As a general rule, there are rarely any honestly good reasons to get up early on a Monday. But this Monday, August 6 at 6am, SIPtemberfest tickets go on sale! Set your alarms and bookmark our TicketLeap.com page because you now have a 100% legit reason to get up that damn early! You’re welcome.

But wait – you might not need to get up at the butt-crack of dawn after all! You could be the winner of the very first pair of tickets to the 2012 SIPtemberfest!! All you have to do is write us a poem!

So grab some brain fuel (it’s been proven – beer makes men more creative,) get out your thesaurus, check out rhymezone.com for a little help and get writing! There is no limit to how many poems you can enter. You can enter by commenting on this post, posting your poems on Meg’s Events Facebook page or our SIPtembefest Facebook Invite, or if you are a little more shy, you can email them directly to siptemberfest@madriver.com. However you choose to enter, just make sure we can get in touch with you to let you know you’ve won!

The winner will be announced Sunday Night at 8pm right here on the blog and the lucky poet will win a SIP VIP package to Saturday which includes entry for two (10 tasting tokens and a souvenir glass each,) two meal vouchers and two SIPtemberfest t-shirts (which are going to be super cool, by the way!) And of course, they will get to sleep in on Monday! (Well, unless they also want to get tickets to our Friday Meet the Brewers Dinner & Tasting… Then they might need to get up anyway…)

Team SIPtemberfest aims each year to fine tune our beloved little beer fest and to make it “the same, but better” as we age. We’ve come from a mellow little porch party to a well organized, online-ticket-selling festival with a streamlined brewer layout that even includes distillers! All of these changes to date have had a significant impact on the fun-having meter without harshing your mellow because they have been relatively small and subtle changes. And that’s the point!

But now, at the ripe old age of 5, we’ve decided it is time to take make a far more noticeable change and we are very excited to announce it: SIPtemberfest 2012 is adding another day!

Yup. It’s true. This year we will be adding an exclusive evening of dining and drinking with the brewers from Lawson’s Finest Liquids and Otter Creek Brewing Company on Friday September 28, preceding SIPtemberfest. Taking place in General Stark’s Pub at Mad River Glen, guests will be treated to hand-picked pairings from both brewers over four courses, (specific menu and pairings will be announced soon.) Guests will also be invited to take part in a question and answer session and the chance to pick up some nuggets of wisdom from two of the state’s top brewers.

Tickets for this must-attend session are $60 each and include four courses, each paired with 2 beers and a souvenir glass. (They do not include entry to Saturday!) Tickets are ONLY available ONLINE and are very limited so don’t hesitate – get yours as soon as you can! All ticket sales open at 6am on August 6, 2012.

Saturday, September 29 from 1pm -5pm, the base area of MRG will again be the home to a smattering of brewers and distillers, each pouring their unique and delicious brews under the sun and foliage for SIPtemberfest. There will be great local food and music and MRG will be offering foliage rides on their historic single chair. Saturday tickets are $25 each and include 10 tastings and a souvenir glass. These tickets also go on sale at 6am on August 6, 2012, and while we have a lot more of these, we have sold out the last three years in a row, so get your tickets before I say “I told you so.”

For more details, see our 411 page or contact us at siptemberfest@gmavt.net. Don’t forget – you can sign up for Fresh SIPs to get these updates emailed directly to you! (See the top right hand side of the page.)

Cheers!

Oh boy, oh boy! We are planning a great SIPtemberfest for you this year! From now until September 28 & 29, the SIP-planning team will have nothing but beer on the brain, aiming to make this year’s event “the same but better!”

If you have feedback for us, we’d love to hear it! We have a good list going, but we’ve got open ears so let us hear what you think – good, bad and hoppy!

And if you are interested in volunteering, please send us an email at siptemberfest@gmavt.net.

So stay tuned for updates including ticket sales dates, our brewer line up and more! You can sign up for Fresh Sips and get these updates emailed directly to you – look toward the top right hand side of this page.

Cheers!