Want to go?
What: The 17th annual Dayton AleFest
When: Aug. 29, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Dave Hall Plaza, South Main Street, Dayton
Cost: Purchase general admission tickets at several Dayton-area eateries; find one near you or purchase tickets online at alefest.com. VIP tickets for purchase online only.
More info: Check out alefest.com, or find them on Facebook to RSVP to the event.
If you're not already tapped out from Dayton Beer Week festivities, save some party room for the 17th annual Alefest in downtown Dayton.
The brews, the music, the camaraderie… it’s all there at Alefest from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Dave Hall Plaza on South Main Street, a new venue for the festival. And what’s more, organizers Amanda Pond and Jennifer Dean have plenty of new additions up their sleeve after taking over just before the 2014 event:
- Not only will they have over 400 beers available— check out the full list of offerings here — they're upping the ante for specialty brews this year, most notably by adding an entire cask tent, with at least 12 specialty casks from bigger names like Heavy Seas Beer as well as local breweries.
- They're partnering with Dayton Cocktail Company to run two beer-infusing tasting tables, where brewers will use French Presses to infuse Avery Brewery's Maharaja Imperial IPA with fresh grapefruit at one table, and Founders Imperial Stout with Boston Stoker Highlander Grogg coffee beans at the other in front of your eyes.
- There's an app for that this year: Pond told Dayton.com that on Saturday, beer lovers can tap their screens and find out where every beer will be located at the festival, bookmark which beers they want to try so they don't forget, and find directions to all of Dayton's breweries. Search for "AleFest Dayton" in the App Store or Google Play and don't miss out!
- Food offerings galore: Get ready to enjoy Zombie Dogz, Smales Pretzels, Fronana, Jimmie's StrEATery, Harvest Mobile Cuisine and El Meson food trucks and booths with your brews. Let Funky G and the Groove Machine get your feet tapping all day.
- Celebrate Dayton's beer scene at AleFest: For the first time, AleFest has worked with Mitosis Creative to put out a promotional video that celebrates all of Dayton's local breweries. Check it out on YouTube.
- And celebrate organizations that help make Dayton great: A portion of ticket sales will go to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Greater Dayton andthe Dayton Area Rugby Club, and volunteers from several local organizations — including 91.3FM WYSO, FilmDayton, UpDayton, and the Miami Valley Restaurant Association, among others — will help the event run smoothly.
Don't forget the afterparty! If you're not tapped out by 5 p.m., stop by Jimmie's Ladder 11 to enjoy several hard-to-find and out-of-state brews on tap and in bottles, including the two musically themed Dogfish Head series brews: The Grateful Dead-inspired American Beauty Imperial Pale Ale, and the Gem City-inspired Beer Thousand Imperial Lager, which according to the brewery's website, was "chosen to echo the copious amounts of lager that fueled GBV’s garage recordings."
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