I was able to get down to the Bend Brewfest for a couple of hours last night, and snapped a number of pictures and have a few thoughts as well:

• As with many fests, the earlier the better: there weren’t many people there when I first got there which makes for a nice time with no real wait for beers, running into people you know, etc.
• There are more food carts on hand than I remember from past years, which is good.
• More sponsors and vendor areas too, which is good.
• The “Brewtality Tent” in the southwest corner is cool, with the brewers on-hand to talk about their beers. It will definitely be a good place to be for the inside scoop as the weekend progresses!
• The X-taps (and the Brewtality Tent events) are being scheduled and announced regularly, which is a really good idea.
• There’s a lot of beer there!

Of the beers I sampled (keeping in mind that I didn’t have time to try a huge number!), standouts were:

• Vertigo Apricot Cream Ale
• Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
• McMenamins Old St. Francis School My Sunshine Pilsner
• Silver Moon Jingo Jango San Diego
• 10 Barrel X-tap Boo Boo Berry Sour Ale

I also ran into a number of (mostly) local brewers and folks—yes I’m calling you out Kerry Finsand, Curt Plants, Jimmy Seifrit, Chad Kennedy, Chris and Jeremy Cox, Shawn Kelso, Mike “Curly” White, Ty and Katie Barnett, and David Chappell!

Bottom line: Get down to the Bend Brewfest this weekend! It runs today from 3 to 11pm, and tomorrow from noon to 11pm (no Sunday).

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