Heart of the Valley Homebrewers held their 18th annual Septembeerfest Saturday at Avery Park to promote local brewing companies and to fundraise for community charities.
According to Septembeerfest’s website, the event offered over 90 beers, ciders and cocktails from over 30 independent breweries, cideries and homebrewers.
“All of the breweries (at the festival) are Oregon based,” Heart of the Valley Brewers President and Septembeerfest director Jon Price said. “Mostly they are all hyper local companies, though we do have some, like pFriem, that are from further away, but they’re all from Oregon.”
Among the beers featured this year was the Septembeerfest IPA, a beer made in collaboration by five local breweries: Sky High Brewing, Block 15, Dirt Road, ColdFire and Calapooia.
According to a pamphlet provided by Sky High brewing, the IPA was made with all Oregon barley and hops and is salmon safe. The beer itself has flavors of marmalade, grapefruit and papaya and comes from an old Heart of the Valley recipe.
“The barley we used for the malt ( the Septembeerfest IPA) — thunder barley — was actually developed at (Oregon State University),” Director of Brewing Operations at Block 15 Brewing and Beaver alum Matt Williams said. “(The barley) was grown in Oregon then malted in northern California.”
Williams said the Oregon brewing community is very tight-knit.
“Everybody knows each other,” Williams said. “We’re all in a group chat together. There’s no competition between us, we all look after each other. If I run out of something, I can just text one of the other breweries, then go pick up a sack of hops or whatever from them.”
Along with hyper local companies and ingredients, Price said the event also gives to hyper local charities and Septembeerfest is a nonprofit beerfest, possibly the only one in Oregon.
“After we account for (the event’s) costs, we donate the rest to charity,” Price said. “Linn-Benton Food Share are the big ones that we give to but we give to a lot of others. Basically, if there’s a charity in the area that’s been here for five-plus years, we’ve probably donated to them.”
Along with donating to charities, Price said Septembeerfest also contributes to a scholarship at OSU for Fermentation Sciences.
“All in all, we’ve raised around $300,000 for charities over the years,” Price said.
According to Price, the brewers that attend the event donate the beer they bring.
“It’s no different than if someone came to my garage, and I offered them one of my homebrews,” Heart of the Valley Brewers general board member and Septembeerfest volunteer Brian Vandeheye said. “All the beer is being given away. The brewers just donate their beer and their time to help out. We don’t even need an OLCC license this way.”
Despite Septembeerfest being alcohol-oriented, the event is family-friendly and offers many other activities for people of all ages (and levels of sobriety) to enjoy, including cornhole and a stage with musical performances by The Brutal Bridges Band, Sammy Holmes & the Tappets and EL BORKO ¡SURF!
Eventgoers Doug and Heather said they have gone to Septembeerfest for the last couple of years and particularly liked Wild Ride Brewing’s Tarty to the Party, a Watermelon Lime Sour Ale and Claim 52 Brewing’s Thicc: Peach Cobbler, which they say was so thick, it was “like a smoothie.”
Doug said he was hoping for more dark beers this year and would have liked to have seen more big tents for shade, but overall he enjoyed the event and liked that they had games.