It’s become one of Wichita’s biggest beer festivals, and it’s returning for its 10th year

Denise Neil
·2 min read

It has grown to become one of Wichita’s biggest beer festivals over the last decade, and on Saturday, Johnson Garden Centers’ annual Iron Chilehead event will return for its 10th year — with a record number of breweries in attendance.

The event, which happens from noon to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of the Johnson’s Garden Centers at 2707 W. 13th St., always marks the arrival of Hatch green chile season, and its centerpiece is a beer festival that this year will include 24 local and regional craft breweries offering samples. One of the beers each brewery serves will be infused with the Hatch green chilis that garden center owner Marty Johnson always travels to New Mexico to retrieve. A panel of judges will choose the best one.

Another panel of judges, which I will be a part of, will choose the best green chili-focused dish prepared by food trucks and vendors at the festival feeding the crowds. Among the vendors this year will be Argentina’s Empanadas, Face Stuffers, Funky Monkey Munchies, Cheezepanzee, Southeast Carryout and Tommy’s Apizza.

The event also will, as always, feature live music by the raucous Bolzen Beer Band, a hip young group from Nebraska that turns rock and pop songs into polka tunes.

It’s free to enter, but those ages 21 and up who want to sample unlimited beers from the breweries will need a $35 ticket, which will include a tasting glass to keep and an Iron ChileHead sticker.

The annual Iron Chilehead event at Johnson’s Garden Centers on West 13th Street usually draws about 1,000 people.
The annual Iron Chilehead event at Johnson’s Garden Centers on West 13th Street usually draws about 1,000 people.

Tickets to the beer tasting are available at ironchilehead.com and at either Johnson’s Garden Centers store. (There’s also one at 6225 Shadybrook.) Among the breweries participating this year: Central Standard, First Man, Nortons, Wichita Brewing Company and Ladybird Brewing out of Winfield, a woman-owned brewery attending for the first time.

Attendees are asked to park at Asbury Church at 2801 W. 15th St. or on surrounding streets. Those who want to bike to the event will be able to check their bikes in and have them safeguarded while they party.

Iron Chilehead got started as a way to promote the annual Chile Fest at Johnson’s. Every August since 1999, Johnson has traveled to Hatch, New Mexico, to pick up bushels and bushels of green chiles then drive them back to town to roast them to sell to his customers. Saturday’s attendees also can purchase roasted chiles while there.

The event usually draws about 1,000 people, said Kristen Chalfant, Johnson’s daughter and an organizer of the event.

“It’s a big party,” she said.

Saturday’s festival also will include a stein-holding competition, crafts for sale and a booth set up by local garlic farm Orie’s Farm Fresh.

For more information, visit ironchilehead.com