Reflections on the First Annual Tennessee Winter Beer Fest!

Hello fellow snobs –

As many of you know, this past Saturday the first annual Tennessee Winter Beer Fest was held at the Laurel Valley Country Club in Townsend, TN. Let me begin my reflection simply with this; WOW! While it was a wet and chilly evening, it was warm and relaxing inside the Laurel Valley Country Club. Depot Street, Smoky Mountain Brewery, Marble City Brewing Company and Woodruff Brewing Company were all on hand pouring their tasty brews and given that 180 tickets were made available for this sold out event, lines were short which meant plenty of time to try the various brews and spend a little time talking with the brewers. Without these guys, it’d be hard to call it a beer fest! Many thanks for the effort they put in and for the beer they shared.  Also, the silent auction raised an additional $1,875 for New Hope Blount County Children’s Advocacy Center on top of the proceeds from the festival.

The food provided by Miss Lily’s Cafe was nothing short of stellar – Steve, Janice & their team did a phenomenal job of making sure we all had plenty of tasty food to eat. I think I actually had a dream about their jalapeno poppers last night – yep, they were just that good.

I’d also like to send out a HUGE thank you to the volunteers who made this happen – absolutely incredible how these guys and gals took the reins and made things happen – you guys rock! Also want to send a big thanks to Mike Talley of the Talley Ho Inn for making a shuttle available to those staying at the Inn AND for all of his help in making this happen, Remember The Dream & FishSticks for great music, Nathan Robinette of The Casual Pint for helping sell tickets and being such a great support, Jen Hill & Rebecca Tatum for providing fun games and for their help with the silent auction, Dr. Todd White (the Beer Doctor) for all of his help and guidance and finally Mike Adams and The Market @ Washington & High for making this a reality. While we joked about who’s idea this was, Mike was the formidable force that pulled all of this together – many, many thanks.

I’d also like to thank Laurel Valley Resort for providing their facilities and everything they did to make us all feel at home!

Finally, thanks to all that bought tickets, came out and supported this first annual event. I hope you had as great of a time as we did.

We’ll keep you posted on next year’s but until then, cheers!