BENICIA HISTORICAL MUSEUM will have a new exhibit on local beer brewing in the early 20th century as part of its “Bluegrass & BBQ” event Sunday.
Courtesy photo

❒ Music, food, beer featured at ‘Bluegrass & BBQ’ event

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Down-home music, home-cooked barbecue and home-brewed suds — the Benicia Historical Museum is venturing into knee-slappin’, lip-smackin’ new territory with Sunday’s “Bluegrass & BBQ” event.

“We’ve had lots of concerts here before, we’ve had some inside concerts and outside concerts, but as far as I know we’ve never done bluegrass,” Executive Director Elizabeth d’Huart said.

Originally slated for April 28, the event was postponed when museum officers realized it would conflict with the annual Benicia Panther Band Classic Car Show that brings thousands to the city’s waterfront.

With this Sunday all to themselves — no other major city event is scheduled — the museum is offering something familiar and something new on the music side of things: Returning to perform are the locally known Blues Defenders, accompanied by The Ons, who are making their first appearance.

And then there’s the grub.

Barbecue will be cooked by Beaver Creek Smokehouse, a new restaurant in Martinez — “somebody from the museum went there and said their pork barbeque was really good,” d’Huart said — and a no-host bar will feature a variety of microbrews, wine and soft drinks.

Speaking of brews, the museum will unveil a temporary mini pop-up exhibit on early beer brewing in Benicia, including photographs, artifacts and documents from the Rueger and Gunack beer-brewing families, who operated in the city around 1900.

Completing the beer trifecta, the Benicia Brewers, a group of amateur brewing enthusiasts, will provide demonstrations on the art of brewing the old-fashioned way, setting up their brewing equipment outside to produce an unfermented, non-alcoholic beverage for visitors to sample.

Weather — forecasts are calling for abundant sunshine and highs in the 80s — won’t be an issue, d’Huart said. “We have invested in a number of shade tents, and people can sit outside, or they can sit inside where there will be air conditioning, and the music sort of piped in.”

Of course, museum exhibits will be open to ticket holders, giving visitors the opportunity to see “Camelot! The Philly Dake Camel Collection,” which will be exhibited through the end of the month.

The event “has something for everyone,” d’Huart said. “It has the historical re-enactment of the beer brewing, it has a beer-brewing exhibit that relates to local Benicia families, it has good food, good music, and it’s a cheap deal.”

If You Go
“Bluegrass & BBQ” will be from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Benicia Historical Museum, 2060 Camel Road. Tickets are $15 each, with food and drink available to purchase on-site. Tickets are available at Bookshop Benicia, 636 First St.; ABC Music, 739 First St.; at the museum office and gift shop; or online at beniciahistoricalmuseum.org/Events/events_tickets.htm.

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