Highwood Craft Beer Fest

Cancelled this year…
Cancelled this year…
Cancelled this year…

Great event! For an event that is laser focused on drinking, everybody was really well behaved and super friendly. There were so many beers to sample and all the vendors were excited to share their sudsy creations. The pours were very generous. I really enjoyed the pear cider, which was so refreshing on a sunny summer’s day.

I have to write a shout out right away to Angela for the VIP tickets! Thank you again, Angela! We had a great time at the festival!!!
It was a gorgeous day for drinking beer!!! Sun shining, not too hot and not a cloud in the sky!!! Everts park is also a TERRIFIC little park for hosting festivals, as I have now been to Inferno Fest in addition to the Craft Beer Fest. The circular layout is PERFECT for making sure you don’t miss anything, and the little gazebo in the middle with an acoustic band jamming some classics… just blissful!
My friend and I arrived at 11:45AM b/​c the VIP ticket entry was an hour earlier (12pm) than regular admission… excellent, right? Well, one small issue is that when the gates opened and we walked around, about half the vendors were still setting up and told us the beer they had wasn’t cold yet :-(bummer. So we walked around to the tents that were set up and ready and proceeded to drink!!!
The quality of vendors at the event was AWESOME! As mentioned by Michael and Ashley, Two Brothers was there as well as Bells, Oskar Blues, Rogue, Allagash, Lake Bluff Brewing Co., Lagunitas, Stone, Central Waters, Ale Syndicate, Goose Island and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting.
As far as variety goes though, mostly ALL the beer that was served at the festival was common and widely available everywhere in the Chicagoland area. My oh my have the times changed! I remember around 2003 when Fat Tire first came to Chicago in those big half liter bottles… it was the biggest and best thing around!!! Now, if you’re not serving high quality craft beers at your restaurant/​bar or selling it at your liquor store, you’re WAY behind the times.
So, take for instance Bells… I was so stoked to see what kind of new or rare beers they were going to bring to the fest… but I was a bit disappointed to see that they were only serving up the Two Hearted Ale and a heavier stout. I mean, nowadays you can get the Two Hearted Ale just about ANYWHERE.
I want to say that the only beers I had not tried that were at the festival was the Oskar Blues Imperial Ale and the Allagash Curieux, an 11% Tripel Ale that was aged in Jim Beam barrels… Holy Cow this one really went straight to the dome and was more like a full beer’s worth rather than a 3 oz sampler. Oh and there was a Root Beer, Beer that I found to be quite good considering I don’t normally like to venture out of the norm.
One last thing, and it’s not a complaint. But, a couple times I forgot to put a ticket into the vendor box after receiving a sample. In fact, towards the end, I was making sure to put a ticket in for each sample in order to try and keep track of my drinks… definitely not a bad thing, but from the vendor’s perspective for next year, they should try and make sure people are honest by collecting a ticket each time. I gotta say that, even for a seasoned craft beer drinking pro like myself, using all 25 tickets was NOT an easy task. I just hope no one at the fest overdid it, because I know for a fact I went home and took a little cat nap on my porch swing and watched the sun go down :-)
Can’t wait to check out the Highwood Craft Beer Fest next year!!! What a great event!!!

I was a little reluctant to volunteer, I mean that’s a lot of time for just some beer tasting, right?! Wrong good, we actually had a really great time! You can see Mike’s review for the details, but I wanted to make sure that I let everyone know that this fest should be an annual thing. Also, just a tip to the Directors, make sure you have t-​shirts to sell, that was the number one question, and disappointment!
Cheers!

My fiancé and I volunteered for the festival and couldn’t be happier with our decision. We arrived at 10am and helped set up the festival: set up chairs, hung signs, stuffed VIP lanyards, etc.
Around noon, when the gates were opened to the VIPs, we told the director we wanted to pour beer for any brewery who didn’t have their own pourers. Well, the beer heavens smiled upon us, because we ended up pouring for Two Brothers Beer all day!
The festival was so much fun, there was a great turn out, as well as some delicious beer and food (Bridie McKennas!). We made a new friend as well, Max from Finch’s Brewery. It was a lot of fun pouring beer for all of the festival goers, but even more fun sampling all the beers for ourselves!