As I sit here and open this article, I have realized that we have yet to write up a beer festival. So it gives me great pleasure to to promote of one of the newest festivals to hit the scene in New Jersey: Chill Town. Chill Town Craft Beer Festival is presented by the Visiting Homemaker Service of Hudson County, with all proceeds from the event benefiting the Child Abuse Program at Visiting Homemaker Service. We couldn’t pass up an opportunity to sponsor and attend the event for some coverage. Let’s see how the festival played out.
It is a daunting task to put on a craft beer festival, and right off the bat I could see that the Chill Town staff had everything ready to go for the crowd.
We were happy to share a page in the pamphlet with Hop Union.
With taster glass in hand, it was time to make our entrance and experience the festival that is Chill Town.
With all the beers available to try, it is almost impossible to remember everything you have at these festivals. Chill Town decided to have a section in the event pamphlet for note taking. A nice touch if you ask me; I saw everyone taking notes as they were sampling their beers.
One of the many people behind the event – Tara Werner – raffling off some prizes. She did a great job throughout the day to make sure the festival ran smoothly.
You can’t have a festival with out some trusty volunteers. Here we see our friend Os Cruz from Hey Smart Beer Dude chatting it up with event manager Brant Schweinsberg. A lot of other local bloggers were on hand, including our new friends from The Keg Tap. Thanks for helping guys!
Making my rounds I found a familiar face from Yards Brewing Company, Ron Johnson.
Ron was pouring up some fresh ESA and Brawlers for the festival patrons. Always a pleasure hanging with you buddy.
Our good friend Trevor Jankowski from Lagunitas was on hand as well, pouring up their tasty IPA and seasonal release, “The Hairy Eyeball.”
Trevor is always fun to chat with and he was very excited to be pouring at Chill Town.
Mike Ferry from Brooklyn Brewery was serving up some of their recent bottle offerings, including the hop bomb Brooklyn Blast.
You can’t have a beer festival in New Jersey and not have our breweries represented. We may have a small community but there were a lot of Jersey brews on hand to try. Brian Boaks was set up pouring Double BW, Monster Mash, and Two Blind Monks.
Our friends Chris and Audrey were pouring up dank Boat Beers and the popular seasonal release, Regular Coffee.
Bob Olson was not on hand but Bolero Snort was well represented with their amber lager (Ragin’ Bull) and their black lager (Black Horn).
East Coast Beer Company head brewer Tom Przyborowski was on hand serving Cruiser IPA, Winter Rental, and the popular pilsner Beach Haus.
Probably the most local brewery to the festival, New Jersey Beer Company was pouring their delicious LBI IPA and Garden State Stout.
One of the most popular breweries at the festival, and making their Northern New Jersey debut, Clown Shoes Brewing (from Massachusetts) was pouring up Clementine, Galactica, and Chocolate Sombrero.
Another new brewery that made its way to New Jersey recently is Newburgh Brewing Company from Newburgh, NY.
Their were plenty of vendors on hand selling everything from beef jerky to bottle openers. One that caught my attention was The Thirsty Quaker, a new home brew and bottle shop that will be doing growler fills and deliveries in the weeks to come for the beer drinkers of Jersey City. Best of luck guys, I think you are on to something here.
Good tunes for the day were supplied by Green Villain. There wasn’t a track played that wasn’t fitting; thanks for supplying the beats.
Chill Town was a great success. Tara and Brent did a great job organizing and getting the right people to help out at the event. We were honored to have sponsored the festival, and knowing there was money raised for a good cause makes it all the better. We hope Chill Town continues to grow over the following years; it was a great experience and we couldn’t be happier to be involved. Cheers to Tara and the gang at Visiting Homemaker Services.
Chill Town Craft Beer Festival
-Brian