Knoxify

This is a guest post by Chad Huskey.

I would like to ramble…no actu­ally I think gush would be the appro­pri­ate word. Yup, Gush, I would like to gush for a moment about a cer­tain Knoxville event that is near and dear to my heart. The Knoxville Brew­ers Jam. Just let those words roll off the tip of your tongue, “Knoxville Brew­ers Jam”. Ahhh yes, the hairs on the back of my neck are stand­ing up.

This marked the Jam’s 13th year in our fair city. I have attended every year since I dis­cov­ered it in 2002. At the time it was being held on a hot June day in the back park­ing lot of Barley’s with just a hand­ful of brew­ers at the event. I heard a radio add, and fig­ured I’d give it a shot. I have been hooked ever since. After the World’s Fair Site was reopened the event moved back to its orig­i­nal home, and tra­di­tional time of year. It has since grown into such a large event, that tick­ets are some­what lim­ited I would assume to keep from mak­ing the fire mar­shal ner­vous, and to make it more com­fort­able for the atten­dees & brew­ers alike.

So now every fall I start to get this ner­vous ten­sion, and a feel­ing that every day is drag­ging slower and slower as the count­down begins. The trees start to fill with the col­ors that bring leaf watch­ers from all over the world to the Smoky Moun­tains. The tem­per­a­ture falls to that oh so per­fect cool tem­per­a­ture that requires a light jacket in the early morn­ings and after sun­set. You can occa­sion­ally smell the smoke of fire places and leaf piles start­ing to burn, out in the coun­try. Jack-o-lanterns start pop­ping up on porches. Then the stores start stock­ing, Octo­ber­fest beers and Pump­kin Ales. My wife always brings me a six pack home when they show up at the gro­cery store, and she teases me about how many days are left till what she calls my “Christ­mas.” She’s right, just like a kid wait­ing on Santa; I can hardly sleep wait­ing on 40+ brew­ers, with their shiny taps, and exotic brews.

Peo­ple come from all around the south, and much far­ther I’m sure, to attend the event. It’s a day of great local and regional music. Good food pro­vided by a vari­ety of ven­dors. Usu­ally there’s a cigar booth, to enjoy a good puff, if you’re so inclined. There are some ven­dors sell­ing t-shirts, cheese, salsa, or hand­ing out coupons for their stores. Oh and did I men­tion the beer? Yea, there’s beer, every kind imag­in­able. There’s dark, light, hoppy, fruity, bit­ter, sweet, creamy, dry, earthy, flow­ery, and every­thing in between. Brew­ers from 13 states or more come to share sev­eral of their spe­cialty beers at every booth. If you can’t find a beer to enjoy at this event, then there’s no hope, go start your own “Knoxville Wine Cooler Shindig” or something.

This year the weather was colder than it has been for the past few years events. The wife and I lay­ered our clothes and headed out an hour before the gates opened to get in line. Those who bring chairs and arrive early can usu­ally mark out a primo spot to watch the bands in between refills on beer. The week before had brought a good amount of rain, so the lawn was sev­eral inches deep with mud. Those who had enough fore­sight (my wife) wore galoshes, and those who did not (me) rolled up their pants legs and let their sneak­ers take one for the team. As the day rolled on, it became more treach­er­ous to nav­i­gate as 4000 atten­dees tromped it to a nice slick mush. I did see a few causal­i­ties, with mud slathered from head to toe, but even those still had a smile on their face and a beer in their hand.

The atten­dees were all cor­dial, and as in years past, I have yet to see any prob­lems with some­one who has over indulged, at the event. Even in the some­what dense crowd, folks allowed you to maneu­ver through eas­ily, with polite “excuse me’s” and “go right ahead’s”. Peo­ple in line were always quick to rec­om­mend their favorite brew and point you towards the proper tent. It was just a good day for get­ting along with your fel­low beer lovers, lis­ten­ing to some great tunes, and soak­ing up that good old East Ten­nessee hospitality.

For more info, and to keep an eye our for next year’s event: knoxvillebrewersjam.com