Avery Invitational Pour List & How to Win A Pair of Tickets

In craft beer, the old adage of “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” doesn’t necessarily apply. Even the most successful breweries and industry events must continue to innovate in this most competitive and fast-evolving landscape.

Avery Brewing, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, is no stranger to change, moving from its humble industrial alley to a state-of-the-art, 5.6-acre campus in 2015 and, most recently, selling a minority stake to Mahou San Miguel in November. And even though the pioneer of high octane and barrel-aged beers has found tremendous success in both their Strong Ale Fest and Sour Fest, the Boulder-based brewery has decided to shift their festival strategy this year to replace the two with an entirely new concept.

Enter The Avery Invitational Festival, which will debut June 2018, aimed at bringing together some of the industry’s best producers without any restriction to style or ABV. “With over a dozen festivals happening each weekend throughout the summer, we realized that our festivals started to feel a little bland,” noted Rachael Burrell, Events Manager for Avery Brewing. “We always want to ensure that our festivals are exciting for our attendees, volunteers and participating breweries, so this year we decided to focus our attention on quality over quantity.”

The Avery team will also look to expand the overall footprint of the festival to incorporate approximately 200 beers poured at the event, whereas both the Strong Ale and Sour Fests averaged between 100-115 beers. Invitations for participation will begin rolling out next week but in narrowing the list of prospective breweries, the Avery events team tasked their employees to contribute their list of favorites.

“In our quest to narrow down an invite list, we decided to poll our employees and sent out a company-wide survey. Basically, we asked if there’s any beer you’d like to see here, just say it. It was a fun list, and it helped us make it a more democratic process,” noted Burrell. “There’s some big beer nerds here and some that just like to drink Coors Banquet. It was a cool way to get everyone involved and narrow our list.”

But aside from just growing their brewery list, Avery also drew inspiration from the industry favorite, the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival, with the intent to incorporate an educational component to the fest. “We’ve learned a lot from what Laura Lodge has built at Big Beers, so we are hoping to add a sensory tasting, have Travis Rupp discussing his Ales of Antiquity, and Andy Parker will likely be giving a barrel talk for starters,” said Walter Becker, former Events Coordinator at Avery Brewing.

General Admission tickets for the Avery Invitational are currently available for $40, with proceeds benefiting Colorado Water Trust, a non-profit that works with many diverse partners, including breweries, to keep Colorado’s rivers healthy, flowing and full of water.

The initial pour list was provided to us today, and fans of Avery’s past festivals should be assuaged by the mix of familiar local standouts as well a healthy representation by national standouts not usually available in the state of Colorado. As a reminder, this beer list is always subject to change, but does serve as a preemptive framework for what to expect.

We’re Giving Away a Pair of Tickets to Saturday’s Fest!

To enter, subscribe to our newsletter by e-mailing contest@porchdrinking.com with your First and Last Name in the Body of the E-mail & AVERY in the Subject Line.

As a quick breakdown of what we’re most excited to try and what not to miss: AleSmith’s Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout, Amalgam’s Secret Family Recipe, pretty much everything from Avery, but most notably 25th Anniversary (changes each year), Nestor’s Cup/Dead Sea Scrolls, Depuceleuse, everything from Bagby, everything from Brewery Bhavana, everything from Boneyard Brewing, Burial’s Deafening Song of Silence, Call to Arms’ Shirtless Putin Nuzzlin’ With Dolphins, Cellar West’s Song of the West, Cerebral’s Personal Day, not sure what’s coming from Commonwealth, but keep an eye out for this riser out of Virginia, Coor’s Banquet… because it’s the beer industry’s beer, Dark Sky’s High Country Brunch, Firestone Walker’s UnderCurrants, Founders’ KBS… we had to know a fellow Mahou owned brewery would bring their signature cult classic!, Funkwerks’ Oud Bruin, Great Divide’s Mexican Chocolate Yeti, Grimm Brothers’ 13th Door Barleywine, Half Acre’s Navaja Double IPA, Liquid Mechanic’s Pimm’s Yo!… perhaps the highlight of Collab Fest makes an appropriate return, everything from Paradox… seriously this is one of the most underrated breweries in Colorado right now, Ratio’s Loveless, Rhinegeist’s Barrel Aged Mastodon Belgian Style Dark Ale, everything from Rowley Farmhouse Ales, Strange Craft’s StrangeTail VII, everything from TRVE, and of course EVERYTHING from Trillium, WeldWerks’ Coffee Maple Achromatic and Mexican Medianoche, and Wiley Roots’ Vanilla Pseudonym and Packed with Peaches.

2018 Avery Invitational Initial Pour List

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We’re Giving Away a Pair of Tickets to Saturday’s Fest!

To enter, subscribe to our newsletter by e-mailing contest@porchdrinking.com with your First and Last Name in the Body of the E-mail & AVERY in the Subject Line.

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