Many drinks were poured at the 100 Mile Community Hall on Sept. 14 during the first-ever 100 Mile House Craft Beer Festival.
“It went really well. It was very well received,” said Gisela Janzen, the president of the 100 Mile House Rotary Club, which organized the event.
She mentioned event-goers had lots of positive comments for the event, mostly about how they liked it and enjoyed themselves.
“People who attended all said ‘wow, this is so nice,’ and ‘we enjoyed it, this is great.’ There was nothing but positive [feedback]. The food was great, the set-up and the way everything was arranged.”
Janzen said she was also asked if it would happen again next year.
“I think it was a good event. I think so, I just have to put it forward to my group and if everybody is in favour then we’ll probably do it again.”
Around 244 tickets were sold, according to Janzen, most of them sold in the two or three days prior to the event.
“Well, like in 100 Mile everything is last minute and that is a bit stressful but the last two-three days are when ticket sales picked up and we were happy with the results,” she said.
The attendees of the event were allowed to vote the top three beers from the five breweries who were showcased at the festival.
The five were Jackson’s Social Club and Brew House (100 Mile House), Red Collar Brewing Company (Kamloops), CrossRoads Brewing (Prince George), Three Ranges Brewing (Valemount), Barkerville Brewing Company (Quesnel) as well as a cidery based in Logan Lake, Left Field Cider.
The winner was Barkerville Brewing Company’s Sluice Juice Pale Ale. Second place was awarded to Three Ranges Brewing for their Hascap beer. CrossRoads Brewing’s George St. Brown Ale was given third place.
Janzen said the whole set up of the festival worked very well.
“We are now talking and thinking about it. We have some ideas to improve it and that’s the next step. We’re first deciding if we want to do it again, then if we do, we will definitely work on some ideas to make it even better and more fun,” she said. “It was a great festival. The only reason this could happen was that we had some local sponsors. That’s how it started off and the community really pulled together and we made it happen.”