The first weekend of Buffalo Beer Week is upon us, and, as you’d expect, it is rife with events and happenings, headlined by the annual Buffalo IPA Palooza at Pizza Plant Canalside, which features most every local brewery bringing their hoppiest wares out to play. That’s one you don’t want to miss. From there it’s only a few miles up the road to Resurgence’s Oktoberfest party at their Niagara Street home, so that’s another one to get on the list. Find all of the pertinent info on those events below.

There’s also the requisite drink specials and live music going on around town, and one event you’re going to want to think about is Sour Saturday at 42 North in East Aurora, a celebration of local sour and barrel aged beers. You can also find out more, including all of the beer on tap, listed below.

 If you are a worshiper of the hop, then this is an event you can ill afford to miss. The annual Buffalo IPA Palooza at Pizza Plant Canalside (12pm) features all of your favorite IPAs from all of your favorite local breweries, all in one place for a massive hop blowout! Among the hoppy brews you can expect are Big Ditch Lock IPA Series #7: Dart, Thin Man Trial By Wombat, Ellicottville Brewing Tangerine New England IPA, Community Beer Works Singularity Citra, Pressure Drop / Big Ditch Aqua Jesus Triple IPA, Hamburg Brewing Just Saying Volume 2: Swear Jar, Resurgence Brewing Head in the Clouds DIPA, Lilly Belle Meads Hops & Honey, Belt Line Seven Dankly Sins DIPA, West Shore Green Flyer, Flying Bison Farm to Pint IPA (cask) and 12 Gates Chinook Wet Hop Pale Ale (hops from Fredonia’s Lupulin Fields). Free entry. A la carte pints.

Celebrate the season at Resurgence Brewing’s annual Oktoberfest Party (12pm), featuring the RBC Oktoberfest Games! Team competition includes Stein Hoisting (longest hold wins), Axe Throwing (best/most accurate), Stein Carrying Relay Race (each team does 2 laps, 2 teams against each other, fastest time wins), Barrel Roll (fastest times wins) and Pretzel Eating Contest. $25 per team, entry fee includes RBC Games shirt, mug, first fill, beer for games. Live music from German Association (2-6pm, parking lot) and food from Lloyds Taco Truck (12-3pm) and Fat Bobs (2-6pm). Resurgence are also releasing cans of their Pina Colada Sour.

Blackbird Cider Works will release their Peach and Strawberry Cayuga Island Perry Cider at both their Barker taproom and the Buffalo Cider Hall, 42 North will host Sour Saturday (12pm), featuring an all-local sour and barrel aged lineup, including Resurgence Brewing Mango Peach Tangerine Kettle Sour, Pressure Drop Solenya Cucumber Sour, New York Beer Project Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, Five & 20 Barrel Aged Barleywine and 42 North Elettaria & Verboden Flanders Blends and Halt! Who Gose, There? Five and 20 is hosting a Whiskey Barrel Tasting, where a member of their distilling team will lead you through an exclusive tasting of whiskey being aged in a selection of barrels and the Carnegie Arts Center will host Uncork Your Creativity, a Fall fundraiser for The Carnegie Arts Center. Wine, beer, and kombucha tastings, live music, art activities and more. More info and tickets at CarnegieArtCenter.com.

For live music, visit Big Inlet Brewing (Adam McKillip, 6pm), Gene McCarthy’s (Jonah Krull, 7pm) and 12 Gates (Last Call, 8pm).

Elsewhere during Buffalo Beer Week, as has become custom, Buffalo Brewing Company will be open every single day. Pearl Street (seasonal beers with Beer Week booklet) and Lafayette Brewing are offering $3.50 pints all Beer Week long, and score $2 off pints at Pizza Plant (both locations) and $4 pints at Riverworks Brewing with coupons you can find in the official Beer Week book. Also, Blackbird Cider Works have daily specials, Hamm & Fattey’s and Fattey Beer Co. are running select $3 pint specials (check Buffalobeerweek.com for more details) and Five & 20 will be donating a portion of the proceeds from their specially priced Beer of the Month to Habitat for Humanity during the entire course of Buffalo Beer Week.

If you’re drinking something local during Buffalo Beer Week, post it on social media and tag the BBL – @Buffalobeerleague (Instagram), @Buffbeerleague (Twitter) and @Thebuffalobeerleague (Facebook). Also, use the hashtag #Buffalobeerweek.

Keep it locked to www.buffalobeerweek.com for more daily blog posts regarding all of the beers, all of the events and all of the happenings going on throughout Buffalo Beer Week. To see all the events that are happening over the next 10 days and to read the official Buffalo Beer Week book, visit http://www.buffalobeerweek.com. The theme this year is ‘ten years of craft beer.’ For more information, please visit Buffaloniagarabrewersassociation.org and Facebook.com/BuffaloNiagaraBrewersAssociation.

These next 10 days are about beer yes, but above all else, drink responsibly and be safe. If you need a ride home, try Lyft, Uber or Liberty Cab’s Ride Local. There are plenty of options to both drink and get home responsibly.

Brian Campbell is a co-founder/Brand Manager of the BNBA’s enthusiast arm, Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column for Step Out Buffalo. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague) and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).