Friday, August 22, 2014

Great Nebraska Beer Fest is almost here!




Have you or a friend been thinking about going to this year’s GNBF but figured you could put off buying tickets just a few more days? Maybe you were waiting to see what others were doing? Or if there was something else better going on this weekend? (Trust us, there isn’t.) Time for procrastinators to unite because as you only have until Midnight on Friday to buy advance GA tickets for the discounted price of $40 each. Buy tickets online here **Online convenience fees may apply. Starting Saturday morning, any remaining tickets will be available at the Werner Park box office for the full regular price of $50 each. For those planning ahead, there is a DD ticket option available for just $10 each. Great Nebraska Beer Fest once again enjoys the status of being the largest craft beer festival in the Cornhusker State annually, as well as one of the top beer festivals in the greater Midwest region. A GA event ticket allows you to enjoy four hours of “unlimited” samples (2 ozs at a time) from around 80 breweries and almost 400 different beers; a well-rounded attack upon even some of the most demanding craft beer thirsts. Each year, several of the beer offerings at GNBF are completely unique and likely cannot be found anywhere else, perhaps ever.

Maybe you’ve been to past GNBF festivals and you were wondering if there were any new breweries at this year’s event. One of the fun things is that every year is the fact that there are several breweries that are invited and appear at this event that are either a) Not available to purchase in our state because they are not currently licensed to distribute in Nebraska or b) Are new to the craft beer scene and have very limited distribution and are not yet available for purchase in Nebraska because they are so young. This year, there are nearly 30 breweries at GNBF that, at this time, cannot be found elsewhere for sale in our state.

Here’s just a small sampling of the breweries that will be found at the 6th annual event (**New GNBF breweries for 2014 are listed in bold type):

Arizona Wilderness [AZ], Cigar City [FL], Cinder Block [MO], Crooked Stave [CO], Deschutes [OR], Farnam House [NE], Founder’s [MI], Funkwerks [CO], Heretic [CA], Kinkaider [NE], Lagunitas [CA], Lucky Bucket [NE], New Holland [MI], Schalfly [MO], Scratchtown [NE], Stone [CA], Surly [MN], Tallgrass [KS]


Another great feature again this year is that there will be TEN regional homebrewing clubs showing off their best brews at the festival. Their unique beer creations are not available for sale anywhere and can only found at festivals and other public events.

Returning homebrew clubs (7) this year are:

New homebrew clubs (3) to this year’s event are:

With lots of beer samples to imbibe on, you might find yourself needing a break or two during the afternoon. In that case, live music from Dirty River Ramblers and Grand Theft Girlfriend will be playing throughout the afternoon for your enjoyment along with several free informative beer-centered talks going on in the seminar tent. GNBF seeks to include to almost everyone in the greater beer community, no matter what your level of craft beer expertise is. Everything listed above is all included for the relatively small price of the paid admission to this year’s event.

The Nebraska Beer Blog will once again have a booth at the festival tomorrow so if you’re in the area and can attend, please come by and say "Hi" to some of our writers. We are located at Table #1 (nearest to the seminar tent) and always enjoy talking to you, our avid readers who enjoy “Your Source For Nebraska Beer News.”

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