Fans flock to craft beer fest
IMPERIAL — Since having arrived in the Valley about three years ago, longtime craft beer devotee Robert Brown has come to develop a taste and appreciation for the local beer scene.
So much so that he was among the early arrivals Saturday at the 2018 Crown Craft Beer Invitational, where more than 20 different beers from more than a dozen craft breweries were available for the hundreds of festgoers in attendance.
“The Valley has a very good beer scene,” Brown, a native of the San Francisco Bay area, said.
For the past several years, Alford Distributing Co., has been helping promote the craft beer scene locally, adding the annual beer festival to its offerings four years ago.
The event allows patrons to enjoy local and not-so-local beers, live music and a variety of food, all while honoring Military Appreciation Month and celebrating American Craft Beer Week.
Rumors about Imperial County’s growing beer scene had initially attracted Julian resident and Nickel Beer Co. brewer Brian Scanlon to the Valley for the first time about a year ago.
Scanlon was back on Saturday, pouring the brewery’s Back Country Gold cream ale and Blood Orange Hessian Session IPA, and is hopeful about returning to the beer festival next year, too.
“We wanted to bring some light, tasty drinks out here because of the heat,” Scanlon said.
The blood orange session IPA is made with oranges sourced from Borrego Springs, while some of Nickel Beer’s future recipes will make use of wheat grown here in the Valley.
The idea to use Valley-sourced wheat came about during Saturday’s festival after Scanlon had spoken to brewer and co-founder of Humble Farmer Brewing Co., Eric Strahm, who frequently uses locally sourced ingredients for the Holtville-based brewery’s beers.
“We see the growth out here, the cleverness and the fact that they’re using a lot of the agriculture here in the beer,” Scanlon said. “We’re very much interested in being a part of this.”
On Saturday, patrons were able to enjoy at least two beers from Nickel, Humble Farmer, Calexico Brewing, Golden Road, Green Flash, Sierra Nevada, Coronado Brewing, Four Peaks, Ballast Point, Nickel Beer Co., Alpine Beer Co., Iron Fist, Karl Strauss, Mother Earth and Stone.
Over the years, festgoers have been able to enjoy beers from various states, as well as Mexicali.
This year the event ran for five hours at the Imperial Valley Expo, an hour longer than before.