Popular pop-up beer garden brings happy hour back to Columbia’s riverfront this fall

Popular Columbia craft brewer Bierkeller Columbia is bringing pop-up beer gardens back to Riverfront Park this fall.

Bierkeller will host a Tuesday Happy Hour Bier Gartens Fall Series most Tuesday evenings from Sept. 25 to Nov. 27. It also will kick off an occasional Saturday beer garden series with an Oktoberfest event Sept. 15.

The new season of pop-up beer gardens follows the brewer’s successful weekly happy hour series at Riverfront Park in May, which saw an average of 700 to 750 people, Bierkeller founder Scott Burgess said.

Without a brick-and-mortar location of its own, Bierkeller thrives on occasional pop-up beer gardens throughout Columbia.

Columbia-area community leaders have struggled, until relatively recently, to bring more activities and more people to the city’s riverfront. Capitalizing on the riverfront is widely considered a key to the future success and growth of downtown Columbia.

Activity along the river has been ramping up, as recent months have seen the expansion of the Canalside luxury apartment community; the construction of the Brookland apartment and retail development on Meeting Street in West Columbia, which is to include a rooftop restaurant with river views; a 3-mile extension of the Three Rivers Greenway connecting Riverfront Park to Riverbanks Zoo; an ongoing effort to launch a nightly laser art display across the river; new hammocks hung by Do Good Columbia at Riverfront Park; and the occasional Bierkeller beer gardens.

This fall’s riverfront beer gardens will include Bierkeller’s fall seasonal brews and a rotation of regulars, food from the Wurst Wagen and music, Burgess said.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, Burgess said, he hopes to bring together all of Columbia’s craft breweries along the riverfront for an event that he said could set Columbia apart from other cities in the Southeast.

And on one or two Saturdays in December, Burgess plans to host a German-style Christmas market at the park, featuring vendors and hot spiced wine, in addition to craft beer offerings.

Here’s when you can find Bierkeller at Riverfront Park this fall:

Tuesdays, from 5-9 p.m.: Sept. 25, Oct. 2, Oct. 9, Oct. 16, Oct. 23, Oct. 30, Nov. 13, Nov. 20 and Nov. 27.

Saturdays, from 1-8 p.m.: Sept. 15, Oct. 20, Nov. 10, Nov. 17, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22.

This story was originally published September 4, 2018 at 4:34 PM.