When it comes to the World Beer Festival, Columbia is no stranger. Celebrating its seventh year hosting the event, the city will once again open its arms to beer lovers and brewers of all kinds Saturday.
"All About Beer" magazine, a publication about beer culture and community, runs the festival. "All About Beer's" president and publisher, Christopher Rice, has been in the small brewers industry for 20 years now and was a founder of Carolina Brewery in North Carolina.
When Carolina Brewery was founded, just one brewery, Palmetto, existed in South Carolina. Since then, the Carolina beer scene has exploded. Now, 21 breweries exist in South Carolina, and there are over 120 in North Carolina.
For Rice, making the decision to sell his brewery and come to All About Beer was an easy one.
"All About Beer was truly the only source of beer education," he said. "For 25 years it's specialized and taught me about flavors, beer and food history, all the things that can give a brewery or brew owner a context of where we sit providing — in my opinion — the best beverage in the world."
That educational mission statement applies to the festival, as well. At the World Beer Festival, 80 breweries attend and 250 beers are presented from around the world; the goal is to share what the world's most interesting, creative brewers are doing with their beer. Columbia is slowly but surely becoming the best place to do just that.
"When we first started the festival, there was no real specific beer places to go and even last year there was only one brewery there," Rice said about Columbia's beer scene. "But now it's in the top five or top 10 fastest growing beer markets in the industry."
According to Rice, Columbia is uniquely well-suited to embrace the brewers and and beer. Columbia possesses an entrepreneurial spirit, which brings a lot of awareness to new projects and new businesses in the area, making it a perfect spot for the rapid-growing beer market.
For those who have been to the festival before, don't expect the same schtick as in past years. There will be a South Carolina-specific brewers garden, where all the South Carolina breweries will be featured for guests to browse and get a feel for what the flavors coming out of their home state are. And, as the biggest influence on the American beer scene, there will also be a Belgian brewers garden, with about a dozen leading brewers from Belgium in attendance and flavors that range from pale to sour.
If you get tired of beer, the festival will also offer a cheese and beer pairing presentation, courtesy of Whole Foods and a silent disco floor, where guests can dance to music on wireless headphones.
The World Beer Festival has plenty to offer for novices, but in the end, it belongs to the beer aficionados who can appreciate the subtleties and craftsmanship of brewing.
"[The festival] should celebrate the wide creativity and diversity of beer in America today and recognize specifically not just the beer but the great brewers who make it," Rice said.