The Second Annual NorCal Beer Geeks Festival will take place on Saturday, November 21st from 1:30pm to 5pm. The festival takes place ten days after Veterans Day, at the Santa Rosa Veterans Building and raises money for a local Veterans organization. Over 25 breweries and two local home brewers will be participating. The Kingsborough band will be performing live. They have played at Bottle Rock and opened for ZZ Top in the past.

Many Sonoma County breweries will be in attendance. Faction Brewing Company will be releasing the NorCal Beer Geeks IPA at the event for a second straight year and Founders Brewing Company, recently featured in a Press Democrat article, will be pouring. I believe this to be the first time they pour at a festival in Sonoma County.

General admission tickets are available on-line and include entry into the event, a souvenir tasting glass, unlimited beer samples, one raffle ticket entry, and two bite size food samples provided by Remy’s Bar & Grill. Additional food will be provided for a fee. The cost of that ticket is $45 plus Eventbrite fees.

VIP tickets will give attendees entry one hour earlier, at 12:30pm and a tasting glass lanyard. On-line VIP tickets are sold out, but all three Oliver’s Market locations still have some available as of this morning. The VIP ticket is being offered for $48 at Oliver’s Market. Event proceeds will be donated to Sonoma County Vet Connect, a Veterans helping Veterans organization. Vet Connect will be selling additional raffle tickets at the event. The grand prize being raffled off will be a pair of VIP tickets to the upcoming RateBeer Best Awards & Festival.

The cold and rainy season is around the corner and homeless and at-risk Veterans will benefit from the coat drive currently underway. Anyone that purchases a ticket and donates a lightly used coat or a tarp by Veterans Day (November 11th) will receive a free beer festival t-shirt in exchange. The official coat drive drop-off location is Remy’s Bar & Grill, located at 130 Stony Point Rd. in Santa Rosa. Provide your name, contact information and shirt size when dropping off at Remy’s and you can pick up your beer festival t-shirt at a booth the day of the festival. You will need a ticket to get in and receive your shirt. See website for more details by clicking here.

-Peter Lopez Jr.