Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
It takes no advertising. If you have to ask how to get in on it, you are likely too late.
It is the seventh annual Palouse Cabin Fever Brewfest Feb. 9 at the Palouse Community Center. Each year, tickets go on sale the day after Thanksgiving at four breweries from Moscow to Spokane.
For 2019, the 650 tickets sold out Jan. 8 for the event Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“Six hundred-fifty seems to be about right for the space,” said Janet Barstow, one of an eight-member Palouse “Brew Crew” which organizes the evening, to feature 10 breweries. “Unless we can find a way to expand. But people don’t like to be crowded, so I don’t know that we would.”
A group of 20 volunteers will be on site Saturday, most to make brats which sell for three tickets each. The $20 Brewfest regular admission grants each guest six tickets – one ticket for a four-ounce pour of beer, one for a pop.
“We don’t sell very much pop,” said Barstow.
All proceeds go to the Palouse Community Center, which raises from $7,000 to $8,000 each year from the event.
This year, nine returning brewers will participate with a new addition: the year-old Mountain Lakes Brewery of Spokane. Others are Paradise Creek, Rants N’ Raves, Hunga Dunga, Moscow Brewing, Laht Neppur, Black Label, Bellwether, Riverport and Badass Backyard Brewing.
Guests are given a handout map for each brewer when they walk in to the Community Center.
The Palouse Cabin Fever Brewfest is indoor/outdoor with no heat turned on inside the building. The main doors are open to the back gravel lot surrounded by a fence with tents and scattered metal three-foot fire pits.
“Everybody says this is so much fun,” said Barstow. “People are just ready to do something fun.”
This year a new addition is 50 V.I.P. tickets, which sold for $50. Those with a designated ticket go to the front of the line and get to taste two exclusive beers, with included appetizers and dessert.
A special lanyard is worn by the V.I.P.’s and punched, a special beer coozy is granted along with a free brat and pretzel necklace.
The morning after the Brewfest, four volunteers make breakfast at 9 a.m. at the community center before tear-down.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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