The Castlegar Sunrise 2000 Rotary Club recognized two local breweries at its third annual Craft Beer Festival on Saturday.
The Rossland Beer Company was voted People’s Choice at the event, and the Rotary club awarded Torchlight Brewing Co. from Nelson the Rotary’s Best Brew Award. Owners from both breweries were very happy to be recognized and had plenty of visitors to their booths during the evening.
“We haven’t been in Castlegar at this event, so it’s nice to be here and tons of fun and everyone has been super supportive and awesome,” said Petri Raito, one of the owners of Rossland Beer Co.
“All three of our beers have been moving at the same rate and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from people,” said Josh Secord, owner and marketing director of Torchlight, who has attended the event all three years.
The event featured beverages from eight breweries — Rossland Beer Company, Granville Island Brewing, Red Racer, Bomber Brewing, Torchlight, Fernie Brewing, Bowan Island Brewing and Tree Brewing Co. — and two cideries — Lonetree and Dukes Cider Co. — but it took some extra effort on the part of the Rotarians to make sure this year’s event was a success.
A festival ended up taking place in Kelowna at the same time as the Castlegar Sunrise 2000 Rotary’s event, and a number of breweries decided to attend that festival instead.
“We book our event a year ahead of time, so as soon as the event ends we book it for the next year, and after we booked ours this year, there was a big beer fest announced in Kelowna, I wanna say, six months later,” explained Shannan Laktin, chair of the Craft Beer Festival committee. “So a lot of the breweries that had committed here had to switch because the one in Kelowna is quite a bit bigger.”
Some breweries weren’t able to attend, but did send beer, and Rotarians went through the extra effort of getting their Serving It Right certificates so they could pour the beers.
The event was to raise money towards the Castlegar Sunrise 2000 Rotary Club’s current projects, which include the Millennium Walkway expansion and new tables for the park. Castlegar’s young Interact Club members were also on hand, selling sausages and non-alcoholic beverages to raise money for their annual trip abroad.