Magic City Brewfest 2009
Free the Hops hosted the Magic City Brewfest in Birmingham this weekend (June 5 and 6) – it was a tremendous success: sold out both days, celebration of the new brews available in Alabama, perfect weather, nice venue (Sloss Furnaces), and a beautiful crowd. I didn’t post anything earlier about it because it was sold out last week and there were no volunteer slots available (they’ve been filled for weeks).
About 3,000 politically active people attended the Friday night session (along with more than a hundred volunteers). I volunteered for the Saturday afternoon session, which also drew about 3,000 politically active people (and over a hundred volunteers).
Several people from Raise Your Pints Mississippi attended - they are a grassroots political organization similar to Free the Hops – and they are trying to change Mississippi’s beer laws. Mississippi’s Lazy Magnolia Brewery is supportive of their organization.
Alabama Breweries were well-represented by Olde Towne Brewery (which made Saturday’s Huntsville Times Front Page in a very positive article ‘Brewmasters can show off big beers’ by Challen Stephens), Good People Brewing of Birmingham, and newcomer Back Forty Brewing of Birmingham.
These businesses show that beer culture is growing in Alabama – and that jobs are being created. As Stephens says in his article “some bars already sold out of new high-end drinks” (many cost $6 to $8 each or more). This is true across the State – distributors cannot keep up with the demand. However, they are catching up. I spoke with some great guys from Colorado who are bringing one of my favorites, Great Divide of Denver, to Alabama (they just hit Birmingham and Tuscaloosa – coming soon to Huntsville).
Yazoo Brewery from Nashville (which made a t-shirt immortalizing Alvin Holmes statement “It drink pretty good, don’t it?” – taking it totally out of context), Terrapin Brewery from Athens Georgia, Sweetwater Brewery from Atlanta, and Highland Brewery from Asheville, North Carolina were the other regional breweries represented at Magic City BrewFest. There were hundreds of beers from which to sample.
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