All About Beer Magazine • Volume 24 Number 4 • September 2003

Great Beer Festivals:
Around the Calendar, Around the World

When it comes to beer festivals, our experts agreed: there is an essential triumvirate everyone's heard about—and all beer lovers should attend at least once. So, let's get the big three out of the way

The Triumvirate:

August 5-9—Great British Beer Festival London Olympia www.camra.org.uk

September 25-27—Great American Beer Festival, Denver, CO, www.beertown.org

September 20-October 5—Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany, www.oktoberfest.de

Other Dates Worth Noting

We asked our best-traveled, most beer-savvy writers, brewers and beer enthusiasts for events around the world that are not as well known, and they sent enough recommendations to fill the next year and beyond Have you heard about these great beer celebrations?

August 1-3—International Beer Festival, Berlin-Friedrichshain, Germany, www.bierfestival-berlin.de.
Berlin holds a beer festival in early August each year along the Karl Marx Allee. This year it will focus on kölsch and alt beers.

August 9—16th Annual Great Taste of the Midwest, Madison, WI, www.mhtg.org
A great beer festival should have three things, a scenic or historic venue, unique and high quality beers, and appreciative attendees. The Great Taste of the Midwest has all of them. It is held at the sprawling Olin-Turville park on Lake Mendota. The cool, soothing backdrop of the lake provides a perfect setting. The city of Madison does an excellent job of promoting and supporting the festival, with shuttle buses running throughout the day. More than 100 breweries, all from the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest, take part in this annual festival in a pleasant outdoor setting. Some brew special beers for festivalgoers. Tickets are limited and sell out well in advance.

August 19-24—Peterborough Beer Festival, www.beer-fest.org.uk.
Held in three marquees near the river and cathedral, only minutes from the center of town—lovely setting. 300 draft real ales, plus traditional ciders and perries, live bands every evening.

September 5-7—BierIG Beer Festival, Salzburg, Austria. www.bierig.org
The Venue is the "Alte Saline," The Old Salt Factory, a building complex on the Pernerinsel (Perner Island) between two arms of the River Salzach in the centre of Hallein, a town of 20,000 inhabitants 12 km south of Salzburg; the old town is of special architectural interest. With the goal of representing all facets of Austrian and international brewing, the festival will present 150 different beers of 40 different breweries.

September 5-7—Belgian Beer Festival, Brussels, Belgium. www.beerparadise.be
Organised by the Belgian Brewers and staged outside their imposing Guild house on the Grand'Place, this festival starts with a brewers' mass at the nearby Church of the Madeleine, then the Knights of the Mashing fork process to the Festival. Contact BB, Maison des Brasseurs, Grand'Place 10, B-1000 Brussels: (tel (02) 511.49.87/fax 511.32.59.

September 12-14—Unionbirrai Beer Festival , Milan, Italy. www.unionbirrai.com

September 18-20 & 25-27, Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival, www.stockholmbeer.se/2003
This festival had the most upscale display areas for each vendor we've ever seen—like a high-dollar trade show. They were like individual bars with plenty of room to stroll around between them. A wonderful slick, magazine-like program (unfortunately for us, in Swedish) was also provided.

September 19-21—Fremont Oktoberfest, Seattle, WA, 206-706-9869, www.freemontoktoberfest.org.
Worth attending because of the funk factor.

September 20-21—14th Kempisch Bierfestival, Geel, Belgium. www.ondertschuim.tk
This Belgian festival, along with the fest at Buggenhout (see June), features what amounts to waiter-service. Seated fest-goers request another beer by raising a paddle on which the word "dorst" (thirst) is written. Visit this friendly festival organised by Onder de Schuim (ZYTHOS) for 150 beers, cheeses, smoked fish.

October 4—World Beer Festival, Durham, NC, 800-977-2337, www.allaboutbeer.com/wbf2003
The biggest outdoor fest in the South, in a great setting—the historic ballpark where Bull Durham was filmed. Laid-back setting, 300 domestic and imported beers,local music and food, kid-friendly.

October 11—Bierhappening BLES, Zottegem, bles@zythos.be
Friendly event, good atmosphere: 20 small/interesting breweries, e.g., Slapmutske, De Musketiers, Ecaussines, Bosteels, Dupont; Lekker Ding is brewed by Meesters for the festival.

