Fair State Brewing Cooperative is once again bringing together those-who-drink-beer and those-who-make-beer for their fourth annual Mixed Culture Festival—an event that celebrates community, collaboration, and (prep yourself for a shocking revelation) beer. Scheduled for June 15 at Fair State’s northeast Minneapolis Beer Garden, Mixed Culture will feature representatives from breweries across the United States for a brewer-driven event offering an array of sours, pale ales, lagers, and ciders, amongst others.
But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill beer festival. The setting is cozy and intimate, a far cry from the open, impersonal beer festivals you’ll often find. But most importantly, the tap list is curated by brewers, people who know the industry and know each other’s beers.
“It should be wall-to-wall with beers that people are excited about drinking,” Fair State’s head brewer Niko Tonks said. “It’s a little bit of a different experience than your average beer sampling event so I think we are excited about continuing to make that point of distinction and hope that people dig it.”
If you are someone who pines for the rare and exotic, attendees will be able to pick from an eclectic lineup of in-state and out-of-state beers, most of which are unavailable in the Twin Cities outside of this event.
Fair State itself will be specially offering a taste of the first four beers from their subscription bottle club, Journeys + Sidequests. What’s more: they’ll be debuting three new collaborations. Where Did You Get Those Shoes? is a chocolate-covered pretzel stout brewed in partnership with Bottle Logic Brewing of Anaheim, CA. Morgoth, a DDH hazy IPA, is the result of a collab with Modern Times Beer of Portland, OR. And finally, there’s the boldly named Tiny Hammer of Death—Fair State’s hoppy, hot weather saison collab with Burial Beer Co. of Raleigh, NC. It is perhaps the only ‘Hammer of Death’ of which wielding is recommended and encouraged.
But what happens when you’re mulling around Hammer of Death-ing and you get hungry? Minnesota Barbecue Company will be providing hot and smoky classics for attendees. Admission to the event will include unlimited sample pours for one of the sessions and Mixed Culture glassware. There will be an afternoon session from 1-4 p.m. and an evening session from 6-9 p.m.
More information, including how to buy tickets, can be found here.
