Arbor Day is not a holiday you would ordinarily associate with beer, but the inaugural Tree Beer Festival is aiming to change that. The Ale Apothecary is the centerpiece of this new fest, which focuses on beers created with tree- and forest-inspired ingredients.

This new fest takes place on Saturday, April 29, at The Ale Apothecary tasting room in Bend; tickets are available online now. (Arbor Day, incidentally, falls on Friday the 28th.)

Details from the press release:

World’s First Celebration of Beers Made with Foraged Tree Ingredients

On St. Patrick’s Day many drink Irish stouts. On Halloween, some of us drink pumpkin beers. But what to drink on Arbor Day? Celebrate this tree-hugging holiday with The Ale Apothecary by trying over a dozen different TREE BEERS. Yes, beers made with ingredients foraged from West Coast forests and beyond, ingredients such as spruce tips, fir tips, juniper berries, bark, lichen, and even tree-dwelling mushrooms. The festival is Saturday, April 29, 2023 with the first session from 12-3 p.m. and the second session from 4-7 p.m. Tickets, now on sale, are $15 online ($20 at the door) and include the first three pours and a coaster made from branches. Additional drink tickets will be available four-for-$10. Become a VITree for $50 and ride the shuttle, sponsored by Cog Wild, to the Apoth brewery in Skyline Forest for additional vintage ales. Tickets are available at Bendticket.com/events/treebeerfest.

It’s worth noting that Bend’s only all-wild brewery, The Ale Apothecary, originated with a Sahti-style ale, native to Finland, brewed in a hand-hollowed Sitka Spruce tree from the Skyline Forest where the brewery remains. The brewery is generally closed to the public and the main celebration is at the Ale Apothecary Tasting Room, 30 SW Century Dr., Bend, OR.

Purchase a ticket for either session, 12 – 3pm or 4 – 7pm, and you’ll be welcomed at the Apoth tasting room with your first three pours of tree beers included. There will be over a dozen tree beers including many from like-minded breweries from around Oregon, up and down the Pacific Coast, and clear across to the Eastern shore. These include our friends at Alesong (Eugene), De Garde (Tillamook), Upright (Portland), Block 15 (Corvallis) & Fort George (Astoria), Wolf Tree (Seal Rock), McMenamins Thompson Brewery (Salem), Propolis (Port Townsend, WA), Fruition (Watsonville, CA), Scratch Brewing (Ava, IL) and Wunderkammer Biermanufaktur (Wolcott, VT)

There will be a food truck on site and a la carte axe-throwing courtesy of Unofficial Logging Co., Bend’s only hatchet-throwing bar.

Pertinent links:

Facebook: Facebook.com/GrandCraftBeer
Instagram: @GrandCraftBeer
Visit The Ale Apothecary online at TheAleApothecary.com or, y’know, IRL at 30 SW Century Dr.

As themed brewfests go, this is one of the most creative that I’ve seen in some time.