Beer Bash

This weekend, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium hosted an event unlike the traditional benefit galas it typically hosts. Starting on Friday, the three-part, two-day festival "Savor: An American Craft Beer Experience" filled the old-world-style space with 2,100 total attendees (700 per session). Amid the venue’s four-story columns and gilded relief carvings, almost 50 breweries presented their beers, which included Foothills’ Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout and New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk Oak Aged Ale.

Nancy Johnson, event director for the Boulder-based Brewers Association, which put on the inaugural event to cap off the 2008 American Craft Beer Week, chose the space to ensure that the sold-out show had the same atmosphere that might be expected at an upscale wine tasting. 

“We’re trying to raise the image of craft beer and show people how well great beer pairs with great food,” said Johnson, adding that the association plans to make Savor an annual event.To frame the brewers, their goods, and their branding, Johnson kept the decor simple, choosing blue carpet to protect the floors and blue and gold lighting for the columns. Most exhibitors set up around the space at crescent tables covered with navy linens, with a center area for sponsors, such as Flying Dog Brewery and Harpoon Brewery. 

Johnson and the breweries also worked with Federal City Caterers on food pairings, such the tiny fish tacos matched with Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale and mini chocolate cherry scones for Brooklyn Brewery’s Chocolate Stout.  

In order to navigate the 96 beers on tap, ticket holders received a souvenir tasting glass and a program map. Attendees also took home commemorative beer tasting journals, from Jack Nadel International, so they could remember their favorites the next day, no matter how many ales they had consumed.