The second annual staging of the Jamaica Food & Drink Kitchen (JFDK) Beer Festival is set to take place later today (June 15) and Friday (June 16) from 5pm to 11pm at the Progressive Shopping Centre in Kingston.

All beer aficionados and connoisseurs are welcome to experience Jamaica’s best beer offerings as well as beer options from across the globe.

Speaking at the launch, Nicole Pandohie, director of JFDK shared that the event will have a capacity of 150 attendees each evening.

“Today is all about Beer Fest and two days of tasting amazing brews and eating delicious food,” said Pandohie.

“We’re here to celebrate our evolving beer industry and its exponential growth in Jamaica to the point where we can stand here today sampling close to 40 beer products and it really is a good showing of the industry,” she continued.

Pandohie shared the exciting lineup, which included Red Stripe, an iconic Jamaican beer brand, and international beers. Other notable mentions were CPJ, Clubhouse Brewery, Select Brands, 24 Karat and the newly introduced X-Mark.

Stephen Reid, brand manager for Evian Water shared with Our Today his thoughts on the event as a first-time participant of the festival, he said, “It was a beautiful day, the F&D team have put on a wonderful event again and it was a joy for us to be with them for the first time, I was amazed to learn that Jamaica itself has so many beers; so I’m looking forward to sampling all that the festival has to offer.”

Social media influencer Tontravels was present as an energetic part of the launch taking part in a team beer mixing competition where she emerged victorious alongside Stephen Reid and Nicole Hall, the commercial marketing manager at CB Foods.

“I’d definitely say this is one of the most fun launches I’ve ever been to, I really love how interactive it was- we got to hang out with a lot of people and brands that I’ve never spoken to, it was really cool,” said Tontravels, after winning the beer launch mixing competition.