THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM PLANS FOURTH ANNUAL “TAPPING INTO TWAIN” OKTOBERFEST BEER TASTING FOR SEPTEMBER 23. Spend an evening celebrating one of Mark Twain’s favorite beverages (and we’ve got his sales receipts to prove it)! Household bills reveal that merchants frequently delivered English ale, lager, pilsner, and bock beers to the Clemens home on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. Cajoling a friend to visit his home, the author wrote:  “There will be silence, & rest, & beer for the weary.”

On Friday, September 23, our Fourth Annual “Tapping Into Twain” Oktoberfest offers a selection of locally produced beers and artisanal ales to tickle your palate. And scrumptious food from local restaurants – including pizza, pasta, jamabalaya, sliders and pulled pork – to keep you full and happy.

This is the event the Hartford Advocate has called, “absolutely, positively, without any doubt whatever, one of the best charitable events Hartford has beheld in quite some time.” It has routinely drawn more than 350 guests.

DJ Jon Eastman of Shake Your Tail Feather music, who has worked extensively at the Wadsworth Atheneum’s public celebratory events, will provide rockin’ music to mix it all up with. And walk away with a collectible – this year’s signature pint glass, available for $5.00.

The “Tapping Into Twain” Oktoberfest will be held Friday, September 23, from 5:30 – 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door. (Members’ admission price is $35.) A designated driver ticket will be provided for $15. All proceeds will benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum.  For tickets call 860-280-3130.

Breweries participating include Blue Point, Bru Rm/Bar, Cavalry Brewing, City Steam Brewery Café, Hartford Better Beer Co., HDI & Franklin Distributors, Hook & Ladder, Hooker Brewery, Maltose  Express, Narragansett, Old Burnside Brewing, Southport SBC, Willimantic and Zok’s Home Brewing, with more signing up every day.

Food will be supplied by the Black Bear Saloon, Black-Eyed Sally’s, Catsup & Mustard, City Steam, Hidden Vine, Hook & Ladder, Hot Tomato’s, Lena’s, and more.

The Mark Twain House & Museum has restored the author’s Hartford, Connecticut, home, where the author and his family lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain wrote his most important works during the years he lived there, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.In addition to providing tours of Twain’s restored home, a National Historic Landmark, the institution offers activities and educational programs that illuminate Twain’s literary legacy and provide information about his life and times. The house and museum at 351 Farmington Ave. are open Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and Sunday, noon-5:30 p.m. For more information, call 860-247-0998 or visit www.marktwainhouse.org. Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourismand the Greater Hartford Arts Council.