Brews for the community

Listening to live music with a beer in hand sounds like an ideal pairing in the middle of the hot Reno summer, and XFest BrewFest brings just that while also helping the community via Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful (KTMB).

From 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on July 20, beer and music lovers can come to Harrah’s Reno for the XFest BrewFest concert and beer-tasting event for just $10 at the door. Advance tickets will not be sold. The $10 ticket includes three taster tickets, each valid for one four-ounce taster of any beer available, a souvenir cup and entrance to the concert with local group Mojo Green opening and the Monophonics headlining. The three tasters are equivalent to a full beer, and additional taster tickets can be purchased for $1 each.

KTMB vice president Jennifer Fonda admitted one of her favorite parts of the event is the beer and said, “It’s a very affordable $20 kind of Saturday night.” And added, with a laugh, “Well, it’s $10, but I say if you bring $20, you’re going to get pretty trashed.”

Evening disc jockey Dave Chapman, a.k.a. Sales Guy Dave of radio station The X, said the combination of beer and music is his favorite part of XFest BrewFest.

“My favorite part is the music and beer,” Chapman said. “And Mojo Green is one of our great funk bands here in the area, great horns section. And then the Monophonix from San Francisco are going to come in and be the headline act. And they’re just a full-on soul funk band, R&B, and I’m really excited to have them in.”

All proceeds from the event will go to KTMB to help fund their programs aimed at cleaning our community, and volunteers from KTMB will be working the event. Fonda also said souvenir cups will cut down on waste and there will be a focus on reducing trash as much as possible.

“It will definitely be a limited waste event,” Fonda said. “Unfortunately, it can’t be zero completely, but we’ll have, of course, recycling receptacles, and the cups help.”

The event is sponsored by Harrah’s Reno and 100.1 The X and is an official Artown event. There will be eight breweries at the event: Silver Peak, BJ’s Brewhouse, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Great Basin Brewing Company, Under the Rose Brewing Company, The Brewing Lair of the Lost Sierra, High Sierra Brewing Company and Lassen Ale Works. Because it’s a beer festival, the event is for 21 and older only.

Fonda said that another thing she enjoys about the event is that KTMB gains volunteers from it.

“One of my favorite parts is a lot of the new patrons that come in,” Fonda said. “We have a KTMB booth, so we’re able to talk to them more about what we actually do. And we’ve actually had some volunteers come out of this event.”

There will also be a 50/50 raffle at the event, with the winner receiving 50 percent of the raffle ticket sales and the other 50 percent going to KTMB.