With the 2011 edition of Seattle Beer Week in the books, hopefully those of you that hit it hard are well on your way to recovery. I took it fairly easy myself this year and managed to hit “just” five events while juggling a busy non-beer week with a new position at my day job and a weekend out of town. I enjoyed every event I hit, and I’ll absolutely be ready for more next year. From epic events like Back in Black Stout Fest at Brouwer’s, to a relaxed tasting of some rare, vintage Stone beers at The Last Drop, it seemed to me there were plenty of options for all types of beer drinkers.
What about the rest of you? What were your highlights and favorite events from the week? What places put on particularly good events? Maybe you met some cool people out drinking or met one of your favorite brewers? What events might you like to see more of next year? Any thoughts or suggestions on how the organizers can improve the celebrations next year?
Thanks to the SBW organizers, bar owners, brewers, and everyone else that made this such an enjoyable week for those of us that love craft beer.
Another great SBW……. So many great events and not enough time and liver function to hit them all…. Big thanks to all the organizers, brewers, business owners, bartenders and beer lovers.
My Seattle Beer Week photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/russ3ll/sets/72157626769237398/detail/
It was another great beer week. The Stone Brewing dinner at Elemental was fantastic. Ditto on the thanks to everyone involved. Any chance we can push this into a month-long celebration? I hear there’s some podunk outpost just south of the Washington border that has a beer month in July…
Cheers to the excellent events and organization at Maritime (well done for the kickoff!) and Brouwer’s (for many of their events).
Jeers to the pubs and bars that seemed to have a SBW event just to draw some attention, while the event itself was minimal at best. Multiple stories of special “brewer” nights that consisted of only one or, perhaps, two kegs and were seemingly unprepared for the masses in attendance.
Quite a few last-minute date and time changes that, while likely unexpected, were difficult to keep up with.
Also, the SBW website would be more helpful if the events page listed the location without having to click through. Very difficult to scan through the huge list of daily events to find those nearby.
I went to session 1 of the NBB blending event at the Stumbling Monk, and that baby was off the hook. I think that was the best beer event I’ve ever been to. Ridiculous. Eric is the man.
Stout fest and Sourfest at Brouwers were amazing, and victims of their own awesomeness… too crowded to be comfortable.
There were a couple half-assed-looking events on the schedule, but thankfully I didn’t attend any.
The cellar night and BBQ at Fremont Brewing were great, I can see myself spending a lot of time there this summer.
The New Belgium sensory class with Jamie Mastin was my highlight, that guy’s got some stories.
i was impressed with the events at bev place. the staff there is great and i was amazed at the way they dealt with a high quantity of people. the bodacious bev event had some of the best beers of the week.
i also agree that the site was a bit annoying to navigate and we were bothered that the friday naked city event was listed to start at 4 but tasting didn’t actually start til 6. we would have hit up another event if that was known.
Night of the Living Nanos at fiddlers inn was fantastic, simply because I like to support the (very) little guys. I would have liked to see NW Peaks there, but I believe that week was kind of busy for all the local brewers. Also I won a Foggy Noggin t-shirt so bonus for that. I also liked the across the gorge event at naked city. I won an Everybodys shirt there. I swear over the years I’ve slowly phased out all my band shirts and replaced them with ber shirts.