Beer Drinkers & Beard Lovers Gather in Downtown Noblesville

Beers drinkers and beard aficionados gathered together in downtown Noblesville Saturday afternoon for the first ever Beards & Brews – The Championship, a showcase of some of the best breweries and beards Marion County and Hamilton County have to offer.

In the weeks and months leading up to November 1st, employees from local breweries competed in preliminary beard competitions. The judged categories included longest beard, thickest beard, most creatively groomed beard, and best of show, and the winners of each category then made it to the championship on Saturday, where they competed against each other along with any bearded fellow from the greater public.

Brewers from Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company, Sun King Brewing, Barley Island Brewing Company, Grand Junction Brewing Company, and Fountain Square Brewing Company gathered just south of the square in downtown Noblesville, along with members of the Circle City Roller Derby Girls, the Retro 101 Fashion Bus, and local artists and craft makers to share in great brews and the sun of a beautiful fall day (it snowed the night before. SNOWED!!!).

Featured by the breweries were a good mixture of their house beers (Sun King’s Osiris, Thr3e Wise Men’s Golden Zoe, and Fountain Square’s Soul Ride IPA) and some interesting and delicious special releases, like Grand Junction’s Black Hat Brigade Rye IPA, my favorite on the day. Instead of serving sample sizes, however, the beers were sold for $4-5, with all tips and entry fee proceeds going to Indianapolis’ Movember chapter (possibly my favorite philanthropic organization).

Also present for consumption were tshirts from the Circle City Roller Derby Girls (complete with actual roller skating demos), hand knitted hats complete with “beard” attachments to keep your mouth and cheeks warm during the winter, and live music provided by DJ Helicon.

The hope is for this festival and competition to grow in the next years to shine light on the great breweries central Indiana has to offer, while also bringing attention to the amazing organization that is Movember and the beautiful “Hipstoric” downtown area of Noblesville, IN. Kudos to all involved for making this an event to keep an eye on in the coming years.