As thousands of beers – and eventually, people to drink them – make their way to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), it feels apt to check in with the craft scene on the ground. In a year where once-thriving brewpub chains and decades-old craft stalwarts have or are preparing to go under, what’s the state of things in one of craft’s most important cities on the eve of one of its most important weeks?
A crowd gathered in The Lot at Harpoon Brewery in Boston’s Seaport District Saturday, suited up in rain gear. Several attendees adorned pretzel necklaces or matching Hawaiian shirts, others carried custom mini koozies to cradle their aluminum sample cups.
This weekend marks the 14th anniversary of The Bruery. The Orange County craft brewery will celebrate with a big ticket ($120) event, The Bruery’s 14th Anniversary Invitation Festival, which officially kicks off Saturday with unlimited pours from more than 70 craft breweries, wineries, cideries and meaderies.
How can festivals make the beer community more welcoming to people who often don’t see themselves reflected in it? Barrel and Flow co-founder Day Bracey and Grace Weitz, founder of Beers With(out) Beards and the Queer Beer Festival, join the Brewbound team to discuss how their festivals offer inviting experiences to beer drinkers who buck the conventional stereotype of white, bearded, flannel-wearing men.
Fresh Fest, the nation’s first craft beer festival to showcase black brewers, has canceled its in-person events due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will instead go digital later this summer.
