Seattle

Here's a list of events: http://beermonger.blogspot.com/2012/04/full-list-of-seattle-beer-week-2012.html
Big thing getting a lot of buzz is the sour fest tomorrow (Thursday) at Brouwers - if you like sours, of course. If you're restricted to downtown, consider taking a bus if you have the time to get up to Fremont/Ballard areas or just peruse the list for events downtown.
The official site: http://www.seattlebeerweek.com/ - but not as well crafted as the Beer Mongers site in my opinion.

 

Avoid the Tap House Grill --- this is NOT a BA kind of place. If you're downtown, hit up Collin's Pub, Elysian Fields, Pike, and Brave Horse. Stumbling Monk is in Capitol Hill --- not far from the downtown corridor. If you're heading up there, hit up Quinn's, Pine Box, and Elysian Capitol Hill.

 

I'd recommend avoiding the Taphouse Grill as well.

 

Wife and I are taking the 3-month old to Fremont's Barrel Night in a few minutes. It's going until 8pm tonight.

 

Well that was a fail. They limit the "barrel event" to 15 people at any time, and the next open time slot was 7:30 when we got there at 4:45pm. Fremont didn't mention this on their website or on Seattle Beer Week's page. I really wish they would've said something about this online. I was looking forward to the Lambic and Brett Saison...

 

The fremont event was really outstanding...understand your frustration but keeping it to smaller groups allowed for a real intimate experience

 

What was your favorite? How were the wilds?

 

I agree with keeping it to a smaller size, I just wish that Fremont would've told people before showing up and waiting in line for 30 minutes before actually knowing the limits. There was no mention of it anywhere online. They just need to do a better job of clearly explaining the process ahead of time if they do it again.

 

agreed.

 

Yeah - i was blindsided too - arrived at 4:30ish and the earliest open tasting was 6:30. Fortunately, that timing was just fine for us.

The lambics are very young (3 months and about a year). They are obviously still exploring but the thought is to loosely follow the Geuze method of blending old lambic with young - that is obviously still a few years away I would imagine.

The kentucky dark star and b-bomb were both wonderful as always though they represented younger versions of what eventually sees release. For those that were wondering, they are using approximately 20 year old Heaven Hills barrels for both of those beers. They had one loose dry fly barrel sitting around and expressed interest in making their barrel program more local in the future.

As it relates to the barrel program, man they have a lot of barrels. I believe Matt, the owner, mentioned that they just acquired more space in the neighborhood to house their barrel program.

On top of that, the partner in the Cowiche Canyon hop project was also there talking about organic hops!

 

As the owner of Fremont Brewing Company, I couldn't agree more at we failed to communicate the15 person limit and the time slots. That was a fail. I can only imagine the absolute bummed reaction when told that you had to sign up for a time slot and there were only four. I am sorry for all those of you that made the effort to come and got turned away.

As a treat, we put the 2011 Bbomb on draft. Although that doesn't make up for the lack of clarity about the event, our intention was to provide a quality event where folks who were there could enjoy and relax. We did not think that many people would be interested. We will do better next time. Thanks for the love and support and we will have more beer and a bigger event next year.

 

Thanks for commenting on this. I was bummed that I was shut out of the barrel tasting, but I completely understand. My love for you guys is not diminished. Maybe pull something out for August 9th when I overtake the UBG for my 31st birthday gathering?