There has been a surge of craft breweries opening in recent years, with an average of 1.5 breweries each day, but how often do you get to try the real stuff? Or more specifically, real ale.
FirkFest returns to Farmer’s Park, right next to Packing House, in Anaheim on Saturday, March 21 from noon to 4 pm. It showcases cask-conditioned beer, or “real ale,” from breweries in Southern California.
Greg Nagel of the OC Beer Blog started the cask ale fest last year and it’s back this year, already trumping last year with its lineup of local breweries and beers.
There will over 30 Southern California breweries showing off their casks, with a couple even paying homage to the creator himself like Bottle Logic‘s fiNagel IPAAn El Dorado, Meridian and Huell Melon Hopped IPA with honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon.
This years FirkFest also features a chili cook-off between chefs from 12 of Orange County’s best craft beer restaurants like Chef Greg of Haven Gastropub and Provisions Market and Chef Lynda of Healthy Junk and Junk Bar.
Although SoCal doesn’t offer cellar temps (50 to 55 degrees), it does offer the best weather to lounge around in Farmer’s Park, sipping on beers with flavors that may never hit your tongue the same way again!
And that is not an exaggeration. Unlike the modern kegging system, cask-conditioned beer goes through a more spontaneous fermentation process that allows for the beer to mature more naturally. Even if the same ingredients are thrown into the cask, it is not guaranteed that the same exact results will be produced.
Your $50 ticket to FirkFest will get you unlimited cask pours from California breweries, 10 tickets to sample and judge chili from the powerkeg chili battle between local chefs and a 10 oz British-style nonic glass because that hangover won’t suffice as a souvenir!
With FirkFest only 5 days away, you’re running out of time to get yourself into Southern California’s original cask ale fest.
Visit the website now to purchase your tickets before they’re sold out! There are only a handful of tickets left out of the initial 500.
