John Mattis happily enjoys his beer at the Festival of The Angry Bear at the Ore Dock Brewing Company in Marquette.

MARQUETTE — After another long and seemingly never-ending winter in the Upper Peninsula, it’s safe to say spring is in the air, which means it’s time for the Angry Bear to emerge.

As an annual celebration of spring and sour beer, the Ore Dock Brewing Co. in Marquette hosts the Festival of the Angry Bear.

Craft beer lovers — some dressed as bears — gather at the brewery along Spring Street to enjoy good beer and good music. Despite many event cancellations due to COVID-19, the Angry Bear will still be coming out of hibernation, but this time, only virtually.

An Angry Bear Virtual Toast & Watch Party will take place from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Festival-goers can join in via the Ore Dock Brewing Co.’s Facebook page.

The Ore Dock will be streaming live performances from four of the bands that were to perform at this year’s festival, including Blanco Suave of Marquette, The Brothers Quinn of Madison, Wisconsin, Lalo Cura of Indiana and Steve Leaf of Grand Rapids.

“We’re pretty excited to be able to bring some live music to Facebook live and have people stream that at home and enjoy it from the comfort of their homes with their families,” said Andrea Pernsteiner, owner of Ore Dock Brewing Company. “And in addition, probably as equally as exciting — I hope — to people, is that we are going to be able to offer some of those barrel-aged beers that are only available during Angry Bear to take home.”

While the festival’s namesake beer, the Angry Bear, a sour brown ale, won’t be available this year, beer lovers can order party packs from the Ore Dock’s website.

Pick up a Grizzly, Polar or Teddy Bear Party Pack to try out some beers available only for the festival. Commemorative Angry Bear steins and glasses are available, as well as other Ore Dock favorites. Beer purchases can be scheduled for curbside pickup or delivered to homes in Marquette.

“It’s really pretty easy. It’s hands-off, you can process the whole transaction online and all you have to be able to do is present an ID and come pick up your products,” Pernsteiner said. “Hopefully everyone will be drinking Angry Bear beer and cheers-ing us as we go through what we plan to be about a two-hour program.”

Pickup and delivery are available from 2 to 7 p.m. today and 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

The specialty beers specifically pulled for this year’s festival include a brown barrel-aged beer aged with strawberries.

“All of these sour beers were aged in wine barrels, which is kind of interesting. It sort of crosses from the wine world into the beer world. And sometimes you can get a bit of the nuances, not of the wine necessarily, but of the oak that’s used in the aging process,” Pernsteiner said.

The second beer is one aged in a barrel that previously held blackberries. This brew has hints of roasted chocolate.

“We cultivate these beers throughout the year, we put them in the barrels, we try them, we look for the changes in flavor over time, and there’s usually a prime point in which to pull the beer out of those barrels and to serve it,” she explained. “We usually try to coincide that with the Festival of the Angry Bear, so we wanted to get these beers out that we’re ready to pull, ready to drink and get them to the people who look forward to a sour beer festival in the spring.”

The event will kick off with a toast and be followed by music and an interactive beer tasting. Pernsteiner and other members of the Ore Dock team will be trying the festival beers with all the viewers at home while discussing the barrel-aging and kettle souring process that goes into making the brews.

Viewers will be able to interact and ask questions over the Facebook live feed.

“That will be in between the music that we’re offering. In addition, there’s going to be some messages from some of our staff that is really missing seeing all of our friends and family on a regular basis here at Ore Dock,” Pernsteiner added.

She hopes the virtual event brings the community a little closer during these trying times, if only for a few hours.

“I think everyone is feeling a little distance right now which is what we’re supposed to be doing and Marquette and the U.P. has done a really good job doing the right thing and keeping distance from each other. But we’re hoping that with everyone joining in one place at one time online and enjoying some music and enjoying some wonderful locally produced craft beer, we hope that they’ll feel that sense of togetherness that we’re all missing so much,” Pernsteiner said.

To attend the fest, visit Ore Dock Brewing Company on Facebook. To purchase beer before the fest, visit www.ore-dock.com.

Trinity Carey can be reached at tcarey@miningjournal.net.