Got Beer? The Great International Beer Fest Goes Live

The 22^nd Great International Beer Festival (GIBF) goes live at the Rhode Island Convention Center on Saturday, October 24, bringing over 55 breweries from around the world and some local favorites from Li’l Rhody. You can enjoy unlimited sampling from over 250 beers each session. The afternoon session runs from 1 to 4:30pm and the evening session from 6:30 to 10pm. Both feature free food from Pizza Pie-Er, with live music from North East Grove in the afternoon session and The Black & White Band in the evening. If it gets to be a bit too much, have a seat and learn about beer from one of the Tutored Tastings held by Boston’s Yankee Brew News.

Attendees can vote for their favorite brewery, honoring the hard-working brewers who put their heart and soul into crafting a fine beverage. Root for your favorite beers as the Great International Beer & Cider Competition announces their award winners from over 600 entries spanning the globe and watch as they receive their medals of honor. As for the brewers themselves, look for big names like Samuel Adams, Harpoon, Narragansett and Yeungling as well as small local favorites like Newport Storm, Ravenous, Fooproof, Grey Sail and Bucket Brewery.

In preparation for the event, Motif interviewed GIBF founder Maury Ryan about what attendees can expect from this year’s festival.

Mike Ryan (Motif. No relation.): What’s particularly exciting about this year’s GIBF?

Maury Ryan (Great International Beer Festival): We’re the oldest beer fest in New England, and we’ve grown to where we expect over 5,000 people. We’ll also have at least 55 brewers, the most of any beer fest in RI. And we have Gregg Lasar, who writes extensively about beer and is an editor at Yankee Brew News, running three seminars at the beer show about different tastings. He shows people how to taste beer and speak knowledgeably and appreciate the craft.

Mike: What sort of experience are you hoping people have at the festival?

Maury: A fun night out. That’s why we also have leading regional bands and free Pizza Pie-er pizza. It’s a great social opportunity. In previous days, a lot of people got drunk and caused incidents. We’re proud to have reduced that. It’s gone down for a few reasons. In part security is more attentive. In part there are more females, which seems to calm things down. And there are more people who are not huge drinkers – we attract the uninitiated who are learning or exploring, as well as the professionals.

We actively market to the female market – 35% of our attendees are women, which is unusual at beer fests. A lot are not experts, but people can have a great time without getting intimidated. There are also a lot of people who use it as a reason to visit Providence – they come from as far as New York City and Maine, and stay overnight in the hotels.

Mike: The awards competition has quite a serious reputation. Tell me about it.

Maury: We have the largest competition on the eastern seaboard. Seventy-five judges come in the day before and test approximately 750 entries. Many are professionals, including experienced judges, distributors, brewers, beer writers. [Motif columnist] Pete Larrivee has been one of them, and probably will be this year. The beers fall into about 15 categories, with first, second and third place in each. At the last festival, we also introduced a way attendees can vote for their favorites. These “people’s choice” awards are released a few days after the festival.

We get submissions from all over the world. We’re actively looking into expanding the competition with more categories, and we’re looking at additional locations outside New England.

Mike: With 750 entries, the judges must get pretty soused.

Maury: They taste or sip – they don’t actually drink for the most part.

Mike: What have you seen change in the last 22 years?

Maury: People are paying a lot more attention to taste and quality. As the public has gotten more into craft beers, the big producers – the Budweisers, etc. – had to change their tactics and started acquiring smaller breweries to improve their craft offerings. Guinness and Bud and Sam Adams will come in with big trucks filled with products from these smaller affiliated brewers. We’ve also seen both genders and more of the mainstream adopting an appreciation for craft beers. And we switched from glass glasses to plastic cups somewhere early on. That helped a lot.

In just the last few years, ciders have also gotten very popular. There’s a fairly new category in the competition for them, too.

Mike: Do you remember your first beer?

Maury: Yes. I was probably about 3 years old. Somebody who worked for my father in the small town of Albion, New York, gave me some after work one day. I don’t recall what kind it was.

Mike: That would be pretty amazing recall. How did you get into running the festival?

Maury: I was practicing law at the time and a client of mine introduced me to baseball trading cards – out of that and conversations about their popularity at the time, we developed beer can trading cards. We marketed them nationally, and one stop was on public radio in San Francisco, where we also went to a fest in downtown. And we thought, why can’t we have one of these in RI? So we started one. And good thing, because the trading card era has mostly passed. We still have some boxes of the beer trading cards stored in our office.

GIBF is a 21+ event with unlimited sampling and a massive turnout, so enjoy responsibly and be sure to thank the volunteers and staff for all the hard work they do putting together the longest-running beer festival in Rhode Island. Cheers, Prost, Slainte, Salud and Bottom’s up!