Beer Alps Festival: celebrate beer culture

30 September 2024

Post originally written in: Deutsch

The time has finally come: Innsbruck is getting its own beer festival. And that's not all: a brewing competition is also part of the "Beer Alps Competition & Festival 2024" initiative . The festival and award ceremony for the competition will take place on October 4, 2024 from 2:30 pm on the Market square in Innsbruck will take place. The event is therefore a wonderful addition to the parallel Shopping Nightwhere Innsbruck's city center invites you to a special mix of music, show and evening shopping experience. The beer festival on the market square attracts visitors with hoppy drinks, culinary delights, live music and a colorful program for a stopover directly on the Inn and in front of the impressive Nordketten backdrop.

Matthias Röck, graduate beer sommelier, head brewer of the BrewHub Collective and founding member of the Beer Alps Association, is a completely different story. I meet him (for a beer, of course) to find out more about the new festival in Innsbruck. A good two weeks before the competition, he's full of anticipation and (apparently just a little) stressed about the organization.
I've known Matthias for a while and know that beer is his great passion. Nevertheless, I'm curious to find out how the association and the festival came about.

He reports that after a break in Vienna and his return to Tyrol, he really missed the exchange with like-minded people and an organized beer culture. There is an unusual situation in Tyrol, he explains, "because with a few exceptions, there are almost exclusively independent* private breweries in Tyrol, which are often family-run and brew regional, high-quality beers" (*note: independent of Brauunion Österreich). In view of the high-quality alternatives from Tyrol, Matthias thinks it's a shame that the majority of beers served in regional restaurants are big brands.

Fortunately, there are also pubs that cultivate beer culture in a different way, such as the Tribaun in Innsbruck , the Bierfabrik, Hopfmann und Söhne or the beer bar and pub FRANZs.

in 2024, Matthias and four like-minded people founded Beer Alps - the association for the promotion of a cross-border independent beer culture in the Alpine region. There is so much great content in the association's name, and you can tell that the members really are fully committed to it. Chairwoman Franzi Huber, secretary Matthias Röck and association members Victoria Strallhofer, Matthias Amprosi and Christoph Kugler developed the idea of a brewing competition in the Euregio region and beyond. Together with hard-working helpers, they are now organizing the Competition and the Festival.

The association could and will grow after the event ... To what size? Well, that remains to be seen.

I learn a lot in conversation with Matthias, for example that there are several brewing competitions in Austria. These include the Austrian Beer Challenge (ABC)the national championship of beers. Incidentally, Matthias himself is a multiple state champion. Western Austria has never had a competition like this before.

The first Beer Alps Competition took place from September 27 to 29, 2024 in the Tiroler Bier Halle took place. The competition was open to the entire Alpine region, and Matthias tells me that the number of entries was in triple figures (!).

Both hobby brewers and commercial breweries were allowed to take part. Hobby and commercial breweries were judged separately. The beers were divided into various categories. An international jury of 50 experts tasted the submitted beers from Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France blind and then evaluated them.

There is a lot at stake, because in addition to cash and non-cash prizes, the main prize is the title of "Best Beer of the Alpine Region". For the participants in the hobby category, one of the main prizes was probably a special incentive: the winner will brew the "best hobby beer in the Alpine region" at the commercial premises of Bierol on a hectoliter scale. What's more, this very beer will be served in the Tribaun will be served.

The award-winning beers will only be recognized at the Beer Alps Festival and will also automatically qualify for the Austrian Beer Challenge 2025. So cheers to that!

After the competition, there are only a few days left until the festival on October 4, 2024 from 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The market square provides the perfect backdrop for around 15 breweries and their stands to make direct contact with beer lovers. In addition to (literally) excellent beers, there are other highlights: The offer ranges from beer cocktails to classic cocktails and "natural wines" (wild or spontaneously fermented wines and beers) to culinary delicacies from the Alps.

On stage, boogie-woogie star Christoph Steinbach and Daniel Ecklbauer for a good atmosphere. The eagerly awaited awards ceremony for the competition will also take place there from around 5 pm.

When organizing a beer festival, there are of course many things to consider. Age control is one of them. Matthias explains to me that the association has therefore opted for a token system. Visitors buy tokens at the entrance, which is also where the access control takes place. The tokens are then used to pay at the stands. The starter pack includes a map of the site and a stamp pass with which you can take part in a prize draw once you have stamped all the tokens.

Matthias pulls the black tokens with the embossed logo out of his pocket. Flyers, beer mats and much more are already ready. "By the way, the beer is served in glasses. The glasses are currently being produced in collaboration with Spiegelau", Matthias continues. This is also a special detail at a festival where deposit cups are more common. "It's about beer culture. And beer simply tastes different (namely better) from a glass."

You can feel that there is a lot of commitment and passion in all these details. That impresses and inspires me in equal measure. Matthias' anticipation and that of his club colleagues is huge and infectious. Nothing stands in the way of celebrating beer culture in the Alpine region together, and the Beer Alps Festival provides a wonderful setting for this.

We can only hope that the Beer Alps Festival will generate enthusiasm and attract large crowds. I sincerely hope so for all those working behind the scenes. For me personally, there is not the slightest doubt that the Beer Alps will be a complete success. And, as Matthias suggests, this could also lead to a two-day beer festival in Innsbruck in the future.

I'm honestly really looking forward to this festival, new taste experiences and beer cocktails that are still unknown to me. My weakness for "one more beer" needs to be controlled somehow ..

I would like to thank Matthias Röck and Stefanie Perl, the entire Beer Alps Association and Sarah Brandacher from Innsbruck Marketing.

Cover picture: © Stefanie Perl

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Verena Abenthung

A Tyrolean girl, graphic designer, blogger and tour guide with a variety of interests and a weakness for nice people, culture, starry night skies, one more beer and the mountains.