The 7th Annual Seattle Beer Week (SBW) kicked off this past Thursday, and the fun will continue all the way through Sunday, May 17. Check out the full list of events on the SBW website.
Personally, the start of my Seattle Beer Week has been pretty outstanding. I was travelling Thursday and missed the opening festivities, but below is a quick recap of my weekend.
Friday:
- The start of a perfectly sunny Seattle weekend began with me drinking a bunch of heavy stouts indoors at Brouwer’s Cafe for their Back in Black Stout Festival. With more than 40 stouts on tap from all of the country and world, there were plenty of gems to choose from on the list. The Kona Coffee version of Alesmith Speedway Stout was a nice find, and the Firestone Walker 2011 Parabola is still holding up quite well after four years. Another favorite was the 2013 Bourbon Barrel Stout from Northwest Brewing Company. It wasn’t as robust and over-the-top as many of the others we were sampling, but it is a great example of balance with all the flavors showing up. The most interesting beer of the session had to have been the Crème Brulee Velvet Glove from Iron Fist Brewing of Vista, California. In contrast to the popular Creme Brulee from Southern Tier Brewing, Iron Fist’s version was much less sweet & intense. The flavor leaned towards almost a creamy coconut more so than straight creme brulee, but it was quite enjoyable.
- After we had our fill of stouts, we headed over to Toronado Seattle for an event with Drake’s Brewing Company. Located in San Leandrdo, CA, Drake’s beer is not typically available in the Seattle market, but they made a few appearances this weekend for SBW. As much as I enjoy all the events featuring local beers for SBW, these types of one-off events are the ones that really get my attention. Our table had a nice sampling of their selection, including the Drake’s 1500 Pale Ale, Puckersmith, Wild Hundo and Denogginizer IIPA.
Saturday
- It was so nice out on Saturday that we wanted to make sure that we enjoyed the weather a bit while hitting a few SBW options at the same time. We started off with a walk from our place in N. Beacon Hill over to Rhein Haus. They were not having an official SBW event on Saturday, but they did the inaugural tapping of this year’s official SBW beer, Silver City Sieben Braü, here on Thursday. We enjoyed a 1/2 liter of the hoppy lager on their expansive patio, which I was amazed that more people were not out there on such a beautiful day. This is going to be a go-to spot for us on sunny afternoons this summer.
- Next up we walked down to The Pine Box, where they were getting ready to start their Beer Can Derby races our on their patio. This is the first year I’ve attended the Beer Can Derby, and honestly I was amazed and a bit surprised for how many people turn out for the event. They had some special beers pouring for the event, including New Belgium Cherry Oscar Love, a special sour blend that is still on tap.
- We headed to the other side of town for our final stop of the day, Famhouse Night at The Sixgill in Fremont. They were featuring saisons and more from Crux, Engine House #9, pFriem, Trinity, The Commons, Breakside, and Prairie Ales. Add to those plenty of leftover sour beers from their Cascade event on Thursday, and the taplist was pure heaven. We could have stayed all night. I was quite impressed by the Trinity Magical Brett Sereis No. 1, which was heavy on the Brett, but really enjoyable. The Breakside Bonfire Walk with Me was surprisingly good. Billed as a “spontaneously fermented old ale” collaboration with Bonfire Brewing, it had a lot going on. I also couldn’t help but have a glass of Cascade Noyaux, which in my mind is the best fruit sour beer they make, and they make a lot of great ones. After The Sixgill, we’d headed back home to grill and enjoy the weather on the patio….not a bad day.
We were tempted to hit a few SBW events on Sunday, but instead we headed over to the Eastside to pick up our quarterly wine club delivery from Brian Carter Cellars. Heading to Woodinville always gives us an excuse to visit one of the breweries over that way, and we chose Triplehorn Brewing this time around. We had not been in there in at least a year, and the taproom and patio setup has changed quite a bit since then. Triplehorn makes some solid beers, and their Enabler Session IPA was perfect to sip in the sun on their patio; it’s one of the better session IPAs out there. We were planning on heading back home to grill again, but the awesomeness of Din Tai Fung pulled us to downtown Bellevue. We were lucky enough to snag two seats at the bar right away, where I was happy to find Black Raven Trickster IPA on tap to enjoy with their amazing dumplings.
It was an all around fantastic weekend, but there is no chance I’ll keep up that pace this week. That said, I’m excited to hit a few select SBW events later this week, including the dinner with Logsdon Farmhouse Ales at The Masonry on Wednesday.
Whatever you end up doing, I hope you enjoy Seattle Beer Week as much as I do.
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