Feeling lucky: High and Dry Brewing commemorates seven years with beer, food, music

Put your party hats on and head over to High and Dry Brewing on Saturday, Feb. 1.

The brewery is celebrating seven years of operation from noon to 9 p.m. with the special beer release of WienerSchlitzel, an herbed light lager.

“We kind of just did a blend of a couple herbs and we’ve got on a little bit of rosemary, kind of in there,” said Andrew Kalemba, managing partner and head brewer of High and Dry Brewing. “Since it’s a simple beer, a little (bit of herbs) just kind of livened it up. We didn’t go too crazy.”

Music, hot dogs, food trucks, vendors and more will be part of the festivities. Guests can enjoy $6 pints during happy hour from noon to 2 p.m. A couple of mocktails from Casa Cocktails will be on draft as well.

Live entertainment will be happening all day, with Three Deuce Luce spinning vinyl for a few hours and kicking everything off at 12:30 p.m. The High & Drys will play at 3 p.m., followed by Red Mesa at 4 p.m. and later JD Nash at 7 p.m. Los 33 will play at 8 p.m. and wrap up the night.

Kalemba will be grilling up some hot dogs and giving them out to hungry patrons at the beginning of the event.

“At the end of the day, it’s simple, we love music, so we should have music, and have a good old-fashioned time and celebrate seven years,” Kalemba said.

Keeping the doors open for seven years feels good, and Kalemba wants to celebrate with the community that has continually supported High and Dry.

“It’s kind of one of those things where you look back and it seems like we’re just starting this yesterday,” he said. “And then, it feels pretty special to keep doing this thing and get to have this party every year, because it’s my favorite day of the year. I know it’s a lot of other people’s favorite day, but we really get to celebrate the beer and the music and that community that I think we’ve been a pretty big part of for the last seven years.”

Kalemba said the brewery has built relationships over the years with several of the entertainers performing at the celebration.

“A lot of these relationships that we built with everybody, who’s going to be at the party, we really actually developed during COVID, when we were trying to do some creative, fun stuff, and we started filming some digital, after hours performances,” he explained. “And all of the people performing either helped put that together or were the musicians who performed on those original things that we did with a group called Duke City Virtual and Monsoon Music House.”

Kalemba added that the seven-year celebration also commemorates friendships the brewery has developed with the community.

“This is really bringing together, a lot of the little different elements that we’ve organically fulfilled over the years,” he said. “It’s pretty cool to kind of have that feeling that we’ve built this. We built our own kind of little community, this group of really awesome people who are like-minded, support the brewery, and we’re all friends because of the brewery. It’s brought so many of us together and created so many meaningful relationships for us and lots of other people. So I’m pretty proud of that.”