'Lemon Lavender' wins people's choice at beerfest
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TweetThe 25th Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival attracted 1,700 to the fairgrounds May 26- 27, with the event’s first hard cider distributor stealing the show.
Fair director Jessica Edwards said Double Shovel Cider Co. of Anchorage generated the longest line of 25 festival breweries and distributors. “We kind of knew they would get a lot of interest, so we warned them to bring a little bit more product than the minimum.”
The beer festival made about $95,000 gross profit from ticket sales this year. A few hundred dollars were made from the “Smashed” game and some commission on vendors, Edwards said. Most proceeds go to putting on the Southeast Alaska State Fair in late July.
A new People’s Choice award went to Yukon Brewing Co. for its Lemon Lavender Radler. A team of the certified homebrew judges randomly surveyed attendees for an hour during the festival. Runner-up for people’s choice was Double Shovel Cider Co. for its Forget Me Hopped Cider Beer.
Some 135 runners turned out for the Slammin’ Salmon 5K and 10K fun run Saturday morning.
“I felt like this was our best event yet,” Edwards said.
Edwards said her goal to improve the efficiency of admissions to the general tasting went well, getting the line through the gates in about 20 minutes. “I feel like we’re at that sweet spot,” Edwards said.
Improvements for next year’s festival will be mostly administrative, including better event space planning.
“There was just a really nice vibe,” Edwards said. “We were thrilled with the weekend.”
Police officer Brayton Long said he thought crowds were smaller than last year, and overall the weekend went smoothly. “Everyone was fun-loving and cooperative.”
