7th Annual Winter Beer Festival

The 7^th Annual Winter Beer Festival will take place Saturday, February 25^th, 2012 at the Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, just north of Grand Rapids. The Winter Festival is a unique opportunity to sample some of the best beers in the world, all brewed in Michigan. We are expecting more than 50 Michigan craft breweries to participate and there will be more than 300 different beers available to sample. The event is open from 1:00-6:00pm. Enthusiast Members of the Michigan Brewers Guild will be allowed to enter the Festival an hour early at Noon. The Festival will take place in the outfield parking lot at the ballpark and breweries will be located within several large tents. The tents, combined with body heat will help take the edge off the temperature, but please recognize that the Festival is an outdoor event and dress accordingly. Hats, mittens, boots and long-johns are recommended to keep you warm. We are planning to have warming fires again, but only if the weather cooperates with low wind conditions. It would be helpful if everyone could hoist a Michigan beer and do a fair weather dance. We are hoping for good weather for a late February day in Michigan, but the Festival will take place snow, rain or shine.

The cost to enter the Festival is $40 in advance and $45 at the gate if tickets are still available. Last year’s Festival sold out a month in advance and we have allowed for more attendance but advance ticket purchase is strongly suggested. Tickets can be purchased here on our website, at the Whitecaps website, at participating member breweries and at select retail outlets. Please see the related post on the MASH (our blog) for an updated list of ticket outlets. 15 drink tokens are included with a ticket and each token is good for one 3 ounce beer sample. Additional tokens are available for purchase inside the Festival for 50 cents each. Local West Michigan bands will be the featured live entertainment. Food will be available for purchase.