Nineteen Nevada Brewers Represented

2nd Annual Craft Brewers Festival Brings Music, Food and Tastings to Wingfield Park

The largest annual gathering of Nevada’s craft beer and ale makers will come together from 3 – 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, at Wingfield Park for the second Nevada Craft Brewers Festival. Good times and good beers will be served along the shores of the Truckee River in downtown Reno showcasing brewers from all over the state of Nevada with bottomless tastings. The event also features the live music of Lonesome Locomotive and includes a selection of northern Nevada’s famous gourmet food trucks.

With participation planed from at least 19 breweries from across Nevada, festival attendees will have a unique opportunity to taste local brews all made in Nevada—all in one sitting, and all in one place. Brewers will show up with a minimum of two, and as many as four, selections from their 100 percent Silver State lineup of beers and ales.

Nevada brewers create brews that reflect the innovation, imagination and pioneering spirit that is all Nevada. Only in Vegas will you find Chicago’s Brewing Company’s “Cocoa for Coconuts Porter” (gold medal for Chocolate Beers at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival), Old Jackalope from Vegas’ Tenaya Creek, Schmidt’s Malt Liquor (in honor of old style brews by co-owner/brewmaster Trent Schmidt) by Reno’s Silver Peak Restaurant, “Buckaroo Pale Ale” brewed at the tiny Ruby Mountain Brewing Company by Steve and Maggie Safford at their Angel Creek Ranch in eastern Nevada and “Harvest Ale” available each fall after “harvest time” at Nevada’s oldest brewery, Great Basin in Sparks and Reno where they craft pinion pine nuts, sage brush and juniper berries, harvested within 20 miles of the brewery into an honorary tribute to the region in which we live.

New this year will be a friendly battle of the brews as two collaborative beers will be tapped for the first time ever — one from the north and one from the south end of the state.

Festival admission is $25 when purchased in advanced and $30 at the gate. The cost of admission includes a souvenir tasting glass and unlimited beer for the duration of the event. Admission for designated drivers is $5 and includes complimentary, locally made soft drinks. T-shirts and other swag will also be available for sale

Tickets are available at the following brewery locations: Great Basin Brewing Company – Reno and Sparks, Silver Peak Brewery and Silver Peak on the River, The Brewer’s Cabinet, High Sierra in Carson City, Sierra Tap House, StoneyHead Brewery, Brasserie St. James, Minden Meat and Deli, and the Reno Homebrewer. The festival is only open to people aged 21 and over. The Sands Regency is the event’s official hotel- casino call Lisa at (775) 544-3958.

The good times with good beers supports the Nevada Craft Brewers Association, an organization focused on promoting the craft beer industry, laws and culture in Nevada and helping the industry give back to the community through educational and charitable causes.

Craft beers are among the fastest growing segment of Nevada’s restaurant and bar industry with many casinos now featuring a brewing element of their operations. Growth of the US craft brewing industry in 2012 was 15% by volume and 17% by dollars compared to growth in 2011 of 13% by volume and 15% by dollars (Overall U.S. beer sales were up an estimated 0.9% by volume in 2012.) Many Nevada brewers distribute through store shelves; unheard of 10 years ago