2beerguys beer blog

Beer Event: Join Buckbean Brewing at the 2011 Canfest 11/12 (NV)

#canfest, @buckbeanbeer

Dozens of brewers from around the world will showcase unique beers in downtown Reno

RENO, NV (November 2011) — Buckbean Brewing will once again turn Reno, Nev. into the center of the canned microbrew universe this November, as it puts on CANFEST – Reno International Canned Beer Festival, the world’s first canned beer festival, for a third straight year.

Dozens of breweries from around the world will converge on The Reno Ballroom November 12, offering up their canned creations to beer enthusiasts from around the region. The heavy hitters of canned microbrewing — names like Oskar Blues, Maui Brewing, Big Sky Brewing and Bohemian Brewing — are expected to make a third appearance, along with a collection of small craft can breweries and international brews in cans. Buckbean Brewing co-founder Dough Booth said he expects almost all brewers from years past to return plus many more. Winners of a judged canned beer competition will be announced the night before the event at an awards dinner at the Silver Legacy. The dinner will feature past award winners and various brewery participants.

CANFEST is the first event of its kind and serves as both a recognition of the fast-growing popularity of canned craft beer and a celebration of the benefits of the aluminum cylinder. Long regarded as a symbol of inferior beer, the can has come into its own in recent years as beer drinkers realize that cans offer superior protection from sunlight and oxygen infiltration, and the containers are much more portable and environmentally friendly than their glass counterpart. CANFEST also strives to be an event that brings quality canned beer to an area of the world it would otherwise never reach. Many breweries that attend CANFEST don’t have distribution outside of their regions.

The notion that world-class beer can be delivered in a can has caught on, and now the number of microbrews offering canned beer is growing at an astonishing rate. In 2002 the first microbrewery began canning craft beer; today more than 130 microbreweries can at least one of their beers, according to the CraftCans.com database. .

And as the canned beer craze continues to catch on, organizers expect CANFEST to expand.

“The rapid growth of beer served in cans proves that this event symbolizes a trend that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,” said Buckbean Brewing Co-founder Doug Booth.

Buckbean, the largest production microbrewery in Western Nevada, started canning unique microbrews in Reno in 2008. Their beer — from a crisp, dark German Schwarzbier called the Black Noddy Lager to the unique Original Orange Blossom Ale and the rich, hearty Tule Duck Red Ale — represents co-founders Doug Booth and Dan Kahn’s outside-of-the-box thinking on everything from brewing ingredients to the container the beer is packaged in — 16-oz. beer cans.

CANFEST was just a natural outgrowth of Buckbean’s enthusiasm for great beer in a can.

“I think every other town or brewery has a beer festival. Some have music; some have food; some have judging. They all seemed fairly similar. We wanted to create something unique,” said Booth.

For more information on Buckbean Brewing visit www.buckbeanbeer.com.

Photos are from Buckbean Brewing Company and Canfest facebook page.