Sunday, April 12th will feature one of the USA’s top beer festivals – the Classic City Brew Fest in Athens, GA.  Created/ managed by Brewtopia Events, LLC (the same outfit that does the wonderful Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting Event), the Classic City Brew Fest features around 400 rare, regional, and world craft beers. The event includes a Cask Ale Pavilion with 28 unique cask-conditioned ales (often referred to as real ales).  Live music will be featured at the festival also. Proceeds will benefit the Athens Area Humane Society.

Tickets are still available and only $39.99 plus tax and a low Xorbia processing fee.   For this price, you can sample any of the cask-conditioned or other approximately 400 beers. This is the best beer festival ticket deal in the Southeast!

Here’s the just released list of cask-conditioned ales for this year:

• Blue Tarp Cascade Killa – Released for the first time today, our new American IPA showcases classic “old” craft Cascade hops. With an ABV of 8.1%, is it an IPA or a Double IPA? You decide.
• Burnt Hickory The Didjits. This blood orange IPA cask is blended with barrel-aged Didjits for an amazing vanilla note.
• Cherry Street Rum Wood-Aged Coconut Porter – 6.4% ABV Chief Sawnee’s Stash Porter with organic toasted coconut, dates and vanilla beans aged on rum-soaked wood spirals and extra coconut in the cask.
• Creature Comforts Athena Paradiso – Athena Berliner Weiss refermented with pineapple and coconut.
• Creature Comforts The Curious No. 5 – A golden sour ale fermented with Athens, Georgia wild yeast and bacteria.
• Dark Star Original – This 5% ABV, former Champion Beer of Britain ranks as a dark, flavorful, pleasantly bitter beer with complex flavors of crystal and chocolate malts.
• Eventide Revivale is an 8.5% ABV Belgian Golden Ale dry-hopped with El Dorado to accentuate complex fruit esters from the yeast.
• Green Flash Serrano Chili Double Stout with cinnamon and cocoa nibs – Notes of cinnamon and chocolate meld with a bold, roasty character, finishing with a subtle, spicy chili kick.
• Jekyll Hop Dang Diggity with pineapple habanero provides a great sensation of flavor and aromatics from well-balanced hops paired with spicy peppers and sweet pineapple.
• Max Cask – Max Lager’s Belgian-style Dubbel dry-hopped with Galaxy hops and cask-conditioned with Indian coriander and orange peel. IBUs: 13, ABV: 8%.
• Monday Night Addicted to Love – Blind Pirate double IPA with coffee, vanilla and Godiva dark chocolate. ABV: 8.2%, IBUs: 85.
• Moon River Interval IPA (5.7% ABV) – Brewed with Savannah band Passafire and named for their new EP, this bold IPA includes Columbus, Simcoe and Crystal hops. This cask was also dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy.
• O’Dempsey’s Inukshuk IPA is a balanced IPA made in the British tradition with American hops. This cask has a little surprise created by Golding dry-hops.
• Oskar Blues Ten Fidy – This exclusive cask of thick, rich imperial stout sports tasty additions of coffee and chocolate.
• Red Brick Hibiscuwit – A Belgian-style wheat ale brewed with hibiscus, orange peel and cinnamon. Organic pomegranate juice was added to the cask for secondary fermentation.
• Red Hare Whabbit Wheat is brewed with peaches, apricots and an insane amount of wheat. For this exclusive cask, we added more local peaches and our house strain of Brettanomyces lambicus.
• Reformation Stark is a coffee porter infused with toasted coconut and vanilla.
• Second Self Citrus IPA – A version of our spring IPA dry-hopped with citrusy hops and lemon and orange peel. We added extra Citra hops and peel to this distinctive cask.
• Service Brewing Old Guard – A Biere de Garde brewed with Yaupon honey from Savannah Bee Company and fermented with our local Savannah yeast strain harvested from our brewery bees.
• Southern Brewing’s Pale Ale (Belgian-style) fermented from a blend of brewery-cultured Athens wild yeast strains Wild Azalea and Cherokee Rose.
• Southern Brewing Owen’s English Session (Pale Ale) – A 3.8% ABV elegant English ale showcasing citrusy hops from the Pacific Northwest. A collaboration with Classic City Brew Fest founder Owen Ogletree.
• Starr Hill Reviver Mango Tango offers strong tropical fruit and citrus aromas. The mango blends well with Citra, Mosaic and Amarillo hops and contributes an intriguing fruit complexity to balance the medium bitterness.
• SweetWater Ol’ Faithful – SweetWater IPA with Centennial hops and black peppercorns.
• Terrapin ​Liquid Bliss. This delightfully stripped-down version of Liquid Bliss porter joins a silky-smooth malt body with a barely-there US Golding hop bite. Experience bliss in the buff!
• Thomas Creek Deep Water Dopplebock – A German-style strong lager with toasted bread flavors blending with chocolate notes. Expect a dry finish with lingering dark fruit and soft, bready notes.
• Twain’s – The cask description from Decatur’s brewpub will be announced at the Classic City Brew Fest.
• Wrecking Bar Mexican Siberius Imperial Stout – A rich, complex ale barrel-aged in Prichard’s Rye Whiskey barrels and infused with Indonesian cinnamon, Tahitian vanilla beans, smoked serrano and chipotle morita chilies.
• Yes Face IPA is a classic English real ale emphasizing a delightful hop profile and 100% pale malt. A delicious, golden session ale.

Note: Brewtopia, www.ClassicCityBrew.com, the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting and Classic City Brew Fest are operated by Owen Ogletree of Athens, GA. Owen is a BJCP National Beer Judge, beer traveler, award-winning homebrewer, and beer columnist for Southern Brew News.