It has become a Fathers Day tradition for beer lovers: the annual Washington Brewers Festival at Saint Edward State Park. Dozens of breweries (50+) will be pouring over 200 beers all weekend long at this year’s festival, which gets underway today (Friday) at 4:00 p.m..
Washington is home to some of the world’s greatest craft breweries and this event proves it. With more than 100 craft breweries in the state, beer drinkers around here are blessed with plenty of craft beer choices. This weekend Washington’s award-winning breweries will put forth their finest offerings. For the uninitiated, the vast selection of delicious craft beer at the Washington Brewers Festival can be overwhelming. I mean that in the best way.
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
sponsor
Hours:
Friday 4:00 – 9:00
Saturday 11:00 – 9:00
Sunday 11:00 – 6:00
Admission: Friday $15 (includes four taster tokens), Sat-Sun $25 (includes six taster tokens).
Location: Saint Edward State Park. 14445 Juanita Dr. NE, Kenmore (MAP)
Details: For complete festival details go to the official event website.
Parking/Transportation: Click here to read about your parking and transportation options.
Information: To see all of our previous stories about this year’s festival, click here. The Washington Beer Blog will be reporting live all weekend long. If you want to stay on top of things, you’ll want to follow us on Twitter or Facebook, otherwise check with the website frequently.
Get your buzz on
This year the festival will feature a Buzz Cart. A handful of breweries are producing special, unique beers for this year’s festival. The Buzz Cart will make its way around the festival grounds. You’ll have to keep in tune to the festival buzz to know where the cart is at and what it is pouring. We’re not exactly sure how this is going to work, but we will be posting updates throughout the event.
The pint garden
For the first time, the festival will feature a pint garden. If you get weary of drinking all those little samples, you can go hoist a full pint. The selection of beers in the pint garden will rotate throughout the day.
Tossing kegs around
The annual Brewers Keg Toss competition takes place on Saturday afternoon. It is one of the highlights of the festival. Why? I don’t really know, except that it is always a hoot. Exactly what is a keg tossing competition? I can’t really explain it. You simply must see it.
Friday is a bit different
While the Friday night session (4:00 – 9:00) is a 21+ event, the rest of the weekend welcomes children, which is fitting for Fathers Day weekend. The Friday night session is also a bit different in that it will feature a selection of Friday-only beers poured by a select group of Washington brewers.
Coming from far and wide
While the three day event features primarily Washington breweries, a few out-of-state breweries will also be participating. This includes Goose Island Brewing from Chicago. Though they’ve been brewing craft beer since the late 1980s, Goose Island has only recently made their way into the Washington market.
Goose Island will be pouring their Matilda Belgian-style ale. We expect it to be a popular tent, not only because beer festival attendees always seem to gravitate to the new guy, but also because of the ever-increasing popularity of Belgian-style beers.
Another out-of-state guest is Boulevard Brewing from Kansas City. Well known and loved in Missouri and across the Midwest, Boulevard is an unknown commodity around here. Like Goose Island, they are new to the local beer scene. They will be pouring Unfiltered Wheat, Single Wide IPA, and Zon Belgian-style Witbier. Again, expect this to be a popular tent.
Other out-of-state guests include breweries that are more familiar to the local beer community: Firestone Walker, Sierra Nevada, Stone Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Oskar Blues, Dogfish Head, Kona Brewing, Bridgeport Brewing, Deschutes Brewery, Double Mountain Brewery, Ninkasi Brewing, and Widmer Brothers. Of those breweries, I would expect to see lines for Ninkasi because they have a strong local following and Double Mountain because they are still new to most people.
The Washington Beer Blog will have booth at this year’s festival. Stop by and say hello. Sink a putt on our putting green and you might walk away with free tickets to all of next year’s Washington beer festivals.
Can’t wait to head there tomorrow! This is my first Father’s Day too and I’m stoked to bring our six month old along with us. Just hoping the weather forecast gets better. The week started out with Saturday being low 70’s and sunny and has degenerated to low 60’s and rain. We’ll see, the weather people here can’t predict more than a few hours ahead anyway.
Might I reccomend to all of you Friday Hop heads the Three Skulls Double IPA. It’s only on friday and there is only a 1/4 barrel. Get it while the gettin’s good. And it is.