One of our annual “cannot miss” local beer festivals is the Because Beer Craft Beer Festival at Pier 4 Park in Hamilton.

As usual, every year there are new added elements that make it that much better. And, no, I’m not talking about the 45 amazing brewers that were in attendance (but they are, of course, the MAIN reason we are there) – I’m talking about the great musical lineup, the awesome food trucks, the great beer-themed speakers and the free video arcade.

It is, simply, a well-organized, all-around good time for beer nerds to gather and share in the spirit of awesome craft beer culture.

Among the many amazing beers we had and great conversations with brewers, beer lovers and delightful strangers, here were some of the highlights in brief.

The Travelling Pint & Society of Beer Drinking Ladies

We adore and respect Tiffany of The Travelling Pint, ever since we first met her years ago when she was serving us beer at Bell City Brewing in Brantford. She is such a fun and enthusiastic person to talk to; extremely knowledgeable and passionate about great beers. We had the pleasure of watching her interview the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies on stage.

Liz will be writing more about this in a future post, because we had an interesting conversation on what I love about the empowerment that women are taking in the craft beer movement, and am pleased that it completely turns the old “Budweiser girl” type of stereotype about women and beer on its head. These women are serious about craft beer, know their stuff inside out and are bringing a 100% game to the beer experience.

A bit later on in the day, Tiffany and I did a quick “on location” Facebook Live video about Because Beer on the Spirits Untapped Facebook page.

Musical Lineup

We didn’t catch or pay attention to all the acts. But we did pause to listen to The Trews (who were amazing), and quite enjoyed the music of Born in the Eighties.

Discovering New Brewers

While it is always great to catch up with the brewers that we already know (and there are so many great ones, including some wonderful local ones that opened in Hamilton in just the past year, like Grain & Grit, Fairweather, and Clifford), it is also fun to met and chat with breweries we’d never heard of.

I was immediately drawn to the delightful skull with hops for eyes of Overhop Brewing, and had a great chat with the folks there. Overhop originates in Brazil but Overhop Brewing Canada began their operations via collaborations with Scarborough based Common Good Brewing a little over a year ago. (Note the Canadian flag in the Overhop Brewing Canada logo in the red t-shirt that Tatiana, co-founder of the Canadian operation, is wearing below)

I enjoyed their Hazy New England IPA and their One Love Imperial IPA and am looking forward to trying more in the coming months.

Beer T-Shirts

There are always so many fun beer themed shirts/etc to spot at such a great beer festival. So I end this post with a note on how my LABrewtory (an awesome Portland brewery) t-shirt was a huge hit. The skull crafted of beer-elements is exactly my style. Skulls, beer, we’re all good. And the back of the shirt uses their slogan (they brew experimental beers) “Brew whatever the f*ck you want.”

(Zooming in to the front of the t-shirt)

 

In a nutshell, Because Beer 2018 was as delightful as ever, and we are already looking forward to returning to it next summer.