For some, it's an interest; for others, it's a preference – but for beer aficionados, the genuine passion and enduring appreciation for the craft brew is more of a love affair than anything else. I consider those of us who involve ourselves in this sort of romance to be a lucky bunch – on top of all the different ways beer is awesome, it's also widely celebrated, and therefore always accessible. Whether it's your favorite local bar, your friend's brewery or your town's major beer festival, you’ll never have to travel too far to find your beloved craft brews.

If you're a beer enthusiast, you're keenly aware of the Oktoberfests and Beer Weeks of the world – the thousands of festivals dedicated to the  brewing, tasting and culture that surrounds craft beer. While an event like this may be the Belle of the ball, it's important to take note of the slew of non-beer festivals which still celebrate beerdom on a smaller scale. With a side-show focus on local breweries, these festival gems remind us that sometimes we find the beer we love in places we'd least expect. Here are five unconventional non-beer festivals for beer lovers that bring something different to the table.

On a crisp, chilly January day with a light dusting of snow still glinting on the ground, Brewtopia LLC hosted the 12^th Annual Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting. Cask Ale (also known as “real ale” to our compatriots in the U.K.’s CAMRA organization) is housed exclusively in wooden barrels. These barrels create a unique, creamy drinking experience that cannot be fully recreated in kegged beers.

Sprawled across 3 areas in 5 Seasons Brewpub and Taco Mac Roswell were 47 beers from around the country (and a few special brews from Britain’s cask ale movement as well). Most of them were obscure and off-the-wall variations on breweries’ year-round or seasonal releases, which is exactly what all festgoers had been expecting.