This past weekend, I had a chance to sit down and have a beer with Andy Miller from the Triangle Brewing Company. We talked a little bit about the upcoming Black Friday Cask Festival, which takes place November 27th (the day after Thanksgiving) at the Triangle Brewing Company on Pearl St. in Durham.

The Black Friday Event is now the largest cask event in North Carolina, with over 25 casks from exclusively North Carolina breweries. All proceeds go to benefit the North Carolina Brewers Guild, and the Guild will have representatives on site selling memberships.

Here are the highlights of our conversation:

NCBeer: How did the cask event get started?

Andy: Well, this’ll be the third year of the event. It started two years ago with Pop the Cap [the movement that successfully raised the beer alcohol limit in North Carolina from 6% to 14%]. We helped out and were involved with it then and, obviously, Pop the Cap finished up and — Rick and I are extremely fond of cask-conditioned beers and we thought, “This is a great event, let’s run with it.”

We talked to some of the connections we’ve got here in the state and this year we’ve got 25 casks coming in, all from North Carolina breweries – and only North Carolina breweries. Actually, the coolest thing is that we’ve had some calls from some breweries out-of-state who’ve said, “Hey, this is really cool – we want to participate,” and we’ve said, “Sorry, this is North Carolina only.” Y’know, any other event we’d be more than happy to, but this is all NC.

All proceeds are going to the North Carolina Brewers Guild, which we’re founding members of. Last year we donated to Cystic Fibrosis — which was great — but the Guild is near and dear to our hearts, and it’s just getting started up, so we thought it would be a great way of promoting North Carolina Beer.

NCBeer: Can we expect to see reps from other breweries at the event?

Andy: Oh, absolutely. I can’t give you an exact list of who’s coming from where, but I think you can expect to see guys from most of the local breweries there: Duck-Rabbit, Carolina Brewery, maybe Top of the Hill – I’m not sure – you’ll probably see somebody from Foothills. I don’t know if we’re going to be getting anybody from Asheville coming down – it’s a pretty long trip. You’ll probably see six or seven breweries represented. I’m sure they’ll all have their gear on – some of ‘em won’t, but y’know… we’ll point ‘em out.

NCBeer: Can you tell me a little bit about the cask that you guys are preparing?

Andy: We’re going to do our “Best of Both Worlds” which is our stout, and we have that with chocolate, coffee, and raspberries. We did that, and we actually lend out a lot of our casks. Our ultimate goal was to get variety and representation in. Rather than us doing two or three, we thought – if somebody wants to do one, but doesn’t have a cask let’s lend them one, so they can do it. I mean – it’d be great to put five of mine up, but if we can do something so that somebody who wanted to participate can, I think that’s better for everybody.

NCBeer: Are you guys going to do a ceremonial tapping of the casks at the beginning or something like that?

Andy: No. And just because we want it to be true to the style and true to everything else. We want to vent them out 24 hours in advance and let them sit and settle so that we can serve them just like a true, Real Ale. All About Beer supplies with a glycol system so that we can actually keep all the casks at the proper temperature throughout the whole event. We’ve got a local guy – Acme Plumbing – who supplies us with scaffolding, so all of them are just lined up – last year we had them all down one wall, I think this year we might put them on both sides. We’ll have them tapped early that morning, vented the day before and everything will be… ideal.

NCBeer: I understand that everybody that comes is getting glassware?

Andy: Yeah! We’re actually doing a pint glass. We looked at the small glasses – the tasting glasses – and we said, y’know.. that’s great, but from a cost standpoint it’s not that much different. We get to put our logo on it – which is literally all we’re getting out of this – and the North Carolina Brewers Guild logo, and other sponsors. This way everybody gets a nice pint glass to take home with them. We’re only doing half-pours, of course, but it’s a pint glass.

NCBeer: Do you have any tickets left?

Andy: We do have some left, but I don’t have a final count on what’s left to be honest with you. We haven’t done a count on any of the restaurants that are selling them, but if people are looking for tickets, they should be able to get some. Obviously, the closer we get to the event the harder they’re going to be to find.

NCBeer: Is there anything else that people coming should know?

Andy: Oh yeah! It’s BYOC.

NCBeer: Bring Your Own… Chair?

Andy: That’s it! Most of the people who have been here for events before know that, but it’s good for everybody to know. Other than that, don’t go out to the mall and do all that shopping – just come here, relax, have some great beer, and have fun.

NCBeer: Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to chat.

Here is the cask line up thus far –

Triangle Brewing Co. Best of Both Worlds Stout (Coffee, chocolate & raspberries).
Carolina Brewery: Santa’s Secret & Oatmeal Porter
Top of the Hill: Ram’s Head IPA and Stout
Natty Green’s: Wet Hop version of Buckshot Amber
Big Boss Brewing Co. Stout
Huskehardware: Sledgehammer Stout
Highland Brewing Co.: Mocha Java Stout dry hopped with Mt. Hoods
Boylan Bridge Brewpub: Porter
Aviator Brewing Co; TBD
Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery: TBD
Hamm’s Brewhouse: TBD
Greenman Brewing Co; TBD
Foothills Brewing Co.; TBD
French Broad Brewing Co; TBD
Olde Hickory Brewing: Hickory Stick Stout
Old Mecklingburg Brewing Co.; Alt
Liberty Brewing; TBD & TBD
Lonerider Brewing Co: Shotgun Betty & TBD

Tickets for the event are available over on Triangle Brewery’s website.