One of my husbands and mine favorite pastimes is attending local beer festivals. Granted, it’s not the most conventional type of date, but being that we are “craft beer geeks,” nothing gets us more excited than being able to try different beers in one place with other beer lovers like ourselves. We’ve been to several over the past few years and it’s always a guarantee good time.
Recently we attended the Glens Falls Brewfest. Founded in 2010, this event is a fundraiser for The Adirondack Theatre Festival and the Feeder Canal Alliance. With over 30 breweries, live music, food, and a take-home souvenir tasting glass, drinking beer for charity has never been so much fun. Tickets for the event cost $35 at the door which gave you twelve tasting sample tickets and three food sample tickets. Although it doesn’t sound like a lot, a lot of the breweries were then handing out free t-shirts, glassware, stickers, and what not. By the end of the four hour event, my purse felt like I was carrying a bowling ball everywhere. In other words, you get your money’s worth of goodies.
In the end my husband and I met some really great people. Some, whom we plan on meeting up with again in the near future; others, we just casually spoke to while in line sharing which one was our favorite brew. It amazed me, however, how many people did not care for beer, but just loved this event so much from last year, they decided to come back. According to their Facebook page, the festival raised $13,000 for both organizations and had a record number of people. Local brewery, Adirondack Pub and Brewery, was voted favorite brewery overall and also won favorite beer: Bear Naked Ale.
In case you didn’t get a chance to go to this event, no worries because there are a lot more in the near future. On May 14th, there’s the Albany Craft Beer Festival and on June 18th, there’s the 2nd Annual Saratoga Brewfest. Both of which my husband and I are already excited to attend. So if you like craft beer, or just beer in general and want to have a good time, I suggest you come on out.
Tips to become a Beer Festival Professional:
1.) Drink responsible and always have a safe way to get home. Sometimes these events have sponsors that provide free transportation within a certain mileage.
2.) Look like a Beer Fest pro and make yourself a pretzel necklace. This helps your palate to not become too overwhelm from trying different style beers. Basically you just string regular pretzels together.
3.) Don’t be afraid to sport your favorite brewery t-shirt or swag.
4.) Get there early for all the free beer swag (hats, shirts, stickers, key rings).
5.) Remember to have a good time.
You really make it seem so easy with your blog but I find this matter to be actually something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex for me. I am looking forward for your next post!