All Kinds of Strange Brews Are on Tap at Beer Fest This Saturday (July 28)

A festival for casual and serious beer drinkers.

July 23, 2018

Phoenix New Times

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This weekend's Real Wild & Woody beer festival, happening at the Phoenix Convention Center, isn't going to be some feeble parade of light lagers. Breweries at this festival are encouraged to pour the weird, heady stuff; the wild ales; and the sours and barleywines. The festival runs Saturday, July 28, from 2 to 6 p.m.

Admission isn't cheap. Tickets cost $57 in advance and $65 day of. They get you food, which will be cooked by local restaurants, and 20 pours of beer.

That equals about $3 per taste (four ounces), a high price. But consider what it would cost to get pints or half-pints of each of these beers, and consider that some brewers will be pouring hard-to-find specials. The price looks right.

More than 65 breweries will be in attendance. You can find a list of beers that will be poured here. Toggle to the food tab, and you can browse the vendors. They include Brat Haus, Pig & Pickle, and The Perch.

This is the fifth annual Real Wild & Woody event. Some of the state's most beloved breweries will be pouring, including Arizona Wilderness and Dark Sky. You can get updates through Untappd if you've leveled up in beer geekery enough to have an account.

If you're into beer, want to get more into beer, or you simply enjoy drinks that taste good or interesting, this festival will be worth a visit.

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Chris Malloy, former food editor and food critic at Phoenix New Times, has written for various local and national outlets. He has scrubbed pots in a restaurant kitchen, earned graduate credit for a class about cheese, harvested garlic in Le Marche, and rolled pastas like cappellacci stuffed with chicken liver. He writes stories on the food world's margins.

Contact: Chris Malloy

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