We wanted to ask the BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival team a few questions about what makes their festival so dang noteworthy. In addition to the Thrillist award, they were voted Houstonia’s #1 Craft Beer Festival, as well as the USA Today 10Best Craft Beer Festivals in 2016 and 2017, 5th and 3rd place respectively.
In other words, they’re doing something right out there on the island.
There are beer festivals every other weekend, and BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival continues to win national recognition year after year. We wanted to know why!
About the BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival
2018 makes the 9th year for the BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival, and since day one, the event has been enormous. They explained, “The demand the first year exceeded our expectations and gave us a real feel of the demand of the loyal craft beer followers. The things that have changed over the years include the content focus on the seminar offerings.”
1. With beer festivals popping up all the time, what specifically makes the Brewmasters Craft Beer Festival unique from the others?
“BrewMasters has always been about helping provide additional education as well as rare and unusual samplings. Whether someone is new to the craft beer scene or a soon-to-be cicerone we want them to have a great experience.
We try and involve as many of the brewers as we can, so people get a chance to meet the master behind the beer. Our ‘Taste it First’ initiative is a signature of Brewmasters. Many breweries launched their businesses at this event like Karbach, Fetching Lab, and Texas Beer Refinery just to name a few.”
2. It seems that there’s no such thing as an ex-craft beer drinker. Why is that? What makes craft beer so special?
“We love the independent attitude that brewers bring to their craft. It’s really the same approach we’ve brought to our business and what attracted us to the craft beer industry to start with. It was new—no one had done a craft beer event, so we did.”
3. Considering y‘all started in 2010, when Houston only had a small handful of craft breweries and Galveston had zero, what made you choose Galveston Island as the location?
“We like the idea of a destination experience. Galveston and Moody Gardens are a great backdrop for a laid-back, last of summer, kind of an event. Both Moody Gardens and Galveston Island have been so supportive of this event and it helps to have great partners. The brewers and other industry partners have also enjoyed the event as well, so we’ve carried on the tradition.”
4. One of the biggest draws of craft beer is learning more about it. What can festival goers expect in that regard?
Unusual and uncommon beer styles will be hosted by What’s On Tap Radio’s Chad Pilbeam
Other Texas Breweries
Independence Brewing Co. (Austin)
Oasis Brewing Co. (Austin)
Oskar Blues Brewery (Austin)
Real Ale Brewing Co. (Blanco/Austin)
Adelbert’s Brewery (Austin)
Alamo Brewing Co. (San Antonio)
Bishop Cider (Dallas) – they are also launching a new product called Uncommon Wine Project which is a red and white wine infused with hops.
Community Brewing Co. (Dallas)
Deep Ellum Brewing Co. (Dallas)
Franconia Brewing Co. (Dallas)
National Breweries
Absolution Brewing
Argus Cider
Ballast Point
Boston Beers: Sam Adams, Angry Orchard, Truly & Twisted Tea
Locust Cider
One of the most noteworthy things the BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival team shared was, “We don’t get distracted by adding too many elements that take away from the reason people come. The chance to learn something new, meet their favorite brewers and to share a great craft beer with friends.”
With 103,000 square feet of event space, and over 65 breweries serving hundreds of different beers, the BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival this year will be one to remember. There’s also going to be bar-b-que and tequila tasting events for everybody else that’s not there for the beer. If all that wasn’t enough to bring you out for a few beers, BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival benefits Second Chance Network Inc., a 100% volunteer based charity building orphanages, homes and schools in India.
See you there. 👍
They run out of space for breweries each and every year, and ticket sales will be no different, so hop to it.
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