Do you enjoy Beer Festivals?
I love them! Over the course of the past year, I’ve been to quite a few beer festivals.
A couple of these were beer festivals I managed to participate in while I was in San Diego for the first four months of 2015, but the vast majority were here in the Netherlands. During the late summer months, it seems that there were multiple beer festivals to choose from almost every weekend!
Some of these festivals are small, local events. Almost every village in my area of the Netherlands had a beer festival during the summer months. Most notable for me this year were the smaller festivals I attended in Oisterwijk, Valkenswaard, and the Biereloth festival run by my local pub in Boxtel every September. The nearby village of Haaren also had a winter beer festival in December, which was an exciting change of pace.
Some of the bigger cities in the Netherlands also have their own beer festivals, such as the festival I attended in the summer in Delft. You can also find larger festival in Brussels and even a wandering festival through major cities in Germany.
Most of these festivals are fairly casual affairs in the center of town, with a mixture of beer aficionados and just general locals who were out for one or two samples.
Some of the festivals are definitely more for the beer geeks among us. The Winterbierfestival in Gouda in January, the Brewda beer festival in Breda in September are two examples of some of the more local beer festivals geared more towards the true beer lovers. But then there are the more major international festivals as well, which take it to the next level. Boerefts Beer Festival in Bodegraven, put on each year by Brouwerij de Molen brings out a world class line-up of breweries, and the annual Zythos beer festival in Leuven, Belgium, features a huge selection of breweries from Belgium, and draws crowds even including buses from the UK!
The good thing about most of the festivals here in Europe is that they are easily accessible for everyone. Unlike the festivals I have attended in the US where you pay a fixed price for admission, and then find yourself trying to sample enough different beers to feel like you received a proper return on your admission, these are basically free to attend. You pay for a glass, most of which can be refunded if you return the glass in the end, and you pay for tokens or chips which you then exchange per sample. Typically these will cost around €1 – 2.50 per token, depending on the festival. You only pay for as many beers as you want to taste!
So why do I love Beer Festivals?
I supposed there are a couple of reasons why I love beer festivals.
Beer festivals allow you to meet the brewers
Most of the beer festivals I attend, each brewery has their own booth, which is often manned by the brewers themselves. You have an opportunity, crowd permitting, to have a chat with the man or woman behind the beer, and get to know them as well as their passion and process behind the beer
Beer festivals help you meet other beer lovers
When you attend a beer festival, you are amongst friends. Most people there share a passion with you, the love of beer. At a beer festival, you have an opportunity to meet with other beer lovers and discuss the beers you are trying, and get tips and information on where else to try the beers you would love to find. With the emergence of smartphone apps such as untappd, it is even possible to see who else you know may also be attending the festival, or which beers they have enjoyed or are enjoying at the festival. I’ve met a number of people I had been following on untappd at festivals this summer, and have since attended others festivals with some of them later on.
Beer festivals let you try more beers
Much like the benefit you get from trying beers at the source, at a beer festival, you get to try a greater variety of beers. And the added benefit of a festival is that you also get to try a variety of beers from a number of different producers. While unlike a brewery visit where you may get to try 10 or more beers from a single brewery, at most festival, you’ll have 20 or more brewers, each with two to five different beers from which you can choose to sample. And again, with the smaller pours and lower prices than for a bottle or a pint at a time, you can spread your beer capacity across a winder spectrum of styles and brewers.
Beer festivals help the industry
The last benefit of festivals I’ll point out is the way the festivals help the local beer industry. By setting up at beer festivals, many of the smaller breweries that may not have the huge distribution channels or marketing budgets have an opportunity to set up alongside all of the other breweries, and showcase their beers to the beer appreciating public. This is great for smaller breweries to gain the exposure and a following to help the industry to grow.
This article is written in participation with Session #96, hosted by Joan Villar-i-Martí on Birraire. The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer. On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s archive page.
1 comment
Thanks for your contribution, Brett. I like Festivals mostly for the same reasons you do, specially to meet interesting new people. I’ve learned a lot not only about beer, but also about other stuff and ways to see life. I hope we share a couple of pints the next time we come across in a beer event. Cheers!