“Tulsa Craft Beer Week came about because the bar and liquor store owners in town wanted to create an identity for our beer scene,” says Chase Healey, the brewmaster at Prairie Artisan Ales.
Freddy Lamport, the owner of BierGarten Wine & Spirits in Jenks, Oklahoma, founded Tulsa Craft Beer Week in 2013 with the help of Josh Royal who owns R Bar & Grill. Lamport says his main reason for spearheading Tulsa’s Craft Beer Week is the “crazy, insane, restrictive” liquor legislation in the state of Oklahoma.
“You can’t have brewpubs here,” Lamport says. “[As a liquor store owner] I can only sell alcohol—no ice, no cocktail garnishes, no mixers, no glassware. I can’t have in-store tastings, and I can’t refrigerate.”