MOSES LAKE — It may feel like spring is a long, long way off, but Moses Lake is gearing up to welcome it back March 15. 

“Brews & Tunes is St. Paddy’s Day weekend,” said Downtown Moses Lake Association Director Mallory Miller. “It’s the first event that happens after wintertime and people are ready to get out of the house. Last year, it was 75 degrees somehow, so cross your fingers for that this year.” 

This will be the eighth year Brews & Tunes has taken place downtown. Fourteen downtown businesses will host a brewery, cidery or distillery and participants will roam from business to business with a glass and sample five or more craft beers or other libations. Many of the business locations will also host live music. It’s a fundraiser for the DMLA, but it’s also a chance for beverage artisans to show off their wares and maybe gain some devoted customers, and for local musicians to build up an audience. And especially, it’s a chance for local lovers of beer, cider and live music to enjoy all those things. 

The event has grown a lot in recent years, Miller said. This year the DMLA is going to put out 600 tickets, compared to 500 last year, plus some set aside so volunteers and musicians can wet their whistles after the festivities. According to data from the city of Moses Lake, about 7,700 people in total came to the closed-off part of Third Avenue between Sinkiuse Square and Alder Street.  

“That might not have been just for Brews & Tunes; that could have just been people that were downtown shopping or eating lunch or doing anything, but it was in the vicinity of our event, and so they were counted,” Miller said. “I would love to think that they were actually down for Brews & Tunes, but that's the beauty of it, is that because we close the streets, anybody can come down.” 

Miller said that to adjust for the growth, Alder Street will also be closed for the afternoon. That expands the festivities to six blocks, from Chestnut Street to Beech Street. 

Besides the beer and music, there will be lots of food available, Miller said: the Corn Dog Company, Porky’s Hot Dogs, El Charro Birrieria and the Boho Foodi Bus will all be serving up their specialties, and other booth vendors will be set up at Sinkiuse Square. Miller said the DMLA is expecting a car show as well, but the details haven’t been worked out yet. The association would still welcome a few more breweries, she added. 

Moore Brewing Company, the only brewery located in downtown Moses Lake, participated in the Brews & Tunes event two years ago, offering home-brewed beer at one of the business locations, according to co-owner Lorie Moore, before they had even started to set up their commercial brewery. They didn’t get to participate in Brews & Tunes last year because the owners were still trying to get their state licenses in order. 

“So we opened up our doors,” Moore said. “We couldn't serve anything, but we opened up our doors to anybody who wanted to come and have a sneak peek at the space that we'd been working on.” 

This year they’re going to be in the thick of things, Moore said. Moore Brewing will host the beer garden at Sinkiuse Square, offering samples of two of the microbrewery’s beers. Which ones they’ll be hasn’t been determined yet, Moore said. 

“We've got so many new beers ready to pop that that'll be determined probably right before (the event),” she said. 

Moore Brewing will be open serving food during the event as well, Moore said, and will also host an after-party starting at 5 p.m. with live music from the JP Falcon Band.  

The downtown locations are actually fewer in number this year, Miller said, and some businesses may host more than one brewery. That’s because the laws surrounding an event like Brews & Tunes, which serves alcohol in a public place, are very strict. While the event is going on, everybody who goes into a business with a tasting booth set up has to be over 21, and all alcohol has to be consumed before a participant leaves the building. Because some businesses want to allow children, they’ve opted not to host a brewery, although they’ll still be open for people to come in and check out. Downtown restaurants, which have licenses that allow them to serve the whole family, will also be serving up, Miller said. 

“I'm hoping that instead of doing more locations, I can put more breweries or cideries in one location,” she said. “Some of the bigger locations, I'm seeing if I can do two breweries or a brewery and a cidery. That way people can hang out in the stores a little bit longer.” 

Brews & Tunes 

1-5 p.m. March 15 

Downtown Moses Lake 

Tickets available at online at https://bit.ly/DMLA-BT2025, at the DMLA Office at 205 S. Division St. or at Moore Brewing Company, 302 W. Broadway Ave. 

An earlier edition of this story incorrectly stated what Moore Brewing Company would be offering at the beer garden. It has been corrected above.

Participants (still adding more)

Locations: 

Salon Envy 

Edward Jones 

Windermere 

Mason's Place 

Michael’s Bistro 

Gorgeous Bae Boutique 

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate 

Sue's Gift Boutique 

Miller's Fine Jewelers 

Frederick’s Jewelry 

Settlers Natural Market 

Skaug Brothers Carpet One 

3rd Ave Antiques 

Sage Academy 

Florist in the Garden 

Beer Garden 

Breweries: 

Iron Horse Brewery/Oddstock Cider Company 

YaYa Brewing Company 

Moses Lake Distillery 

Elk Heights Distillery 

Moses Lake Taproom 

Ten Pin Brewery 

Single Hill Brewery 

Discovery Cider 

Lumberbeard Brewing 

Taneum Creek Brewing 

Beer Garden: 

Moore Brewing 

Food: 

The Corndog Company 

El Charro Birrieria 

Porky's Hot Dogs 

Boho Foodi Bus 

    Taneum Creek Brewing owner Gabe Gorton, left, talks with Gary De La Rosa over a sample of beer at last year’s Brews & Tunes in downtown Moses Lake.
  

    Whitley Rushton sings outside Windermere Real Estate in downtown Moses Lake for last year’s Brews & Tunes.