When is brewfest in oregon

The Oregon Brewers Festival has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. For the most up-to-date information, please visit the Oregon Brewers Festival website. When the Oregon Brewers Festival first started in , the very idea of craft beer was exotic. Back then, before the Danish brewer collaborations and unpronounceable styles gueuze , anyone? We just wanted to highlight the little brewers. That July, Art Larrance, co-founder of Portland Brewing Company , found himself with a city permit for a to-be-determined two-day event.

The festival was destined for bigger things. That first year, OBF ran out of beer as some 15, festival-goers packed the park. And the breweries that participate are still little Budweiser and Coors need not apply. Increasingly, the world wants more Upright Brewing and less InBev a brewing giant that owns more than 2, beer brands. To slake that thirst, OBF has grown from 22 participating breweries to more than 80, and from 15, attendees to nearly 70, from all corners of the world.

Portland isn't shy about its love of beer — the city has nearly as many beer festivals as it does breweries. Each winter, craft breweries as defined by the Brewers Association apply to serve one — and only one — beer at the festival.

It used to be that makers would submit their flagship ale, but nowadays, Larrance says, attendees are too discerning for that. Equally impressive is the number of up-and-coming smaller breweries that are typically showcased Brewfest. In festivals past, for example, craft beer aficionados had the chance to sample rock stars like Bridge 99 out of Bend; Delexue Brewing from Albany, Oregon; and Ochoco Brewing out of Prineville, Oregon.

One of the yearly highlights at the Bend Brewfest is its X-Tap program. Almost like a specialty beer festival within the Bend Brewfest itself, the X-Tap program is reserved for small batch and experimental beers. X-Taps are held in the Market of Choice Brewtality Tent where brewers are often on hand to talk about their special, limited-release beers.

The Oregon Brewers Festival was founded in by Larrance alongside a few other early brewing luminaries during the infancy of what was then known as microbrewing.

With over 25 years under his belt of drinking beer at festivals across America and the world, he has developed a strong appreciation and understanding of craft beer and the industry that surrounds it. He can be found in any of the great breweries or beer bars that make Portland the best beer city in the world. His writing can also be found in the archives of Northwest Brewing News and can be followed on Twitter and Instagram at hopapalooza.

Why go? The answer to that has changed. When it rains, it pours. But perhaps having these festivals taken away from us will make people not take such precarious, treasured events for granted anymore.