The second Huntsville Beer Week was even better than the first. Check in here or join our facebook page to hear news about Huntsville Beer Week 2013.

The firkin beer is ready for Saturday’s Firkin Ale Fest at the Straight to Ale brewery. Firkin tickets are limited – buy online to make sure you have a firkin spot.

What the firk is a firkin? Unfiltered and unpasteurized beer that is served from the cask without force-carbonation. If you’ve never had a cask-conditioned ale, it’s quit the experience. Before pasteurization, filtering, and force-carbonation, cask-conditioned beer was simply called “beer.”

Saturday will feature cask-conditioned versions of:

• Dry-hopped Monkeynaut
• Dry-hopped Monkey’s Uncle
• Lily Flagg Milk Stout on Cocoa Nibs
• Wernher Von Brown Ale
• Twickenham Mild Ale
• Laika’s Russian Imperial Stout
• Olde Towne Pumpkin Ale
• And one “special surprise”

$20 for admission. There is no charge per sample. The Straight to Ale brewery has a 100+ inch television in the event area for some SEC game if you are able to focus on something besides the beer.

I don’t think we’re going to have any leftover glassware this year!

Make sure you buy advanced tickets to the Straight to Ale Firkin Ale Fest this Saturday. Attendance is limited to make sure there’s enough firkin beer to go around, so reserve your spot!

Tap takeover events tend to be the most popular events during Huntsville Beer Week. Of those, the Huntsville Beer Week Commemorative glass events tend to be the most well-attended. If you want to collect all 9 styles of Huntsville Beer Week glasses, check out the events tagged as “Commemorative Beer Week Glass” to the right.

Getting ready for Beer Week? Starting to map out the tap takeovers? Letting your boss know that you plan on being sick the last full week of October?

Don’t forget that there’s only one way to start Beer Week – at Southern HOPSpitality Beer Festival on Friday, October 19. Last year these folks were in Providence and brought out 12 great local and regional breweries. This year they’re making the move to Lowe Mill and bringing even more brewers.

Full pints available. Keep the souvenir pint glass – you will receive one of 9 different styles – and come out to some of the other events during Beer Week to collect the rest.

We’re gearing up for this year’s Huntsville Beer Week – ordering thousands of glasses to give away, coordinating with the folks behind Southern HOPSpitality, setting up tap takeovers, and more!

You will see a few initial events listed, but details will be tentative until we get closer to Beer Week.

In the meantime, clear your calendars on Friday, October 19 for the return of the Official Beer Week Kickoff Event – Southern HOPSpitality – at Lowe Mill.