Fruit Beer Fest Returns to Burnside

The Portland Fruit Beer Festival, now in its seventh year, returns to its original home at Burnside Brewing this weekend, June 9-11. Organizers expect to pour more than thirty beers and ciders made exclusively for the festival, our premier fruit-oriented beer event.

They're returning to Burnside after a one-year stint at the North Park Blocks. Why? Well, there were additional costs involved in holding the event downtown. When the weather was uncooperative, the attendance necessary to justify those costs didn't materialize. Thus, the return to Burnside.

It's a reasonable move. The Burnside campus is centrally located, with easy access from all quadrants of the city. One of the reasons for the Park Blocks experiment is limited space at Burnside. That venue was packed to the gills and overly congested during several past Fruit Beer Fests.

To address crowding concerns, organizers say they'll spread the beer stations out and provide more shade and seating than in past years at Burnside. They'll also have a smaller, satellite venue across the street. It'll be a neat trick if they're able to reduce the crowding issues, and I hope they can.

When I first realized fruit infused beers were gaining favor a few years a back, I was mesmerized. It's not something I was exposed to growing up, a time when macro lagers were king. I wondered if fruit beers weren't maybe some kind of strange fad connected to the growth of craft beer.

Of course, that isn't really the case. Fruit has been used in brewing for centuries. As local author and blogger, Jeff Alworth, told me, "Except for lager-brewers in Bavaria, basically no one in the history of civilization ever thought using just grain was somehow proper."

What's happened in modern American craft beer is that tastes have expanded to embrace practices employed for centuries and abandoned during the macro lager era. Fruit is part of that and the Fruit Beer Festival has helped build interest in fruit-centric beers, a positive thing.

The beer and brewery list for this event is extensive. I arrived late to the media preview and tasted only a few of the beers. That isn't all that big of a deal since they weren't sampling the entire festival portfolio. You can view the list of standard beers and ciders on the event site here.

In addition to the standards, there will be 3-4 rotating taps dedicated to rare beers outside the regular lineup. Those beers will rotate at various times during the weekend and most will cost additional tickets. There will be special tappings from Firestone Walker, Great Notion Brewing, Crux Fermentation Project, Cascade Brewing, pFriem Family Brewers, de Garde and others.

Festival days and hours:
Friday, June 9: 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Sat. June 10: 11:00 a.m to  9:00 p.m.
Sun. June 11: 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Advance tickets are available online here, with a small added service charge. Buying in advance may save you time getting into the event venue, though I can't guarantee that. Oh, you have two ticket options, basically a choice between a fancy and plain Jane glass. Up to you.

As always, you can get updated info via the event's social media channels: @FruitBeerFest on Twitter and Instagram, search Portland Fruit Beer Festival on Facebook. 🍻

Fruit Beer Fest Moves Onward and Upward

This week's marquee event is the Portland Fruit Beer Festival, returning for its sixth year. As you may know if you're reading along, this event has been its own worst enemy due to overwhelming popularity. The space next to Burnside Brewing hasn't been adequate in recent times.

Which is why organizers are pleased to announce the festival is moving to the larger, shadier North Park Blocks this year. The expanded venue will provide space for additional beer and cider offerings, more food options, more music and more places for attendees to just chill.

The festival happens this weekend, June 10-12. It's worth mentioning that, along with the larger more user-friendly venue, event hours are also expanding. In previous years, Friday hours were short or non-existent. But they're open three full days this year. Spreading out the anticipated crowds is a good thing.

General Admission packages start at $25 ($27.40 online) and include a branded festival cup and 12 drink tickets. Advanced ticket holders or those who arrive early Friday will receive an extra 3 drink tickets. Tastes of beers and ciders go for 1-3 tickets. Additional tickets cost $1.

Another new feature this year is the Burnside Can Garden, which will be located inside the festival. Want to escape the crowds and drink something other than fruit beer? Enter the Can Garden, where they'll be serving Burnside Couch Lager and IPA in cans. Hey, not a bad idea.

The primary reason this event has generated such enthusiasm in recent years is the beers. They are typically unique interpretations of what you can do with fruit and beer. I missed the media preview the other night due to another commitment. But the list is impressive, as always.

Obviously, the elephant in the living room is the new venue. The Burnside folks had been thinking about moving to a larger venue for several years. It didn't happen because they were comfortable using their own space, which they expanded and made about as user-friendly as possible.

But all things must pass and it was time to move onward and upward. Understand, the move is not without risk. The new space is more costly and the logistics are tougher. The event must grow to justify it. If the weather doesn't cooperate or if fans don't show, organizers could find themselves upside down. It's unlikely, but that's how these things work.

As always, there's a lot more information on the event website here. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but they were looking for more volunteer servers the other day. Extra tickets were part of the deal. That may no longer be the case. Visit the website for info.

Fruit Beer Festival Turns Five, Expands Venue and Hours

The barrage of summer beer festivals is here. So you can expect to see some sort of festival every weekend and even some weekdays. Some of these are "me-too" events, thrown together in hopes of making a few bucks on the wave of craft beer popularity. Some are more authentic.

