MASON CITY – Saturday from 1-5 p.m., independent and craft breweries from Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin will provide samples of their products during the special Cheers & Beers event. Kabrick Distributing and United Beverages will also add to the flavor fest with an assortment of specialty beers. Those attending the event will also get a first hand chance to meet some of the independent craft brewers themselves, as well as a commemorative tasting glass.
The celebration will take place outdoors at the graveled city lot located at the intersection of North Federal Avenue and Second Street in downtown Mason City. Parking is readily available on the street and there are two nearby city parking lots also available, one is behind Brick Furniture and the other is across the street behind City Hall. The Event Entrance will be off of Commercial Alley.
Attendees will have the opportunity to sample craft beers, speciality beers and actually watch a brewing demonstration. Mason City residents, Lee and Yvonne Weber will have samples of their beer mustard kits for sale at the event. The Iowa Minnesota Society of Brewers will be doing a home brewing demonstration of the White House Honey Ale with support from Collective Spirits Homebrew of Albert Lea, MN. Mason City Brewing, a recently formed locally owned craft beer brewery, will also be on hand to talk about their new brewery plans for downtown Mason City.
“I think everybody should come out on Saturday afternoon and check it out just because there’s so much to offer,” said Marty Walsh, coordinator of the event and director for Main Street Mason City . “Even if you’re a person who thinks they don’t like beer, there are a lot of different styles of beer to try, and there’s probably a lot of different things that you haven’t even heard of or seen that you might not even recognize as a beer that you might just fall in love with.
“This is a great opportunity to bring people downtown ” commented Walsh, “another example of a new event we’re trying to attract the broadest range of people”. Walsh also noted that for out of towners, this could be a great opportunity to explore the independent local shopping options available in downtown Mason City as well as historic buildings such as the Park Inn Hotel, the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed hotel still standing anywhere in the world.
The event has been in the works for months, Walsh noted. “We will be giving people the opportunity to responsibly sample many beers that they might not have gotten the chance to taste”, he added. The goal of the Cheers & Beers Beer Festival is to create a community driven event focused on the development of the downtown area. This event is one of many events that have been created for the main purpose of creating more awareness of the downtown and all that it offers.
Cheers & Beers is a cooperative effort of Main Street Mason City with special assistance major sponsorships from Corporate Farmer and the three Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits stores in Mason City. The event is also being produced with large financial support from Community Motors and Pro Build. These additional businesses have joined the effort to bring Cheers & Beers to Mason City with their table tent sponsorship: Obrien Moving & Storage, Brick Furniture, Dornbier
Tickets for Cheers & Beers can be purchased for fifteen dollars at all three Mason City Wine & Spirits as well as at the Mason Street Mason City office on 9 N Federal through Friday.
Tickets can also be purchased over the phone, and a limited number will be reserved for purchase the day of the event. IDs must be shown at the gate in order to purchase tickets or be admitted. For tickets or more information, call Main Street Mason City, 641-494-0003 or visit the Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/
Sounds like fun. Gonna go just to try some different beers. I heard they will have about 20 different beers. Cheers!
Did the cops get a 100.000 grant to wreck this event like they did in Rock Falls, Rockwell, Clear Lake, etc? Are they going to stand there and watch people try a beer and then follow them to their car? Are 10 cops going to stand on each side of the street and try and arrest people for drinking in public. Sounds like the next state sponsered fundraiser.
This sound like it will be fun for some people. I like it when there are activity’s in the downtown. It should be a way to get some people to visit the downtown area that we spent so much money on. Don’t hurt the UGLY statues that we paid for even though we didn’t want them.
We definitely didnt want the naked guy diving in the water scultpure on state street. That is pure ugliness. I pity any business owner near there people will mock you for sure.
Are the police going to watch people walk to their cars a bust them like they do at the bars and who responsible for the liability the city?
I won’t go. It takes years to learn how to make good beer and these jokers that just started a year ago won’t last 6 months. I’ll stick to my bud light.
This sounds like a great event! I wish this story would have been run a few weeks ago so that I would have known about it in time to plan for this weekend! It seems like Main Street Mason City has a lot of great event ideas but they aren’t very good at promoting them..