Durham Craft Beer Festival returns to downtown Oshawa

If you love great beer and chilling with awesome people, the place you need to be on July 14 is Ontario Street in the heart of Oshawa's downtown for the 5th Annual Durham Craft Beer Festival.

This event has been a smash hit since its inception in 2014 and this year should be even bigger with 14 breweries (with a possible 15th) and one craft distillery coming to town for the party.

I've been to all five so far (there were two in 2014, including a Ciders and Seasonals in the fall - Not a Normal Beer Festival) and I worked last year's fest (Behind the Scenes), so I know first hand how amazing these festivals are.

It's billed as a "Celebration of talent, local ingredients and passion" and I'm on board with that.

We're expecting about 1,500 craft beer fans throughout the day so it's a pretty big deal.

This year I am volunteering, which will be a new experience for me - it should be a lot of fun, but I'm more looking forward to seeing you there. You, however, should be most excited about the lineup.

Six local breweries will be there, including three-time defending People's Choice winner Old Flame Brewery (can anyone dethrone them this year?) and returnees Falcon (Ajax) and Second Wedge (Uxbridge). A trio of new Durham Region breweries will be there as well, including Little Beasts and Town (Whitby) and just opened Chronicle Brewing of Bowmanville.

Rouge River, last year's People's Choice runner-up will be here, and they're practically Durham (they're in Markham) as well as a favourite at Buster Rhino's, the host for this event.

Great Lakes, one of Ontario's OG breweries and one of this country's finest IPA producers, will be returning, along with Muskoka, Big Rig and Cowbell. Newcomers include Collingwood, Bobcaygeon and Shacklands.

A  look at the festivities from the second festival
in the fall of 2014. Photo credit above

Also new to the festival is Georgian Bay Spirits, who will be bringing their popular Gin Smash and Vodka Smash coolers.

The Gin Smash is something I have to try.

So yeah, ya gotta go.

General Admission tickets are available for $25 ($30 at the door), which gives you a five-ounce sample glass and five tokens. Extra tokens are available for $2.

The gate opens at 12:30 for general admission ticket holders but those who want a little extra can purchase VIP tickets, which gives your early entrance at 11 am, 25 tokens, the glass, bottled water throughout the day and a VIP lunch at your leisure.

To purchase tickets, visit durhamcraftbeer.com

You want a couple of free tickets? Like and share this post and tell me why Ontario craft beer is better than chocolate. It is better, you know.

Hope to see you there!

Cheers!