Like many events cancelled due to COVID-19 last year, the 2021 Monticello Lion's Brewfest is a go this year!

My wife and I attended our first craft beer festival in nearly a year and a half last June. Lagerfest was held at 22 Northmen Brewing in Alexandria. Located on the same property as Carlos Creek Winery, 19 breweries and several hundred craft beer enthusiasts gathered on a hot Saturday afternoon to pour and drink local craft beer together in person. It was refreshing and a little surreal to attend an event again that felt like life before COVID.

Like Lagerfest, Monticello Lion's 9th annual craft beer festival is also a go this year slated for August 21. It will be held at West Bridge Park in Monticello from 3-7pm and feature 50 vendors and over 150 different beers, wines, and spirits. Tickets are $30 before August 1 but increase to $40 after August 1; VIP tickets cost $60 and include 20 minute early entry into Brewfest, VIP t-shirt, sampling mug, Brewfest mug lanyard, access to specialty kegs only available for sample with VIP wristband, catered snacks, air conditioned private bathrooms, and $1 off domestic pours from the Lions beer wagon. Every ticket also qualifies for festival-goers for door prizes.

2021 craft beer, wine, cider and spirits vendors include:

• Alloy Brewing (Anoka)
• Bent Paddle Brewing Co. (Duluth)
• Big Wood Brewery (White Bear Lake)
• Brookview Winery (Milaca)
• Copper Trail Brewing (Alexandria)
• Duluth Cider (Duluth)
• Indeed Brewing Co. (Minneapolis)
• Isanti Spirits (Isanti)
• Lift Bridge Brewery (Stillwater)
• North Lake Brewing Co. (Ramsey)
• Phillips Distilling (St. Paul)
• Sociable Cider Werks (Minneapolis)
• Spilled Grain Brewhouse (Annandale)
• Surly Brewing Co. (St. Paul)
• Third Street Brewhouse (Cold Spring)
• Thousand Lakes Brewing Co. (Parker's Prairie)

See the full list of vendors here. Shuttles will be available with stops in Monticello, Big Lake and Becker.