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Around 2,000 attend second annual Gettysburg Brew Fest


Around 2000 people packed an Adams County battlefield on Aug. 22 for the 2nd annual Gettysburg Brew Fest.

The event featured 51 breweries from 17 states and Canada, four food trucks and a few other vendors. Around 200 of the event attendees paid an extra $30 for a VIP ticket, said Curt Foreman, the event's organizer.

The VIP ticket included entrance to the event an hour early, exclusive beers and a food buffet, Foreman said.

"The breweries came from as far west as Ohio and Illinois and as far south as North Carolina," Foreman said. "We try to give people the best ticket value possible for what they paid."

Ruth Mahoney, who made the more than six hour drive with friends from Buffalo, New York to attend the event, said she had to have the VIP ticket so she could try as many things as she could.

As the hour-long VIP session came to an end, the other event attendees sprinted past the event gate to get their hands on some brews after a cannon was shot.

Traveling all the way from Cleveland, Ohio for the event was Mike Clark, who is the national sales manager for Sprecher Brewery, who had on top their hard root beer and hard apple pie malt beverage.

"We fire brew everything," Clark said. "It gives everything more flavor."

One of the local breweries at the event was the Regional Harrisburg Area Brewers or ReHAB for short who had five brews on tap at the event including a Caramel Apple on a Stick Cider.

"All of us have day jobs and just do this as our hobby," said Verlyn Hays of Mechanicsburg, who is one of ReHAB's brewers. "Our big thing is that we can experiment with everything because we don't have a restaurant or location."

Representing Adams County at the event were Big Hill Ciderworks of Gardners, who featured two of their seven ciders for interested drinkers.

"We have bottles and drafts everywhere from Carlisle to Philadelphia," said Troy Lehman, one of Big Hill's owners. "We fit in well with this event because our ciders aren't typically as sweet as you would expect."

Forman said the goal of the event is to help expand and build on whatever craft beer fan base that area has.

"I love the quality of the attendees these events get," Foreman said. "This area is great to bring this type of event to."