Tuesday, June 18, 2013

2013 NoVA Summer Brewfest in Leesburg, Virginia.

NoVa Summer Brewfest It's the 2013 edition of the Northern Virginia Summer Brewfest, this Saturday and Sunday, in Leesburg, Virginia. Over sixty breweries are scheduled to participate. Here's what the festival website has to say:

This Celebration of American Beer will feature more than 60 of the America's best breweries, plenty of food to complement the craft beers, outstanding local and regional bands providing entertainment and a wide array of artists, crafters, local businesses and commercial exhibitors.

The festival will be held at Morven Park, found just north of Leesburg, on Route 15, at Tutt Lane, Saturday, 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM, and Sunday, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM. Taps close an hour before the festival ends.

Here's the list of 59 breweries, plus one (Virginia) cidery, and two international conglomerates: Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB/Miller, who'll be participating this weekend. I've 'bolded' the local (Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland) breweries. (My thoughts on that after the jump.)


  • Sixty breweries are listed as participating. Of those, I counted twenty-one as being local breweries: sixteen from Virginia, four from Maryland, and one from the District of Columbia. According to the Brewers Association, there are forty-eight breweries in Virginia (forty-nine if you include Anheuser-Busch-InBev), thirty in Maryland, and six in D.C. Doing the math, only 34% of all Virginia breweries are participating, and only 23% of all the craft breweries in the tri-state area (a few more if Pennsylvania and Delaware are tossed into the mix). Surely some sort of one or two-day importer's license could arranged through legislative lobbying to allow festivals to bring in local breweries who do not have a wholesaler contract in the area. Hello, Virginia Craft Brewers Guild and festival organizer The High Road?
  • UPDATE: Photos from the fest: here.
  • Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virginia— I sell the beers of Abita, Allagash, Baltimore-Washington Beer Works (Raven), Heavy Seas, Lancaster, and Stoudt's (not listed on the festival website), all of whose beers were poured. Stop by our tent and say hello! (I'll be bringing cask ale.)

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