Drinks Downer
A craft beer setback: Texas Beer Fest is no more, event suspended for at leastthe near future
Sad news for craft beer enthusiasts: Texas Beer Fest — not to be confused with the similarly-named (and poorly-received) Houston Beer Festival — is going on an indefinite hiatus as of 2013.
As Ronnie Crocker first reported, Jake Lewis, the lieutenant general and beer commander behind the operation, announced the reasoning behind the sudden suspension in a Thursday morning email:
Clif [Wigington, manager general of Texas Beer Fest,] is looking to do some international travel, and I cannot finance and run the event from this far out of state. I hope that we will be able to pick it up again sometime in the future, but in the meantime we are simply grateful for being part of such a fantastic community of craft beer drinkers."
The Texas Beer Fest brought together nearly two dozen Texas breweries and 45 out-of-state selections, and had been hailed for its promotion of the local craft beer industry and its support of the Houston Food Bank, which received 25 percent of the festival's profits.
The inaugural event in 2011 was held at the Humble Civic Center; for the April 2012 event, the organizers moved the beer booths, food vendors, live music and panel discussions to the grassy pad of Discovery Green.