Drenching rain followed by steamy heat did little to dampen the spirits of almost 6,000 beer fans at Saturday’s Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival at Olin-Turville Park in Madison.

More than 110 breweries and brew pubs from across the Midwest poured samples of every imaginable style of beer, from pilsner to porter, in small glasses.

Ticket holders came from 35 states, Germany and the Netherlands, organizers from the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild said. Tickets to the annual event typically sell out in early June, just hours after they become available.

This is the 23rd festival in Madison, and many beer fans make the Great Taste part of an annual summer tradition.

Brad Miller and Nick Klein, who are fans of the Millstream Brewing Co. in the Amana Colonies in Iowa, came via chartered bus from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"A friend at work told me about this festival 10 years ago, and I’ve been coming ever since," Miller said.

Dan Hedtcke, a homebrewer and volunteer at the event, was wearing the black shirt and kilt, part of the Madison brewing guild’s unofficial uniform for the day.

"This beer festival has a great reputation all over the country," he said.

"You do need a strategy for tasting the beer because you can’t taste it all," Hedtcke said. About 650 to 700 different kinds of beer were available to taste in 2-ounce pours.

Hedtcke’s plan, he said, included beginning with a sample of mead, an alcoholic beverage made from honey, yeast and water.

Mead makers from the Detroit area’s B. Nektar Meadery and Iron River Wisconsin’s White Winter Winery said they liked being part of the Great Taste of the Midwest, even though mead isn’t technically a beer.

"The craft brewers are very adventurous in their tastes and are always looking for some new flavor profiles so they’ve been very welcoming to us," Jon Hamilton from White Winter said.

Forty-three craft breweries and brew pubs from Wisconsin attended the festival, including Madison’s Ale Asylum, Great Dane Brew Pub and Middleton’s Capital Brewery.

The event is a fundraiser for WORT community radio and a number of other local charities. Festival goers were encouraged to use event-subsidized cabs or shuttles for transportation as there was no parking at the event.