7th Annual Meet the Brewers Beer Festival at Hermitage Brewing Company

Photo from Meet the Brewers Beer Festival in San Jose, Feb. 2015
Photo from Meet the Brewers Beer Festival in San Jose, Feb. 2015

The annual Meet the Brewers beer festival – held at San Jose’s Hermitage Brewing Company (1627 S. 7th St.) – is a marquee SF Beer Week event that showcases and celebrates the local brewing community. This year’s Meet the Brewers beer fest marks its seventh year and takes place Sat., Jan. 30 from 1pm-5pm. With more available space, this year’s festival will be the biggest one yet, with over 30 participating breweries.

For those new to craft beer, Meet the Brewers provides a festive environment to enjoy and learn about different beer styles, meet the brewers who make them and experience the vibe of the South Bay beer scene. There will be live music, SJ Made artisan vendors and mobile eats courtesy of Brother Baby’s BBQ, Gow Chow and Hoshi on the Go.

The festival is family friendly and has consistently run smoothly thanks to the coordination efforts of Carolyn Hopkins-Vasquez, marketing director for Hermitage and Tied House, and her event team. In a previous Q&A post from 2012, Carolyn and Peter Estaniel discussed the origins of the Meet the Brewers beer festival.

Meet the Brewers also welcomes select breweries from neighboring communities like the Peninsula, Monterey, Santa Cruz and the East Bay. The following breweries have confirmed their participation at this year’s event:

Almanac Beer Co.
Alvarado Street Brewing
Bison
Calicraft
Cleophus Quealy
Craft Artisan Ales
Devil’s Canyon
Discretion
Drake’s
Eight Bridges
El Toro
Faultline
FireHouse
Freewheel Brewing
Golden State
Gordon Biersch
Half Moon Bay
Hermitage
Highwater
New Bohemia
Palo Alto Brewing
Peter B’s
Rabbit’s Foot/ Red Branch
Rock Bottom, Campbell
San Jose Cooperative Brewery
Santa Clara Valley Brewing
Seabright
South City Cider
Steel Bonnet
Strike
Three Monkeys
Tied House
Uncommon Brewers
Wildcide

Tickets are $40 and as in past years, proceeds benefit Can Do MS and The Bay Brewers Guild. This year’s sponsors include Caliva, Eureka! Restaurant Group, Beer Snobiety, Yelp and LYFT. In addition to their own booth, the affable folks from Beer Snobiety will be in charge of raffles and prizes to take place throughout the afternoon.

For additional information, and to purchase tickets, visit the Meet the Brewers Eventbrite page.

[This post was shared on Examiner.com.]