Bay Area Breweries Pour It On At This Annual May Event
Attention Bay Area brew lovers!
There’s an event you should check out in your area.
It’s the Boonville Beer Festival. That’s up in Mendocino County, at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds, in fact.
And I can speak from a personal experience that this is a great event, a craft beer drinker’s paradise!
There are 80 craft breweries from throughout Northern California (and a few other areas) and they give generous pours.
The 2013 festival is Saturday, May 4, and there are 7,000 people at it. Party buses and vans that arrive from throughout the Bay Area. And that’s the best way to do it, frankly; Boonville is two hours north of San Francisco. Or, you can make a weekend of it and camp out next door. It goes from 1-6 p.m. Cost is $40 in advance, $50 at the door. It usually doesn’t sell out because the grounds are pretty large, but it comes close and why take that chance?
Once the initial rush of grabbing the first few pours as soon as the masses crash through the gates is done, then the event settles into the nice, mellow pace of Mendocino County. There’s live music, a field where people sit down (or lay down) and relax, and vendors grilling up food.
And more beer than you can consume, even if you are like me and can consume a lot of beer.
Most of all, it’s a day of mingling with other fun, laid-back people and craft beer drinkers. Some of the craft beer drinkers are serious connoisseurs. evaluating every sip. Others are just people who enjoy a good time and good beers that they don’t find on tap at their usual bar haunts.
It’s put on by the Anderson Valley Brewing Co., and that’s as great an endorsement for the quality of the beers as one can get in this area. Anderson Valley, located right around the corner, is an outstanding craft brewery.
Check out PubClub.com’s review of the Boonville Beer Festival here: www.pubclub.com/california/brewfestival.htm
MORE:
• Boonville Beer Festival Blog
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