October 16-18—Norwegian Beer Festival, Oslo, Norway
Organized by NORØL (Norske Ølvenners Landsforbund—Federation of Norwegian Beer Consumers)

October 24-26—26th PINT-Bokbierfestival, Amsterdam, Holland. www.pint.nl Beurs Van Beerlage, Damrak, info@pint.nl

October 27-November 1—Norwich Beer Festival www.norwichcamra.freeserve.co.uk/festival/.
Held in a beautiful cathedral city.

October TBD—Oktoberfest at Toronado, San Francisco

November 7—NORØL Juleøfestival, Oslo, Norwar. nor-ale@interpost.no (Norske Ølvenners Landsforbund—Federation of Norwegian Beer Consumers) A festival of Christmas and winter beers.

November TBD—Barley Wine Festival at d.b.a., New York d.b.a. 41 1st Avenue (between 2nd and 3rd streets), Tel: 212.475-5097
Our favorite place. 12 taps; over 60 bottled beers (strong on Belgian and British). Now, authentic hand pumps! Very highly recommended.

November TBD—Antwerpen 24 hours of Specialty Beer, Antwerp, Belgium
This renowned event is not being held this year, as the organizing group, OBP, Objectieve Bierproevers (ŒObjective Beertasters') closed. Watch for the activities of a new organization, Zythos (from the Greek word for beer) www.zythos.be.

October TBD—Karakterbier fest, Poperinge, Belgium

December TBD—San Diego Strong Ale Festival, Pizza Port, Carlsbad, CA

December 13-14—Essen Kerstbier fest (Christmas beer festival), Essen, Belgium www.ober.be,
For two days visitors can taste lots of Belgian Christmas and winter-beers in a friendly, local setting.

December 29-30—Old Ale Festival, The White Horse on Parsons Green, London, UK www.WhiteHorseSW6.com
Only a handful of pubs and publicans are known internationally: the White Horse under the guidance of Mark Dorber deserves its reputation for beautifully kept cask ale as well as a imported beers, outstanding food, and great special events like this one.

December TBD—Toronado Barley Wine Festival, San Francisco

And in 2004—

January TBD—Great British Winter Ales Festival, Manchester, UK.
Great festival with a fine array of heartier English ales. Less crowded and hectic than the Great British Beer Festival and at a time of year when travel costs are cheaper.

January TBD—The Great Alaskan Beer and Barleywine Festival, Anchorage, Alaska.
Alaska is one of America's underappreciated brewing states, and Anchorage in the dead of winter is a perfect time to enjoy barleywine-style ales, doppelbocks, and winter warmers from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The festival is small and not widely publicized, but is well-known to beer writers and cognoscenti. Anchorage's compact downtown offers several brewpubs and an excellent beer bar called Humpy's.

January 22-24—Tummien Oluiden Tori (Marketplace for Dark Beers), Tampere, Finland
Finland in winter is the best place to try winter beers in their most challenging setting!

February 13—Friday the Firkinteenth, The Grey Lodge Public House, Philadelphia, PA. www.greylodge.com
A cask-conditioned beer festival held every Friday the 13th in this tiny neighborhood bar in Northeast Philadelphia. The timing is entirely at the mercy of the calendar. Really fun, with 9-11 casks from different regional craft breweries. One more Friday the 13th in August, 2004

March TBD—Chicago Real Ale Festival, Chicago, IL
America's premier cask ale event, bigger and better every year.

March TBD—Helsinki Beer Festival, Helsinki, Finland
Held in the former cable factory, where Nokia manufactured huge spools of underwater cable before they turned to cell phones. Great range of beers, especially from Scandinavia and the Baltic region, and always a chance to taste the indigenous sahti.

March TBD—Starkbierzeit, Munich, Germany.
A Lenten tradition in this strongly Catholic city, Starkbierzeit is a two-week period when several of the city's breweries serve potent doppelbocks. The original festival venue is Paulaner Keller (centuries ago, the Paulaner monks brewed the first Lenten strong beer, known today as Paulaner Salvator). Lowenbrau offers its own extra-strength beer, Triumphator, and serves it in the enormous Lowenbraukeller along with an evening of traditional Bavarian entertainment.

