06 May Pours For Paws on May 31st: The Best of Craft Beer and Causes….Plus Puppies
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
Craft beer festivals are always looking for ways to add value for their attendees. What can they bring in to provide entertainment, make the day a memorable experience, and lodge that festival in your mind for next year? Food trucks and music are must haves, so if you want to use those as added value, those better be well outside the mainstream.
Lately, things like massive screens for video games have become popular at festivals, as well as portable axe-throwing lanes. At some festivals, the venue itself is an added value – a gorgeous park or beautiful building can help to build a nice event. Yet these are all just ways to market and enhance the festival, they aren’t really the reason for the festival. Now comes a festival with some true added value players; and in fact, they’re the reason for the festival.
Have you ever run across a festival with puppies and kittens to play with and set up adoption meetings for? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening at Pours for Paws in Noblesville on Friday night, May 31st, sponsored by Pet Supplies Plus, Puptown Girl Grooming, and Topgolf Fisher’s. Taking place inside the Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel and Conference Center at Exit 210 on I-69, Pours for Paws is a craft beer festival fundraiser for the Hamilton County Humane Society. From 6pm – 10pm, thirty great Indiana craft breweries, cideries, meaderies, wineries, as well as coffee, tea, and kombucha purveyors will be pouring unlimited samples of over 150+ of their wares. Now that you’re hooked, make sure to use the coupon code Paws10 for a $10 discount on a VIP or GA ticket or ticket + Tasting Society Marketplace Membership bundle, and click here for tickets.
image credit: luckydogbarkandbrew.com
Breweries with more of a presence and huge followings around the state, like Bare Hands Brewery, Bier Brewery, Bloomington Brewing Company, Daredevil Brewing, Evil Czech Brewery, Scarlet Lane Brewing, and Mad Anthony Brewing will be joined at Pours for Paws by smaller (but up and coming) breweries, like Backstep Brewing, Black Circle Brewing, Tin Man Kokomo, Cedar Creek Brewing, Grand Junction Brewing, and The Guardian Brewing. In between those two levels are the established breweries that distribute a good deal and are looking to do more, like Metazoa Brewing, Burn ‘Em Brewing, Centerpoint Brewing, and People’s Brewing.
With that line-up, you are getting great breweries from almost every part and corner of the state. Sean Webster, of Monon Beverage Brokers, and your host for the evening, has strong ties with so many breweries across the state that it shouldn’t be surprising that such a great brewery list was put together. Add on top of this food from the hotel’s executive chef and additional beverage choices from Ash & Elm, New Day Craft, Cedar Creek Winery, Moonlight Meadery, and Noble Coffee and Tea Company and you have yourself a craft beverage festival extraordinaire and a very pleasant evening.
But let’s not forget why we’re buying the tickets and coming to the festival – it’s all about the animals. Sean is a staunch supporter of the Humane Society and knew that he wanted to do something to help them in their good work. The festival was a no-brainer, but bringing in puppies and kittens is certainly something new. And their presence will help keep focus on the reason for the evening, giving back to the community. Sean said, “The goal of Monon Beverage was always to give back to my community in some form, along with simply taking care of our producer partners through sales, events, and distribution management. When not running Monon, I coach lacrosse and soccer at two Hamilton Co. high schools, so I’ve been giving back for two years already, but animals are pretty awesome so this event makes sense to combine a handful of my loves: business, animals and community”
Pours for Paws hopes to raise as much as $20,000 for the Hamilton County Human Society, both to help with their everyday work and to support their plans to build a new state of the art facility in which they could help even more animals. While adoptions won’t be taking place at the festival proper, attendees can set up an appointment to talk about adoption or to do the paperwork for an animal who chooses them at the festival.
A Friday evening with hundreds of craft beers and animals with which to play. Party to your hearts consent, and then get a room at the hotel and get a good night’s sleep. That way you’ll be ready for the Anderson On Tap Craft Beer Festival just 15 miles away in downtown Anderson.
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