This coming Saturday, March 7, Taste of Brews will host their Second Annual Twilight Tasting at Lyon Air Museum in Santa Ana, California. This Taste of Brews’ upscale event promises to be a remarkable evening featuring unlimited tastes of premium craft beers, hard ciders, wines and tasty foods with all proceeds benefiting various charities.

Breweries from Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County and the Inland Empire will be featured as well as a few from Northern California, Vermont, Illinois and even Iceland. Local breweries scheduled to be on-hand include Beach City Brewery, Four Sons Brewing, Barley Forge, Bootlegger’s, Phantom Ales, Left Coast, Coronado, Karl Strauss, Stone Brewing, Mission Brewery, Hangar 24 and Absolution Brewing. Other, not so local breweries featured in the lineup include Firestone Walker, Drake’s, Einstok, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada and Goose Island. The growing hard cider community will be represented by Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider and Woodchuck Cider.

As this event is not just about the beer, local eateries and vineyards will also be on hand. Eateries include BBQ Tri Tip from Stonefire Grill, Blackened Tilapia Tacos from Rubio’s and various Mexican dishes from Sol Agave with desserts from Nothing Bundt Cakes and Paradise Bakery; with more restaurants and bakeries to be announced. For those attendees seeking wine, premium wines will be provided by Ascension Cellars, Our Daily Red, Joseph Carr Winery, Phantom Ales and others.

The beneficiaries of the Twilight Tasting are Make-A-Wish Orange County/Inland Empire, The Little Red Dog out of Tustin and Ocean Education Outreach out of Newport Beach. Attendees will also be able to bid on silent auction and raffle items including art, golf, sporting events and craft beer packages to support the Twilight Tasting charity partners.

Twilight Tasting hours are from 5:00 to 10:00 PM with alcohol service ending at 9:00 PM. The all-inclusive boarding passes are $80 with excellent group discounts: note prices will be higher at the door. The event features “cocktail seating” and an open floor plan with reserved tables available for an additional fee. The Lyon Air Museum is located at 19300 Ike Jones Drive in Santa Ana. Valet parking is included and all attendees must be 21 or above. Please visit www.tasteofbrews.com or call (714) 375-1132 for more information.

Now you know I am going to do what I can to get you the best deal possible, so here are a couple of ways you can go about it. Taste of Brews has set up a special CRAFTBEERGUY PROMO CODE which will save you 14%. Another option is to head over to Absolution Brewing Company in Torrance either tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday and purchase a raffle ticket for $5.00 each; the winner will receive a pair of tickets to the event; a $160 value. All proceeds from the raffle will go to the Twilight Tasting beneficiaries. I can tell you that when I was at Absolution on Sunday only a small handful of raffle tickets had been sold, so your odds are very good. Absolution Brewing will be holding their drawing at 8:00 PM on Thursday, so you essentially have about 11 hours to pick up your tickets as they are open from 3:00-9:00 PM on Wednesday and Thursday. While you are there, you might want to try their new California Common, The Convert. That is one crazy good brew, so even if you do not win the raffle at least you were able to try a great beer. No one loses that way.

The Twilight Tasting should be a fun event with craft beer, good food, wine and live music to keep you entertained; I hope to see you there. Cheers!