After just a single year in person, Lager & Friends beer festival, organized by Joe Yeado at Riverwest’s Gathering Place Brewing, was forced to shift to virtual last year.
Last year’s festival – which returns online on Saturday, March 20, from 2 until 4 p.m. – taught me two things.
First, thanks to a tour of the brewery, I got to know more about Chicago’s Dovetail Brewing, one of the best in the country. Second, I finally saw proof that an online beer festival can be fun.
“Last year's virtual festival was really unique with discussions featuring lager brewers from around the country,” says Yeado.
“That format allowed us to really dive in and explore how lagers are made and what makes them special. We had great feedback that attendees really valued the program and the ability to ask questions.”
This year, the third annual festival again takes to Zoom and it will focus on the theme of Old World Skills-New World Flavor, looking at the lager brewing traditions of Europe and Wisconsin, where in the mid-19th century, German lager brewers brought their skills and recipes to launch breweries like Pabst, Miller, Gettelmann, Schlitz, Blatz, Leinenkugel and others.
Each of a pair of panel discussions will focus on one of those locations, with German and Czech brewers participating in one and Wisconsin brewers taking part in the other.
Among the breweries taking part this year are Company Brewing, Earth Rider Brewery, The Fermentorium, Gathering Place Brewing Company, Giant Jones Brewing Company, Hacienda Beer Co., Lakefront Brewery, McFleshman’s Brewing Company, Raised Grain Brewing Company, Working Draft Beer Company and Young Blood Beer Co..
“I truly believed Lager & Friends would only be virtual one time, but here we are again,” says Yeado. “The festival will keep the same format this year, but we're changing up the panel topics and speakers.
“I thought it would be really cool to talk directly with some German and Czech brewers and experts and see how their lagers and beer culture are similar and different to what's happening in Wisconsin. We could never get these people to join an in-person festival, so I guess there are some silver linings.”
Once again, festival attendees will get a mixed 12-pack Festival Lager Box ($55, which includes a ticket to the Zoom) of craft lagers from 11 breweries throughout Wisconsin, along with a collaboration beer made by Bad Weather Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Gathering Place Brewing.
An optional bundle adds a ½-pound of Usinger’s andjaeger sausage and a 16-oz. Milwaukee Pretzel Company Pretzel for $10 more.
You can order tickets/boxes now online for pickup March 12-19 in the Gathering Place taproom, where curbside delivery is available. Gathering Place is also working on setting up a Madison-area pick-up site and will announce the location soon.
“We really want this to be as close to the in person experience as possible,” said Rome Gandelsman, marketing associate at the brewery, in a statement.
“We’re excited for all the amazing lager that people will be drinking, but also to make this an immersive, informative and interactive experience.”
Yeado adds, “We look forward to this event each year and the ability to shine a light on incredible lager beer and lager brewers.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
