East Setauket Man Gears Up For Beer Festival

There was craft beer from all over Long Island and beyond. There was music from Jamaica when the legendary Wailers took the stage and the Dirty Heads brought the Southern Cali style of punk-inspired reggae jams. There were crab cakes, and even Naked Cowboy Oysters.

But, apparently, the Beer Fields festival at the Pennysaver Amphitheatre in Farmingville lacked one important item. This, according to East Setauket's AJ Palumbo.

"People do this all the time," Palumbo said when asked about the garland of pretzels strung around his neck.

He was right. Palumbo wasn't the only one with the idea. Others scurried from tap to tap testing beers, pretzels of all types jingling against their chests. The beer festival pretzel necklace isn't a local phenomenon. It's a actually known thing in the beer festival circuit. There's even a website dedicated to it.

And even though the pretzel necklace was not invented by some locals who wanted to keep their hands free for two-fisting their craft beer from places like Port Jefferson Brewery and Holbrook's Spider Bite Beer Company, Palumbo does admit that he took the convenience (and some would say brilliance) of the portable snack to the next level.

"Me and my buddies just went big with it," he said.