VAIL, CO – The Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival will be celebrating its Fifteenth Anniversary weekend January 8 – 10, 2015. “Big Beers”, as it’s often called in the craft beer industry, has achieved cult-like status among craft brewers and industry aficionados. Educational seminars, brewmasters’ dinners, the caliber of brewmasters/brewery owners attending, the rare beers that are poured, the relatively small size of the event, and the idyllic location with ski-in/ski-out access in Vail combine to create the perfect combination annually. The Vail Cascade Resort & Spa will once again be hosting the majority of weekend events, and expects to see significant growth in attendance for 2015.
High profile industry veterans Adam Avery [Avery Brewing Co.] and Sam Calagione [Dogfish Head Craft Brewery] open the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines weekend each year with their Calibration Dinner, a five course, double-beer pairing dinner on Thursday evening. The culinary team at the Vail Cascade’s Atwater on Gore Creek creates the menu around the ten beers chosen by the brewmasters, resulting in an amazing synergy of talent and flavor.
The Fifteenth Anniversary Featured Brewmasters, who will host the Traditional Brewmasters’ Dinner on Friday night, are Jef Versele, seventh generation Owner of Brouwerij Van Steenberge in the East Flanders region of Belgium, and Ron Kloth, Owner/President of Papago Brewing Co. in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Featured Brewmasters change annually, and each will present an educational seminar on Saturday afternoon in addition to speaking at Friday evening’s dinner. The Big Beers Festival has seen significant growth over the past five years, reaching a milestone of 1500 guests and participants at the 2014 Commercial Tasting event. “We also saw a 25% increase in the number of attending breweries in 2014,” added Laura Lodge, event coordinator, “so we will expect tickets to sell out pretty quickly, even with the larger space we moved into for this event last year. The buzz about our 15th Anniversary and a couple of special highlights will only add to the excitement.”
Tickets for the 2015 event will go on sale Wednesday, September 3rd, at 10am MST via the event’s website: www.BigBeersFestival.com. For more information about the Big Beers Festival, including lodging, visit the website or contact Lodge at bigbeersfestival@hotmail.com. To learn more about the Vail Valley Charitable Fund, the charitable beneficiary of the Big Beers Festival, please visit www.vvcf.org.
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