True North Beer Festival is on its way to KW

True North Beer Festival is coming to Kitchener this upcoming Saturday Sept. 15, 2018 for its third and final stop of the year.

“We are a touring craft beer festival and we set out to bring micro brewers that have minimal to no distribution outside of their local area,” said Peter Lazar, creative director of True North Beer Festival.

Taking place at Lot 42, the event will start mid-day and go until the late hours of the night.

“It’s just a really good excuse to kind of get together and discover some awesome new beer and support local and small businesses, and then also listen to some awesome new bands that most people probably wouldn’t have heard of,” Lazar said.

The festival will offer great food and music while featuring craft beer from breweries across Ontario, such as Compass Brewing from Timmins, Outspoken Brewing Co. from Sault St. Marie, amongst many others.

“Most of the beers we have coming out never have been to Kitchener or Waterloo, either in a bar or a festival,” Lazar said.

However, looking past the exciting opportunity to try new craft beers, those at True North Beer Festival are also focusing on the promotion of small businesses.

“There’s so many awesome businesses that are out there that you just don’t get exposure to. The importance for me is the promotion of those small brewers and the small businesses, and also the connection within the province from community to community,” Lazar said.

“The idea of connecting Kitchener to Timmins, or connecting Prince Edward County to Brantford; very rarely do those paths cross but there’s so much talent out there with small businesses in the province, I think it’s an important way of exposing yourself to that.”

As seen during True North’s first two events, attendees have been most excited to try “farm-to-glass brews,” which refers to brews that are made by ingredients which are all, or mostly, grown at the farm at which they are brewed.

For students, True North is offering a 30 per cent discount for those interested in purchasing tickets.

“If you’re new to the city and new to Kitchener-Waterloo, I think it’s a really good way to experience what the city has to offer. I think the venue that it’s at is really unique as well,” Lazar said

“It’s really an experience of culture and the city and the people in the city and also they’ll obviously get to try some new and expose themselves to new brewers that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.”