Seattle Beer Week is upon us: https://www.seattlebeerweek.com/ . Anybody have events they're eager to hit? But, I have another question: Are "Beer Weeks" still exciting for folks? Do they carry the same cachet as, say, 10 years ago? With all the new breweries popping up seemingly every week, distro improving, and good beer just being woven into the fabric of life here in the PNW, do events like brewers nights and beer weeks really grab consumers interests like they did in "The Day"? Bellingham Beer Week was a couple weeks ago, and if it weren't for a friend texting to ask if I were going to this or that event, I wouldn't have even known it was happening. Maybe that's due to my disinterest, or maybe the organizers didn't get the word out widely enough, but it was a big 'meh, wutevs' for me. Discuss.
I think it probably depends on what sort of events are on tap. I know for PBW (Portland beer week), it was pretty difficult to get too excited, as the events weren't really anything extraordinary or out of the ordinary. I mean, if Fremont has some sort of event where they're pulling special beers out of the library, I'll make the drive up from PDX. If all that's available during beer week is a tap take over at some of the better beer bars in town, unless there's something really unusual or limited getting poured, I'm probably not going to post for it.
Things like Barleywood Squares and the Beer Can derby are the types of things I find fun, and would go to. Yet another brewers night, meh, unless it was some brewery I really had the hots for and couldn't get regularly. For me these things (beer weeks) the beer is often secondary. We live in an area where pretty much every week is a beer week.
Beer week was a lot of more fun when the beer scene was smaller. As the scene has grown the events have become a far less interesting. It's to the point I don't even pay attention to beer week at all and haven't for years. It isn't just beer week but the overall scene in general. I remember getting excited when a brewery I'd heard about showed up on shelves. I can't remember the last time that happened. Beer is so hyper local that it's squeezed out everything from imports to other regional offerings. All so we can have more mediocre local attempts at hazy IPA's and lagers.
Exactly. Belmont Station is currently doing an all month long pFriem event. It's the sort of event I would typically associate with Beer Week, but it's just a random event BS decided to put on. This coming Saturday, Arch Bridge is holding their 8th anniversary event, with a kickass tap list selection. Who needs beer week?
What kinds of events would move the needle for you all? I don't think my area has a beer week but it seems like SF beerweek still gets a little excitement. The events I remember getting some attention on here were tasting sessions guided by the brewers themselves. Which does sound fun.
That's a good question. Beer week events don't excite me anymore, but then again most events had stopped being a draw for me even before the pandemic. I do remember going to a wild ale seminar for PDX Beer Week one year that included de Garde, Breakside, Upright, and...Alesong, I think? That was great and a lot of fun, but with two beers each I was also smashed at the end, which I really am not a fan of doing away from home. I think - and I'm guessing I'm not the only one here who feels this way - is that I'm just no longer in the target demographic for a beer week. I know the breweries, I'm aware of most all the new beers I care about, I know where to buy them. One thing I do miss is official beer week beers that were bottled and distributed around the city.
This touches on something that occurred to me when I asked the question, I'd love an event like that with some local/regional stars in the field plus someone from a distant brewer who is a star in the field too. In the case you're discussing, maybe someone from Casey or Wunderkrammer or even a Belgian or Italian wild ale brewer. Like you said, I know the local scene, I know where to get their beers, they do special releases outside of beer week, so what's the draw? Seems like pivoting into a chance to foster cross pollination with a distant beer scene could breathe some life back into the whole idea.
One of my favorite BBW events ever was when Tonya Cornett (formerly of Bend Brewing, no with 10 Barrel) brought up a bunch of bottles out of her special stash, and we had a sit-down conversation around one of Stones Throw fire pits About 10-12 of us, so it wasn't crowded and bro-ish, and she answered every question everybody had. Stuff like that is interesting to me, but lining up elbow-to-elbow for a pour of some hype brew just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Agreed. Back in the day, these were the sort of events that interested me. I used to attend as many Philly beer week events as possible, which typically featured tap take overs from out of the area breweries that you typically never saw on the East Coast. Yes, we have an outstanding beer scene here in the NW, but great beer is made all over the country now. It would be great to have beer and brewers from Italy and Belgian, but I'd be delighted (and interested) just to see beers and brewers from Three Floyd's, Trillium or Funky Buddha (just by way of an example).
We still have this with Seattle Beer Week. Stoup did this year's. I bought a can, it was a nice solid pale. I can't remember the last time I attended an SBW event. Probably sometime before Covid.
