Eli Cannon's Beerfest 2013: A Beerfest to Rival the Big Boys

Re-posted from my blog: Malted Musings.

This past Monday (the 5th) Eli Cannon's Tap Room kicked off their 2013 Beer God's Week with their much-anticipated beerfest. As I walked into the beerfest on the beautiful day, however, something seemed different. The back patio was absolutely slammed with people (both fest goers and beer representatives alike). Out back four food trucks were parked, with lines already forming up. No matter where I looked there was wall to wall people: a much larger crowd then last time. It was with this sense of excitement that I entered the fest, and this excitement only grew the longer I stayed. As I mingled with 200+ people, sampled over 30 breweries, and did it all from the comfort of my neighborhood bar, I realized that the Eli Cannon's Beerfest has grown immensely over the past few years to rival beerfests that are held on parade grounds and arenas.

This beerfest, along with the previous years, was in support of Middletown’s local Oddfellow’s Playhouse. This is a children’s theater company that has been putting on productions since 1975. This is the 3rd beerfest that supported Oddfellows. Matthew J. Pugliese (the Executive Director for Oddfellows) was on hand, and excited about the turnout at the beerfest. I asked him about what Oddfellows was up to these days, and Matt was more than happy to fill me in.

This year marks the 25th year of the Children’s Circus produced by Oddfellows. Further along this year the Oddfellow’s Playhouse will be putting on the Suessification of Romeo and Juliet and then Oliver. The Shakespeare project, said Matt, was very exciting as it serves as a great way to introduce Shakespeare to middle schoolers in a fun way. Matt went on to say that Eli Cannon’s support is awesome throughout the year, helping them out with production costs, props, and other expenses associated with the theater. Throughout the years, Matt told me, Oddfellows has become a key piece of the Middletown community, exposing and making theater vital for the children in the community.

Phil Ouellette, the Eli Cannon’s owner, echoed Matt saying that Oddfellows does amazing work for the community and that he was more than happy to support the essential institution. Phil and Eli Cannon’s have a long history of supporting local institutions and this is another great example of Middletown institutions sticking together to help create a more vibrant community.   

However there is more to the event than just the ownership. The event itself was planned and pulled off by Eli Cannon’s bar manager JD Crandall and head bartender Rocco Lamonica. I got a chance to talk to JD and Rocco about the event and they both were beyond excited. Last year when they setup the reps and brewers, they all fit out in the sand (the furthest part out in the bar). This fest, however, the reps were jam packed into virtually every space in back. As JD said, and Rocco agreed, this is the first year that the Eli Cannon’s Beerfest surpassed a grassroots event thrown just for the fun of it, and now was actually a legitimate beerfest that rivaled ones thrown at much larger venues.

As JD said, this beerfest has taken on a life of it’s own. No longer is it a mere celebration of beer, it’s beyond that. It is now an inclusive community event that allows people to chat with big time beer guys (like Sierra Nevada and Harpoon), and then turn around and meet brand new breweries open in their backyard (like Shebeen, Back East, and Stubborn Beauty). Rocco added that this particular beerfest manages to be intimate (as it’s hundreds of people in Eli Cannon’s back patio) but happy, exciting, and all encompassing of the beer world at the same time. Their sentiments rang true for me as well: as I toured the grounds I sampled the big boys of CT beer (like Hooker, Olde Burnside, and Willimantic Brewing Co), moved on to other large craft beer brewers, then got to chat it up with newer CT nano breweries that were presenting beer all as good as the stuff that the major brands were putting out. 

At the end of the day over 200 people showed up (twice the amount as last year and quadrupled from the year before).There were 35 breweries present (around three times the amount as last year), and Eli’s ended up donating $2250.00 to Oddfellows!