Festival includes beer sampling, music, food and games

TRYON—The rainy weather is clearing out just in time for the 8th annual Beer Fest in downtown Tryon on Saturday. 

The festival will be held from 1-6 p.m. downtown. 

Participants must be 21 years of age or older to enter and it is a ticketed event. Discount tickets can still be purchased before Saturday at the Tryon Bottle or at www.tryonbeerfest.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the gate. 

Sponsored by the Tryon Downtown Development Association and New View Realty, this year’s festival will include craft beer from more than 35 breweries and more than 80 unique beers for patrons to sample. 

This year will have several imported beers. 

TDDA Executive Director Jamie Carpenter described the imported beers that will be featured at the festival. 

The semi-sweet Perry Miloslawski, also referred to as a pear cider from Poland has an exceptionally mild flavor which comes from local pears ripening in Polish

orchards. The cider is light, sweet and sour, pleasantly effervescent and has a captivating aroma.

St. Bernardus Brewery is in Watou, Belgium and will also be featured at Tryon Beer Fest.

St. Bernardus Abt 12 is widely regarded as one of the best beers in the world. It is therefore no surprise that it is the brewery’s flagship beer, ranked at the very top of the St. Bernardus beer hierarchy. It is brewed in the classic quadrupel style and adheres to the original 1946 recipe.

St. Bernardus Wit is a traditional unfiltered Belgian white beer. It was developed in collaboration with Pierre Celis, the legendary master brewer who founded the Hoegaarden brewery, brewing their signature beer that was the driver of the resurgence of white beer in the 1950s.

Western North Carolina is known for being a hub of the craft beer industry, so we can’t have a beer fest without mentioning some local favorites, Carpenter said. Out of Asheville, Ginger’s Revenge is a festival favorite. Based in Asheville, they offer a series of naturally gluten-free alcoholic ginger beers as well as gluten-reduced grain-based beers. Featured at the festival this year will be the Original, Lime Agave, Hibiscus and Fall Harvest.

Music at Saturday’s Beer Fest will include headliner Asheville’s Empire Strikes Brass. 

Carpenter said Empire Strikes Brass 

is a high energy Brass-Funk-Rock band rooted in the New Orleans Brass Band tradition of second-line parades and deep moving grooves reminiscent of old school funk. The fat sound of the horns paired with one dirty rhythm section makes the music downright psychedelically nasty, she said. Founded in 2012, ESB intentionally stretches the boundaries of the stereotypical brass band paradigm, fusing sounds from various genres and weaving them together with the common thread of Brass.

Since their conception, ESB has been a consistent fixture at various festivals throughout the east coast, including having Warren Haynes from the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule sit in with them at the New Mountain Amphitheater in Asheville and headlining four years in a row celebrating the life of Dizzy Gillespie for the South Carolina Jazz and Heritage Festival. For more information about Empire Strikes Brass visit empirestrikesbrass.com. 

The opening band will be Tryon locals, the Rich Nelson Band. Nelson, a local artist originally from Detroit, has been playing locally since 2004. The Rich Nelson Band features Nelson on guitar and vocals, Stephen Cohen on bass, Bob Bencze on keys, Tim McCall on guitar and Robert George on drums. For more information about the Rich Nelson Band visit richnelsonband.com. 

Participants to the Beer Fest can also enjoy plenty of food for purchase. Mountain View BBQ, Harvest House and Dixie Bell’s Cool Concessions will offer full meals as well as Bretzel Bus, Bullhded Peanuts and All Good Things Bakery providing snacks of all kinds. 

Oysters will also be available for steaming and shucking starting at 1 p.m. There will be oyster shooters as well as a low country oyster roast. Oysters will also be sold by the bucket. 

Games will be provided in a tent by the Blue Ridge Adventure Guides, a Polk County based outdoor adventure club. Proceeds from the games will go to the TDDA and BRAAG for local projects. 

Carpenter said BRAG’s goal is to raise $500 to build a parking area and kiosk at Tryon’s new Melrose Mountain Climbing park and to purchase new safety equipment for public use at the Harmon Field Climbing Gym. 

Prizes for the games will include beer fest items, VIP tickets and oysters. 

Tickets for the festival are being limited to 1,000 to ensure no lines. 

For more information about the festival, contact Carpenter at 828-859-6484; Jamie@downtowntryon.org or visit tryonbeerfest.com or tryonbeerfestival on Facebook.