beerfest Archives – PorchDrinking.com
2024 GABF Guided Routes | Best Lagers to Try at GABF
October 8, 2024 | Tristan Chan
The Great American Beer Festival is finally back! With the insane multitude of beers being served on the festival floor, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So PorchDrinking is once again here to help you navigate that lineup and help with planning your route at the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through every beer pouring at this year’s fest to curate a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.
Event Recap | HOMES Nucleate Fest
June 21, 2024 | Alexis Dickie
HOMES Brewery hosted Nucleate 2024 on June 8 at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The festival was a well-executed event benefitting charity, full of fun times and delicious beers.
Event Preview | HOMES Nucleate Fest
May 17, 2024 | Alexis Dickie
HOMES Brewery hosts their annual Nucleate festival on Saturday June 8 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The event features breweries from around the world and will benefit charity.
Event Recap | Feast Wilmington
March 29, 2024 | Alexis Dickie
The inaugural Feast Wilmington took place this weekend at Live Oak Bank Pavilion in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Weekend spanned four events Including a VIP Kickoff, Brunch Elevated, Pier Party and Craft + Cuisine.
Event Preview | Free The Whales Beer Fest
May 1, 2023 | Alexis Dickie
Free The Whales Beer Fest will be held at Resident Culture Brewing Co. and HopFly Brewing Co. on Saturday, July 1. This festival is designed to highlight the industry’s most sought after and hard-to-find beers, also known as the whales! For its eighth year, Free The Whales is hitting the road and taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Saved By The Beer! Boonsville Beer Festival is Back
April 24, 2023 | Robert French
This year will be the 25th year of Anderson Valley Brewing Co.’s Boonville Beer Festival. It will take place on Saturday, April 29, at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds. Read More
Event Recap | Altered States Libations & Art Festival Volume II
March 14, 2023 | Alexis Dickie
The Eighth State Brewing Co. hosted Altered States Volume II on Saturday, March 11, in Greenville, South Carolina. The libations and art festival featured breweries, wineries and distilleries from around the world alongside live music, skateboarding performances and artists.
Event Preview | Altered States Libations & Art Festival Vol. II
December 5, 2022 | Alexis Dickie
The Eighth State Brewing Company in Greenville, South Carolina, is hosting Altered States on March 11, 2023. This is the second edition of their libations and arts festival. It will feature more than 100 breweries, wineries and distilleries from around the world along with live performances, an artist market and delicious eats. Snag your tickets here!
Event Recap | Heist Brewery Night & Day 3
November 15, 2022 | Alexis Dickie
Heist Brewery hosted their third annual Night & Day Festival on Saturday Nov. 12. They hosted 52 breweries and meaderies from around the country with over 125 beers available. There were also special surprise pours available throughout the day.
Six Under the Radar Breweries Worth Trying at FoBAB
November 4, 2022 | Mathew Powers
As we noted in our Tips to Have a Great Time at FoBAB article, The Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer (FoBAB) is a challenging festival to navigate. The sheer magnitude of breweries alone make it tough. And, the vast majority of beers served are either high-ABV or require one to consume some Tums. Do you want to be stumbling or rumbling? One might wonder why anyone would dare attend an event that challenges the liver, the gut, and the mind. Well, because it’s some of the best beer in the world. It’s where brewers meet distillers and where chemistry meets artistry. It’s good to try the beers you know, but it’s also good to try something new — but which ones?
Event Preview | Heist Brewery Night & Day Fest
October 19, 2022 | Alexis Dickie
Charlotte, North Carolina based Heist Brewery is hosting their 3rd annual Night & Day Festival on Saturday, November 12th. Get your tickets here!
Event Recap | Texas Craft Brewers Festival 2022
October 17, 2022 | Ruvani de Silva
A sold-out Texas Craft Brewer’s Festival took place on Saturday October 8th at Fiesta Gardens alongside Austin’s Lady Bird Lake. The event brought together over 85 Texas breweries, 250 beers … Read More
Event Recap | East Bay Kick-off Party SF Beer Week
February 21, 2022 | Danielle Engel
With Covid numbers surging yet again in the winter of 2021, the Bay Area Brewers Guild knew that they would have to go with an alternate plan for the kick off to Beer Week. The usual opening gala for the start of San Francisco Beer Week would have to be split up, five different venues, each one in a different region of the Bay Area. As I did not have the time or liver to do all five in a night, only one was attended.
