Utah Beer Fest is back! For beer lovers, The Gateway is the place to be this weekend for the 12th Annual Utah Beer Festival. As with previous years, Utah Beer Fest will feature more than 200 different beers, in addition merchandise vendors, a special VIP area and the International Beer Room.

New this year at Utah’s largest beer festival, the festival has announced a philanthropic partnership with the American Cancer Society of Utah’s Colors of Cancer initiative to raise cancer screening awareness in the LGBTQ+ community. The initiative comes following research that shows that the LGBTQ+ community carries a disproportionate burden of cancer, has distinctive risk factors, and faces additional barriers to accessing health care.

The initiative will include a silent auction to raise funds for ACS’s Colors of Cancer, and organizers say the money raised through the event will stay here in Utah to help break down the barriers that exist between the LGBTQ community and access to care. Those interested in learning more can also register to receive updates on the initiative and its $50,000 goal.

In addition to the cause and the beer, attendees can also expect live music at Utah Beer Fest. The main stage lineup for both nights follows.

Saturday, August 20:

• Ghostowne, 4 p.m.
• Dead Zephyrs, 5 p.m.
• Two Old Guys, 6 p.m.
• Hoodoo Child, 7 p.m.

Sunday, August 21:

• Leetham, 4 p.m.
• Michael Louis Austin, 5 p.m.
• Caleb and the Canvas, 6 p.m.
• Makisi, 7 p.m.

Sample pours are available in 5-ounce sizes with 12 ounce pours available for draft beer only. This year’s participating breweries, cideries and manufacturers include:

Utah Beer Fest tickets are $25 for single-day General Admission (which includes $20 of punch token value) or $90 for VIP tickets. A two-day VIP experience ticket is $150 (VIP includes a private serving area, exclusive beers, appetizers, additional food, swag bags and a single day ticket admission). Tickets are available at UtahBeerFestival.com.

For more beer-flavored adventures, check out Salt Lake magazine’s Food and Drink and City Life sections. Subscribe to receive the latest issue delivered to your home.

Farmers markets as we know them are changing before our eyes. The once small market that sold primarily produce has grown into a community gathering we look forward to every season with artisan foods, trinkets, art displays, home goods and much more. But the one thing that hasn’t changed about farmers markets is the hard work and long hours vendors put in to bring their best products to the public. 

Matt Clyde is one of those dedicated vendors and spends about eight hours baking right before the farmers market so he can bring his customers the freshest bread possible. “Something like sourdough especially—you just can’t take any shortcuts, or you won’t get the same product. So we give it all the time it needs to develop, and we bake it fresh the day of each market,” says Clyde. 

Clyde is a Spanish Fork native and the founder and sole baker for Wandering Wheat out of Provo. He grew up assisting his mom in the kitchen from a very young age. “I started baking about as early as I could climb up on the chair and help my mom bake cookies,” stated Clyde. By the time he was in junior high, he knew he wanted to open his own bakery. “I started my first bakery job at Thanksgiving Point the day I turned 18—that was the first day they let me touch the equipment legally,” he says. Clyde continued to bake, attended a culinary school, earned a Food Science and Business degree at BYU, and then opened Wandering Wheat.

All of Clyde’s breads are handcrafted with quality ingredients and take as long as three days to develop from start to finish. He specializes in his artisan bread that’s unlike any bread you’ve ever tasted, with flavors from Cranberry White Chocolate, Apricot Gorgonzola, Red Onion Pepper Jack, Cinnamon Chip, Classic Sourdough and more. Since the bread is baked fresh, the menu is constantly changing, with new flavors being added all the time.

With the help of his wife and kids, Clyde pulls his bakery on wheels to multiple farmers markets around Utah every week. You can spot this mobile bakery at the Mapleton, Springville, Provo, Orem and Lindon Farmers Markets. “We believe that we should be taking the freshest product possible to the market with us,” he says.

WANDERING WHEAT

wanderingwheat.com
@wandering.wheat