What makes a great beer event?

• How much beer you drink? 
• How much it costs?
• How many friends go?
• The cool factor?

What if you could go to a 3-day event that culminated with a beer festival that included over 150 breweries, serving over 450 beers by brewery staff.  And by staff this includes owners & brewers.

The 2016 California Craft Beer Summit!

I might have a bias because it’s California, but California Craft Brewers Association knows how to put on an event.

The 3-day event had tickets that range from just the festival @ $60 to a full VIP ticket that gets you all access (just about) @ $289 with a total of 5 ticketing options.

3 days might sound like a lot of beer (it is, pacing people, pacing), but it’s not all about drinking.  There was 9-hours of trade show, broken up over 2-days.  This incuded vendors that supply homebrewers all the way to lawyers to help keep the breweries in line. During the tradeshow you get a chance to try beers being poured from the various brewers guilds located around the state.  Also pouring: Firestone Walker, Stone, Sierra Nevada and Laugunitas.

Beer Knowledge

One of my favorite parts of the event are the educational sessions, they make my inner beer geek a bit giddy.  There are mulitible tracks going, so picking one is often the hardest decision.

My Picks:

• Yeast: The key to great beer. Karen Fortmann, Ph.D of White Labs gave a great talk on yeast. The session ended with a tasting of wheat beers, fermented with different yeast strains.
• Alesmith: Charting growth over 21 years with Peter Zien the owner and CEO. Speedway Stout!!!
• Dr. Charlie Bamforth, UC Davis gave a great presentation on the only thing that really matters, QUALITY.
• Past, Present & Future: A talk with David Walker. Starting a brewery 20 years ago, not that easy. A trail blazing brewery for certain.
• Master Pairings with “Dr.” Bill Sysak – Chocolate and Beer.  Bill is a wealth of knowledge and humor. Always fun to hear him talk.
• Sip & Judge with Michael Moore “Big Mike” Fun to judge and discuss classic beer styles and flavor interpretation.
• Closing Session: with Vinnie & Natalie Cilurzo and Tomme Arthur. What a way to end the summit. Honest, upfront and informative.  Anyone thinking about opening a new brewery in California should have been there. In short, saturation! It’s a big issue and depending on your goals, it can be a tough go in California for a new brewery.  They also agreed, they might not be brewers if they were starting out today.

And if none of those thrill you, they had sessions that included careers, hospitality, homebrewing, beer trends, building a brand, malting, barrels, advanced tasting and additional food pairings.

Ok, so the educational sessions might not be for everyone. I get that. But the opportunity to sit in on a conference where some of the biggest names in California beer are both presenting and listening is pretty damn special.

If you want an audio taste of the happenings at the 2016 California Beer Summit, check out my friends at Four Brewers, they put together a fantastic group of interviews from the floor.

This the 2nd annual summit, and I have been lucky to attended both. No joke, if you love beer and brewing, you need to attend. This is really one of the best beer events I’ve attended…Ever!

~Cheers!