It’s hot. You’re sticking to yourself. You need a distraction. We recommend cracking open a cold Vermont craft beer, imagining fall colors in the leaves and crisp air all around, and reading this post about the 2016 SIPtemberfest ticket sales plan!

We are going to do local Pop Ups and Online sales again this year for the Saturday Beer Tasting portion of SIPtemberfest, September 24, 1-5pm. The Friday Meet The Brewers Dinner tickets will be available online only. For all ticket types there will be a maximum ticket purchase of 2/person.

• Pop Ups! We will host two Pop Up ticket sales at which people can directly buy up to 2 tickets to Saturday’s Beer tasting. We will sell up to 300 tickets in this fashion. These will be CASH ONLY SALES!  We will be in Waitsfield on July 12 & Waterbury on July 19. We will post the specific locations and timeframe, within one hour of sales opening. This is to prevent ‘liner-uppers.’ (Hint: Sales will take place in a convenient location, sometime between 4-8pm.) So hang out at a good watering hole in the area and wait for us to tweet the deets.
• Online! We will sell 450 tickets online, July 26 at 7am. These will be first come, first served, and we expect these to sell out very quickly so don’t dilly dally. The link for online sales will be available at a later date.
• Assorted Giveaways! We will have several other chances for people to win tickets, for example, right now there’s a Localvore Today contest where you can sign up for the chance to win tickets to all of Meg’s Events beer fests: Betty’s Beer Fest, Hop Jam & SIPtemberfest! The best ways to stay in the loop about these opportunities and more are to sign up for Fresh SIPs so posts like this go right to your email, and to follow Meg’s Events on Facebook.

Thanks all! Have a fun and safe rest of your Memorial Day Weekend and please remember to raise a pint in honor of those who fought and died for our country. Cheers!

 

Apologies for the delays getting this out on the webpage – it’s a long story that involves too little sleep, not enough coffee and an unfortunate mishap with a can of Heady Topper…

First, some stuff:

• Gates open at 1pm. You may start lining up around 12:30 but please, please, PLEASE don’t line up much earlier than that. If you arrive earlier, go for a chairlift ride or a hike because the weather looks amazing!
• BRING YOUR ID!! REPEAT: BRING YOUR ID. And bring either a print out of your ticket or pull it up on your smart phone with this handy-dandy Eventbrite app.
• General Admission tickets will be scanned. All others (winners, industry etc, will go to WILL CALL.)
• Yes you can bring your pregnant wife who will be your designated driver. (Though it’s really her call. Buy her some ice cream from Scout’s Honor!)
• Yes you can bring your underagers (but please note: there are NO kids activities so while you are welcome to bring them, please be mindful that this isn’t exactly a kid-friendly event.)
• Yes you can bring your leashed and well-behaved dog (but please be mindful of your dog at all times and be prepared to pick up after them because no one likes stepping in that $#!*.)
• Don’t Forget the PROST PARTY at HOSTEL TEVERE to follow! They are hosting killer music and a killer beer line up so you’ll definitely want to check them out!!
• Our Free Shuttles are FULL! If you have a reservation you are super lucky and will be riding in style – we will send an email out shortly to confirm. But if you were on the wait list, we are full.
• HUGE thanks to our generous sponsors: Mehuron’s Market, Craft Beer Cellar – Waterbury, Hostel Tevere, Mad River Glen, New Duds and of course Meg’s Events! Please thank all of these folks for helping to make SIPtemberfest so awesome!
• Swing by the Mad River Path Association booth and enter their raffle! They have some beer-geek-alicious prizes up for grabs! We are happy to team up once again with the MRPA and support their healthy mission and we encourage you to support them as well!

And now…

SIPtemberfest Meet the Brewers Dinner!

Friday, September 25 – TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT – Ticket includes a signature cocktail, a four course meal w/ beers, raffle ticket and souvenir glass. Only 70 tickets available. Doors & cocktails at 6pm, dinner promptly at 7pm.

For a few years now, the dynamic duo of Sean Lawson and Mike Gerhart have hosted the SIPtemberfest Meet the Brewers Dinner, bring their insights, their talent and some very funny moments to our beer and food pairing. They’ve paired their beer excellently to meals prepared by Chef Michael Witzel, and they’ve entertained

But for 2015 we are going to mix things up a bit…

We are thrilled to welcome our first ever outta-stater host, Tree House Brewing Co. from Monson, MA! Tree House has become a well loved member of the SIPtemberfest Family since 2012 when they first joined our line up. They’ve come-a-long-way-baby since then and we couldn’t be more excited to get to feature not one, but 4 of their beers with our dinner.

At the bottom of the webpage of our second brewer, Zero Gravity Brewing Co., are big bold words proclaiming “Brewed For Food.” So when we were considering brewers to host this year’s dinner, you know it didn’t take too long for us to pair up with Paul Sayler and the crew of brewing magicians at Zero Gravity.

This is going to be an incredible pair and compare! The styles and trademarks of Zero Gravity Brewing and Tree House Brewing are as delicious as they are different! It will be very fun to taste their beers paired with each course, but to compare their brews to each other!

But were not stopping at new brewers! For our final act, (or technically speaking, our first act on the night of,) we are going to kick off things off with a tasty signature cocktail, courtesy of Mad River Distillers. Doors open at 6pm and as guests arrive they will be treated to a cocktail while they mingle.

In addition to all the yummy consumables, guests will be able to directly ask the brewers questions throughout the night. Following the entree course, we will have our raffle, which guests will all be automatically entered into. Over the years our raffle has featured some great prizes from our brewers and sponsors as well as some gems like autographed tap handles and brewery tours. Who knows what could be in store for 2015!?

And now, in case you were curious, here is our Beer & Food Menu for the 2015 Meet the Brewers Dinner: