Event preview: Utah Pint Day 2024 

• Mike Riedel

Founded in 2011, the Utah Brewers Guild (UBG) was created as a 501(c)6 nonprofit trade organization made up of craft breweries, associate members, and craft beer enthusiasts who promote and support a dynamic and growing craft beer industry in Utah. They may be more familiar to beer lovers from around the state for their popular collaboration beer festivals, where local breweries pair up to create unique brews just for that one day during Utah Craft Beer Week.

To create more engagement within the craft beer community, the UBG is looking to create multiple special events throughout the year, geared towards Utah's beer lovers and those breweries that make them so very happy. One such event is Utah Pint Day. Well, it's actually a whole weekend—the long holiday weekend of Nov. 29 – Dec. 1.

"This is our Second Annual Pint Day," says Stephanie Biesecker, Executive Director of Utah Brewers Guild. "We started it last year, as an experiment to see how people would respond to it. We were delighted by its success."

The idea of Pint Day was created to take advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend that stretches from Black Friday through Sunday evening. "So we wanted to take advantage of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and the nationally-recognized Small Brewery Sunday," Biesecker continues. "We figured since everyone's already out shopping, this would be a great way to get them to stop by, support their local brewery, and have a pint while maybe buying some brewery related gifts."

To make the event a little more enticing, Biesecker and the Guild members decided that they would commission a special Pint Day glass for those looking to stop in to many of their favorite breweries.

"See some friends and while you're at it pick up an exclusive glass that is different every year," says Biesecker.

The UBG looked to local artists to create this year's special Pint Day glass. "We really want to support a local artist each year, so this year we commissioned Chuck Barrett to do art for the glass, and he did a beautiful job with the 2024 theme," Biesecker noted. "Last year's theme was, 'Welcome to Brewtiful, Utah'. This year, it's 'Brewtiful Things Bloom Here.'"

Taking advantage of the new theme artist, Barrett combined two of Utah's special botanicals, according to Biesecker: "The pint glass artwork features the Sego Lily, our native state flower, and the vines of wild hops that grow all over Utah."

You may have noticed that there are many different business models that local breweries have adopted. Some are bars, others are restaurants and some breweries are even "strong beer only" pubs. To help the participating breweries, the Guild is letting their member breweries have a Pint Day that corresponds with their specific business needs.

"The participating breweries all do it their own way. That's the fun part about it: They get to choose how they participate," Biesecker adds. "Breweries can choose if they want to use the glassware as a promotional item, or maybe a raffle or, just give them away. Maybe some will want to sell them so that they can help boost their own income, and support themselves in that way."

Biesecker goes on to note that it's just a way to get people to go out and support their local brewery. So when people are out doing their Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Small Brewery Sunday shopping, they're not just buying themselves a pint of beer; they're contributing to their community's economy while fostering connections to those craft beer houses that made us all so proud to be Beer Nerds.

If you'd like to see if your favorite brewery or brewpub is participating, please visit the Utah Brewers Guild's website at utahbrewersguild.org.

As always, cheers!