Bark n’ Brewfest pairs hard kombucha with local beer and wine

Bark n’ Brewfest put hard kombucha on the same tasting table as local beer and wine at West Washington Park in Burlingame, turning the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA’s annual fundraiser into a clear sign of where fermented drinks are showing up next. The dog-friendly event ran from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, and organizers expected more than 1,000 guests, with each attendee receiving a commemorative glass.

Ticket pricing climbed in stages, starting at $50 before Memorial Day, rising to $60 before event day and reaching $70 on the day itself. Every dollar was tied to the shelter’s Hope Program, which PHS/SPCA says helps the neediest animals and gives them a second chance at life. As an open-door shelter, the organization accepts all animals regardless of age, size or species, and says many need extra medical care, behavior modification or TLC before they can move into a new home.

That fundraising mission has real scale behind it. PHS/SPCA said the Hope Program was 100% donor-funded and provided extra behavioral and medical care to more than 2,500 animals in 2024 alone. The shelter also said it rescued 4,093 animals that year, accepts 100% of the animals brought in for help, and re-homes 100% of healthy cats and dogs. Bark n’ Brewfest itself has become a proven draw, with the event voted Best Fundraising Event in the South Bay/Peninsula in 2018 and 2019.

For kombucha brewers, the interesting detail was not just that hard kombucha appeared, but that it appeared in a mainstream community tasting built around beer and wine. TTB treats kombucha at 0.5% alcohol by volume or higher as an alcohol beverage under federal law, while Kombucha Brewers International describes hard kombucha as kombucha crafted to yield a higher alcohol content than traditional kombucha. That puts the category squarely in the craft beverage lane, where it can stand beside local breweries and wineries rather than outside them.

At Bark n’ Brewfest, hard kombucha was not framed as a novelty add-on. It was part of the lineup that helped turn a shelter fundraiser into a broader tasting event, and that crossover is becoming harder to miss in local beverage culture.