The Brooklyn Brewery Mash tour touched down in DC last week and it was a very cool thing. Billed as America’s largest traveling food and arts festival, the Mash is a beer-fueled week-long celebration of cutting-edge music, street-savvy art, industry discussions, artisan food – and of course, serious beer. Sponsored annually by The Brooklyn Brewery, this roving festival is a brilliant exercise in entertainment and marketing.

This year’s seven city tour visits five American cities, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Austin and two international destinations, London and Stockholm. 

And because one of this festival’s goals is community building, (in addition to spreading The Brooklyn Brewery word) they take the time that’s necessary to do it. 

Unlike other craft beer traveling events, which can be hit-and-run affairs, The Mash tour settles into a city for the whole week and invites you to hang with them at all kinds of fun events.

And we’re not sure we’ve ever seen this kind of promotional tour done better…

One of the things that we enjoy most about The Mash is that it’s built for both the young craft beer urbanite as well as for those of us who work in the industry. 

They threw an intimate late afternoon industry and media gathering at Jack Rose Dining Saloon, where Brooklyn Brewery’s Chef & Head of Culinary Programming, Andrew Gerson, showcased some of their small batch exotics and experimentals. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with some of our friends in the biz – to hang with The Brooklyn Brewery team and hear more about all the things they’ve got going on.

Each tour stop smartly celebrates that city – its unique culture, its cuisine, its artists and musicians, and its craft beer community…  And Thursday night’s State Of Craft Beer forum discussion, which took place at the DC Brau compound, was a perfect example of that.

Open to both the public and industry insiders and helmed by Brooklyn Brewery’s Co-founder and Chairman Steve Hindy, theState of Craft Beer panel featured some of DC’s and our industry’s best.  It included DC Brau’s Jeff Hancock and Mari Rodela, NRG’s Greg Engert, Atlas Brew Works‘ Justin Cox, and John Holl from All About Beer. It was great night of beer and conversation that took on the tough issues confronting the industry today and never condescended to the fans.

Last Friday’s sold-out pop-up Dinner Lab Throwdown, which took place at a secret DC location, was insanely creative fun. And in spite of the evening’s sometimes threatening weather it was an epic good time.

Saturday night’s free concert (presented by Brooklyn Brewery and Timberland) was at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and featured one of the mid-Atlantic’s hottest alternative bands, Lower Dens.

Things wrapped up on Sunday with a new addition to the tour. Three Headed Beast featured three chefs, three beasts and one beautiful fall afternoon of live music, beasty cuisine, and spectacular beer at the Blind Whino – an amazing arts space in Southwest Washington. This event was also orchestrated by Brooklyn Brewery’s Chef Andrew Gerson, along with Chef Kwame Onwauchi (Shaw Bijou) and Chef Russell Jones (Jack Rose) and the food was amazing.

Bottom line…The Brooklyn Brewery Mash is one of the most entertaining and well-conceived travelling craft beer events that we’ve ever experienced. And if you’ve not yet caught one – you need to. This is craft beer branding at its most creative and communal and sets a very high standard for other breweries attempting this kind of thing.