Spring 2015 Craft Beer Festival to Make San Jose Debut on Feb. 28

Spring 2015 San Jose Craft Beer Festival
Spring 2015 San Jose Craft Beer Festival

The South Bay beer scene continues its ascent with a big-time beer festival set to take place on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds – Expo Hall (344 Tully Road) in San Jose.

The San Jose Craft Beer Festival spring seasonals edition – presented by Hand Crafted Tasting Company – will feature offerings from over 75 breweries, including over a dozen cider companies. Each brewery and cidery is expected to showcase two of their finest with an emphasis on limited release and seasonal selections.

Hand Crafted Tasting producer Ken Tesler shares, “After learning more about the growing Silicon Valley beer scene, we felt the area needed a true craft beer tasting experience to showcase a seasonal selection of both national craft brewers and local California craft brewers in one place at one time. After having success in the San Francisco market at our October San Francisco Craft Beer Festival, Fall Harvest Edition, we thought it natural to next add San Jose to our festival lineup.”

The current list of mostly California breweries includes San Jose’s Strike Brewing Company, along with Bay Area breweries Half Moon Bay Brewing, Lagunitas, Speakeasy, Almanac, HenHouse, Social Kitchen & Brewery, Heretic, Drake’s, Anchor, Simpleton Craft Ales, Knee Deep, Marin Brewing, Calicraft, Bear Republic, 101 North Brewing, Black Diamond, Magnolia, 21st Amendment, Moylan’s and Devil’s Canyon. Expect Redwood City’s Freewheel Brewing and other South Bay breweries to participate as well. Additional breweries include, among others, Firestone Walker, Hangar 24, Lost Coast, Golden Road, Dust Bowl, Saint Archer, High Water, Avery, Oskar Blues, Dogfish Head, Ninkasi and New Belgium.

The San Jose Craft Beer Festival is designed to further educate both the beer enthusiast and the casual beer drinker. Guests can meet industry and beer experts in the Craft Concierge Center and attend informative, beer-related seminars.

The Craft Kitchen will be presented by Off the Grid and feature a variety of food from participating vendors, including Cheese Gone Wild, El Porteño, FK Custard, Jeepney Guy, Mayo & Mustard, The Rib Whip and Soul Groove, and a selection of showcase beers for pairing. Additionally, guests can enjoy shopping retail vendors, games and live music from local rock/soul/funk band Sweet HayaH.

Of note is that there will be two festival sessions. Session 1 takes place from 2-4:30pm, and Session 2 takes place from 7-9:30pm. General admission tickets and VIP tickets for each session are $49 and $65, respectively. VIP tickets allow for an extra hour of tasting prior to the general admission entry. Advance sale tickets are currently available for purchase online.

As an FYI, the San Francisco Craft Beer Festival takes place on Sat., March 7 at the Fort Mason Center – Festival Pavilion.

About Hand Crafted Tasting Company

Hand Crafted Tasting Company is part of the Food & Beverage division of Mad Dog Presents, a concert and full service production company. Hand Crafted Tasting Co.’s Craft Beer Festivals mission is to offer guests the opportunity to taste a large number of craft beer selections in a low pressure setting in one place at one time. Tesler adds, “For over three years now the Hand Crafted Tasting Co. has been building a brand of quality Craft Beer Festivals in NYC, DC and San Francisco – three times per year in NYC and twice a year in SF and DC. We feature a tasting selection of seasonal beers, ciders and meads. This year, Hand Crafted Tasting Co. has added San Jose and the Twin Cities to the Spring festival line up.”

[This post was shared on Examiner.com.]