The SOBs Incredible Festival

Saturday night, Oshkosh had the best beer tasting I’ve been to in a long time. The Society of Oshkosh Brewer’s Cask & Caskets festival in the Atrium at Becket’s featured more than 70 beers, wines, meads and ciders; all of it made by area homebrewers. It was also a historic event. This was the first beer festival in Wisconsin to feature nothing but home-made libations. That’s what made this so different. Most beer fests are little more than schwills where people get bombed on the same brews available to them at their beer depot every day of the week. Most take little away from the night, but a hangover. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it gets tedious after you’ve stumbled through a few of them.

Casks and Caskets was nothing like that. Each beer served was something the drinkers had never tasted before. It was a unique opportunity to try things that are truly different. A woman I talked to after the event told me it was the first beer fest she’d attended where every beer she sampled tasted good. That’s the thing about homebrewed beer. When it’s done really well, there’s nothing like the fresh, hand-crafted quality of homemade beer. And the response to those beers on Saturday night was phenomenal. I’ve never been to a sampling where I’ve seen so many people take such an active interest in what they were drinking. Because the people who made the beer were there pouring it, the give and take between the brewers and drinkers was ceaseless. It was an amazing thing to see. It was what a beer festival ought to be.

The proceeds from Casks and Caskets will go to Oshkosh food pantries. The SOBs deserve recognition for the enormous amount of time, not to mention beer, they donated to make all of this happen. Let’s hope it’s just the first of many such beer tastings here. Saturday night was a great night to be a beer drinker in Oshkosh.