FuzzyBrew

A new beer festival is coming to Tunica County in Mississippi next month.

The Double Down Beer-Rita Fest, part of the 2011 Smokin’ Aces Festival, will take place Sept. 16-17 at Harrah’s Tunica.

Samples of more than of over 100 beverages, including craft and international beers, margaritas and other frozen concoctions, will be served at two different sessions. Regional breweries at the festival include Ghost River Brewing, Schlafly Beer and Lazy Magnolia.

Session 1 is Friday (Sept. 16) from 5 to 9 p.m.; Session 2 (Sept. 17) is Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased online.

The Smokin’ Aces Festival, which benefits Porter-Leath, also features a BBQ Championship, car show, cornhole tournament and live music.

If you wanna try to win tickets for the Beer-Rita Fest, the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs homebrew club is giving away free tickets. Check out the Bluff City Brewers on Facebook for details.

It was a cold and rainy day, but the beer still flowed freely at the River City Brewers Festival Saturday.

The event, which featured an afternoon session as well as a night session, drew hundreds to Handy Park in Downtown Memphis.

I poured Land Shark Lager and Shock Top Belgian White as a festival volunteer during the daytime session.

The beers at the festival — there were more than 75 available — were mostly brews you could find on Memphis retail store shelves, but the variety was good. Some of my favorite beers of the day were Yazoo Brewing Company’s Hop Project, Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo, New Belgium’s Mighty Arrow and Schlafly’s Oatmeal Stout.

Festival-goers huddle at the stage to keep dry.

Ghost River Brewing was among the breweries at the festival.

The Yazoo Brewing Company tent.

A keg of Yazoo’s smoked-beer, Sue, was tapped at 2 p.m.

The tap handle for Shock Top Belgian White.

The Schlafly beer tent featured Dry-Hopped APA, Oatmeal Stout and Summer Lager.

The Yuengling beer tent.

The New Belgium tent had Mighty Arrow, 1554 and Fat Tire.

Bottles of Land Shark Lager from the Margaritaville Brewing Company.

The tap handle for Landshark Lager, complete with teeth marks.

Beer experts talk about brewing beer.

The Mulch Brothers performed during Session A.

The Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs tent.

A bag of rocks serves as a paperweight at the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs tent.

Lazy Magnolia’s South Pecan, with a crawfish.

Here’s a cool video that takes you inside Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company in Kiln, Miss. I found it in the media section of Lazy Magnolia’s website, which has a few other videos — some promos and a radio interview.

Lazy Magnolia from 4Tell Films on Vimeo.

The inaugural Top of the Hops Beer Festival in Biloxi — presented by Mississippi’s Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company — is coming up Feb. 19 at the Mississippi Coast Convention Center.

The video below, featuring Mississippi Gulf Coast reporter Susan LaBrecque, was produced to promote the event, and gives a glimpse of the Lazy Magnolia brewery. Looks like a cool place to tour if you’re in the neighborhood.