The 31st annual Oregon Brew Festival kicks off Thursday at Waterfront Park in downtown Portland.
Over 70,000 beer lovers are expected to travel from around the world to attend the event. The Oregon Brew Festival will serve 80 craft beers from small, traditional, and independent craft breweries located in 10 different states, as well as The Netherlands, and five brewers from Baja, California, Mexico.
The festival will present more than two dozen different beer styles ranging from Berliner Weisse to Belgians, IPAs to IPLs, pales to Pilsners, and sours to stouts.
For the first time in the festival's history, there will be two ciders on site, as well as four wines - two whites, a red and a rosé. The cider and wine will be located in a separate tent along the river side of the festival.
The vibrant festival will also feature live music, food booths, a brewer dunk tank, beer related vendors, beer education and tasting experiences, and homebrew demonstrations.
Also new this year is a festival app that can be downloaded. Search Oregon Brewers Festival in the App Store or Google Play.
The Oregon Brewers Festival is working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation on its SAFE RIDE HOME program, which offers reduced-cost rides home with the goal of preventing people from driving under the influence. The Safe Ride Home program will be providing discounted vouchers for $20 toward taxi rides; and $5 for Lyft and Uber rides throughout the festival weekend. Vouchers will be available to everyone on-site.
The festival is being held at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Thursday through Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 7 p-m.
Admission is free. In order to consume alcohol, the purchase of a 2018 tasting mug is required, which costs $7. Alcohol is purchased with wooden tokens, which cost $1 apiece.
The festival will have spray misters to cool people down; potable water for free; and shaded areas. The public is welcome and encouraged to bring in their own drinking water and/or non alcoholic beverages to stay hydrated. Sunscreen is highly recommended; the festival does have an onsite medical tent.
For more information, visit OregonBrewFest.com.