival area, you'll find Complimentary Brewfest Samplers. Pick one of these up and put it on one of your more convenient hotkeys. When the Dark Irons attack, keep tab-targeting through them while spamming the hotkey. The mug instantly refills itself so you'll keep drinking and tossing, drinking and tossing. The Dark Irons will get smashed at the same time you are, and if enough people are defending alongside you, your faction's kegs will be saved. If there aren't a lot of people helping to defend, it's usually impossible for a few players to fight off the endless stream of Dark Iron attackers, so that's why I advise doing this achievement early.

All set? Time to start saving more Brewfest tokens ...

Disturbing the Peace

The achievement sounds a little simpler than it actually is; you'll have to save 350 Brewfest tokens in order to purchase the clothing you'll need. You can choose any combination of the following:

• Brewfest Dress or Regalia: 200 tokens
• Brewfest Boots or Slippers: 100 tokens
• Brewfest Hat (one of four -- blue, brown, green, or purple): 50 tokens

All are available from Brewfest token redeemers located in the central festival area (Belbi Quikswitch for the Alliance and Blix Fixwidget for the Horde). After you buy them, hearth or port to Dalaran, put on your new duds, get "completely smashed" (the type of alcohol doesn't matter, as long as you're stinking drunk) and /dance.

If you're not interested in keeping the clothing around, you might be able to sell it back to the vendor for a refund -- but then again, you might not. Blizzard got rid of a similar trick for the Midsummer Fire Festival this past year, so for the moment I would plan on getting 550 tokens (350 for Disturbing the Peace and 200 for Brew of the Month) if you want to do all the Brewfest achievements. However, Disturbing the Peace is not required for the Brewmaster meta and title, so if you don't have it in you to grind that many tickets, don't sweat it. I've listed it here in the event that you do, because you'll need an early start.

UPDATE: We've confirmed that selling the clothes back to a vendor for a refund is no longer possible.

Brew of the Month (required for the meta)

Brew of the Month was once one of the most controversial achievements in the game. In order to complete it, you had to have tasted each of the 12 brews sent to you monthly, which -- yes -- meant you spent an entire year getting this one achievement. Blizzard changed this heading into patch 3.1, after players complained that no death knight would be able to get What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been for almost two years (Wrath launched in November 2008; Brewfest 2008 had run in September before the achievement system went live) and that anyone who'd missed the 2008 holiday was in the same boat. So Brew of the Month now requires you to join the club, and the original version was changed to Brew of the Year, which isn't required for the meta.

Joining the Brew of the Month Club will cost you 200 Brewfest tokens for the membership form. Afterwards, you'll need to make a trip to Orgrimmar or Ironforge to turn the membership in to Ray'ma or Larkin Thunderbrew, respectively.

If you start amassing tokens relatively early, you should be OK getting the 550 you'll need for achievements. Once you're on track, you can worry about the less time-sensitive achievements.

Does Your Wolpertinger Linger? (required for the meta)

In 2007, the wolpertinger pet was available after a short and funny quest; in 2008, it could be purchased for 50 silver from the token redeemer NPCs. It turns out Blizzard found a bug with the wolpertinger and pink elekk quests that they weren't able to fix in time for Brewfest 2008 to go live, hence the speed of obtaining one then. The quest -- Catch the Wild Wolpertinger -- was back in the game for 2009, and we assume it's here to stay. It starts with Goldark Snipehunter (Alliance) or Glodrak Huntsniper (Horde) in the central festival area.

UPDATE: As with 2009, the quest was available for a short time on the European realms before being taken down.

The Brewfest Diet (required for the meta)

One of the less time-consuming (but more filling) achievements, The Brewfest Diet requires you to purchase and eat eight specific foods sold by Brewfest vendors. None of the items sold are very expensive, and doing the achievement will only cost you 20 silver and 68 copper. All of the vendors will be found in the central festival areas outside Orgrimmar and Ironforge.

