Beer Festival
Our event:
400 tickets covering admission, a sample glass to keep, some sample tickets, something to eat, and entry into a multitude of door prize draws.
We aim to give our Festival-goers a taste of the Cariboo and north, because we brew good stuff up here and it deserves to get showcased. If you're looking for an Oktoberfest type deal, this is not it!
Any questions, please drop us a line at RotaryClubOfQuesnel@gmail.com
2025 Quesnel Craft Beer Festival 8th March
Minor name change (ours isn't the only Beer Festival in the Cariboo...), but a festival by any other name would still be a fun time - just 12 tickets shy of a 400 sell-out.
We've definitely found our home in the atrium of the Quesnel campus of the College of New Caledonia, just the right amount of space for 6 breweries, 2 cideries, and food vendor Cookie Bitz who had a blowout evening!
Marvellous range of styles and flavours from across the Cariboo and Prince George, but these were the ones that proved to be most popoular:
Bronze Award: Meadjito by Slaughterhouse Craft
Silver Award: Spiced Blood Orange Blond by Cask & Cleaver Brewing (narrowly missing a Gold three-repeat)
Gold Award: Elderberry Dark Sour by Deadfall Brewing
Some decent pictures of the event (click here), even from the photobooth!
Click on the images to enlarge
2024 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 16th March
We wanted to move our Festival back to the spring so as to flow better with events happening in neighbouring Prince George (Kiwanis Ale Fest) and Williams Lake (Williams Lake Craft Beer Festival) so a bit of a gap since our 2022 Festival.
Also a change of venue, to the atrium of the Quesnel campus of the College of New Caledonia.
Seven breweries, two cideries...the pictures tell the story!
As usual, we invited our Festival attendees to vote of their Favourite Beers:
Silver: Bramble Raspberry Vanilla Wheat Ale by Trench Brewing (a repeat on their 2022 showing)
Gold: Black Forest Stout by Casker & Cleaver Brewing...their second Gold in as many of our Festivals
2022 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 1st October
Our first in-person event since February 2020, due to the pandemic, we got fantastic sponsor support along with similarly fantastic community support and had a marvellous evening.
We decided to return to a single-session 4 hour evening and everything went off without a hitch.
For the record, our Festival attendees voted these as the top 3 brews:...
Gold: Andhrimnir's Coffee Porter by Cask & Cleaver Brewing (at their first ever festival!)
2019 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 16th March
Six breweries, one cidery, craft soda, and two separate sessions, after another successful Festival, what changes will we be making for next year?!
Our neighbours to the north swept the awards with three very popular brews:
2018 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 16th March
Seniors Centre, doors opened at 6.00pm to our 300 ticket holders who pretty much drank us dry over the next 4 hours - all the cider was gone by just after 8pm (we'll get more next year)!
Congratulations to our winning brews:
Silver: Chestnut Ale by Whistler Brewing
CIBC Quesnel also sponsored a Best-Dressed contest - we had hoped for soccer-related get-ups but no one read the memo, so Jason Schweitzer took the win in his Blue Jays ball cap and Josh Donaldson shirt.
2017 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 17th March
A beer festival on St Patrick's Day - how could that combination possibly work?!
In view of the success of 2015 and 2016, we put tickets on sale early, in December, so the option was there to buy as Christmas presents...and all 300 were gone in a week!
Marvellous burgers by Savala's, six great breweries...and great participation in our one-off St Patrick's Day contest - click here or on the tab to the left for our photo gallery
2016 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 1st April
Well...it worked pretty well last year, so we did it again for 2016...on April 1st - no foolin'!
Click here for more details (although the poster pretty much says it all).
2015 Cariboo Craft Beer Festival 27th March
Back by popular demand, with a slight change of name...it was a sell-out two weeks before the event and a great evening!
2011 Cariboo Festival of Beers 22nd October
We enjoyed a terrific range of beers - domestic and international, traditional and progressive, old names and new. Thanks to all our supporters, in particular Panago for the pizza and City Furniture for the bar fridge door prize.
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2010 Cariboo Festival of Beers 5th November
Another great event at Quesnel Seniors' Centre, thanks go to the participating breweries who treated those attending to a number of new, as well as tried-and-tested, brews.
 Night Owl Music
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2009 Cariboo Festival of Beers Saturday 24th October
We served over 300 discerning connoisseurs at Quesnel's Seniors' Centre. Competition among the attending breweries was fierce...but Molson Canadian took top honours, with 2008 winner Dude Beer by Pacific Western Brewery coming a close second, and Rickard's Red taking third.
Our sincere thanks to all those who turned out, and especially to our suppliers - Molson-Coors (Maria Garcia), who brough a ton of great giveaways, Pacific Western Brewing (Ben English), Tin Whistle Brewing, Howe Sound Brewing and Tree Brewing Company. 
Also thanks to our event sponsors:
*City Furniture & Appliances *McDonalds *Ricki's Bootlegger *Panago Pizza *Investors Group *C&C Wood Products *Night Owl Music *The Wolf and The Max radio stations *Quesnel-Cariboo Observer
details.