There are so many new beer festivals popping up in the DFW area lately, it's becoming somewhat difficult to keep track (especially given the sheer amount of alcohol consumed at these shindigs). Saturday kicked off the third annual North Texas Beer Week with the very first Texas Brewvolution Beer Festival at Fair Park, hosting over two dozen local breweries plus a handful of imports. Brewvolution was considerably smaller and more intimate than previous festivals — definitely a plus, as that meant a shorter distance between beer fans and their next beverage.
·The crowd was incredibly diverse, from fancy Park Cities folks and young families to groups of college-age bros.
· Lots of people were rocking beer swag like socks, hats and necklaces made out of cans, and pretzel necklaces (for between-beer palate cleansing?).
·Many breweries advertised the ratebeer.com scores for the various brews they had on offer.
·Every time someone accidentally dropped a glass, the entire room yelled — which occurred every quarter-hour or so. (No use crying over spilled beer?)
·Notable long lines formed at Aldebert's, Cedar Creek, Avery, Ballast Point, Community, and Lakewood Brewing's stands.
·Notable non-beer vendors included local coffee roaster Noble Coyote (who brought a Chemex for hot samples and cold brew), Holy Kombucha offering their fizzy tea on tap, local t-shirt company Dowdy Studio, and do-gooding flip flop vendor Hari Mari (who is seriously everywhere these days).
· The unofficial award for coolest keg cooler goes to Four Corners, who utilized ice cream push-carts.
·Waiting outside was a whole host of food trucks that were pretty perfect for the occasion: SsahmBBQ (OMG kimchi fries), Bombay Chopstix, The Guava Tree, Doughboys, The Brat Haus, and Rockin' Rick's.
·Notable local brewery missing: Deep Ellum Brewing Co., who was throwing its own birthday party just up the road.
— Margo Sivin
