Midwest Beerfest: four changes to this year’s event

Almost nothing about Saturday’s Midwest Beerfest Grand Tasting will be like it’s been before.

This year, organizers of the 14-year-old event have given it a major overhaul and redesign, changing not only how it’s set up but also the way it operates and the kind of beers it offers.

“We want to slow people down and educate them about beer,” said Rob Miller, the beer guy at Goebel Liquor, one of the festival’s longtime sponsors. “We are doing everything we can to make this a social function and not just about getting drunk.”

Among the event’s main changes:

▪ A focus on craft beer: As the craft beer community in Wichita has grown, so has the need to refocus Wichita’s biggest beer event, Miller said. He and several other people urged the Midwest Beerfest’s founders, the Wichita chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, to consider emulating other successful beer festivals by shifting the focus exclusively to American craft beers.

As a result, the list of more than 400 beers that attendees can sample is free of lighter domestic beers (Bud Light, LandShark), imports (Guinness) and “malternatives” (Mike’s hard lemonade, Smirnoff Ice).

Instead, it’s full of craft beers and ciders from across the country – the India Pale Ales, stouts and wheats that are the focus of popular events like Denver’s Great American Beerfest and the Kansas Craft Brew Expo in Lawrence.

As a result, the Beerfest has eliminated its reserve room, which over the past several years has required a special, additional ticket for samples of higher-end craft beers. Now, those beers are the focus of the entire festival.

“If you’re a everyday American light beer drinker, most of those beers will not be there,” said Guy Bower, a local wine and beer expert who started the Beerfest. “Instead, we’ll have specialized, high-quality, hand-crafted beers.”

Among the well-known breweries represented: Schlafly, Blue Moon, Breckenridge, Left Hand, New Belgium, Tallgrass, Boulevard, Oskar Blues, Sierra Nevada, Big Sky and Evil Twin.

▪  An all-new setup: In the past, the beer samples were served from tables arranged in a square with pourers in the center. Each square represented a different distributor.

But that setup doesn’t make sense, Miller said. Beer fans don’t care who distributes the beer. If they’re going to truly be educated, it’s better to know which region and brewery the beer comes from.

This year, the beers will be organized by region: East Coast, Midwest, Colorado, West Coast and Northwest. The Kansas region will feature local breweries including River City Brewing Co. and Wichita Brewing Co. out of Wichita, Walnut River Brewing out of El Dorado, Hank is Wiser from Cheney and Free State from Lawrence. The festival also will have a cider section and a gluten-free beer section.

The tables won’t be set up in square shapes, either. Instead, each brewery will have its own booth separated by draping from the other booths, more like the Midwest Winefest. The booths will be staffed by beer experts who can talk to people about what they’re sipping.

The new setup is designed to produce a more education-friendly environment, something that was important to organizers.

“In the pods we had before, we really got people that were just slogging beer and not knowing what they were tasting,” Miller said.

▪  No local restaurants: In the past, the Beerfest organizers invited local restaurants to prepare beer-friendly entrees to sell to the sipping masses.

This year, however, food will be provided by Century II’s usual concession stand, which serves burgers, nachos and such. The change, organizers hope, will encourage more people to participate in the Midwest Chickenfest, a chicken wing contest it puts on each year. For $6, attendees can sample a wing from each competing restaurant. This year’s participants are Old Chicago, Siena Tuscan Steakhouse, Wings & Things, Butler Community College/AIWF and DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Wichita Airport.

Those who sample the wings will be asked to vote on a People’s Choice winner, and a panel of judges also will pick a winner.

“The wingfest should get even more attention,” Bower said.

▪  New entertainment: Miller, who has attended Denver’s Great American Beer Festival for many years, said he’s always loved the way the festival opens: Attendees follow bagpipers into the room to begin the tasting. This year, the festival has lined up a Wichita Caledonian Pipes & Drum to start Wichita’s festivities. The group also will perform inside during the festival.

When the pipers aren’t piping, local disc jockey “The Dance Man” Ronnie Choy will be providing beer-drinking background music.

Also: The Beerfest, which attracts around 2,000 people each year, will include a silent auction, the proceeds of which will go to Make-A-Wish. The proceeds from the rest of the festival go to a culinary scholarship.

Organizers announced that next year, the grand tasting will take place during the evening hours instead of the afternoon. It will be on Oct. 3.

This story was originally published October 16, 2014 at 9:54 AM with the headline "Midwest Beerfest: four changes to this year’s event."