You’ve gotta love a beer festival who’s participants give their special holiday brews names like, Santa’s Pie Hole (Coin Toss), Snowball Headed for Hell (54° 40’), Inebriated Phrunken Elf (Awesome Ales), Weapons of Mass Fermentation (Ex Novo), Pumpkin is the New Black (Natian), Whores & Amateurs (Lompoc), Happy Marijuanica (Stormbreaker), and, per tradition, Portland’s Holiday Ale Festival for 2015 does not disappoint.

Twenty years have passed, and the twenty-first century has been enjoined since the original Holiday Ale Festival occupied Portland’s Living Room. This year’s gathering of brewers and their beers, ciderers and their ciders, meaders and their mead, will take up residence in Pioneer Courthouse Square with fifty of their best winter ales, ciders, and meads. Many of these creations are brewed exclusively for this event.

Holiday Ale Festival in Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Courthouse Square

This very popular occasion celebrates the tradition of brewing special beers created for the express purpose of holding at bay the chill of a long winter’s night by enjoying a seasonal tasty adult beverage. This is a quintessential Portland affair and is the West Coast’s premiere venue for tasting winter beers, specialty ciders, and singular meads.

These winter brews are not the typical beer you’d find at your local supermarket. These are rich, robust and complex, Belgians and Barleywines, Stouts and Sours, Ciders and Meads, designed and brewed to introduce that characteristic cheer to the holiday season.

The Twentieth Annual Holiday Ale Festival will be at Pioneer Courthouse Square December 2nd through December 6th to help Portlanders celebrate the beginning of the holiday season. The festival begins at 11 A.M. each day and continues till 10 P.M. each evening save for the final day, Sunday, when the event will close at 5 P.M. Admission is $35 dollars.

Holiday Ale Festival in Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Courthouse Square

Because you know the weather gods wouldn’t miss this event either, wassailers at the Holiday Ale Festival will find a very large heated tent providing shelter from the elements. The tent is clear allowing a panoramic view of Pioneer Courthouse Square and the lights of the city as well as Portland’s Christmas Tree.

The always popular “Need Not Be Present To Win” raffle will be returning for the 2015 festivities. Proceeds from the raffle, the Root Beer Garden, and the Coat and Bag check, will benefit the Children’s Cancer Association. The 2014 festival raised $20,000 for the CCA.

Sponsored by Crater Lake Soda, the Oregon Lottery, Aloha Sound, and Govino, the Holiday Ale Festival proudly supports the Children’s Cancer Association. Based in Portland, the CCA works to improve the quality of life for children and teenagers suffering from cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

Holiday Ale Festival in Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Courthouse Square

There are few things to keep in mind about this event. First, it is only for those folks 21 years-of-age and older. No minors or infants are allowed. Second, no pets are allowed with the exception of those animals qualified for ADA service. Anyone who is visibly intoxicated will not be served. Remember too that Pioneer Square is a smoke-free venue. Visit HolidayAle.com to see all the details of the event.

Listen now as Steven Shomler and Ken Wilson talk with Chris Crabb of the Holiday Ale Festival, Reverend Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Eric Banzer-Lausberg of Migration Brewing who’s Frankie Fest (2014 Best of the Fest choice) will be making a return to the festival, and Erica Tate of Nectar Creek meads, about Portland’s 2015 Holiday Ale Festival.

PRP
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