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Banff Craft Beer Festival a 'mountain adventure'

Banff Craft Beer Festival offers an exciting excursion into the Rockies paired with one-of-a-kind handcrafted brews

BANFF – Concocting an exciting Rocky Mountain experience fuelled by one-of-a-kind brews, the Banff Craft Beer Festival will be celebrating unique beers at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site at the end of November.

President and co-founder of Alberta Beer Festivals Bill Robinson said the Cave and Basin is the perfect location to create a memorable experience for guests ready to enjoy some incredible beers.

“It’s got so much history, and it is absolutely a spectacular building structure,” he said. “You’ve got the Christmas lights on the trees and you can hear the sound of something fun going on up the hill – it’s one of the best places in the world … being able to be up there is a pretty special thing.”

This year the festival will have more than 50 craft brewers and distillers along with nine food exhibitors.

The festival boasts five unique areas where guests can partake in libations, Robinson said, each paired with an amazing lineup of live music and DJs, Robinson said.

“You have different feels for each area,” Robinson said. “All those things blend together to make it a really, really amazing event.”

An exciting aspect of this year’s festival will be the lantern cave tours, he added. The guided excursions celebrate the rich history of the Cave and Basin as “the birthplace of Canada’s national park system.”

The legendary hot springs have an important place in the story of the Rockies, he said, drawing people to the area to experience their soothing power for thousands of years.

“They're unique, not just to beer festivals,” Robinson said. “No event that I know of has something like that.”

The cave tours will be available to the first 150 people to sign up each day and begin 15 minutes after the doors open, running every 10 minutes for an hour each session of the festival.

During the festival, guests can also visit the Brightside Basin View Lounge where they can go right up to the basin and enjoy bevies paired with heat lamps.

“It’s beautiful inside. It’s been a gathering place for centuries,” Robinson said. “It’s all a whole new section for the festival … Right beside the basin — it’s a cool little addition.”

The festival has a fun atmosphere, he said and has full vibrant energy that binds people together in a love of craft beer.

This is the fifth year the festival has taken place, Robinson said, adding that it has continued to grow each year through word of mouth.

“People who have stumbled across it because they happen to be in [Banff] have made it a priority to come back each year,” Robinson said. “It’s awesome.”

Last year saw food and beverage critics from across Canada attend the show, Robinson said, and he was able to showcase the incredible beer and spirits that are being created in Alberta, along with the great restaurants and eateries in Banff.

This year a film crew from Australia will be creating a documentary about the festival.

“It’s kind of neat because of the burgeoning industry, with the craft spirits, distillers and brewers … and Banff being one of the most beautiful places on the planet it all ties together,” he said. “It’s a mountain adventure.”

The craft beer industry is continuing to grow and thrive, Robinson said, because there is an increased desire from the general public to know where products come from.

The festival serves as the perfect event to find out how beer goes from "grains to glass."

“Being able to talk to the brewer is an interesting thing,” Robinson said. “We grow some of the best two-row malt barley in the world here in Alberta – so having access to that and the [clean] water … the level of the quality of brewing is really, really up.”

To make the most of the festival Robinson said he recommends getting tickets as soon as possible, arriving at the site early and taking the shuttle bus to and from the festival. The shuttle picks people up from Banff Ave. Brewing Co. and takes them directly to the basin.

“There’s so much to see,” he said. “If you want to get the most out of it you want to come early."

A local’s night is being held on Thursday (Nov. 21) evening of this year’s show to ensure that those who work in the service industry have the chance to attend.

The Banff Craft Beer Festival runs from Nov. 21-23. Tickets are available for between $19.99 to $79.99 at albertabeerfestivals.com.

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