Thirsty Orange for thirsty drinkers. April 13th @ Mellow Mushroom in Johnson City
Well it is that time again when Aaron Carson unleashes his ridiculous amounts of energy (much like my 4 year old) and creates the coolest craft beer festival in Johnson City. For the second year in a row Mr. Carson has collected the finest craft beer brewers and brought them to the Mellow Mushroom in JC to celebrate all that is tasty. For the cost of 32.50 dineros for reg and 52.50 for VIPs (which gets you 1:30 min in earlier so you can plow through the real tasty specialty casks and one time releases before the rest of the mob gets in and free food in the VIP tent, highly recommended) gets you the pleasure of sampling of brews from over 21 different brewers. One of the expectations Aaron places on the brewers is to bring at least one specialty “one off” brew to share with you all. I can tell you I had the pleasure of getting in the first annual Thirsty Orange and it was fantastic so grab your tickets here but grab them quick so you can get you a free pint glass as well.
The highlight of this year is that Wicked Weed Brewing will be in attendance and this is their first Tennessee festival appearance. I had the chance to tour the brewery in Asheville and meet with the owners/brewmeisters Luke and Walt and share a beer or two. These fellas brew with a home brewer mentality that they brew what they enjoy drinking themselves and using the same percentages to brew 100 gallons as it takes to brew 5. The beers are more costly due to the high amounts of ingredients but you definitely get what you pay for. These fellas are on the top of my list of favorite brewers so I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.
From what Aaron has told me you will have over 100 different beer types to sample ranging from an apple pie ale to I believe a peanut butter an jelly ale. Who says you can’t drink your lunch?? Still 100 beers from the likes of Saw Works, Wicked Weed, Moccasin Bend, Calf Killer (another Don approved brewer), Oskar Blues, Greenman and many more just rocks. For a list of the attending brewers and their websites go here.
Also to give you a little more beeriety there will be somewhere in the range of 40 or so different homebrewers either with entries in the Iron Brewer competition, where the brewer gets a set recipe to brew with and is able to add one secret ingredient to hopefully walk away with prizes and bragging rights (and you vote on this), or serving their delicious libations from their own stand. And when I say 100 different beers all the stuff that these fine brewers bring is not counted in that estimate so there you go.
Three other cool things I have to mention is 1. The Peoples Pint Glass Swap that will be going on early in the festival so bring your pint glasses and maybe you can trade for something you feel is even cooler than the one you let go, 2. bring your dancing shoes so you can cut some rug to the bands that will be jamming all day and 3. a photo booth will be churning out free pics so wear your Sunday best.
Alrighty folks to sum up you can grab the VIP tickets for 52.50 and drink from 12:30 – 6:30pm and enjoy free food in the VIP tent or you can get the Reg tickets for 32.50 and guzzle brews from 2 – 6:30pm. Get the tickets now and you get a limited supply of a Thirsty Orange pint glass on top of sampling over 100+ different beers from pro as well as home brewers, food, music, voting for The Iron Brewer, photos, festival shenanigans, Aaron streaking at 6:25pm and much more. Hopefully I will see you at the Johnson City Mellow Mushroom parking lot and you might get in on a The Brew Mob video interview.
Cheers and stay thirsty my friends.