HOULTON, Maine — Craft brewers and beer enthusiasts will be pouring into the Shiretown Saturday for the second annual Black Fly Brewfest.
Sponsored by the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce, with assistance from many local businesses, the event takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at the John Millar Civic Center in Community Park. VIP tickets, which include an event T-shirt, provide access to the festival starting at noon and several special craft brews and hors d’oeuvres. General admission begins at 1:30 p.m.
VIP tickets cost $55, while general admission is $35. As of Tuesday morning, about 350 advanced tickets had been sold for the event, which is ahead of last year. Organizers are hoping to top last year’s attendance, as many people wait until the day of the event to purchase their tickets.
“Last year we brought in about 500 people and those people helped fill up the restaurants and were buying gas,” said Jane Torres, executive director of the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce. “We are thinking we will far exceed that amount this year now that word has spread about this event. For that one day, we are bringing southern Maine to The County.”
Torres said the brewers that attend the festival have raved about how well received they are in Houlton.
“The brewers love coming here,” she said. “They love talking about their trade with the people of The County.”
More than 60 Maine breweries will be bringing more than 100 Maine beers to northern Maine’s largest beer festival. Over a dozen wines as well as ciders and other tasty beverages also will be available for unlimited samples.
“In a nutshell, the Black Fly Brewfest is a big celebration of the Maine beer industry,” explained John White, one of the event coordinators. “We showcase around 100 different Maine beers, wines and ciders. The brewers and brewing staff who pour the samples are very welcoming and approachable. They love to talk about the beer they are serving you and answer questions.”
Several food vendors, including the Blazin Nation Wood Fired Food Trailer from Blaze Restaurant in Bangor; the Vault and Courtyard Cafe from Houlton; and the Little Red Snack Shack out of Calais will all be on hand with food available.
The purpose of the Blackfly Brewfest is to promote the Maine craft beer community to a growing market and celebrate the brewers from around the entire state of Maine.
Up until 1990, there were two active breweries in Maine, Gritty McDuff’s and Geary’s. By 2010, there were 35 active breweries, and today, there are about 100 breweries in Maine, with at least one in every county except Piscataquis, according to White.
“While the explosion in craft breweries hasn’t been unique to Maine, few states have seen such recent rapid growth,” said White. “This growth has been experienced thanks to changes in state laws which allowed Maine breweries to start selling their beer direct to consumers right out of their tasting rooms, in the form of cans, bottles and growlers. Tremendous efforts have been undertaken by Sean Sullivan and the Maine Brewers Guild. While the Brewers Guild hosts their own events and very successful brewfests in Portland, the Black Fly Brewfest is the only beer festival outside of their own that the Brewers Guild has partnered with.”
As the popularity of craft beers has grown, so too has Maine brewers’ reputations.
“Maine brewers are making world class beer and have really put Maine on the map as a craft beer destination,” White said. “Throughout beer enthusiast circles, Portland, Maine, has overtaken Portland, Oregon, as the capital of craft beer in the U.S. One of the reasons I helped start Blackfly Brewfest was to get as many of Maine’s breweries to bring their product to Houlton so people can see what’s available in our state.”
For more information, contact the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce at 532-4216.
