Hops for Hope – Thanks to all who made this happen!

Well gang, if you weren’t at Hops for Hope last night, you missed quite a good time. I first made mention of Hops for Hope in this post back in March. This is a benefit for the New Hope Blount County Children’s Advocacy Center and as far as beer-festivals go, this could be considered an intimate gathering of like-minded beer snobs coming out to support a great cause. Now, I’d like to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who made this happen.

So, let’s start with the brewers – I want to give a BIG thanks to Marble City Brewing Company, Chattanooga Brewing Company, Depot Street Brewing , Smokey Mountain Brewery and Olde Hickory Brewery. Also a BIG thanks to The Market at Washington and High for bringing some North Coast with them to share and to the Blount County Homebrewers for their how-to homebrew demonstration. Can’t say I didn’t have a beer I didn’t like last night many of which I had for the first time.

The food that Dancing Bear Lodge provided was out-of-this-world! Fried cheese grits – you heard me right, they were incredible and I’m getting a little hungry just talking about it right now. Great job!

The band, Pistol Creek Catch of the Day played through the evening and they were fantastic. At one point these guys played “All the Single Ladies” and danced to the music – was quite funny and actually very good!

The silent auction items were great! This beer snob actually won a case of Depot Street Brewery’s Depot Express Amber Ale, pretty sweet! Definitely want to send a big thanks to all that contributed and a high five to those that worked with us here at KBS to add items to the mix. Also want to thank the artisans that came out to show us their work and demonstrate a bit of their art – awesome, awesome work!

Also want to extend a thanks to all the sponsors who provided time, product, and money to make this event a success!

Finally a big shout out and thanks to the volunteers, staff and board of New Hope – well done!!!

If you weren’t able to make it this year, you definitely need to keep this on your radar for next. It’s hard to beat a cool crisp evening in Townsend, TN with awesome music, food, beer and great people.

Cheers!