All of Wichita’s craft beer brewers will be serving samples at one party this weekend
It’s one of the big beer and food events of the year in Wichita.
And it happens in a garden center.
Johnson’s Garden Center’s annual Iron ChileHead Competition returns on Saturday for its sixth annual installment, and it will be packed. The festival has become a big hit, and each year it draws bigger and bigger crowds of people in search of beer samples, music and green-chile spiked food from local food trucks.
The event will run from noon to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of the gardening center at 2707 W. 13th St. and will allow people with $25 tickets to sample craft beer from 19 different craft breweries from Wichita and from around the state. Like at any beer festival, ticket holders will get a sampling glass then will be set loose to sip away.
Among the breweries who will be there are Wichita’s Central Standard Brewing Co., Hopping Gnome, River City Brewing Company, Wichita Brewing Company, Limestone Brewing Co. and Aero Plains Brewing. Wichita’s newest brewer on the scene — the popular Nortons Brewing Company — also has signed on. The lineup also includes Happy Basset Brewing Co. and Blind Tiger out of Topeka and several Kansas City brewers, including Stockyards Brewing Co. and Cinder Block Brewery.
No ticket is required to visit local food trucks, who will be selling food on site. The trucks on the roster this year are B.S. Sandwich Press, Homegirlz’ Kitchen, Funky Monkey Munchies, The Kamayan Truck, Lumpia Palooza, Sweet Willy’s BBQ and Uno Mas. Nitro Joe’s Coffee and Drink Local Truck also will be there.
The point of the event is to draw attention to the annual Chile Fest at Johnson’s. Every August, owner Marty Johnson travels to Hatch, New Mexico, to get bushels and bushels of green chiles then drives them back to town to roast them up and sell them to his customers. Johnson’s adult children, Jeremy Johnson and Kristen Chalfant, dreamed up an event that invited food trucks to prepare a dish that incorporated the chiles.
The first year drew a respectable crowd. Then in 2014, Chalfant, whose husband is a beer brewer, decided to add a craft beer component to the festival, asking local brewers to cook up a beer that incorporated the chiles and setting up a little tasting.
The crowd that year was crazy and has gotten bigger every year, always resulting in a packed venue and a wild afternoon party.
Attendees will be be asked to vote on a favorite green chile beer, and judges also will be choosing one. Meanwhile, the food trucks will be set up on the perimeter of the parking lot serving food for purchase, and each will have a special dish that uses Hatch green chiles. I’ll be one of the members of a judging panel that chooses the best dish. A People’s Choice trophy will be awarded to the food trucks, too.
Last year’s judges’ choice beer and food winners — Crane Brewing and Kamayan Truck — will be back to defend their titles. So will People’s Choice winners Uno Mas and Central Standard.
Another big attraction returning to the festival for another year: The Bolzen Beer Band, a hip young polka trio from Nebraska that has become the life of the party. The group plays modern tunes and beer favorites using a tuba, an accordion and a drum set.
Organizers will have extra parking available at Asbury Church at 2801 W 15th St.
A bit of welcome news: Usually, Iron ChileHead day is blazing hot and sweaty. But Saturday’s high is supposed to be 89.
Tickets are available in advance at ironchilehead.com, and some should be available at the door on Saturday. People should go into the gardening center to buy them before lining up for the beer sampling.
People also can buy roasted green chiles while there. They cost $7.99 for a starter bag, $29.99 for a half bushel and $44.99 for a full bushel.
This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 11:20 AM.