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All posts for the month August, 2012

Here’s a press release I’ve received regarding the 1st Annual PEI International Beer Festival:

 New Beer Festival Pairs International Brew with Island Food and Entertainment 
1st Annual PEI International Beer Festival 
September 28-29, 2012 
Charlottetown Event Grounds 
(Charlottetown, PE – August 30, 2012) 
This September 28th and 29th downtown Charlottetown will come alive as the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company hosts a vibrant mix of world-class brewers, Island chefs, and a variety of late night entertainment as the 1st annual Prince Edward Island International Beer Festival kicks off at the new Charlottetown Event Grounds.
As an official Fall Flavours Culinary event, this new festival will showcase Island ingredients from land and sea prepared by local chefs as each culinary offering is created to pair with some of the most prestigious beers of the world.
Over sixty varieties of International beer are confirmed to date from the following breweries: MolsonCoors, Labatt Breweries, Pumphouse Brewery (Moncton), Picaroons Brewing Company (Fredericton), Garrison Brewery (Halifax), Erdinger Weissbrau (Germany), RockBottom Brewpub (Halifax), Stiegl (Austria), Fruii (Belgium), Affligem (Belgium), and many more yet to be announced.
In addition to the world-renowned beer, some special tastes from around the Maritime region will be making an appearance including Picaroons Maple Cream Ale and their distinct watermelon flavoured Melon Head; the sweet Raspberry Wheat Ale from Garrison Brewery; Blueberry Ale and Special Old Bitter (SOB) from The Pump House Brewery; all of the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company brews including a couple of new creations currently in development which will be featured only at the PEI International Beer Festival this September 28-29 at the new Charlottetown Event Grounds.
When asked why he would launch a new beer festival when another exists earlier in September, festival host and President of PEI Brewing Company, Jeff Squires, responded, “As a brewery ourselves, we understand how beer consumption has been changing in North America in recent years, with a growing interest in craft beer. Established beer festivals in the Maritimes are hosted by breweries. For example,Garrison Brewing Co. hosts the Halifax Seaport Beerfest in Nova Scotia while Pump House Brewery hosts Atlantic Beer Festival in New Brunswick. We have been working with our regional craft brewery counterparts for some time to establish an International level beer festival on Prince Edward Island. As an official culinary event in the Fall Flavours festival, the pairings of these unique brews with fresh Island ingredients from land and sea will create a unique festival that can only be offered in Prince Edward Island.”
In addition to the beer and food sampling sessions, each evening will culminate with a variety of entertainment within two distinct tents, each offering a genre of entertainment different from the other. This eclectic mix of entertainment will bring the flavour of many different events together in one convenient location on the new Charlottetown Event Grounds on the corner of Grafton St and Water St.
Tasting sessions will take place on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening with tickets ranging from $45 – $55. Late night entertainment only tickets are available for $20. All tickets are available at www.peibrewingcompany.com/beerfestival.

Today I received the following press release from FiddleHop Farms regarding this weekend’s annual hop harvest:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FiddleHop Farms will complete their second year in production with their annual hops harvest this Saturday!

Glenholme, NS – September 1, 2012 – This Saturday, Nova Scotia’s largest hop yard, FiddleHop Farms will be capping off another season in production. With the help of some amazing volunteers the FiddleHop crew will be harvesting this year’s yield of local organic hops for Halifax beer maker, Garrison Brewery.

“We’re really excited to continue our partnership with Garrison Brewery” said Evan Price, co-owner of FiddleHop Farms. “We were very pleased with the ‘3 Fields Harvest Ale’ which was made in collaboration with hops from our field and 3 other hops producers in the province. We have an exceptional yield of crops this year and we are proud that our hops and farm will be a part of such a great product!”

“It has been a full season of overcoming obstacles, while using organic pest control and nutrient management techniques” co-owner Jason Pelley added.  “We’re very proud to be a part of Nova Scotia’s farming community and contribute to a completely Nova Scotian beer.”

FiddleHop Farm works very closely with Garrison ‘Brewmaster’, Daniel Girard to ensure quality production for brewing. Each year all the hop farms in Nova Scotia who supply Garrison, harvest their crop on the same day and Garrison adds them to the kettle within a 24 hour period to create this special annual “wet hop” brew.

Be sure to watch for the release of Garrison Brewery’s “3 Fields Harvest Ale” this season! Made with over 100kg of Nova Scotia “wet hops” this ale is a great celebration of the local beer making industry!

About Fiddle Hop Farms
Fiddle Hop Farms was established in early February 2010. Evan Price had been running a fresh fiddlehead distribution business that harvested wild fiddleheads for sale in May and June. To better organize the harvest, the fiddlehead crew transplanted some 12,000 crowns onto the farm property in Glenholme over six weeks. The farm has about three acres of wild fiddleheads which produce about 5,000 lbs of the fresh veggies each year.

The PEI Brewing Company will be hosting the first annual PEI International Beer Festival September 28th & 29th at the Charlottetown Festival Grounds.  Details are few at this point;  there is a webpage for the event on PEI Brewing Company’s website with a link to order tickets for the sessions on Friday and Saturday.  There is also similar information on the PEI Brewing Company’s Facebook page.

This event is not to be confused with the PEI Beer Festival that will take place Thursday, September 6th and Friday, September 7th at the Delta Prince Edward in Charlottetown.