As I have done every year (save one) since its inception, I headed over to the annual Urbana Beer and Chili cook off in Downtown Urbana. My expectations are never really high because of the usual things that go along with running such an event in a college town. It is promoted by Jay Goldberg Events, the owners of the canopy club if I understand correctly. It is more or less worked by volunteers who know little to nothing about the beverages they are serving, but there is a decent selection (I believe all coming from Premium Brands distributor). It has been held in the parking garage in downtown Urbana for the last few years and, although it was a beautiful day, I got fairly sunburned waiting in line, which brings me to one of my major gripes about this event.
I like to buy tickets in advance. One has to pay a “convenience fee” if they purchase online. The fee plus the ticket amounts to more than if I were to buy the tickets at the door. Fine. They need to cover some kind of costs for providing stuff online. I can accept that. I can also accept that every year I get there early and STILL never get the tasting glass that they offer to the first N people that arrive. The tasting glass issue was remedied this year, I got my first one ever. I was pleased about that.
The other fairly significant issue is that they either
A. Don’t have many chili options
B. The chili runs out before everyone gets inside
or
C. both

This year that was surprisingly different. Actually, this year the chili was more satisfying than the beer for me. Don’t ge tme wring, the beer was great but there were only a few things that I’d never had before. Most notably, there was a pretty good pear cider that I’d never had and several other belgian ales that I’d always been too cheap to buy a bottle of myself. Other than that everything else was either old hat for me or just not my style.
Overall I’d have to say that even though the organization and execution of the event is criminally inefficient, it’s still a “should do” in and around the Champaign-Urbana area.
A few things that you can expect if you’ve never been before:
A very long line to get in if you get there early.
They won’t let you in on time. Expect to get in at the earliest 20 minutes after the flyers say it will start.
Chili has been hit or miss in the past (although I’d give them an A for chili this year (2008)
Chili will run out way before the beer
All of the beers on the list will not be available
It’ll be crowded
It’ll likely be fun if you like to taste beer.
It’s the only event of its kind in the area so you might as well at least check it out.

Some things to look out for:
MAKE SURE to hit up the local home brew club table. It’s probably going to be the best beer at the place.
Hit up the tables with the “$1” or “two ticket” tastings. They have the more unique and, in my opinion, better tastings.