• Dried Sausages, Savory Sausages, Spicy Smoked Sausages, Pickled Sausages, Succulent Sausages and the Golden Link are all sold by the Brewfest sausage vendors Keiran Donoghue (Alliance) and Bron (Horde).
• The Essential Brewfest Pretzel is sold by Arlen Lochlan (Alliance) and Uta Roughdough (Horde).
• Spiced Onion Cheese (bleh) is sold by Anne Summers (Alliance) and Agnes Farwithers (Horde).

Not provided: cardiologist.

Direbrewfest (required for the meta)

While the achievement itself hasn't changed (and should be very simple to complete), how you're going to get to it has. You can't fight holiday bosses without queuing through the dungeon finder anymore, and the bosses can't be farmed endlessly for special drops. That said, queuing for Coren through the dungeon finder and getting ported to him is much easier than the old system, where it took ages for groups to get moving because nobody wanted to make the trek to Blackrock Depths. Horde groups were particularly notorious for this, as people were usually traveling from Orgrimmar.

Anyway, that's all changed. Pull up your dungeon finder (the default hotkey for this is I), and in place of the default "Random (dungeon or heroic)" option you have, scroll down to Coren Direbrew. If you're already in a group, you can queue for everyone to go (or have someone else do it for you); if not, you can kill Coren with random players. If you've never done the Coren fight before, here's a rundown, with more information available on his Wowwiki page.

Coren used to be among the most common targets for "boss farming," as he drops the Great Brewfest Kodo, the Swift Brewfest Ram, Direbrew's Remote and the Tankard O'Terror. With the dungeon finder method, you will probably only have a shot at these drops through the special once-per-day loot bag, but you can continue queuing if you want a shot at any of the ilevel 200 trinkets he drops. To our knowledge, Coren's loot table hasn't changed from 2009.

Have Keg, Will Travel (required for the meta)

Fortunately for anyone with terrible luck, this achievement is no longer dependent on getting lucky with a mount drop off the holiday boss. If you don't already have a Brewfest mount and can't coax Coren Direbrew into dropping one, just buy some Fresh Brewfest Hops from the token redeemer for the measly sum of 2 tokens, pull out whatever mount you like, and /use the Hops. You can also buy the Preserved Brewfest Hops for 20 tokens, but even the cheap version will get you the achievement.

I sort of miss the 2007 version of the holiday, where one could just buy both the normal and epic Brewfest rams for tokens. Oh, well.

Drunken Stupor

Paladins, rogues, druids and mages won't have any more difficulty with this than they had with Going Down? due to immunity effects or less fall damage taken, but it's easy to do if you know where to go (or if you just bribe a Paladin into DI'ing you on your way down some random horrifying cliff). Get "completely smashed" -- as with Disturbing the Peace, the type of liquor you use doesn't matter -- and head for Shattrath. The commenter Kurasu nailed the exact place I got Going Down? on my druid -- jump (don't step) off the bridge at this location. The distance to the ground from the bridge is slightly less than 65 yards (which is why you've gotta jump), and you'll get the achievement without dying. For added fun, bring a Heavy Frostweave Bandage with you, and you can get Ultimate Triage directly afterwards, if you don't have it already.

Strange Brew (Alliance) or Strange Brew (Horde)

The Horde and the Alliance versions are slightly different, as each faction has different competing breweries, but it's still pretty straightforward. You'll find the NPCs you need in the festival areas:

Alliance

• Barleybrew Clear, Barleybrew Light and Barleybrew Dark are all sold by the Barleybrew Apprentice.
• Gordok Grog, Ogre Mead and Mudder's Milk (Firefly reference!) are all sold by the Gordok Brew Apprentice.
• Thunder 45, Thunderbrew Ale and Thunderbrew Stout are all sold by the Thunderbrew Apprentice.

Horde

• Brewdoo Magic, Jungle River Water and Stout Shrunken Head are all sold by T'chali's Voodoo Brewery Apprentice.
• Gordok Grog, Ogre Mead and Mudder's Milk are all sold by the Gordok Brew Apprentice.
• Long Stride Brew, Path of Brew and Small Step Brew are all sold by Drohn's Distillery Apprentice.

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Filed under: Achievements, The Overachiever