Summer’s final goodbye delivered warm, blue skies to Deer Valley Resort for its third-annual Mountain Beer Festival this weekend, reaching capacity both days.
Beginning with a wind-swept ride up Silver Lake Express, glimmers of early autumn leaves dotted the vista. A different sort of silence fell over the usually wintery scene, the creaks of the lift mingling with whispers of the quaking aspen leaves.
At the top, a small festival ground stood erected outside of Silver Lake Lodge, a ring of tents — featuring 24 breweries and eight vendors — spreading from a concert stage. Mountain Town Music kept energy high with a series of performances from local musicians.
The idea for the festival, which the resort’s Beverage Director Josh Hockman launched three years ago, is simple. Attendees purchase tokens, which can be traded in at the different brewery and cidery tents for a 4-ounce taster of a select drink. This way, people can try more drinks before the alcohol takes over all sense of taste.
The weather couldn’t have been more perfect — the sun’s heat made sips of crisp, cold beer and cider all-the-more enjoyable. Some tickets included collectible glass steins, with Deer Valley’s mascot Bucky in a unique design, this year donning a collared shirt and suspenders, beer in hoof. VIP tickets included a t-shirt and entrance to a barbecue the resort’s culinary team had made.
And it’s not just sales people manning the booths, pouring the beers; it’s the owners, brewmasters and cidermakers themselves.
Conor Brown, owner of Park City-based Offset Bier, stood under their bright-green tent. His company just celebrated its three-year anniversary, so they’ve been attendees at the Mountain Beer Festival since its beginning. Now, it’s the only beer festival they do.
“I’m personally not a beer fest person,” Brown said. “You don’t get the chance to interact with people. But this one is great because it’s hometown beer fest. Many people know us, or we can point them to go right down to the brewery.”
They were pouring four of their beers, popular ones like the DOPO IPA, Table Bier blonde ale and Fistful of Death, a New Zealand IPA. Brown said that texture was a key element in the types of beers they make.
“So often when people don’t really have the lexicon to describe what they’re experiencing, or maybe don’t necessarily know beer, texture is really what they focus on,” he said. “If you can offer them something that is intense, but it’s also smooth at the same time, doesn’t linger, it’s right there at the front, it goes across your palate and it disappears — it makes you want to take another sip.”
Brown’s attendance was a dream fulfilled for Hockman, who knew how important owner and maker participation was to the success of their event.
“(We want) the attendees to be able to walk up and actually be like, ‘You’re the guy that’s putting everything in the tank and you know every recipe by heart. That is super cool,’” Hockman said.
It was valuable for Brown as well.
“To be everywhere and be the face of everything, because I’m the one that created it all, I’m the one that knows how to tell the story the best,” Brown said. “I just think it’s super important to be in front of people and tell the story and just establish the brand.”
Ann Torrence, co-owner of Etta Place Cider based in Capitol Reef country, was also at their booth for the weekend. This was their first year participating.
“We’ve been making cider for three years,” she said, pouring a cup of their Gingered Hard Cider made with fresh ginger.
Their four acres in Torrey have 90 varieties of apples, and they’d plant more but they don’t have any more water for thirsty fruit trees, she said. But apples are a much better product for their land.
“Alfalfa is what our fields were before and we’ve stretched that water really far,” she said.
Attendees voted Moab Brewery’s Liftie Golden Ale as both the Best in Fest and Ale-Star beer of the event.
The five-hour event flew by, and it was time to load back onto Silver Lake for a ride back down to Snow Park, bellies full and heads delightfully merry, a few arms red with unexpected sunburn.
The Mountain Beer Festival will return next year, but now the resort turns its focus to the upcoming ski season. Their opening day is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7.
Check out this video recap of the event on The Park Record Facebook:
Below is the full list of participating breweries:
- Bohemian Brewery
- Chappell Brewing
- Etta Place Cider
- Heber Valley Brewing Company
- Kiitos Brewing
- Moab Brewery
- Mountain West Cider
- Offset Bier
- Park City Brewing
- Proper Brewing Co.
- Red Rock Brewery
- RoHa Brewing Project
- Roosters Brewing Co.
- Salt Flats Brewing Co.
- Salt Lake Brewing Co.
- SaltFire Brewing Co.
- Second Summit Hard Cider Co.
- Squatters Craft Beers
- Talisman Brewing Company
- Templin Family Brewing
- Top of Main Brew Pub
- Uinta Brewing Co.
- UTOG Brewing Company
- Wasatch Brewery