If you’ve been saving up your sick days at work, the next 11 days might be the perfect time to use them. The 2011 Seattle Beer Week (SBW) kicks off today and will last through next Sunday. It promises to be another crazy celebration this year. You can check out the full list of events on the SBW website, but Seattle Beer News will also be putting up daily event highlights, upcoming events, and reviewing the fun we’ve had. If you don’t already, you can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook to see what we’re up to.

The festivities officially start today at the SBW Kick-Off at Maritime Brewery at 5:30pm. The first tapping of the 2011 SBW commemorative beer from Maritime, Decompression Ale (check out the review from earlier today), will take place here, and festivities will move on to stops at Brouwer’s Cafe (7pm), Pyramid Brewing (8pm), and then on to Naked City (9pm), where they’ll have 12 taps of their own beer and 12 taps from other Seattle breweries.

There are many other events going on tonight as well, so check out today’s event listings on the SBW website.