Ithaca Brew Fest '07

As long as we're on the subject of beer festivals, the inaugural Ithaca Brew Fest certainly deserves a mention. Scheduled for Saturday, September 8 from 4 - 8 pm at Ithaca's Stewart Park, this event promises "3 Live Bands & 30 Craft Breweries", which makes for a very promising base on which to build a brew fest. The event is co-sponsored in part by the Ithaca Beer Company, and looks to be a well planned event with a very nice roster of participating breweries.

For those not in the know, Ithaca is a pretty funky college town of some 30,000 or so residents located roughly an hour's drive southwest of Syracuse or northwest of Binghamton. As home to both Ithaca College and the Ivy League's Cornell University, it is the stereotypical example of the small, rural city whose culture is shaped almost entirely by the universities' presence. In other words, a beer festival sounds like a great idea for this town. Need more? Let us not forget that Ithaca is Gorges!

Breweries:

Avery Brewing - Boulder, CO
Brooklyn Brewery – Brooklyn, NY
Butternuts Beer And Ale - Garrattsville, NY
Chelsea Brewing Company New York, NY
Cooperstown Brewing – Milford, NY
Ellicottville Brewing Co. – Ellicottville, NY
Empire Brewing – Syracuse, NY
Flying Bison Brewing Company - Buffalo, NY
Harpoon Brewery – Boston, MA
High Falls Brewing – Rochester, NY
Ithaca Beer Company – Ithaca, NY
Keegan Ales – Hudson Valley, NY
Lagunitas Brewing Company – Petaluma, CA
Lake Placid Brewery - Lake Placid, NY
Magic Hat Brewing Company - South Burlington, VT
Market Street Brewing – Corning, NY
Middle Ages Brewing – Syracuse
Ommegang - Cooperstown, NY
Red Hook – Portsmouth, NH
Rohrbach Brewing Company - Rochester, NY
Roosterfish Brewing Co. - Watkins Glen, NY
Sackets Harbor Brewing Co. - Sackets Harbor, NY
Saranac/Matt Brewing Co. – Utica, NY
Smuttynose Brewing Company – Portsmouth, NH
Southern Tier Brewing – Lakewood, NY
Spanish Peaks Brewing Company - Polson, MT & Denver, CO

Excellent representation from New York State breweries, especially from Central and Western New York, as well as a smattering of others from the Northeast and a few nice West Coast entries. Tickets are $25 for advance purchase, $30 day of the event.

For a nice package deal including lodging, check this out:

Ramada Inn Ithaca Executive Conference Center
$139.00 + tax which will include a room, 2 tickets to the Brew Fest, a 6-pack of Ithaca Beer and Sunday Brunch for two.

Nothin' wrong with that.