Three cheers for the return of the Cooper-Young Beerfest! The 11th annual event will feature more than 100 different beers to sample from 33 breweries and two home-brew clubs.
“It’s exciting to get back to it,” says Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA) treasurer and Beerfest committee chair Mark Morrison. “It’s been with its challenges though. We’re balancing community safety, the safety of volunteers and brewers … with the financial stability of the CYCA. This is one of our two major fundraisers, and we weren’t able to have either last year.” Part of that balance led them to require full vaccination for everyone attending. The number of tickets has also been reduced to limit capacity.
Ten of the on-site breweries will be first-timers to the C-Y Beerfest. All featured breweries are “within a day’s drive,” according to Morrison. “It’s been the heart of our philosophy since we started in 2010. For one, to make people aware of all these great breweries we have both in Memphis and in the region, where people could go and visit.” It’s also an opportunity for regional breweries to consider expanding distribution here.
Another thing unique to the festival is that organizers require all participating breweries to have a knowledgeable person manning the tent. “What that means for the attendee is that the person who’s pouring the beer could be the brewer who brewed it, the owner of the brewery, or a sales rep who works for them. We think that’s important because those people know about the brewery, they know about the beer.”
Cooper-Young Beerfest, 795 Cooper, Saturday, October 9th, 1-5 p.m., $50.
