The sun shone down with unexpected warmth on the 6th Annual Shore Craft Beer Fest: OCtoberfest this past Saturday at Sunset Park in Ocean City Md. However, this was OCtoberfest 2020 style. Gone were the brewery’s booths where guests wandered around with strangers drinking what they wanted when they wanted. Instead, guests were seated at tables with their friends and family, all spaced well apart from other tables, and beer was brought to them by enthusiastic volunteers in face masks every 15 minutes. Gone were the 1500 plus guests who attended last year’s OCtoberfest in the same location. This year was a more intimate affair with just 250 seated guests, thanks to Covid19 restrictions. Lines were kept to a minimum at the Street Kitchen food truck when orders were placed using order forms, and texts were sent when the appetizing food was ready. Acoustic sounds flowed around the park as Full Circle Duo melodies resonated from the stage. There were cruises around the Bay every half hour on the OC Bayhopper, where yet more local craft beer could be sampled while the beautiful scenery surrounded the guests.
And the local craft beer flowed. It flowed in the shape of cans, bottles and 4 ounce pours. It flowed from local craft breweries here on the Shore. From Backshore Brewery on the Ocean City Boardwalk and Fin City Brewing in West Ocean City, to Tall Tales in Parsonsburg and Evo in Salisbury. It flowed from Crooked Hammock and Big Oyster up in Lewes De, and it flowed from Sinepuxent Brewing, one of the newest breweries to appear in these here parts. There was even a beer from collaboration brews with a brewery in Virginia and one in Munich, Germany. Carey Distributing and Eastern Shore Distributing curated the beers and printed signs. The beer flowed from twelve different breweries all offering distinct styles of unique craft beer, hard seltzers and mead to total 24 different beverage samples for each participant. The sun shone down, the beer flowed, the people relaxed, and the event, one of only a handful allowed to happen in 2020, was by all accounts a success.
