MASH UP Homebrew Tasting @ Midwest Morel Fest

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May Morel Fest to add home-brewed beer tasting

The Midwest Morel Fest is growing like — well, like a mushroom.

Wednesday morning, the Ottawa Visitors Center announced a new component of the event — The Morel MASH Up, where home beer brewers will provide samples of numerous types of amateur-made beer.

MASH stands for Marseilles Area Society of Homebrewers. Although members are anticipated to supply at least 10 different beers, they won't be the only participants. Dozens of different styles of beer from numerous amateur brewers are expected to be included.

"A lot of people are excited about it," said MASH Secretary Rob Hasty.

"We've got brewers coming from Bloomington, Peoria, Chicago and DeKalb — and that's just after the early word got out."

Hasty said it is possible 30 to 40 home brewers will participate.

A tasting tent will be set up for each participating club to showcase the beers they bring.

Beer festivals are growing in popularity, said Hasty.

"But what makes ours unique is this is all home brew," he said. "Most of the festivals are a mixture of craft and home brew. This will be the only pure home brew festival."

Tickets for two-ounce tastes will be sold at $10 for eight.

Hasty noted the home brewers will not make any money from the event.

"It's illegal for them to do so," he said. "So all proceeds go back to the Ottawa Visitors Center to hopefully grow this event."

Each club will receive a Mayor's Award from a panel of judges that will include Mayor Robert Eschbach.

"That's part of the mayor's job, I guess," he said with a shrug and a smile.

There also will be Peoples' Choice awards the public will vote on.

Another beer-related aspect of the event will be the presence of Anna Blessing, author of "Locally Brewed: Portraits of Craft Breweries from America's Heartland," said Eileen Fesco, owner of the Book Mouse bookstore in Ottawa.

The Morel MASH Up will side-by-side on the Jackson Street side of Washington Square with the Midwest Morel Fest.

The Morel MASH Up will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3, while the fourth annual Midwest Morel Fest starts Friday, May 2.

There will be hunts both days and training for novice hunters at Morel University on Friday evening.

Tom Nauman, the owner or Morel Mania, said the big news for morel hunters is a new grand prize of $500 will be offered for the biggest morel found during the contest.

"That's unheard of," he said.

The previous grand prize of $200 for the most morels will remain. In all, $950 in prizes will be awarded.

Nauman said conditions have been ideal for morel growth.

"What will really help the crop more than anything will be the bitter cold we've had," he said.

Also partnering for this year's event is the Conservation Foundation.

"They have the expertise to recommend sites that would best yield morels for the hunts," said Julie Johnson, OVC executive director.

Heritage Harbor of Ottawa, which started the local morel fest, will be involved, as will several other businesses.

The Morel Fest is the kickoff for five annual city events, Eschbach noted. The others are the 2 Rivers Wine & Lobster Fest in June, Riverfest in August, Scarecrow and Oktoberfest in September and Ice Odyssey in December.

"The idea of the festivals is not only to give people in Ottawa a good time, but to introduce Ottawa for people from other places," Eschbach said.

"As mayor I get a lot of compliments when we have these events. People who come to Ottawa for the first time are very impressed and some of them end up moving here — which is fine, too."
 
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