The Oregon Garden Brewfest is Coming

Two weeks from today I'll be attending the Oregon Garden Brewfest in Silverton for the first time. Having lived in Portland for a scant three years now there are plenty of places I haven't visited and events, even beer events, I haven't attended. I have heard from veterans to this beer festival that the grounds are absolutely gorgeous and with so much in bloom right now I'm looking forward to drinking in one of the prettiest settings of any festival I've been to.

For those of you that know me well you know that it's not my nature to just show up at a festival. I can't remember the last time when I showed up woefully unprepared so even though there are other things I should be doing I had to sit down with the program and a fine tooth comb.

What I found was that there will be more representation by some of the larger "craft" producers, some of which are owned at least in part by the big boys, than some of the other festivals I've been to. Those include Goose Island, Leinenkugal's and Blue Moon but that's ok. There will be far too many beers for me to try all of them so that makes knocking a few brews off the list of 125 beers, ciders and meads a little easier. What is harder is narrowing things down to a list to probably about 20 beers. A few that I don't want to miss are:

• Old Town Brewing Boysenberry Black Ale - I have only had a few Old Town brews and I'm also a sucker for fruit beers.
• Falling Sky Brewing Retrograde NW Red - Again, I haven't had a lot of Falling Sky and I'm curious to see just how hoppy this red ale is.
• Crux Fermentation On the Fence Pale Ale and Outcast IPA - I haven't had much of their beer...seeing a pattern yet?
• Standing Stone Noble Stout and I Love Oregon Ale - I don't think I've had anything from Standing Stone.

There will be some breweries and beers that I've had before and enjoyed and while I may have some of those, at this festival, like most I go to I'll be focusing on trying beers I haven't had before and breweries that are less familiar to me. Usually there's a mix of ones that are "meh", a stinker or two and some that wow me. The question is which will fall into which category?

If you're thinking about making the short drive to Silverton, here are the important details:
Oregon Garden Brewfest
April 26 - 28, doors open at noon each day
The Oregon Garden, 879 W Main St, Silverton
Cost: $15 & up (advance, multi-day and on-site tickets available)
The Oregon Garden Resort is offering a package including overnight accommodations, festival admission and more.

Images courtesy of the Oregon Garden Brewfest.
Disclaimer: I was invited by the festival to attend however I can assure you that I wouldn't be going if I wasn't sincerely interested.