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Organizers look on opening of Festival Season in Lincoln with excitement
Pigs & Swigs this weekend
Part two: About the Swigs of Pigs and Swigs

 

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[June 05, 2015]  LINCOLN - Over the past few years one of the more popular events at the annual Lincoln Arts & Balloon Festival has been the Taste of Wine. That event was led by the Main Street Lincoln organization as a fundraiser. Craft beer was added to that event in 2014.

This year, the Taste of Wine will be an important feature combined with art for the July festival. For this coming weekend, the Up in Smoke barbecue has been combined with the craft beer to make a Pigs and Swigs weekend. Rather than learning regional wines, it will be all about the best barbecue and area beers.

As organizers worked to create new offerings for the expansion of the Art and Balloon Festival into a summer of festivals, the conversations were primarily about taking the various components of the old festival, drawing them out and giving them a weekend of their own, then adding new components to help increase the tourist potential.

The first festival of the summer is this weekend and will feature a proven successful event, the Up in Smoke on the Square BBQ competitions, coupled with some smaller, but popular returning events, such as the Oasis Craft and Flea Market, and Railsplitter Antique Auto Club Car show, and incorporating something new; the Craft Beer event.

The Craft Beer event is being organized by the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce Young Professional Network. According to Nicole Cox of the Chamber, the idea grew after the YPN hosted a Craft Beer Tasting on a much smaller scale and enjoyed the great attendance of folks interested in this somewhat new kind of beer.

The event will come with an admission fee into the Beer Tent and Garden, and is an adult only event with guests required to be 21 years-of-age or older. Tickets will be available for a two-day pass, a one-day pass, and a separate VIP pass. There will also be a special Designated Driver pass offered at a greatly reduced priced.

The paid admission will give the guest a sampling glass to keep and up to 10 tastings per day. The Designated Driver pass will allow the guest to come in and look, but not taste, and also to listen to the great musical entertainment going on throughout the weekend.

Cox said that the YPN was using the Craft Beer event as a fundraiser. The group wants to raise enough money to offer financial support to the new Land of Lincoln Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities (LLCEO) educational program being offered in Logan County.

What is Craft Beer? Simply put, it is a product that is created regionally and at a much smaller scale than the big beer companies. The key to 'craft' is in a word 'created.' The beer is not mass produced like the products that come from larger companies such as Anheuser-Busch. The beers are created and bottled in smaller batches, and the quality and taste of the beer evolves as the brewer continually works to make his craft a little bit better than the next guy.

Also, there is a basic volume requirement as set forth by the Brewers Association. According to their definition, the brewer must create less than six million barrels per year of traditional beer. For some, that may seem like a very large number, but consider that Anheuser-Bush manufacturers over 125 million barrels a year.

And remember, these are regional beers. In other words, the craft breweries that will be in Lincoln this weekend are relatively local, many from within the state, and their marketing reach is relatively small.

This weekend some of the breweries that will be in Lincoln include Peoria Brewing Company of Peoria, Urban Chestnut Brewery Company out of St. Louis, JK Williams Distillers, East Peoria; JT Walkers Restaurant & Brewery, Mahomet; Prairie Schooners of Springfield, Schlafly Beer out of St. Louis, and Rolling Meadows Brewery in Cantrall.

The tent area for the Craft Beer is going to be smaller than the tent used last year, but there will be open air space set aside as well. Cara Barr, Events Coordinator for the Logan County Alliance, recently said that the idea was to create a covered space, but also to have an open air space with a Beer Garden feel to it.

The event will officially open at 6 p.m. on Friday evening. There will be a beer tasting, and votes will be gathered for a People’s Choice Award. Live music will be provided beginning with the Danny Reinmann and Band playing from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. At 8 p.m. Glory Days will take the stage and play until closing time at 11 p.m.

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On Saturday, the day will begin at 11 a.m. with a Bags Tournament being hosted by the Knights of Columbus. 

At 2 p.m. there will be a Homebrew Competition. Open to local entrants. This will be an opportunity for basement brewers to pit their special blend against that of their friends and neighbors. Competitors may bring no more than four labels and must submit two bottles of each entry. The beers will be judged with a Best of Beer, as well as second and third place awards given. Winners will receive cash prizes and trophies at the end of the competition.

The tent will be open at 4 p.m. for a special VIP session. During this time, Brad Luckhart of Nuthatch Hill BBQ will offer up food samples and the YPN group will lead a discussion on what beers go best with each dish.

General admission to the tent and garden area will begin at 6 p.m. and run until 11 p.m. Again, there will be tastings and an opportunity to vote for the People’s Choice of beers. Danny Reinmann and Band will perform from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Imagine that Band will close out the night.

The Craft Beer event will wrap up on Sunday with a Homebrew School from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Prairie Schooners of Springfield will be on hand to give demonstrations on how to create a home brewery. Also on hand will be the Hop Shoppe from the Bloomington-Normal area with a variety of supplies and tools needed to start a home brewery.

Barr said that the breweries for the weekend will be providing representatives who are knowledgeable about their products. Therefore, they will be able to spend time talking to guests about what makes their brew unique.

The beer tasting event is not as much a drinking event as it is a social and learning event. While tastings will be going on, these involve small amounts of beer and are limited in number. Barr said there would be plenty of volunteers on hand during the open hours at the tent. Those volunteers will be paying close attention to age and will prohibit underage guests from entering.

Also, Healthy Communities Partnership will be offering safe rides this weekend through ‘A Green Cab.’ The cab will drive anyone who has been drinking home, within the city limits, free of charge.

 

 

Guests can also take advantage of the Designated Driver admission and bring someone who wishes only to enjoy the music, see the sights, and take care to assure that friends get home safely.

In addition to the two “main events” of Pigs and Swigs, there will be numerous other events going on this weekend. The Lincoln Art Institute will open its show “Fun” on Thursday evening and will be open throughout the weekend.

The Oasis Flea and Craft market is a mainstay at the old festival and will be a big part of the Pigs and Swigs weekend.

The Railsplitter Antique Auto Club and the Taste of Logan Ag will wrap up the weekend on Sunday afternoon.

In the next segment of this series, LDN will offer an overview of all these other events as well.

[Nila Smith]
 

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