Brews for New Avenues 2017! (Recap)

Portland's annual BREWS FOR NEW AVENUES just wrapped up and this amazing event just keeps getting bigger and better every year. This is certainly not your typical beer festival, however. In addition to fantastic beers (local, national, and international), live music, and food trucks you get to participate in a live bid of some of the rarest and most sought ofter beers on earth. Large format bottles from Lambic brewers such as Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen drew the big bucks this year but there were also packages from local favorite De Garde and several others. 

Attendees also had a lineup of silent auction beer packages available in both the general admission segment and in the VIP segment of the event. Perhaps the most fun part for us was the "Wall of Beer". For $10 per spot you can pick a bag from the wall and inside you are guaranteed to get a big bottle valued above your donation with many of the bottles being vintages worth significsntly more. For VIPs there was the "Wall of Lambic" where a $30 donation (one time only) scored you a bottle from some of Belgium's best. The Lambic wall came courtesy of B4NA sponsor Lambic.Info and their great team of people.

There were several beer-celebrity sightings from the participating breweries. It was great seeing so many industry folks hanging out with their beer-nerd fans.  International guests included Pierre Tilquin (Tilquin), Raf Soef (Bokkereyder),  and local legends such as Nat West (Reverend Nats Cider), and Art Larrance (Cascade Brewing). 

Be sure to attend next year so you can join in all the fun and get your hands on exclusive bottles only sold at this event. Our Ave No 3 collaboration bottles were paired with another B4NA exclusive bottle... a fantastic Apricot sour called "Pause for Effect" by the great folks at Breakside Brewing. The staff at B4NA already have a couple big beers lined up for next year so don't miss out. You will also get to try some fantastic beers on draft. This year's draft list included Cantillon, Fantome, De Garde, Pfriem, Wolves & People, and many others.

Thank you to all the volunteers and the staff at B4NA (Jessica, Andy, James, Jeremy, Don) for always making us feel so welcome. Thank you to all the breweries in attendance for making this such a fun event. Of course... thank you to all of the attendees and their generous donations to a great cause.

All proceeds from this event go to New Avenues for Youth, helping at-risk kids in the Portland area with counseling, job training, and housing. This year they blew their previous record out of the water and raised $238,500! I have no doubt next year will be even bigger.

Are you a brewery that would like to donate to this event? Feel free to reach out to the folks at New Avenues by emailing them through their contact page or calling 503-224-4339. Interested in collaborating with AltBrau on a beer for B4NA 2018? Email me at Tim@AltBrau.com

Cheers!