Cast your mind back a few years, say 11,000 years or so, to the time when a woman invented beer, thousands of years before anyone thought of making wine. Back then we were just beginning to cultivate wheat, and who else but a woman would have noticed that something was happening to the stored grain when it got wet? We drank hefeweizen for 6,000 years or so, until another woman made barley beer. The ancient Sumerians celebrated her by making Ninkasi their goddess of beer.

Of course, men muscled their way into the beer scene early on, and by Biblical times beer was thought of as the libation of rowdies, while wine was esteemed.

Flash forward to the present: What has this long history of brewing led to? A festival called the Pacific Northwest Brew Cup, which will be held this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. While beer is a festive beverage, a festival needs more than beer, so there is plenty of food and a long lineup of live music. The Brew Cup is family- and dog-friendly, too, with plenty of activities for the kids. Dogs are good at inventing their own activities.

The “Brew Cup” name suggests a competition, and there are three at this festival. Nobody takes them all that seriously though, except perhaps the home brewers, for whom there is the Hondo’s Brew and Cork first annual Home Brew Competition. Festival-goers decide the other two contests, not some rarefied panel of serious beer tasters. The first is the People’s Choice Award, where you get to vote for the beer you like best. You decide the third competition, too. It’s the “Thar She Blows” Award, for the first keg to blow, beer talk for “run out of beer.”

You might think that these two awards would go to the same beer: If you like it, you drink more of it. Not so. Last year’s People’s Choice was won by Pendleton’s Prodigal Son Brewing for its Bruce/Lee Porter. This rich dark beer is made with five specialty hops and has hints of coffee and chocolate. At first it seems odd that the winner of “Thar She Blows” should also be a porter (weren’t there any IPAs or pale ales?), but the explanation is simple. Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters won with its Fivepine Chocolate Porter, which didn’t contain anything pine, but did contain two pounds of fine Belgian chocolate per barrel.

This year over 40 beers and a few hard ciders will be in the competition. There will be well-known breweries like Deschutes, McMenamin’s and Fort George, and some you may not have heard of, like Pfriem Family or Base Camp. There will also be two local newcomers to the Brew Cup: Astoria’s Buoy Beer and North Jetty Brewing, from Seaview, Washington.

Buoy Beer is located literally on the Columbia River at the foot of Eighth Street. After a monumental restoration, the brewery opened in February in the old Bornstein Seafoods plant, situated on pilings over the river, and its products have met with immediate acceptance. Buoy’s German and Czech pilsners are excellent, as are its Cream Ale, ESB (Extra Special Bitter, an English style), and, well, everything the brewery makes. You may want to vote often for the “Thar She Blows” award. Hint to brewmaster: It might be a good idea to enter the Buoy Porter, with its nice chocolaty flavor, know what I mean?

North Jetty Brewing is even newer than Buoy Beer — it opened in April — and smaller. North Jetty’s list of beers is shorter, too, but the Washington brewery yields to no one in creativity and quality. Take, for example, its Starvation Alley Weissbier, which is made with organic cranberries sourced from Starvation Alley Farms in Long Beach. North Jetty is known for its Mad Viking IPA, and the Leadbetter Red Scottish Ale is authentic. An unusual offering is its Yellow Boots Kolsch (a style originating in Cologne, Germany), straw yellow and hoppy (but not overly so). If this brewery wants to win, though, it’d be well advised to enter its Semper Paratus Porter, named for the motto of the Coast Guard — “Always Ready” — with its nutty and chocolaty flavors.

Presented by the Astoria Downtown Historic District Association, the Pacific Northwest Brew Cup is held east of the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s Barbey Maritime Center (the old train station), and there is plenty of room to stroll around and enjoy the music while you are voting for your favorites.

There is a lot of music. Get there early to listen to Shaena Stabler, the latest pop phenom out of Los Angeles via New York and Warrenton, fresh from her triumphant album release concert at the Clatsop County Community College Performing Arts Center the night before. Saturday at 11 a.m. Coast Community Radio’s Troll Radio Review will be broadcast from the Brew Cup, and there are all the usual local bands. Other groups are coming from as far away as Portland (Tango Alpha Tango, Will West and the Friendly Strangers, and many more), Pendleton (JD Kindle and the Eastern Oregon Playboys), and Moscow (Idaho, that is: Runaway Symphony with its “shimmering indie-esque dream rock.”) The program ends Sunday afternoon with the “good time murder ballads” of Albatross.

You can wander the festival and enjoy the music for free, but to taste you need a souvenir tasting mug for $9 and a $1 token for every three ounces you taste. Organizers take I.D. checking seriously, and you will also get a wristband that is harder to give away than a mug. The Brew Cup kicks off from noon to 10 p.m. Friday and continues from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Bring your growler for “Growler Fill Sunday,” when you can get half a gallon of beer for $10.

1 – 2:30 p.m. Brownsmead Flats: North Coast old-time barber shop folk from Brownsmead

3 – 4:30 p.m. Shaena Stabler: Singer Songstress, Los Angelos via Warrenton

5 – 6:30 p.m. Future Historians: Portland heavy folk rockers

7 – 8:30 p.m. The Cowpokers: Outlaw country power, Seaside/Olny

9 – 10 p.m. The Resolectrics: Blues breaking groove machine, Portland

11 a.m. – noon KMUN’s Troll Radio Review: Kids variety show!

12:15 – 1 p.m. Cedar Shakes: Morning booze folk grass from Manzanita

1:15 – 2 p.m. Will West and the Friendly Strangers: Quirky traveling folk, Portland

2:30 – 4 p.m. JD Kindle and the Eastern Oregon Playboys: Country groove crooners, Pendleton

4:30 – 6 p.m. Michael Hurley: The man, the myth, the snock, Bronwsmead/Portland

6:15 – 7 p.m. Runaway Symphony: Shimmering indie-esque dream rock, Moscow, Idaho

7:15 – 8 p.m. Kaylee Rob: Electro-twerk-folk jams from Portland

8:30 – 10 p.m. Tango Alpha Tango: Virtuosic blues-esque NW rock ‘n’ roll, Portland.

11 – 11:45 a.m. Pine Hearts: Cascade mountain music, Olympia, Wash.

Noon – 12:45 p.m. Ben Rice Band: Cascadia blues rooted in the Delta

1 – 2:15 p.m. The Quick & Easy Boys: Blues/funk/soul/whatever they want trio

2:45 – 4 p.m. Albatross: Good-time murder ballads, Portland