This week's Fruit Beer Festival, now in its fifth year, is a favorite of mine. You won't find most of these beers outside the festival. That's not to say every beer is great. Opinions are going to differ on the good and not-so-good. The fun is in trying some unique interpretations of what you can accomplish using fruit in beer.

The other day, I saw some people beating up the Fruit Beer Festival on social media due to overcrowding in recent years. Venue size has definitely been an issue. This wildly popular event probably needs to move to a park or similar location. Organizers, aka Burnside Brewing, prefer to keep it close to home. You can't blame them for a variety of reasons mostly related to cost.

In an effort to lessen the impact of crowds, organizers have made two key changes this year:

• Most importantly, they've expanded the festival footprint by (they say) 40 percent. They'll do this by occupying open space immediately to the west of Burnside Brewing, including 7th Avenue and the lot across the street. Good news.

• Last year's Friday night VIP session is history. They've opened that time slot up to the general public. With the weather cooperating nicely, Friday evening might turn out to be the perfect time to visit. The space for Friday's 4:00-9:00 p.m. session will be limited to the Burnside parking lot, which should be fine. Smart move.

Although the growing popularity of the Fruit Beer Festival will likely force organizers to move it to a larger venue at some point, the changes they've made for 2015 should help alleviate the issues they've seen in recent years. Hopefully. There isn't any additional room to expand here, so the next move will be a move. That much is clear.

The festival brewery roll call is long. You can find the list here if you feel the need. At a media preview Friday evening, we tasted a few of the beers that will be pouring. My favorites included Ecliptic's Ultra Violet Blackberry Sour Ale, Burnside's Peaches of Immortality, Fort George's Pucker Pi and Laurelwood's There Gose the Neighborhood. Fruit of the Garden of Good & Evil, a collaboration between Burnside and Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, features some nicely balanced heat thanks to several varieties of peppers. Don't miss it. 

Ticket prices are about what you've come to expect: $20 for a tasting glass and 12 tickets. Be advised that some beers will cost more than one ticket. You can buy advance tickets on the festival website here if you wish. Doing so may get you in the gate faster, but you'll pay a little more for the privilege thanks to fees. Buy tickets at the gate and you'll likely wait in line a few minutes. Your choice.

All the pertinent information is on the festival website here. It should be another great tasting experience for anyone who likes to see what brewers can do with fruit and beer.

Portland Fruit Beer Fest, Vol. 4

A lot of press releases float across my computer screen on any given day. Senders usually want free publicity for a product, event or service. Most I view as informational. But some contain info worth passing on to readers. There's no future in doing that, if you're wondering. I'd be better off writing poetry. But never mind.

The upcoming Fruit Beer Festival is an event that deserves mention here. It's happening the weekend of June 6-8 in the parking lot at Burnside Brewing. I have some thoughts on the venue, which I'll get to momentarily. What you need to know, if you don't already, is that this is a pretty good beer event.

This is the Fourth Annual Portland Fruit Beer Festival. The reason it's become a great event is the taplist is first rate. The 50+ beers and ciders they'll serve up will be similar in quality to what you saw at the recent FredFest, if you were lucky enough to attend that shindig. The PFBF list is here. Keep in mind they will have an additional 25 or so mystery kegs and firkins appearing on rotating taps both days. Good stuff.

The festival kicks off with a pre-Fest Pig Roast Dinner at East Burn on Wednesday, June 4. They plan to feature beers from their annual homebrew competition and there will be sneak previews of some festival entries. At $50 a pop, you may want to skip the pig and save your pennies for the actual event. You didn't hear that here. I'm sure it will be a well-attended party.

Honestly, the single worse thing about this event is the venue. It's too small. After the second year, the PFBF probably should have moved to a park or comparable site. Or offered drinking sessions. It was so packed on Saturday last year that it was tough to move around. It took 20 minutes or more to get many beers. Of course, the weather was perfect last year. If it goes sideways, the venue may be just fine this year. June festivals are like that in Oregon.

One of the things they've done this year, essentially an effort to alleviate overcrowding, is offer a Friday night VIP session. Makes sense. The cost is $30 for a glass and 12 tickets, but Friday night attendance is limited to 300...which means access to the beers, including some special tappings, will be more or less assured. If you're interested in the VIP session, do not delay...tickets are sure to go fast. Early birds, ya know.

General Admission and VIP tickets can be had on the event website. General Admission tickets cost $20 for the same glass and ticket count as the VIP version. Be advised a ticket won't get you a taste of every beer on the menu. Some will set you back two tickets or more. Still, the worse thing that can happen is you'll have to contend with lines, particularly if the weather is good.

You need to know that tickets, if bought in advance online, will cost you an extra couple of bucks. That logic mystifies me. Event organizers (across the board, not just here) should be encouraging people to purchase tickets in advance to smooth the flow of traffic at entry points. Charging more online than at the door has exactly the opposite effect. Not the brightest.

Regardless of its issues, this is one of those events where you just have to look the other way and go for it. The beers are that good. Food will be available and you can even bring along to kiddies, if you wish. There's a lot more info on the website. It's sure to be a good time. Trust me.