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 still available online for $35/session, and there will be tickets available at the door this year for $40. That includes 10 tasting tokens, but if you wear your Seahawks gear you’ll get “12” tokens instead.

With 42 WA breweries pouring more than 100 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.

E9 Brewery House of the Holy Saison – If you haven’t heard, Engine House #9 is making some great beers these days. And, this is a collaboration with my good friend Colin Lenfesty of the upcoming Holy Mountain Brewing. If you like saisons, you won’t want to miss this.

Anacortes Ned Flanders – Since it looks like American Brewing isn’t attending with their Stupid Sexy Flanders this year, I’ll give this 4.8% Flanders-style red ale a try. I’ve quite enjoyed the rare tastes of sour/wild ales I’ve had from Anacortes in the past. If this one doesn’t interest you, it looks like Anacortes is bringing a total of 8 different beers.

Hale’s Guapo’s Saison – Hale’s tends to do a great job with their special release beers, and this light 3-4% ABV saison will balance out some of the bigger beers I’m sure to try.

Snipes Mountain Terror in the Wood – This “French Provincial Stout” is brewed with 13 different malts, 3 types of hops, molasses, honey, apples and blackberries. It was then aged in Cab and Syrah barrels for over a year. Sounds like it has the potential to be complex and interesting, or it could just be a big old mess. At 10.6% it will surely add to your buzz.

Rainy Daze Belgian Bastard IPA – I haven’t tried much from Rainy Daze Brewing in Silverdale, so I’ll gladly take a chance on this Belgian-style IPA that won a silver medal at last year’s Washington Beer Awards.

Fremont Belgian Sour Weiss – A couple of friends were talking up this 4.0% Berliner Weisse from the reliable Fremont Brewing. It’s definitely one of my favorite styles that we don’t see enough of around here.

Black Raven Bourbon Barrel La Petite Mort – This barrel-aged strong ale has been one of my favorite barrel-aged beers in the past. Black Raven often has a crazy long line at festivals, but I’ll probably stand in it to get some of this.