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How Breweries Are Preparing for 2021 Beer Festivals
January 13, 2021 | Mike Zoller
After a year that saw virtually no in-person beer festivals, there’s hope that with a vaccine people might once again be able to congregate and drink together in 2021. But early in the year, people are very cautious with any concrete timelines or plans.
Event Preview | 2020 Brewbies Festival
February 6, 2020 | Jadon Flores
Of all of the beer events that are out there today, only a handful are as important and meaningful and well as educational as Brewbies. Started just about 11 years ago by Melanie (Mel) Pierce, it was the idea to help the community become more educated about breast cancer and checking for early signs while you get to support research foundations fight against the big C. (while of course drinking some rad brews!)
Event Recap | Ohio Craft Beer’s Ale-O-Ween Offers Spooky Treats
October 23, 2019 | David Nilsen
Ohio Craft Beer’s Ale-O-Ween beer festival moved to a new location this year, but the spooky fun of this 4th annual event stayed true to its calling. Ale-O-Ween moved to the Dayton Convention Center this year after a couple years at The Steam Plant event center, and Ohio Craft Beer is hoping the event continues to grow into the larger space.
PorchDrinking’s 2019 Great American Beer Festival Survival Guide
October 2, 2019 | Mathew Powers
The Great American Beer Festival began in 1982 with 24 breweries serving 47 beers to fans for a single, five-hour session. Today, the number of external events exceed the beers poured at that first fest, and the convention hall will allow patrons to select from more than 3,500 beers. What do you drink? Where do you go? How can one possibly navigate such a colossal beer experience? We at PorchDrinking.com have tried to make the process simpler, writing more than a dozen stories on the event. And, to further simplify it, we have now put all those stories in one location.
First a few important notes on this year’s festival:
- A few tickets still remain for Thursday Night and Saturday Night sessions. Tickets available here.
- This year’s festival format returns to booths being arranged alphabetically by region.
- Attendees of ALL sessions will receive glass cups instead of plastic.
- Thursday Night, Friday Night and Saturday Night Sessions begin at 5:30, Saturday’s Day Session begins at Noon. For first time attendees, we recommend arriving at least an hour and a half before your session to wait in line.
- Don’t forget to check out other sections for hidden gem beers. The Brewers Guild section has guild representatives from several states that bring beers from breweries that aren’t otherwise pouring on the festival floor.
- The Heavy Medal section has beers pouring from past GABF medal winners.
- There’s a Fresh Hop booth with all fresh/wet-hopped beers.
- Several breweries will have special timed releases that aren’t otherwise listed on the pour list. Modern Times Beer, for example, will have a different special release each day of the fest.
Enjoy GABF. Enjoy Beer. Enjoy Craft in all it glory. And here are more tools to help you enjoy the week.
Kveik Fest 2019 | A Unique Norwegian Farmhouse Yeast
August 16, 2019 | Mathew Powers
It’s only a matter of time before Chicago’s craft-community routinely lists Burnt City Brewing as one of the city’s most innovative and creative breweries. And that day may inch closer after it hosts Kveik Fest. Thirty Breweries from around the country will descend upon Chicago to showcase beer brewed with kveik, a traditional and unique Norwegian farmhouse brewing yeast. The festival will occur on September 7 at the (also innovative) District Brew Yards, a spot shared by Burnt City, Around the Bend and Bold Dog Brewery.
“Kveik is a Norwegian dialect word for ‘yeast’,” explained Lance Shaner, owner at Omega Yeast Labs in Chicago. “In the brewing context, kveik are Norwegian farmhouse brewing yeasts that collectively share a lot of common traits, most notably high temperature tolerance (not unusual for them to produce good beer in the upper 90sF), high alcohol tolerance and fast fermentation. They were brought to the attention of the world by Norwegian blogger Lars Marius Garshol.”
Event Recap | 2019 Beer Under Glass
May 14, 2019 | Mike Zoller
One of the most anticipated events on Chicago’s craft beer calendar is Beer Under Glass (BUG). Put on by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, the event kicks off Illinois Craft Beer Week each year and brings together breweries from all over Illinois.
10th Annual Illinois Craft Beer Week Kicks Off
April 29, 2019 | Mike Zoller
In 2018 a lot of changes happened to Illinois’ celebration of craft beer. For the first time, Chicago Craft Beer Week was renamed to Illinois Craft Beer Week (ICBW), Beer Under Glass (BUG) moved to a Friday and the event lasted two weeks.
2019’s Illinois Craft Beer Week will follow suit to the 2018 event as BUG will continue to kick-off the festivities on Friday, May 10, at the Garfield Park Conservatory. However, ICBW will last just one week.
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