For the last five years, the La Pour Brew and Wine Fest has grown exponentially. Held at the La Porte Civic Auditorium, the fest started as a simple community event but is fast becoming one of the biggest charitable events in La Porte County. Since 2016, the DeCamp Band of Brothers Foundation has been the host of the brew fest with all proceeds going to the renovation of Clarke Park in La Porte.
Because it’s DeCamp Band of Brother’s last year hosting La Pour, they wanted to make sure they went out with a bang by hosting the biggest brew fest yet. Tasty food, an abundance of beer and wine, plus the addition of Journeyman Distillery’s spirits and even more brewing companies, they definitely set the bar high for the next charity host. La Porte Park Superintendent and DeCamp Band of Brothers Foundation Board Member, Mark Schreiber, was thankful to have been able to be a part of it and is looking forward to watching the fest grow.
“We hope the fest goes on and continues to go well for years to come. It’s great to put on an event like this in the Civic and give people of La Porte a fun activity,” Schreiber said. “We really built up a great group of people who come out and support us every year. And for us to do this in the memory of our good friend Jeff DeCamp, that’s why we do everything we do, we’re very pleased with the fact that we’ve been able to raise these funds. It’s a good feeling that we’ve been able to pull this off.”
The DeCamp Band of Brothers has raised almost $180,000 for the park renovation, and have even secured a maintenance fund to keep the park beautiful for the years to come. Next year, the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs of La Porte will be taking over the brew fest and the Director of the La Porte Civic Auditorium and Coordinator for La Pour, Brett Binversie, is helping them get a head start.
“I love this event because Northwest Indiana is very much known, in our opinion, for what we have to offer in the spring and summer. But we are also a great home for hospitality in the fall and winter, which was one of the reasons we started this event,” Binversie said. “It shows off our breweries, our restaurants, and this building that is now 90 years old. It doesn’t get better than this in my opinion.”
When DeCamp took over the brew fest, around 160 people were in attendance their first year. But this year, almost 400 were expected to fill the auditorium. President of Chamber Services with La Porte Economic Partnership, Mike Riehle, loves seeing the community come together for a good cause and hopes that this event will continue to grow until this building reaches maximum capacity.
“It’s been a great event. People seem to be enjoying themselves and it’s all been good,” Riehle said. “I’d just like to thank everybody who volunteers for this event and the public for supporting us. We’re trying to take this money and put it back into the community and I think that’s the number one goal.”
Over 30 vendors were present at the fest, including first-timer Journeyman Distillery. From Three Oaks, Michigan, the small distillery is known for its tasteful whiskey. The Retail Tasting Ambassador for Journeyman Distillery, Zach Mullins, loves working for Journeyman and loves getting people to try their whiskey.
“I have a passion for all things liquor. I think the distilling process and the science that goes into it is really awesome and interesting and Journeyman makes an awesome product,” Mullins said. “We love going to events and getting people to try our stuff because it’s hard to invest in a bottle you’ve never tried. There’s a lot of liquor out there and we’re just a small company, so once we get people to try it, they know how good it is.”
VIP and general admission guests filled the room with joy as they went around tasting craft brews. One guest, Tricia Hill, along with her husband are long-time fans of brew fests and microbrews.
“When I was younger I lived in Germany. When I came home there weren’t a lot of microbrews around so we started to make our own,” Hill said. “But then other people started to make their own and that was even better for us. We now have a lot of friends who do it so it’s nice to go around and see them and taste the different beers.”