Start beer season with Historic Odessa Brewfest

History and hops will be served up by the tankard Saturday, Sept. 6, in Odessa, when the Historic Odessa Foundation and Cantwell’s Tavern present their inaugural Historic Odessa Brewfest.

The event will feature more than 45 local, regional, and national breweries, a colonial beer-making demonstration, locally-sourced food, live music, vendors, and crafts.

Some of the newest beers on the market will be available by Oskar Blues, Lagunitas and New Belgium, while Delaware’s breweries will be well represented by Dogfish Head, 16 Mile, 3rd Wave, Mispillion, and Old Dominion, to name a few.

Historian, beer lover and colonial re-enactor Rich Wagner will demonstrate the brewing process from start to finish, showcasing the methods and brews known to America’s founders.

Live musical entertainment includes reggae group Spokey Speaky and country crossover specialists Philbilly.

Food and refreshments will be available from Odessa’s Cantwell’s Tavern, featuring farm-fresh local food and boutique wines provided by E&J Gallo.

Fromage a Cheese Boutique from Middletown, a Best Of Delaware 2014 winner, will offer plates of cheeses paired with different styles of beer.

Painted Stave Distilling will bring fine spirits handcrafted in small batches from a converted movie theater in Smyrna.

Guy & Lady Barrel Cigars, offering premium cigars from the Dominican Republic, will be presenting their new line of alcohol-infused cigars.

One of the featured craft vendors will be woodworker Paul Schiffelbein, a native of southern California who now lives in Chesapeake City, Md. He combines his skills in working with wood and love of cooking to create high-quality, hand-hewn cutting boards, bread boards, serving trays and cheese boards. All are inlayed with different woods and deserve to be called functional works of art.

The Brewfest benefits the Historic Odessa Foundation with proceeds going towards preservation and upkeep of the historic site and the foundation’s educational programming. The historic homes, buildings, and gardens along with a well-documented collection of more than 5,000 objects and furnishings offer a unique picture of Delaware’s colonial period in a rural village that played a vital part in America’s commercial history.