Providence’s Union Station Brewery will be among the vendors offering samples of their brews at Satuday’s first Great International Spring Beer Festival at the Rhode Island Convention Center. From left, the Pilsner, the Pale Ale, the ESB (Extra Special Bitter), the IPA, and the Barley Wine.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Gretchen Ertl Gretchen Ertl

PROVIDENCE

Beer drinkers used to have it easy. Back in the B.C. (before craft-brewing) era, most bars and restaurants stocked the same handful of nationally advertised brands from the same handful of nationally dominant beer companies. Now, of course, it’s not unusual to find familiar labels such as Bud and Miller mixed in with more exotic brews with names like Skull Splitter, Yellow Snow Ale and Ruination IPA.

The number of beer-related events has also boomed in recent years. Once confined to that frothy rite of fall known as Oktoberfest, beer tastings and festivals now take place throughout the year.

The latest reminder that Oktoberfest isn’t just for October anymore arrives this weekend in the form of The Great International Spring Beer Festival. An offshoot of the long-running Great International Beer Festival, the festival takes place Saturday at the Rhode Island Convention Center. In all, more than 250 brews will be available for tasting, ranging from traditional American-style lagers (think Miller and Coors) to European imports (Guinness and Heineken) to a wide array of artisan-made ales, stouts and specialty beers.

Visitors also have a choice between two tasting sessions — the first from 1 to 4:30 p.m., the second from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $36 per person, and are good for one session only. (And did we mention that you have to be 21 or older to drink in Rhode Island?)

“Basically, it’s a response to the growing number of people attending our fall event,” says Maury Ryan, referring to the Great American Beer Festival, the popular fall brew bash he’s organized every year since 1993. “Last year, for example, we had to turn some people away. We also had long lines of people waiting to get in. So it just seemed obvious that there was enough public interest to support a spring event.”

Ryan says his decision also reflects the healthy state of the beer industry in general, and of the smaller craft beer market in particular. Indeed, after weathering a downturn reminiscent of the dot-com bust of the mid-1990s, the American craft-brewing movement has rebounded in recent years, with newer labels such as Maryland’s Wild Goose Brewery and Rhode Island’s Coastal Extreme Brewing Co. (the folks behind the Newport Storm label) joining longtime stalwarts such as Harpoon, Sierra Nevada and Samuel Adams.

“The late 1990s were a tough time, especially for some of the smaller beer-makers,” Ryan says. “A lot of people seemed to think the (craft-brewing) industry would just keep expanding forever. Unfortunately, it turned out that there were limits to how much beer these smaller companies could sell.”

Nowadays, Ryan sees signs of a craft-brew comeback everywhere he looks.

“For one thing, you’re starting to see some new people getting into the market,” he says. “Three or four years ago, that wasn’t happening. You’re also seeing some of the more established boutique and craft-brew labels starting to expand their portfolios. Again, that wasn’t happening a few years ago.”

The array of breweries, both large and small, participating in Saturday’s event testifies to this beer-making revival. Among the sponsors of the Great International Spring Beer Festival are some of the titans of the beer industry, including Miller Brewing Co., makers of Miller and Miller Lite, and Guinness & Co., makers of Ireland’s famous Guinness Stout. In addition to Guinness, several other well-known imports are participating in the festival, including Holland’s Heineken, England’s Bass Ale and Japan’s Sapporo.

Most of the festival’s participants, however, belong to the segment of the beer-making market known variously as craft, boutique or artisan-made beers. Though a few of these small-scale brewers have achieved national renown — Boston’s Samuel Adams and California’s Sierra Nevada are two of the best-known examples — most operate on a regional or statewide level. And some are even smaller than that.

“One of the great things about an event like this is the exposure it gives to some of the smaller breweries,” Ryan says. “This year, for example, we have a number of relatively obscure labels, such as Dogfish Head Brewery from Delaware and Lagunitas Brewing Co. from Petaluma, Calif. Others, like the Orlio Organic Beer Co. out of South Burlington, Vt., are so new that I’d never heard of them before.”

Despite their relatively small size, America’s craft brewers have had a major impact in the one area that really counts: taste. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to confuse the blandly homogenized flavors of a Budweiser or a Miller Lite with the richness and intensity of a small-batch stout or India Pale Ale.

“It’s almost like drinking fine wine,” Ryan says. “There’s a lot more complexity.”

Besides showcasing some of the top artisan-made beers and ales from around the country, the festival also highlights what has become a lively craft-brewing scene in Rhode Island.

True, the Ocean State still lags far behind craft-brew strongholds such as Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. (The just-published Good Beer Guide to New England lists 25 microbreweries in Maine, 26 in Massachusetts, but only five in Rhode Island.) Still, with the addition of Middletown’s Coastal Extreme Brewing Co. in the late 1990s and the recent revival of the Narragansett label under the Providence-based Narragansett Brewing Co., Rhode Islanders’ beer-drinking prospects have improved considerably in recent years.

Coastal Extreme, for example, produced its first beer — a tangy copper-brown ale dubbed Hurricane Amber Ale and sold under the brewery’s Newport Storm label — in 1999. Since then, the brewery has expanded its offerings to include a range of seasonal ales, as well as a line of limited-edition bottlings known as the “Cyclone Series.” Last summer, Coastal introduced its first fruit-infused beer, a light, thirst-quenching lager called Rhode Island Blueberry Beer and made with blueberries from Exeter’s famed Schartner Farms.

“We really wanted a beer that would connect directly to Rhode Island,” says Coastal Extreme president Brent Ryan. “Most of the ingredients we use at the brewery — things like hops, malt, barley and yeast — come from somewhere else. So we started looking around for something that was grown locally. After talking with the folks at Schartner’s, we decided to take a chance on blueberries.”

Ryan, who isn’t related to festival organizer Maury Ryan, says the response to the berry-infused beer has been enthusiastic. “People definitely seem to like it,” he says.

Another local success story is Trinity Brewhouse. Founded in 1994, Trinity began life a classic brewpub, brewing and selling its own beers, stouts and ales at its popular restaurant/bar on Providence’s Fountain Street. Last year, however, owner Josh Miller decided that it was time to begin bottling some of Trinity’s liquid gold. As a result, beer lovers in Rhode Island and Connecticut (and soon Massachusetts) can now sample Trinity’s portfolio of beers, including its award-winning India Pale Ale and Russian Imperial Stout.

Asked what Trinity will be touting at Saturday’s festival, Miller says “whatever’s available, mostly seasonal beers and of course our IPA (India Pale Ale). People get angry if we don’t have the IPA.”

The Great International Spring Beer Festival takes place Saturday at the Rhode Island Convention Center, One Sabin St. (at West Exchange St.) in Providence. Times for the afternoon session are 1 to 4:30 p.m.; times for the evening session are 6:30 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $36 per person at the door, and are good for one session only. For more information, call (401) 272-0980 or visit www.beerfestamerica.com.

bvansicl@projo.com