UPtoberfest - Escanaba MI 10/8/11

UPtoberfest is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan's only beer and wine festival. The event is put on by my homebrew club, Bay de Noc Brewers, and 100% of the proceeds benefit The United Way of Delta County. We'll have over 50 beers/wines available for tasting as well as free snacks from Bobaloon's, a local deli. The cost is $25 in advance or $30 at the gate. Tickets are available at Hereford & Hops and Bobaloon's in Escanaba, White's Party Store and Blackrocks Brewery in Marquette, or at www.uptoberfest.org. If you have any questions, please respond to this thread or shoot me a PM. I hope to see some HBTers there!

I will be down there from Marquette with my brother-in-law (he is a fellow Bay de Noc Brewer).

Hey Jason - we talked very briefly at the Marquette fest. Brian sent you over to talk to me because Jon from Short's was looking for me. I'm pretty sure that we had a class together in high school too. Anyway, I'll see you there!

Sounds like fun! Wish I could get up there for it.

whatsleftofyou said:

Hey Jason - we talked very briefly at the Marquette fest. Brian sent you over to talk to me because Jon from Short's was looking for me. I'm pretty sure that we had a class together in high school too. Anyway, I'll see you there!

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Yeah, I did talk to you at the fest. That was a good time. What class? I went to Esky my senior year.

I'm pretty sure we had Deridder's (sp?) class together.

There's a good chance that I will be attending this festival. Looks like it'll be a great weekend for it too.

I'm so missing this right now. I'm jonesing to get to the UP and jonesing to attend a beer festival. I don't see this working out for my schedule or budget though.

Indeed, it's going to be 70 degrees on Saturday! See you there!

I wish we could make it! It sounds like a great time and I hate to miss it.

Please make sure to give us a full report on Monday! I definitely want to put this on my calendar for next year.

Don't forget the pics!

No worries, I'll be doing a post-writeup with pics for another MI beer blog I just started writing for, imabeerhound.com

Also Yooper, it's always the second Saturday in October, so mark your calendar for 10/13/12!

I'll be on my way out there in just a few minutes. I'm glad it's near the bay; I think inland it's probably pretty hot today. Temp in Escky is super nice for an outdoor event like this. Sunny, blue skies and a nice breeze.

Hope to see some of you there!

Enjoyed my first time at the UPtoberfest. Sure was great weather for the festival. Was thankful for the tables and chairs as I had injured myself last week, so made everything good. Whatsleftofyou, was good meeting you there. Enjoyed the beer that you had brewed also.

I bet it was an awesome event. Sure would have liked to meet some of you people and drink some beer with you.

It was a very nice day for a beer festival! So nice that whatslefofyou told me he had good news and bad new: We ran out of 2011 glasses, were using the 2009 (?) glasses, and were next looking at buying glasses from the local brew pub Herford and Hops. Great turn out!

It sounds wonderful! We will put it on our calendar for next year! Since we wouldn't drive home, we'd either recruit a friend to stay with (she's in Gladstone) or bring our camper.

Glad you had such a great turnout!

Yooper said:

It sounds wonderful! We will put it on our calendar for next year! Since we wouldn't drive home, we'd either recruit a friend to stay with (she's in Gladstone) or bring our camper.

Glad you had such a great turnout!

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Yooper, I camped at a campground between Escanaba and Gladstone. Not many camping this time of year, but was a nice place to camp, and the 80 degree temps really made it nice.

It was a great, great day. We had over 400 attendees, a new record! Beer highlights (in my opinion) were Soo Brewing Co's Grand Cru, ControversiALE from Short's (formerly Hangin' Frank), an American IPA from Keweenaw Brewing with Galaxy hops. We also roasted a pig and a goat, which is ridiculous but delicious. I have to admit that it feels awesome to put on a great event like this and raise some dough for The United Way, but I'm also glad it's over because it's a heck of a lot of work! I've got lines on 3 more U.P./Northern MI breweries for next year, so it's going to be even better yet!