Popular Wichita brewery launching rare beer fest that it plans to make an annual event
Halloween eve has always been a day Nortons Brewing Company owners Dan and Becky Norton have celebrated, usually by releasing a few special beers.
This year, their All Hallows Eve observance will be a much bigger deal, though.
They’re planning what they hope will become an annual beer festival that will let craft beer lovers sample rare brews from breweries both local and from out of state.
The inaugural All Hallows Eve Beer Fest, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30, will fill Nortons Brewing Company at 125 St. Francis with more than 20 breweries from around the country offering samples. Brewers will be stationed inside the brewery and in its spacious outdoor beer garden, and Nortons will be closed to the public while it’s happening.
Tickets, which are on sale now, will carry the Halloween-appropriate price of $66.60 a person and will include entry, samples, a special glass to keep and a bottle of Nortons’ “At the Stake” American barleywine.
At 4 p.m., Nortons will reopen its doors to the public and stage an all-ages “metal throwdown” that will run from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 30 on the beer garden stage. The show will open with local metal bands Externus and Virgins followed by headliner Gorgatron out of Fargo, North Dakota. Beer festival attendees will get first dibs on tables for the show.
Among the breweries who will be in attendance at the beer fest: Locals River City, Hopping Gnome, Wichita Brewing Company, Walnut River and Central Standard plus breweries like Vanessa House from Oklahoma City, Our Mutual Friend Brewing Company from Denver, and Surly Brewing Co. from Minneapolis. The Nortons kitchen will be open during the festival.
Norton said he asked each brewery to either create a Halloween-themed beer or to bring something that’s rare — something from the beer cellar or any kind of one-off beer their own customers don’t have access to. He’s expecting the festival to include some high ABV beers plus imperial stouts, barleywines and more.
“This is a lineup that the locals have never seen,” Norton said. “It’s going to be a really great opportunity for beer fanatics in town to have a beer they’ve never had, and we all know that’s the mission of craft beer drinkers: If you haven’t had it, you have to try it.”
Tickets to the All Hallows Eve Beer Fest are available in person at Nortons or online at www.toasttab.com
