Brewski this Saturday

The golf course’s James C. Frenette Trail Network will be alive with beer lovers and fans of the great outdoors this Saturday when the Town of Tupper Lake Recreation Department again hosts Brewski. In recent years the major February event has drawn over 1,500 to the cross-country facility in back to back years.

Combined with the Brewski again this year will be the Tupper Lake Lions Club’s Fire and Ice golf tournament. The outdoor golfing event is expected to again draw several dozen teams, who will knock around the colorful tennis balls to the six or so holes on the makeshift snow course.

Initiated by the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce a number of years ago, Brewski was one of the major events taken over by the town when the chamber board dissolved over a year ago.

According to Recreation Director Laura LaBarge 16 brewers were featured at last year’s event and this year there will be 20.

In its early years brewers donated their products to promote them to a broader audience in the region, but in recent years organizers have been buying their beer to make sure there is plenty to go around for everyone throughout the day. Because of the new arrangement, the ticket price has been upped by $5 this year.

This year’s event has attracted the interest of several Western New York brewers who have never participated before- including breweries from both Rochester and Watertown.

Laura noted she and her family went to Buffalo Bills game over the holiday and stopped at various breweries on their trip home to collect their contact info.

If visitors aren’t playing Lions Fire and Ice golf, they are meandering the trails, stopping every hundred feet or so to taste the free homemade ales and lagers, and enjoying the enthusiastic conversations with the proud beer-makers.

Town Councilman John Gillis and his team of trail groomers, who include Eric “Shakey” Lanthier, John Quinn, Scott Chartier and others have sort of adopted the event as their own, not only putting the trails in the best shape they can be for the skiers, shoers, fat tire bike riders and walkers, but putting up enough wood to make sure there are warm fires at every beer station to warm the beer-drinking participants.

At the end of the 1.5 mile long main trail around the golf course, participants will be welcomed by a full contingent of local Lions, serving the club’s grilled specialties of Lions hot dogs and hamburgs, smothered with Lions onions. It’s the right finish after a few beers along the trails.

For those looking for a good chance to go home with a couple of thousand dollars, the Lions will be selling the traditional 50-50 drawing tickets. The prize in recent years has approached $2,500.

At registration that day Brewski-goers will again be provided with souvenir lanyards and tiny mugs to sample the many beer products.

The town is again selling tickets in advance, as has been done in the past, and the target right now is for a crowd of about 1,200.

Things seem to be shaping up weather-wise for this year’s event. Although the mercury is expected to creep into the forties every day through Friday, overnight lows are in the teens and snow is predicted for Friday, to dress up the trails a bit. The forecast Saturday is cold (in the mid-teens during the day) but sunny. It ought to be a great day to enjoy plying winter trails, cold beer, warm fires and plenty of outdoor fun for the entire family.

Friday’s snow storm returned a lot of snow cover to the area just in time for the Empire Game’s first winter triathlon at the same site last weekend and Mr. Gillis, who helped orchestrate the new event here, figures this week’s occasional light rain and snow and cold overnight temperatures should make the trails perfect for navigating Saturday.