Thanks to holubs on Flickr for the pic.

Belgianfest has become one of my favorite local festivals over the past few years. The event gives WA brewers a chance to have a little fun experimenting with Belgian styles. Tickets are sold out online and will not be available at the door, but a few for each session were available for in-person purchase at Full Throttle Bottles in Georgetown as of yesterday.

With 34 WA breweries pouring more than 80 beers, there is a lot to choose from. You can find the full brewery and beer list at this link, but following are a few of the beers that I will be targeting. With so many unique one-off beers, this is a tough festival to choose for.

Ram Brewery Bourbon Barrel-Aged Sours #1 & #2 – No details on these, but their “Sour Diesel” from last year was my favorite beer of the event. I’ll be hoping for a repeat performance.

Ramblin’ Road Brewery Back-Country Bourbon – Festivals are a great chance to try new breweries. I can’t say I know much about Ramblin’ Road, other than they are from Spokane. Looking forward to sampling this 10% ABV Belgian Quad aged in Woodinville bourbon barrels, though.

Duvall Springs Red Beast Tripel – Here is another “new to me” brewery I don’t know much about. This “Rauch Belgian Tripel” with cherry bourbon soaked oak chips sounds a bit risky, but I’m interested to see how the flavors come together.

American Stupid Sexy Flanders – Aside from the great Simpsons-themed name, this beer was one of the most impressive I had at Brouwer’s Bigwood fest in December. Brewer Skip Madsen has proven across the years that while he may specialize in the hoppy brews, he knows his way around sours and barrel-aged beers quite well.

Triplehorn Öl du Vin, (Beer of the Vine) – As I mentioned last week, I’m pretty impressed with what I have had from Triplehorn so far. This collaboration with Patterson Cellars sounds like one of the most unique of the fest. They blended their saison with Patterson’s Late Harvest Roussanne wine.

Sound Brewery – If you haven’t had much from Sound before, you should try at least one thing. They specialize in Belgian-style beers year-round, and they are firmly on the map as one of my favorite local breweries. I’m a big fan of their Dubbel Entendre, which is a very solid example of the style.

Fremont Belga Pala Ala – I love all the sours, barrel-aged beers and strong ales, but I’m going to need to change up a bit at some point. I’m a big fan of Belgian-style pale ales done right, and I haven’t had much of anything from Fremont that misses the mark. Their Cokolado Fortika sounds enticing as well. Take your pick.

Engine House #9 Barrel A Batch 3 – A light 4.7% ABV Belgian-inspired sour ale sounds refreshing among all the other heavy hitters at this fest.

Big Al Brewing Sauvin Blanc – It will be hard to pass up the always great Sourlicious, but I love a good saison. Hopped with Nelson Sauvin and coming in at 5.8% ABV, this sounds right up my alley.

These are just a few that I think are worth targeting. There are plenty of other great beers that will be pouring, so just have fun and enjoy whatever you get.

Cheers!