Ohio to see Different Blend of Brew Week

Ohio Brew Week will start on June 22^nd and run through the 30^th this year.  The kick-off event will be on Friday the 22^nd at The Ohio University Inn, and as usual, events will run all week until the culmination on the 30^th.

On Saturday the 30^th the beer festival will come to an end with the main event. The “fabulous craft brew celebration” will be on Union Street between Court and Congress in the afternoon between 2 and 6 p.m., but the exact timing is still in the works.

The major difference this time around is that Boogie on the Bricks will not fall on the last day of Brew Week.  Boogie on the Bricks will stay on the third Saturday of July.  Dan Gates, Director of Ohio Brew Week, explained the changes during a city council meeting last week.

“It’s a one year oddity. We’ll learn things and experience different rhythms.  We’ve always been able to ride the wave in the past so I don’t see it being any different (this year)” Gates said.

The timing change is due to a scheduling conflict with Ohio University’s pre-college orientation, which will be the third week of July this year to assist with the quarter to semester transition.  Boogie on the Bricks is keeping the July time slot because of the increasing demand for festivals in the summer.

“I specifically talked to the Boogie on the Bricks group and said ‘Don’t move with us. Stay where you are at because these event schedules in the summer are so compacted now that you have to have that niche carved out for you.’ The third Saturday in July is now established as Boogie on the Bricks,” Gates said.

Ohio Brew Week started seven years ago in Athens, and has boomed in popularity.  According to Gates, over 50 similar beer festivals have spotted up across the country in response.  Recently a blog in Columbus, Indiana called the state of Ohio the “Munich of the Midwest” because of the state’s collection of festivals around craft beers.

“We’re very much looking forward to it.  It’s a great example of a wonderful event that started here and that other people have tried to emulate, but they can’t quite get it right,” said Elahu Gosney, chair of the Transportation Committee on city council.

The expected attendance for Brew Week is ten to twelve thousand people from Ohio and around the country. Groups from Texas, California, Wisconsin and Colorado have all regularly attended the festival year after year, according to Gates.

Much of the event-specific details are still in the works for this year, but updates will be posted on www.ohiobrewweek.com as they are worked out.  Accommodation information can also be found on the festival’s web site.

According to Gates, the goal for the future of the festival is to fill the local hotels for the entire week and generate income to be “recycled” within the community.