Craft beer has become more popular as a tourist attraction in recent years. In Ellensburg, breweries and different craft beers are quite common.

The biggest brewing attraction that Ellensburg hosts is Brewfest, which has been running every January for the past 12 years.

This year’s Brewfest is on Jan. 16 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and is being held in over ten different venues in downtown Ellensburg. According to Jessica Tate, director of events at the Kittitas county Chamber of Commerce and Brewfest’s coordinator, 30 of the Northwest’s best breweries are coming.

“Your ticket includes a commemorative tasting glass and five scripts so you get to taste all the beer and stroll around downtown Ellensburg and have an awesome time,” Tate said.

Brewfest is designed to encourage people to come to the shops in downtown Ellensburg which is why the event is held in winter, the slowest season for business.

Most of the breweries are from Washington, but one brewery is from Oregon, called Ninkasi, and the other is Lagunitas, from California, Tate said.

While brewing is becoming more popular nowadays, it’s still growing and has a long way to go  before being at the level it was before Prohibition. Steve Wagner, director of the craft brewing program at Central, said that back in the 1920s, there were over 3000 breweries in the United States. Even Ellensburg and Roslyn had a brewery.

“Then, at Prohibition, all those breweries were shut down. Then after Prohibition, World War II came and people changed their taste in beer, where they sorta liked lager type beers instead of ales,” Wagner said.

Up until 1980, there were only 83 breweries in the United State–a drastic decrease from the 3,000 back in the 1920s. Wagner explained that a man named Bert Grant started a microbrewery in Yakima in 1983 and he started what is now known as the craft beer revolution.

Since Brewfest began in 2003, Wagner boasts that he has been to every Ellensburg WinterHop Fest since it started.

Amy McGuffin, director of tourism for Kittitas county Chamber of Commerce, said Brewfest is the big tourist attraction in January that starts off the New Year. Over 1,600 people attend Brewfest every year, and it’s a mix of locals and tourists.

“It seems to be a growing attraction for a lot people. We’re already getting calls wondering when the tickets are going to be released. The breweries are reacting or responding earlier in the year than we have had in the past,” McGuffin said. “It should be a great event this year.”

The different breweries coming from around the state do help to attract tourists to Ellensburg. All the people that come with the different breweries are considered to be tourists since they are coming from out of town, Tate said.

“I think that the format, which is it being in so many different locations, I think that is a big attraction because it’s a unique format and it’s just really fun,” Tate said. “Also we do live music in pretty much all the venues so that’s another attraction.”

Brewfest is an Ellensburg-only event because of the liquor liabilities. There are only a  certain number of venues in Ellensburg that have liquor licenses so the breweries can only set up in those venues, McGuffin said.

Tate is working to incorporate the Central craft brewing program into Brewfest more since it hasn’t been incorporated much in the past. Just recently the students volunteered at an event on Oct. 10, Tate said.

“They were like some of the most enthusiastic, excited volunteers I’ve ever worked with,” Tate said. “It was really great for them because they got facetime with brewers and people from breweries that were literally offering them internships, so that was really exciting.”

Wagner said that the craft brew students who volunteer to help with Brewfest will most likely help breweries unload their equipment, and set up and clean their kegs. In addition, Tate said that the students will probably sell pretzel necklaces as a fundraiser at the event.

The tourism business is important to Ellensburg and craft beer and breweries has become one of Ellensburg’s known tourism niches.

More information about Brewfest can be found at http://www.ellensburgwinterhopbrewfest.com/.