March TBD—A possible successor to the 24-hour Festival in Antwererp.
Zythos, the new Belgian beer consumers' organization is making plans for a festival along similar lines to the 24-Hours.this year but the organisaiton

April TBD—8th Annual Boonville Beer Festival
The bahlest steinber hornin', chiggrul gormin', frattey seepin' tidrick in the heelch of the Boont Region n' further on". That's Boontling (the local Boonville dialect) for "a great party with a whole lot of really good stuff to eat and drink." Boonville is a small hamlet nestled in the middle of the picturesque Anderson Valley, which has been described as one of the west coast's most beautiful places. Anderson Valley Brewing Company sponsors this outdoor celebration of beers among the redwoods. They invite over 50 breweries, from all over the west coast (and around the USA), to come to Boonville and pour their wares. quintuple the population of Boonville California.

April TBD—Tour de Geuze, various sites in Pajottenlandl Belgium. www.come.to/horal
Organised by Horal (High Council for Authentic Lambic-beers). During this event several authentic lambicbrewers and coupeurs/blenders open their breweries to the public. A shuttle bus travels from one brewery to another. The event is situated all over the Pajottenland, southwest of Brussels.

May TBD—13th Spontaneously-fermenting Beer Festival, Buggenhout-Opstal, Belgium
Lambic, kriek-lambic, faro, gueuze, kriek, frambozen, with many rare examples; also home-brew Opstalse Tripel. Venue: Tapperij Beukenhof, Broekstraat 18, Buggenhout-Opstal - 20-minute walk from Heizijde station. bierpallieters@zythos.be

May TBD—Danish Beer Festival Copenhagen, Denmark
Certainly a winner, especially because they have the good sense to bring All About Beer News Editor Gregg Glaser onboard each year. Puts that fest right over the top.

May 19-24—29th Cambridge Beer Festival, Cambridge, England, www.camra.org.uk
Cambridge, beautiful city, Jesus Green

May 30-31—San Diego Real Ale Festival, Carlsbad, CA, www.pizzaport.com

June TBD—La Fira de la Cervesa, Barcelona, Spain. www.firagirona.com fira@grn.es

June 6-7—Caledonian Beer Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, www.caledonian-brewery.co.uk
Annual beer festival at Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh. The brewery is highly traditional with direct flame boiling coppers.

June TBD—Beerpassion-Weekend in Antwerp, Belgium. http://www.beerpassion.com.

June TBD—Brouwer-beerfestival, Oudenaarde (between Ghent and Courtrai), Belgium.
Featuring brown ales from the local breweries of Oudenaarde.

June 12-15—12th Fête de la Bière et de la Musique Festives, Lausanne, Switzerland. www.fetedelabiere.ch, of www.abo-ch.org; abo@span.ch
Every June, the beer consumer group ABO, (l'Association des Buveurs d'Orges) organises the biggest beer-related event in Switzerland. It takes place under tents on the splendid lakeshore near Lausanne, complete with a panorama on the French Alps opposite. The fest itself is pretty much a free rock festival with over 200 different beers: no global brands, and quite a few very rare beers from Europe and Canada. The afternoon sessions are family-orientated.

July TBD—The Royal Stumble, Nodding Head Brewpub, Philadelphia, PA
A fun and entertaining beer event. Beers are from regional breweries. The event is based on wrestling, with brewer's encouraged to come costumed. The first brewery to run out of beer wins the "belt" for the year.

July 18-19—Vermont Brewers Festival, Burlington, VT, 802-244-6828, www.vermontbrewers.com
At the Waterfront Park in Burlington: wonderful site, with views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. Very family friendly.

July 25-27—Oregon Brewers Festival, Portland, OR, 503-778-5917, www.oregonbrewfest.com.

Planning ahead...

Through the summer, watch for the Bierborse, a traveling fest that sets up in a different German city every weekend. www.bierborse.com

People planning to visit Great Britain should consult the CAMRA website, as there are dozens of festival every month. www.camra.org.uk

September, 2005—Poperinge Hop Festival, Poperinge, Belgium This village hop festival is held once every three years.