Brew Haha (Habitat Young Professionals)

When: Thu, Sep 13 from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Stinson Park (Aksarben Village), 2285 S 67th St, Omaha

I did a short interview with Kevin Fustos, President of the Habitat Young Professionals organization about the upcoming Brew HaHa some time ago.  So, I thought I would get off my duff and polish/publish it.  So, here it is…

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Nick:

Give me a little background on the event.

Kevin:

This will be our sixth annual Brew Haha…the first four years the event was held at the river front area. Last year, due to the flooding, we relocated to Stinson Park and we plan to remain there.

The Brew Haha has grown each year, last year we were able to raise $58,000 with over 700 tickets sold. Of course, we want to exceed both of those numbers this year and we believe we’re on that track.

The Brew Haha is the Habitat Young Professional’s signature event. As successful as we’ve been, I feel like we’re just hitting our stride. One of the things that helps up keep growing is the increasing interest I have seen in local and craft beers in Omaha.

Nick:

What does the event look like this year?

Kevin:

All of the vendors who have participated in the past have really enjoyed the experience. The majority sign-up for the next year as soon as the current year is over. The following beer vendors have already committed for 2012 and we have quite a few more in the works:

Quality Brands
South Omaha Brewers
Upstream
Rock Bottom Brewery
Crescent Moon…[as a brewery]
Gottberg Brewery
Nebraska Brewing Co

We are committed to bringing as many craft and local beers to the event as possible. In particular, the response to the South Omaha Brewers was also absolutely amazing last year.

Something that we started last year that we definitely want to continue was offering a basic tasting class. Crescent Moon did the class last year, but wanted to showcase their work as a brewery this year. We are very close to securing another vendor to put on a class. We heard great feedback from being able to offer that extra value.

Nick:

What will you have in the way of food?

Kevin:

The restaurant list [is] coming along nicely…I can tell you that we have Green Belly and Taste signed up as our Patron Tent food sponsors.

Nick:

Anything else you want to add?

Kevin:

I’m sure that most people will be interested in where that good chunk of money raised last year went and where it will go this year.

The Habitat Omaha Young Professionals group (Habitat YP) was founded around four years ago with the mission to engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

In 2012, the Habitat YP committed to fundraising for an entire house. That is a commitment of $100,000! The money raised from Brew Haha goes directly to Habitat Omaha to support the building of the YP house at 3660 Erskine.

The Brew Haha will provide the largest part of that funding along with other events such as Band Build (a fundraising concert at The Waiting Room), The Color Run (volunteer partnership) and matching grants. More information regarding the Habitat YP can be found at www.habitatomahayp.org.

We’ve started a Facebook page for the event at www.facebook.com/habitatbrewhaha and will post updates there as we bring on brewers and restaurants.