LatviaBeerFest 2013 Beer Festival

For three days, the largest beer festival in the Baltics, LatviaBeerFest 2013, is taking place in Vērmaņdārzs in Riga. Today is the second day. The weather is rather unfriendly - both we and the camera had to shelter under an umbrella, and on top of that our hands were full of various colourful brochures and beer glasses.

Admission to the festival: Ls 1. At the information centres located at each entrance to Vērmaņdārzs, one can pick up a map, a programme, and the "Beer Newspaper". There, for Ls 2.50, one can also purchase a 200 ml glass beer mug with the festival logo. The principle is as follows: with this beer mug, wandering from tent to tent of the various beer producers, one can try all kinds of beer varieties for Ls 0.40. It seems only Lido and Valmiermuiža did not offer this option. One can, of course, also skip the special beer mug and buy draught beer in plastic cups at full price.

The greatest crowd gathered at the stages where musicians were performing or sports competitions were taking place, such as tug-of-war. The tents in the centre of the park fared better, as did those producers who offered less commercial and unfiltered draught beer. Fairly quiet, though very spacious, were the Cēsu Beer and Aldaris tents. By contrast, at the Iļģuciems beers there was even a small queue. No wonder - here one could try cranberry beer, mead, and hemp ginger beer (Iļģuciema Kaņepju ingveralus). The first was truly quite tasty, and even to me, a non-beer-drinker, it went down rather nicely. Beer could also be purchased to take away.

The beer stand named "Brōļi latgaļīši" caught the eye, where one could both drink beer (Ls 1/0.5 glass) and sample various types of šmakauceņi (a small glass, or a napiersnīks, Ls 1.50). It turns out that the brand "Brōļi latgaļīši" is a project of the private brewery "Brālis". Right there one could also sit under umbrellas or, for those worn out by the beer, recline in a soft cot.

Snacks and hearty food (roast potatoes, cabbage, sausages, shashlik, pork knuckle, and other treats) were plentiful. At Witch's Kitchen, Lido, Ilgezeem, and others, things were braised and boiled in large cast iron cauldrons. There were also smoked fish at the Czech beer stand, as well as freshly packed fish for preparation at home. The Lithuanian beer brothers had brought Rinkuškiai and Vilnius beer, though the sellers spoke Latvian suspiciously well. German beer varieties were also represented: Irlbacher, Lowenbrau, Paulaner.

Overall, the beer festival had nothing wrong with it. Plenty of everything, enough and tasty. Thought had been given to rest areas, order, free toilets, beer mug rinsing stations, and cheerful music.