Organizers said more than 500 adults purchased tickets to attend the four hour Brewfest on Saturday, which was blessed with sunny and mild temperatures, in downtown Northbrook at Village Green Park.
“The weather is beautiful, the turnout is great, we’ve got a wonderful selection,” said Nancy Eschker, lead staff member for the event and recreation manager for the Northbrook Park District, which sponsored the event with the Village of Northbrook.
“It’s a beautiful location and just nice for the community to come out and enjoy themselves, 21 and over, enjoy music, not have to go far from their home and come out and have a good time and see people from the community,” Eschker said.
“There’s a lot of people that I see returning that are excited and making it an annual outing,” Eschker added, including, “a lot of groups of people that are back again.”
Fans of specialty beverages had a choice of more than 30 varieties to be poured in glass keepsake tasting glasses. Advance tickets were $49 for 15 five ounce tasting tickets. It was $30 for non-tasting tickets, but swag was included.
There was food for purchase or attendees could bring their own picnic suppers. Blues music on the raised stage was provided by Dr. Duke Tumatoe.
“It’s always exciting being able to bring the community together for an event like this, in the park, adults, music, a little beer, great weather, it’s just one of those really fun events,” said Chris Leiner, Northbrook Park District executive director.
“It’s a great partnership we have with the village, so both units of government come together to provide a great service to the community,” Leiner said.
Peter Yoon of Northbrook sported a homemade pretzel, cheese, peanuts and beef stick necklace.
Of the beer Yoon commented, “I like the darker beer, I like reds, I don’t like IPA, I like blonds (pale), I pretty much like everything that’s not hoppy.”
Tangled Roots Brewing Company of Glenview was back this year. Pouring Oktoberfest and Marzen German traditional lager beer was Stephen MacDuffie of Rockford, service manager representing Tangled Roots.
“I absolutely love this event. This is so nice, couldn’t have been a better day,” MacDuffie said.
Pals Ron Rabinowitz of Deerfield, of the Glenbrook North High School Class of 1986, David Levin of Northbrook and Dan Creinin of Highland Park raised a toast with their sampling glasses. Creinin spoke of liking “non-hoppy beer.”
Rabinowitz, who grew up in Northbrook, prefers hazy IPA beer and said the Village Green Park venue is “a nice use of space.”
David Levin likes a good Oktoberfest beer and “having stuff like this close to home.”
“We’ve been going to beer tastings for years all over the place and it’s nice to have one that I can walk out my door and 15 minutes later, I’m there,” Levin said.
With the Chicago Bears starting their regular season the next day on Sunday, Sept. 8, maybe it was only fitting that Gus Stathopoulos of Glenview wore a Chicago Bears-themed long sleeve shirt to go with the hazy IPA sample he was holding. The hue looked slightly orange to match the Bears’ orange and blue.
“I like this time of year for beer, definitely,” said Stathopoulos, who likes lighter lager beer.
And about those Bears, Stathopoulos said about the 2024 season, “Let’s just play hard and go out there and try to win.”
