About two weeks ago I attended the North Miami BrewFest that was held at the plaza of the Museum of Contemporary Art on November 16th. This highly anticipated one day festival was collectively put together by Florida International University for the purpose of bringing brewing science education to South Florida locals and fellow beer lovers and to showcase some of the best breweries in town along with the innovation that is taking place in the craft brew industry.
It was my first time attending the event so I was really excited to check out everything that the festival had to offer. The festival featured over 200+ craft beers from some amazing local breweries like Concrete Beach FL, Bousa Brewing, Biscayne Bay, Monkey Business Brewing Co., Wynwood Brewing, and Cycle Brewing to name a few. My ultimate favorite beer of the evening was “Que Te Pasa Calabaza” by Monkey Business which was made with pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, & nutmeg! Talk about a cold and refreshing Fall drink that went perfectly with the chilly weather that day!
Besides beer, there were lots of mouthwatering gourmet bites that were served by various local restaurants making the overall festival experience even better. Some of the participating restaurants were: Dr. Limon, Bolay, Stephens Deli, Mimi’s Ravioli, Wingstop, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, and much more! Everything that I tasted was absolutely delicious and my favorite was the Castle Burger from Miami Royal Castle because it was super juicy, tender, flavorful, and a small portion size which was perfect since I had to make room for the rest of the food.
In Addition, there was plenty of entertainment throughout the day such as live jazz band performances and singing by FIU students which helped set a relaxing and laid back mood for the festival. Last but not least, there were three different educational seminars that took place such as: Exploring the Local Craft Beer Scene, Off Flavor Course, and The History of Brewing. During the seminars all attendees got to learn about the local craft and home brew scene, how to identify the six most common flavors in beer, and how brewing became so popular and where it originated from.
Overall, it was an amazing and really fun experience filled with great beer, food, music, and education and I honestly couldn’t think of any other events that combines it all like the NOMI BrewFest! It was such a great and very well organized festival that I am definitely planning on attending next year and I honestly couldn’t recommend it enough especially if you’re into beer and food! The best thing about it was that each of the ticket proceeds went towards helping support FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and it’s Brewing Science Program since the festival began as a student project idea so I am so happy that I was able to attend the event this year and to help support the school and program!
All photographs are courtesy of: North Miami BrewFest
If you weren’t able to attend this year’s festival then make sure to stay tuned for next year’s festival! To learn more about NOMI BrewFest make sure to visit: https://www.northmiamibrewfest.com/
** I would like to give a special thanks to Florida International University for kindly sponsoring this blog post **
** All opinions are my own **