North Miami BrewFest takes place next month

North Miami BrewFest is making its big return for another year of the best craft beers and bites, all for a good cause. The annual event will be held this year on Nov. 14 and marks the 14th anniversary and the 10^th year the festival is sponsored by the City of North Miami.

Benefitting students and produced by both students and alumni of the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at FIU, North Miami BrewFest is known for bringing beer and food aficionados together to showcase the area’s most unique local craft breweries and eateries. This year, participants can try 100 different beers from 40 of the top breweries in South Florida and taste delicious bites from nearly two dozen eateries.

“North Miami BrewFest is a true example of an educational hands-on learning experience, where students helped conceptualize the event and are now part of producing it,” said Mohammad Qureshi, North Miami BrewFest Festival director and faculty administrator.

North Miami BrewFest includes both brews and bites in the cost of the ticket. Festival attendees cast votes to determine winners of the "best" awards and are each paired with locally sourced gourmet selections.

A majority of the vendors are FIU alumni, including Diego Ng of Temple Street Eatery and Rudy Delgado, co-owner of Rocketeer Beer & Liquid Provisions. The latter last year took home third place or best craft brewery and first place the year before that. Delgado’s Rocketeer Beer is now the official producer of the Sunblazer, FIU’s official beer.

“We now have been open for about a year, and our journey to get here has been a long one started a long time ago with us trying to make beer," said Delgado about being in the brew industry.

“We decided about five years ago to pursue this professionally,” added his business partner, Rick Abreu.

Senior Giselle Romero is studying hospitality management and part of FIU’s Bacardi Center of Excellence student club, the Bartender’s Guild, is thankful for the hands-on learning experience she gets by taking part in the festival.

“It’s a great experience. We get to see a lot of faces and talk to a lot of people about our program and showcase what it is that we do here,” said Romero. The Bartender’s Guild took home first place for it cocktail beer creation last year.

The festival takes place from 4 to 8 p.m. on Nov, 14t at Nomi Village in North Miami. Tickets are now on sale at www.northmiamibrewfest.com.