Mountain Brewfest Returning to Downieville with New Vendors

DOWNIEVILLE — The popular Downieville Mountain Brewfest is gearing up to return on September 6 at 2 PM, with the event bringing 16 local breweries to Main Street. All except for two vendors will be returning from last year, and five new vendors have been confirmed: Sutter Buttes Brewery, Donner Creek Brewing, High-Hand Brewing, Lassen Ale Works, and Thirsty Barrel. The festival will also feature country and country-rock music by the Holcomb Brothers Band from Grass Valley. The event will mark the tenth anniversary and eighth running of the festival since its founding in 2015.

Also returning are the Nevada County Homebrewers, who bring a number of specialized and exotic home-brewed flavors, with tasters able to vote for their favorite homebrew. The Homebrewers have been a popular addition to the Brewfest since their first appearance as a vendor in 2022.

Proceeds from the Brewfest go toward the Downieville Fire Department Building Fund, which seeks to build a new joint Downieville Volunteer Fire Department and US Forest Service firehouse on the grounds of the Tahoe National Forest’s Downieville campus. Just last week, Tahoe National Forest Supervisor Chris Feutrier signed off on a letter of support for the new building, writing, “We are confident that this project will provide much needed centralization of local emergency response systems in Downieville, which will significantly benefit the Downieville community and the surrounding areas.”

The Brewfest expects about 500 attendees at the festival, aligning with numbers in previous years. Tickets are sold before the event for $35, rising to $45 at the door. Pre-sale tickets are available online at downievillebrewfest.com. Shuttle rides will be available for $10 to or from the Brewfest, with pickups and drop-offs anywhere between Sierra City and Indian Valley. To schedule a ride, Brewfest attendees can call 530-798-8555.

The Brewfest is organized by the Downieville Improvement Group (DIG), which is a non-profit organization comprised of local business owners. DIG’s stated purpose is “to hold events open to the public; the proceeds of which will be used to make improvements and/or to maintain public owned buildings, monuments, or works in and around the unincorporated town of Downieville, Sierra County, California, in order to lessen the burden of government by reducing the costs of governmental projects, and by directly benefiting the general public.”