{"id":4875,"date":"2011-07-21T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/?p=4875"},"modified":"2011-07-20T20:55:27","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T02:55:27","slug":"2011_amesbury_brewfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/21\/2011_amesbury_brewfest\/","title":{"rendered":"Event Recap: 2011 Amesbury Brewfest showcases local breweries (MA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

#craftbeer, #brewfest<\/p>\n

\"Amesbury<\/p>\n

On July 1st, the 2nd Annual Amesbury Brewfest<\/strong> kick started the 10 day Amesbury anniversary celebration, along with the Fourth of July weekend.\u00a0 The brew festival, which was revived 2 years ago, was a staple in the 2011 celebration.<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia (with commentary)…<\/em>\u00a0 Amesbury, which formerly was a part of Salisbury, was settled in 1655 and separated from Salisbury eleven years later.\u00a0 Amesbury became an official town in 1668 and a city in 1996.\u00a0 Currently known as Carriage town, Amesbury was a former farm and mill town.\u00a0 The angry powwow river was used to power the mills — angry because at different times of the year, the water can be quite powerful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a child, growing up in Salisbury, my family attended many firework celebrations during past Amesbury days.\u00a0 Back then, the beer festival was not even a twinkle in Amesbury’s eye.\u00a0 Then stepped in Julian Thompson, with his team at Heat Events Management LLC<\/strong> (http:\/\/www.heateventmanagement.com\/<\/a>, who created a local craft beer festival\u00a0 – for the people, by the people.\u00a0 With short time to finalize the planning and the assistance of a local distributor, the 2010 event was a great success.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but spoke with others who gave praise about the event.<\/p>\n

While breweries started popping up all over the place,\u00a0 Amesbury became the new location for Cody Brewing Company<\/strong> and a thriving beer community.\u00a0 Sean Cody<\/strong>, who started in 2005 as a BYOB (Brew Your Own Beer) in Danvers, transformed his compnay into Cody Brewing Company in 2007.\u00a0 Then, in 2009, Sean moved his business to market sqare in downtown Amesbury, MA. Learn more at http:\/\/www.codybrewing.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Amesbury doubled the number of local breweries – 2.\u00a0 The dreams of aspiring brewer, Steve Sanderson<\/strong>, came true this year.\u00a0 With a passion for homebrewing, Steve took a chance and entered the homebrewing competition hosted by The History Channel’s History on Tap TV show<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 His hard work and perseverance has paid off.\u00a0 Steve has been able to fulfill his dream and open RiverWalk Brewing<\/strong> in his home town of Amesbury, MA. http:\/\/www.riverwalkbrewing.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Sounds pretty awesome, right?\u00a0 That’s because it is.<\/p>\n

Now that I have set the mood (enough already), lets talk about the FEST!<\/p>\n

The 2011 Amesbury Brewfest<\/strong> is like none other\u00a0 — this is because Julian has set his goals to promote small and unknown breweries.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a difficult (but admirable) approach, because many of the breweries are understaffed and have small marketing budgets.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Julian was up to the challenge and found 17 of the smallest, local breweries.<\/p>\n

“We were extremely pleased with the quality of our local micro and nano brewers present as well as the reception the public gave them. Our goal was to highlight the lesser known brewers, the start ups and in many cases these folks self distribute”,<\/em> said Julian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The festival, located in downtown Amesbury – adjacent to the police station, included 19 total breweries with over 650 craft beer lovers in attendance (250 higher than the 400 participants in 2010).<\/p>\n

Notable beers include (but are not limited to), Notch Session Saison, Mayflower IPA, ALL the German lagers from Prodigal Brewing, the Maple-Kissed Wheat Porter from Throwback, the British IPA from No Name Brewery, the Gnomad from Riverwalk, the 20th anniversary ale from Ipswich, Bluehills Watermelon Wheat, and more… (I could go on and on)<\/p>\n

Here is the amazing list of breweries:<\/strong><\/p>\n