Brouwer’s Cafe wants to help you feel normal again. Maybe some barleywine will help.

Lately, with regards to the pandemic, it feels like things are slowly creeping back towards normal. For months it was like Groundhog’s Day, but now it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel. Fingers crossed, right?

One thing that feels very normal right now, the announcement that Brouwer’s Cafe is moving forward with Hard Liver Barleywine Festival, its annual celebration of the biggest of all brews. Sure, things will look a little bit different this year, but the event is happening.

Below we share all the happy details about this year’s Hard Liver Barleywine Festival, including information about the “to go” component that will let you enjoy the beers on your own in the familiar confines of your home. Keep an eye on Facebook as details evolve.

Event: 18th Annual Hard Liver Barleywine Festival

Date: February 25- 28th, 2021

Summary: Brouwer’s Cafe will be tapping 12-16 barleywines in celebration of Hard Liver this year. We will also be making a select number of beer packs to enjoy the festival at home.

Details: Last year if you would have told us that the next event we’d hold after Hard Liver would be Hard Liver again, we’d have to have cut you off from service. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened and soon after last year’s festival we all entered into a pandemic lifestyle that made such events impossible for us to host. Well, though things remain tentative, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Should phase restrictions currently in place remain in place, we feel confident in being able to put on an abbreviated version of one of our most popular events. To spread out the seekers of “life”, we are going to hold this event over four days instead of two, meaning the beers will be tapped and ready to go on Thursday, February 25th. Remember, party sizes are limited to six people from a max of three households and our capacity is capped at 25%.

As an extra precaution, we are limiting indoor dining to parties of five (5). Parties of six will be seated outside. We are placing an extra restriction this year as well – glass sharing between households will be prohibited. We know there is a lot of sharing that happens at our festivals as people aim to try as many of the offerings and this year. We simply cannot allow that to go on this year; don’t hesitate to ask for an extra glass or two.

For those that will choose to fest at home, we will be offering limited mixed packs of 6-8 barleywines so you can play Hard Liver: The Home Game. That pack will be posted and put in our webstore for pre-order on Sunday, February 21st. Pickup will begin on Thursday the 25th.

We know it isn’t ideal and we wish we could burst open the doors like we used to, but this is the best we can offer right now. We hope to see some of you that weekend for one of our favorite events!