By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Brewers from across the state of Kansas will converge on the city of Hays this weekend for the first Brewer’s Cup Beer Festival.
This Saturday’s event will combine craft beer and disc golf to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kansas's original disc golf course.
Brett Straight, brand manager with Defiance Brewing of Hays, said the event was inspired by the connection between breweries, beer festivals and disc golf.
Straight said, first and foremost, the event is a beer festival with the disc golf event on the side.
There will be 10 Kansas breweries offering several varieties for festival-goers to sample.
“There's going to be a total of 25 different varieties that people be able to sample,” Straight said.
Attendees can register early online and purchase tickets at discgolfscene.com.
Check-in is set for noon to 1:30 p.m. at Frontier Park East. The sampling and disc golf begins at 2 p.m.
General admission tickets for the event are $45, which includes sampling and watching the brewers battle it out for a traveling Viking Horns trophy.
Two VIP packages are also available. The first ($100) allows people to participate in the beer festival and a disc golf contest separate from the brewer’s event.
The $150 VIP plus package lets you play on the same card as the brewers.
Straight said typically, they miss out on the events surrounding other festivals because they are busy, so this event will allow the brewers to build their relationships.
“When we go to beer festivals, we're just so busy being able to pour beer that we don't get to enjoy each other's company,” Straight said. "This is going to be a way that we get to actually enjoy each other's company on the course for a little bit and hopefully be able to build those relationships.”
Straight said they hope this will become an annual event for brewers and beer lovers.
“We're hoping that next year, we can grow the number of breweries participating and proceed from there, but to be able to make this monumental stop for people who enjoy going to craft beer festivals,” he said.
Straight put together a preview video for attendees.
The event is also raising money for the Kansas Disc Golf Association’s food drive, Straight said.
Each year, they collect nonperishable food items for local food pantries and sell sponsorships and discs to help cover the costs.