Here’s an early heads-up about a new beer event, or I should say a WEEK of beer events, coming this May. A few beer-loving individuals are organizing “Seattle Beer Week,” May 7-17th, 2009. Modeled after the successful San Francisco Beer Week and Philadelphia Beer Week, Seattle Beer Week will present a series of events involving great beer at local establishments.
The Web site gives no hint of who is behind this brilliant idea, but they aren’t hiding their identity on purpose, they’ve just been so busy planning the event that they haven’t had time for an “About Us” page. Beer Week organizer Ian Roberts tells us, “We are simply four guys who have been working in the greater Seattle Beer Community that wanted to bring this city of beer together and celebrate our scene. The crew Consists of Mike Baker, formerly of Baron Brewing now with Pacific Beverage, Matt Younts, beer specialist for Click Distributing, Nat Pellman formerly the manager of Big Time Brewing now working with myself over at Brouwer’s Cafe, which I’ve been managing for the past three years.”
The Beer Week is in its formative stages, and many more events will be added between now and May. www.SeattleBeerWeek.com will be updated frequently as more details are confirmed. Here are some of the events scheduled so far:
May 7th
Seattle Beer Week kick-off at Pike
May 8th
Ale of Two Cities special beer release at NakedCity
Stout night at Brouwer’s
May 9th
Elysian Beer Festival at Elysian Fields
Cask beer mini-fest at Sole Repair
May 10th
Old Sol Vertical at Big Time
May 11th
Trappist Paired Dinner at Quinn’s
Pike brewers dinner at the Latona
May 12th
Pig roast with Lazy Boy & Victory brews at the Pub at Pipers Creek
Pike Brewers dinner at Matt’s in the Market
May 13th
Beer & Brat Tasting at Shultzy’s
Capitol Hill pub crawl
Adam Avery at Brouwer’s
May 14th
Sour Beer Fest at Brouwer’s Cafe
Bock and sausage fest at all three Elysian pubs
May 15th
Beer & Cheese dinner at the Pillager’s Pub
May 16th
Seattle Beers at Elysian Fields
Stone Beer dinner at Collins Pub
May 17th
Week End Party and BBQ at The Dray
For San Francisco Beer Week, a local brewery recreated New Albion Ale following the original 33 year old recipe. This is the official beer of SF Beer Week:
http://www.sfbeerweek.org/albion.html
I think it would be great if a brewery in the Seattle area could be persuaded to recreate a classic beer from one of the original microbreweries in this region. Say, for example, Redhook’s Ballard Bitter or Grant’s Scottish Ale.
Even though tastes have evolved since beers like these were brewed in the late 1980’s, I believe Seattle beer drinkers would be excited to be able to sample some local history as part of Seattle Beer Week.