By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Discriminating beer drinkers love a cold beer on a hot summer day and innovation in the field of brewing.
The Kentucky Brewers Guild has planned the first ever NKY Bierfest, an event designed to introduce new recipes and provide a variety of quality beers to the beer-appreciating public, while listening to good, local music.
And it’s all for a good cause on Saturday, August 16, at DCCH in Fort Mitchell.
“We had been kicking the idea around for awhile, and while I was at the Kentucky Guild meeting I guess I was the loudest voice, because I was told to set it up and put my money where my mouth is,” said Andy Reynolds, who is in charge of the 859 North section of the Guild, but also a board member for the statewide Guild. “It has been in planning for about a year and a half.”
Since this is a premiere event, Reynolds said there really isn’t a monetary amount that they have in mind to raise, but similar events in other parts of the state have raised a good amount of money for good causes. Once the cost of the event is covered, the proceeds will benefit the Kentucky Brewers Guild and DCCH, the Diocesan Catholic Children’s Home Center for Children and Families.
“I was up there on the DCCH grounds one time for the Farmer’s market, and I thought that this place would be a terrific place to hold a Bierfest,” said Shane Trego, from Barleycorn’s Brewery. “We do a Bierfest in Louisville every year, so we thought why not do one in Northern Kentucky and see how it does?”
They have 26 breweries signed up and are hoping to encourage about four more so they have 30 total breweries. Each brewery will have their own area, and people will be able to stroll along sampling the different tastes. Trego said they will also have about three food trucks, so no one needs to have an empty stomach.
Tickets for the event are available on the website, NKYBierfest.com. There are three levels of tickets, and a fee is added to each one. The lowest priced ticket is for designated drivers and it is $24.57. It allows someone to get into the festival and receive a souvenir glass, so they can drink water while they listen to the bands but they won’t have any beer because they are the ‘designated driver.’
The other tickets are $52.86 and $58.51, which includes the additional fee plus sales tax, and the difference between the two is that the higher price ticket admits the person into the festival at 3 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. and also allows them to sample some of the special beers.
In addition, they will have a chance to listen to Donkey Shades, a three-piece acoustic or electric band with male and female harmonies, featuring guitar, bass, and drums with original and cover music. That band will only play during the 3-4 p.m. hour.
“The breweries have some beers that are new and not out in distribution,” said Trego. “They are new and fresh, and this extra hour gives people the chance to try the different new tastes. Then we can see what the buy in is from the region.”
Trego also said there is an app called Untapped where people can check in the beers, and they can rate them as to style and how well they are doing. He said beer aficionados can give their overall impression of the different tastes.
The main sponsor for the event is MeetNKY, but there are quite a few others.
There will be other bands at the event: Dreaded Mids, a rock band combining rock with blues and punk, and adding Queens of the Stoneage, Tool, All Them Witches, and Big Thief, and Chris from Space, a ‘consistently undefinable rock-esque music’ band that mirrors the marriage of Pink Floyd and Foxy Shazam.