On Friday, April 19th, 2019, the Elk Grove Brewfest was a major hit for the community as visitors from all over California filled Old Town Elk Grove. This event sold out the past three years and it has only grown. The best part of this event was seeing all the people from Elk Grove get together and having a grand time.

Event Experience

As the music played, more and more people filled the event area. People with smiles across their faces as they cheered for beer and drank to a somber. I came across a group of people with pretzel necklaces and offered me to have a necklace. A score for me!

Elk Grove Brewfest had over 60 breweries, cideries, and meaderies so visitors had an unlimited amount to sample from. Additionally, the event had gourmet food trucks, vendors, and 2 music stages. All event goers had unlimited tastings with their tickets.

For the non-beer drinkers, there was a full cocktail bar with the tastiest drinks. VIP tickets were sold as well. For the VIP tickets, it allowed patrons to visit the event an hour earlier. Additionally, the patron was given swag, a bag, and a VIP beer mug.

The most epic experience from this all is seeing the community unite together for a common cause, to benefit the community in a fun way. This event also contributes to Young Life which is an Elk Grove organization that reaches out to middle school, high school, and college students in friendship and hope.

Breweries

From the start, the vendors were thrilled to see all the patrons sampling the beers. The stories they told were extremely interesting. One excellent vendor was Tower Brewery. This brewery is new and holds all the recipes to the iconic Rubicon brewery. Rejoice! Tower Brewery does make Monkey Knife Fight beer that is popular among beer drinkers in the area.

Elk Grove breweries did show up such as Waterman Brewery and Dreamy Dog Brewery. Other popular breweries in the Sacramento area that provided samples were Device Brewery, King Cong Brewery, and Porchlight Brewery to name a few. Additionally, very popular breweries also were there such as Stone, Sierra Nevada, Deschutes, and Drakes. Over the 60 breweries, many were from the Sacramento Valley area and they sure represented how good the beer is from here.

In addition to the breweries were homebrew groups that showed off their beers. With over a dozen groups. two are from Elk Grove. Elk Grove Brewers Guild and Elk Grove City were the two.

Of all the breweries, I believe one could not have tried everything as there were too many beers to choose from. Overall, this is a great event for beer drinkers. I personally believe this is an event to go to when it happens each year. Definitely, an event to remember.

Food

Outside of beer, the food vendors were awesome. Vendors included Nash and Proper, Smoker’s Wild, and Bacon Mania. There were a ton more and all had different genres of food. I had some super awesome fries and a mac’n’grilled cheese sandwich. They all went well with the beer, of course!

Transportation

Bike valet was provided by SABA and was free of charge. I am glad to see so many bikes that were they when I passed by the bike area. It’s great to see locals being able to attend an event via cycling. Rideshare like Lyft and Uber had designated areas so all patrons knew where to go. It was organized and well thought out.