“This is my first beer tasting, and it’s going great!” said one enthusiastic participant at the first annual Oklahoma Born and Brewed Craft Beer and Small Plate pairing event at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum in Midtown. While this was not our first beer tasting event, we couldn’t agree more. OBB had all the usual beer tasting elements: bearded brewers, free stickers, and all the beer you could fit into a 2 oz. glass. What made OBB different is that the crowd was a cocktail crowd, most of whom dressed for such an occasion, who were instructed to mingle with each other. Other than a louder-than-necessary DJ, this worked really well and put a creative twist on the usual beer festival. The event also promised “small plate pairings” that had bites thoughtfully paired with certain beers, although it was actually just hors d’oeuvres that ran out half way through the night. This wasn’t a big deal though because, as it should be, the beer was the star of the night. Fourteen Oklahoma breweries supported the event that was a fund raiser for the Oklahoma Craft Brewers Guild and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. 

“The Oklahoma Craft Brewers Guild is extremely valuable to the breweries because it gives us a collective voice on issues that affect our industry.  We want to build up Oklahoma’s beer tourism industry, and having the breweries collaborating is vital to the cause” said Victoria Hubbard, Marketing and Events Specialist for COOP Ale Works.

Some specifics that we noticed:

The Tulsa Rugby Ale by Prairie Artisan Ales is back! We should start a petition now to get this into yearly distribution instead of annual because this really is one of the finest Pale Ale’s in Oklahoma.

(405) Brewing in Norman is close to bottling its first beer: TraePA (Named after brewer Trae Carson), is a Tropical Pale Ale that will be hitting stores in 750 mL bottles in September. 

If you haven’t tired Elk Valley Brewing’s Pale Ale from Freeman’s Liquor on Western yet, grab a four-pack and enjoy. It’s another great up-and-coming brewer that we hope continues to grow its reach.

Overall, Oklahoma Born and Brewed was a fantastic event. For $65 a ticket, next year’s event will surely improve the food options. For this crowd, there probably don’t need to be uniformed police officers checking ID’s at the door either.