Seattle Beer Week is our city’s chance to celebrate all that is beer in this great city/state. As a corner stone of the craft brewing industry, there are countless great places to grab a beer in Seattle. There are many great breweries, and there are probably even more outstanding beer bars. There are active homebrew clubs, outstanding bottle shops and likely more people per capita that care about good beer than anywhere else in the country (except, probably Portland).
But, after discussing with a few guys the other day, it sounds like many breweries/bars aren’t hopping on board, yet. Hopefully, “yet” is the key word there. It is only the beginning of February, and there is plenty of time until things kick off on Thursday, May 7. But, if you really want to get the week some attention, it would be best to announce something sooner, rather than later.
Any breweries/bars/restaurants/clubs reading that haven’t already announced an event, I’m urging you to do so. Anyone that frequents these places should also reach out and ask them to participate. Why? Because, this week could be special. There are some great events already announced, but I’m hoping for many more. Go crazy. Advertise. Get some buzz around this week outside of just our circle of beer geekdom. Expand this beyond just Seattle (as they are doing in the S.F. Bay area). This has nothing to do with pumping the agendas of a few select breweries/bars and getting them more business. It has everything to do with celebrating the great beer we get to drink in Seattle, no matter where you are drinking it.
Looking at the event calendar, these are the only places to announce events so far:
Hop-Scotch Festival
The Dray
Pike
Naked City
Elysian
Big Time
Matt’s in the Market
Quinn’s
Pub at Piper’s Creek
Baron Brewing/Pillager’s Pub
Shultzy’s
Brouwer’s Cafe
Collins Pub
Sole Repair Shop – Tasting of Diamond Knot, Georgetown, Scuttlebutt, North Coast and Skagit beers
Like I said, those are some great places and they will be fantastic events. But, there are many places left off of that list that I hope to see added at some point.
Ideas: beer dinners, beer festivals, happy hours, brew a special beer, theme night (belgian, stout, ipa, etc…), host tastings at your bottle shop, cellar night, invite brewers from another city/state for a collaborative brew, pub crawls, brewery tours, brewers nights, homebrew events/demonstrations/clinics, etc…you get the idea. Whatever you want to do – it can be simple, or it can be complex. Just do something!
Pollack // Feb 4, 2009 at 8:46 am
HaHa. Philly Beer Week has 300 events! But seriously, it took a few years to get that kind of participation.
+Russ // Feb 4, 2009 at 9:27 am
Hah, even Sole Repair is doing something eh?
I talked with the owner of The Bev Place and he said they were working on something. I think it was something to coincide with the annual release of Herbert’s Legendary Cask Ale? I could be wrong about that though….
Russ
Friday Five: Top 5 Most Anticipated Seattle Beer Week Events (so far) « The Beer Retard // Feb 6, 2009 at 10:43 am
[…] working feverishly to add new events to the calendar. There’s still a lot to be done and, as Geoff at Seattle Beer news pointed out, there’s a need for breweries, bars, restaurants, etc. to hop on board and contribute in some […]
Adam // Feb 9, 2009 at 11:36 am
I’d love to see local breweries release some specialty glassware, and I think Beer Week would be the perfect time to do it. I’m weary of shaker pints, where are the snifters and tulips and other cool glassware for the NW breweries?