One of Bend’s most highly-anticipated beer events, The Little Woody Barrel-Aged Beer, Cider & Whiskey Festival, returns this Labor Day weekend for its tenth annual celebration of wood. As always, it takes place on the grounds of the Deschutes Historical Museum, and starts Friday, August 31 at 5pm, continuing through Saturday, September 1.

In a nutshell:

To commemorate one of Central Oregon’s hallmarks—craft beer—and lend a nod to the historic techniques used by brewers with oaken casks, The Little Woody features small-batch beers aged in wood barrels by top Northwest breweries including Deschutes Brewery, Ninkasi Brewing, GoodLife Brewing, 10 Barrel Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and more. The 2018 Little Woody will also feature a tasting of small-batch American rye whiskeys and bourbons, live music, and local food vendors.

The Little Woody debuted in 2009, filling the gap left by the lack of Bend Brewfest that year. (The previous year, the Brewfest ran afoul of the OLCC due to an incident involving an intoxicated minor and a golf cart, prompting a year off to reorganize.) For its first few years the attending breweries were entirely local to Central Oregon, and all of the beers were aged on or in wood (barrels or oak spirals). Over the years, the festival has opened up to additional breweries from beyond the region, and many of the breweries bring a “regular” (non wood aged) beer in additional to their barreled contribution.

The fest runs from 5 to 10pm Friday night, and from noon to 10pm on Saturday.

Pricing for the festival is $15 for the basic entry and tasting glass ($12 in advance online), and $20 for the tasting package (entry, glass, and eight tasting tokens; $15 in advance online). You can pre-purchase online here. If you are VIP-minded, for $35 (or $30 in advance) you can get ten tasting tokens and a T-shirt, and entry to the festival one hour early. Subsequent tokens are $1 each but be aware: all beers will be “priced” in multiples of tokens, with the minimum costing 2 tokens (and then ranging up to 5 tokens).

(Pro tip: stick to the wooded specialty beers; you’re going to a wood-aged beer festival, why would you spend tokens on anything else?)

There will be live music, food trucks, and lawn games taking place during the fest. Also this year is the the “Big Token” (which may be new?) which might get you some beer to take home:

At the end of every Little Woody Event a select group of Gnomie Homies are allowed into the event to fill their Growlers with the remaining brews.

On Saturday from 9:30pm – 10:00pm we will sell attendees The Big Token which allows you to fill a growler of your choice from the remaining beer available on tap. If purchased before the event only $18 ($20 at the door).

Keep in mind, some beers may not be available at this point in the event but you may take your pick of those that are.

It might be a bit of a crapshoot on what and how much is left of any beer (if any) and I don’t know if you’ll get a refund if you’re unable to fill a growler. Also take note, these growler fills cannot be consumed on premise.

The barrel-aged offerings on the beer list look strong this year. I’ll be following up with a post listing and highlighting the beers (and ciders) that will be pouring this weekend; stay tuned.