While I’m excited about the 5th annual Seattle Beer Week (SBW), which will kick off Thursday, May 9 and last through Sunday, May 19, my liver has secretly been dreading this date. With over 200 events scheduled for the week (it’s really 11 days), you shouldn’t have a problem finding something interesting that fits your schedule. I wouldn’t suggest trying to hit them all…not that you could.

With so many great breweries, bars, retailers and restaurants that focus on good beer year-round in Seattle without the need for a special occasion, you could almost call every week your own personal “beer week”. But, SBW is one hell of an excuse for every beer venue in town to throw a collective party that celebrates everything that is great about one of the best beer cities in the country. Seattle helped start the now booming countrywide craft beer craze, and our fine city continues to boast some of the best breweries and beer bars anywhere.

The fun starts on Thursday at Fremont Brewing Company, where at 5:30pm they will tap the first keg of the official 2013 SBW beer, a 4.5% ABV Organic Session Pale Ale. This year’s closing event will be a Salmon Bake held at the Pyramid Alehouse on May 19 from 1pm to 8pm. In between those two events, you’ll find beer dinners, full-blown festivals (I’m looking at you, Brouwer’s Cafe), bar crawls, brewers nights, tap takeovers, new and specialty beer releases and plenty more.

SBW is also a great chance to check out some of the newer beer spots in town, as well as new breweries from around the area. The fantastic duo behind The Noble Fir recently opened The Sixgill in Fremont, and they have 7 events on their event calendar for the week. Brave Horse Tavern will also host a “Newbies Night” that will feature beers from Rueben’s Brews, Bellevue Brewing Co., Peddler Brewing Co., Populuxe Brewing and Moscow Brewing. 

With so many events to choose from, it might be hard to decide where to spend your time. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong. For more information on these and other events, make sure to check out Seattlebeerweek.com.

I may put up daily posts featuring some events here at SBN, but we’ll have to see about that. I may be too busy having fun.