The Brewer Association (BA) has served its last SAVOR, the organization’s formerly annual food and beer pairing event, it announced today.
“After 14 delicious years, it’s time for SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience to hang up its apron, making 2022 the event’s final year,” the BA wrote. “We’d like to thank all our beer lovers, breweries, sponsors, and partners for making SAVOR the country’s premier craft beer and food pairing event.”
The event was “canceled due to a variety of factors, including rising operational costs,” a BA spokesperson told Brewbound.
This year’s version of the event drew more than 2,300 drinkers to Washington, D.C., for a night of sampling beers from more than 100 craft breweries on June 24 at The Anthem event venue. Beers were served with suggested pairings of small bites prepared by a culinary team led by BA executive chef Adam Dulye.
SAVOR was one of the BA’s four signature events, in addition to the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) and the American Homebrewers Association’s HomebrewCon. In 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the BA to cancel the in-person versions of its events, events generated $16,173,153 in revenue for the organization.
In 2020, events revenue dipped to $1,701,215, according to the BA’s 2020 stewardship report. With an in-person CBC in 2021, events revenue increased to $7,924,944. 2022 was the first year the BA hosted SAVOR, GABF and HomebrewCon in person since 2019.
At the height of its popularity in the middle of the last decade, SAVOR drew 4,000 attendees to a two-night event at the National Building Museum. The BA consolidated it to one night in 2019, and it moved to The Anthem in 2022, which allowed for 30% more breweries to attend and pour beer.
In its final year, SAVOR tickets cost $144 for general admission, $184 for premium admission and $254 for VIP admission.
With one exception (New York City in 2013), SAVOR’s annual occurrence in Washington, D.C., allowed BA members in attendance to visit their congressional representatives. The BA will keep up its ties to lawmakers with a Hill climb in July 2023 and its annual Hill Staff Homebrew Competition.
For its signature beer and food pairing event, the BA will focus on PAIRED, which takes place during GABF in Denver and “unites independent craft breweries with acclaimed chefs from across the country for an unforgettable beer-and-food pairing experience,” the organization said.
Tickets to PAIRED in 2023 cost $129, but do not include access to GABF. For entrance to both events, attendees can purchase combined tickets for $199. Two sessions of PAIRED take place concurrently with the first two GABF sessions on Thursday, September 21, and Friday, September 22.