NATCHEZ — This year’s Great Mississippi Balloon Race will add a craft brewery biergarten that will include a beer brewed exclusively for the balloon race.

The exclusive beer would be the result of collaboration between five regional breweries — Natchez Brewing Company, Tin Roof Brewing, Chafunkta Brewing Company, Covington Brewhouse and Crooked Letter Brewing Company.

Trevor Brown, the assistant director for the balloon race, said the discussion of adding the biergarten began after last year’s race.

“We had a lot of people wondering when we were going to get a craft beer in our event, and the brewers had a real interest in trying to get into the balloon race because it is a regional event,” Brown said.

Dubbed “Blufftoberfest,” the biergarten will have a traditional Oktoberfest feel with all of the breweries on draft and traditional games, Brown said.

“We are hoping this will attract people who weren’t familiar with the balloon race or never found a reason to come, but we feel like we are hitting our target audience with this,” he said.

“We will have a limited number of kegs of the collaborative beer, so when it is gone, it is gone,” he said.

The actual brewing of the beer will be done at Natchez Brewing Co.’s microbrewery on Franklin Street. Brown said he only knows of a couple of other instances where multiple breweries came together to collaborate on a beer.

Patrick Miller, co-owner of Natchez Brewing Company said collaborations are normally between two breweries.

“It will definitely be the first in our region, and the first between Mississippi and Louisiana breweries,” he said.

“In the craft beer world, it brings excitement when a couple of breweries come together and share their minds, their talents and produce a beer together. There aren’t many industries that can come together and do that. How many restaurants come together and collaborate on a food, or a meal?”

All five breweries are distributed locally by Southwest Distributers, and Southwest Distributers Vice President for Public Affairs Stephanie Hutchins said the balloon race seems like an ideal place to launch the biergarten.

“The craft beer market is such an explosion right now, and this is a good place to introduce that explosion to the Natchez area,” she said.