The Grand Canadian Beer Festival is an annual event held in September, offering a unique tasting experience for beer lovers. Unlike an open-air tavern, the festival provides attendees with small glasses of beer that can be purchased with tickets. Everyone who enters will receive a certain number of tickets for the tasting, and there is also the option to buy more. According to Jahn Smith, “beer is meant to be tasted”, so the festival encourages attendees to sample as many different beers as possible. The Great American Beer Festival is an annual event organized by the Brewers Association and held in Denver, Colorado.
The Great Canadian Beer Festival takes this concept one step further by featuring beers from Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In total, there are 14 breweries representing 40 different beers. What makes this festival even more special is that the brewers themselves serve the beer, allowing attendees to talk to the people who make it. In order to celebrate the collaboration between Canadian and American breweries, the Buffalo Niagara Brewers Association is organizing the first cross-border beer festival of its kind. This event was originally scheduled for April 7th at the Niagara Falls Conference and Event Center but had to be postponed due to difficulties in transporting beer across the US border.
Despite this setback, the festival has been a great success in promoting craft breweries and introducing people to the concept of beer tasting.
