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Arizona Beer Week: Strong Beer Fest

What could be better than going to a beer fest with a lot of the great local breweries in the southwest region in attendance, and they all brought out limited editions of their strongest beer?

Bacon. Bacon would make it better.

But they didn’t have bacon, and it was still a pretty good time.

Arizona Strong Beer Fest is the kick off to Arizona Beer Week, a week long celebration of local breweries from all over Arizona and its neighbors where restaurants and breweries alike partake in activities celebrating the craft of brewing. For example, last year Sun Up Brewery partnered with local ice cream parlor, Sweet Republic, and made beer floats. It was awesome.

I was able to make it to four of the beer week events last year. They were all fantastic. This year, as time permitted, I was only able to make it to two. The Strong Beer Fest and the Pie Social at O.H.S.O. Brewery. The gist of the Pie Social was to pair beer and pie and offered nine different brews from local breweries. Ex: The Dubina banana Hefeweizen with a banana cream pie. However, the night we attended they had no pie.

#OHSOdisappointed.

I digress. Strong Beer Fest has gained popularity since last year. The festival was far more crowded this time around. The admission included 40 tickets for tastings. I think I used about 15-20. With having to wait in line at each tent and getting through the crowds, there was no way I was going to use all of them. I made sure to hit my favorites first, and tried a few new ones, like The Perch Brewery.

Overall, it was a great time. Amazing Arizona Comic Con was going on at the same time, so we took a break from nerding and rode the light rail to Indian Steele Park and drank great beer and returned to the con to sober up.

The most amazing part of the beer fest was that I met an old guy selling vintage beer cans, and through conversation learned that he knew my late grandfather, from whom he gained a lot of his inventory. It was a very touching and enlightening encounter. But that is a story for another time. Here are some pictures from the event.

 

Young Market Co. is a stellar distributor here in AZ.
At the Delirium tent.
Weirdos
Freak’n Brewing Company is fairly new to the Valley.