The Washington Brewers Festival starts on Friday, June 17th and runs through June 19th. Here are our picks for your first 8 beers.
With a sense of hope and optimism towards restoring normalcy, since the start of this pandemic, the Washington Brewers Festival invites one and all to Marymoor Park. Starting June 17th and concluding on Father’s Day, June 19th, this is your rare chance to have a few beers in a Washington state park.
For the uninitiated, the Washington Brewers Festival or Father’s Day Beer Festival (as it’s been unofficially nicknamed) hosts nearly 100 breweries from throughout Washington state. With a required daily admission of around $40 (at the door), your pass allows you to drink 8 5 ounce beers from breweries in Redmond, Woodinville, Bothell, Kirkland, Seattle, and beyond! Besides beer from throughout the Evergreen state, the organizers of the festival have also invited wine, cider, and non-alcoholic soda vendors for those not wishing to acclimate towards a glass of pale ale or porter.
And, recognizing that one should not enjoy beers on an empty stomach, or one not complemented by something edible, several restaurants are taking part on the state park grounds, including.
Kornman of WA
Athenas Food Truck
Big Dog’s
Buddha Bruddah
Frelard Tamales
Kautzman Kettle Corn
Kenyan Kitchen
Kottu
Pompeii Wood Fired Pizza
Redmond’s Bar & Grill
Street Donuts Co
Street Treats
Where Ya At, Matt
Wood Shop BBQ
For looking to distract themselves while attending this fun event, the organizers have invited the following entertainers, with a list and times posted below.
Friday 5:40 PM The Industrials
Friday 7:15 PM Eden
Saturday 12:15 PM The Enthusiasts
Saturday 1:45 PM Longstride
Saturday 3:15 PM Flatstick Pub Brewer Keg Toss
Saturday 4:30 PM The Kellee Bradley Band
Saturday 6:15 PM Lago Vista Social Club
Sunday Noon Cozmic Sauce
Sundday 1:30 PM Flatstick Pub Keg Toss
Sunday 3:00 PM Nick Drummond Band
Finally, recognizing that 8 5 ounce drink tickets is not enough when one considers the hundreds of beers that will be featured, we have the following eight that we think are 100% worth trying, based on peer ratings and overall reputation.
Burke-Gilman Little Paper Umbrellas. Recognized nationally as a member of the Alpha Kings, for their use of hops, Burke-Gilman Brewing has produced award-winning beers, featured at their taproom near Husky Stadium. With a description like “Tropical IPA made with thiolized yeast. Lovely tropical flavors and aromas from Citra, Motueka, Riwaka”, it probably tastes pretty close to the real thing.
Chuckanut Dunkel Munich Lager. A brewery that would go quadruple platinum if it could, from the sheer volume of awards it's received, Chuckanut Brewery has produced some of the most true to style Lagers in the Pacific Northwest. And as one brewery that is bringing a dark lager, for what will surely be an overcast weekend, this Munich lager will compliment the mood from Friday thru Sunday. Here’s what the brewery had to say about their beer.
Chuckanut Dunkel is a classic malty, deep mahogany Munchener lager with balanced smooth toffee & chocolate notes. This full flavored dark lager is a favorite with taproom guests and competition judges and soon to be your favorite too!
Georgetown Blackberry Flanders Forever. In the category of breweries that you didn’t know made more than Manny’s, Bodhizafa, or Lucille, Georgetown’s Blackberry Flanders Forever, is a member of the small-batch, barrel-aged series of beers the brewery showcases at their taproom in bottles or on draft. Which is why we are encouraging you to check out this beer and consider it, if nothing else, by their description.
A Flanders-style red ale fermented with brettanomyces and lactobacillus in neutral red wine barrels was aged 12 months, then re-fermented on blackberries, and conditioned an additional 3 months.
Postdoc Barrel-Aged Antichromatic 2021 White Stout (Saturday only). At 10.2%, we had the pleasure of trying this when it was first released and we couldn’t avoid pondering homemade holiday confections like divinity, nougat, and other vanilla-inspired treats.
Reuben’s Brews Barnacles English-style Barleywine (Friday only). Made in cooperation with Portland (Oregon) brewery, Hair of the Dog, they name this beer for the co-founders’ beloved French bulldog. At 11.2%, this is a beer that will fit perfectly in your 5 ounce glass. More on the beer below.
Barnacles English-style Barleywine is the sixth release in the Reuben’s Brews 10th Anniversary Collaboration Series, brewed with our friend and brewing legend Alan Sprints of Hair of the Dog Brewery. We have a lot to thank Alan for but one of the most memorable occasions was in October 2012. Our brewery had only been open for business for two months and we were planning our very first bourbon-barrel imperial stout. We didn’t know where we could get a bourbon barrel, but Alan came to our rescue, giving us two barrels from Hair of the Dog’s stash. We thank Alan for all of his leadership and inspiration in the craft beer world, both here in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
Single Hill Lateral A IPA. Brewed in collaboration with Western Washington pizza chain Zeek’s Pizza, Lateral IPA does its best to taste like a cream sicle from a warm Summer day. Named after the road that leads to Yakima hop field mana, Lateral IPA might be equally refreshing if you try many of these lagers and need something to wake up your taste buds.
Twin Sister Me Gustas Tú. With the description of, :Our Amber Mexican Lager collaboration brew with our friends at Chuckanut Brewery.”, Me Gustas Tú is summed up as having notes of toast, light toffee, and biscuit, but with a refreshingly clean finish. Just a little north of 5% at 5.2%, this will be a solid palate cleanser should you go off course and consume a hazy ipa or fruited sour.
Urban Family Foeder Light Foeder-Fermented American Light Lager (Saturday & Sunday only). A low-alcohol lager, that tricks you into thinking it’s higher in alcohol, Foeder Light is another alternative to the voluminous scale of india pale ales, that will distract you from enjoying the festival responsibly. But if our justification holds no weight, then consider the brewery’s words.
Next up in our Foeder Lager series inspired by oak-aged farmhouse style saisons and sours yet also a crushable, bright lager our brewers can't get enough of.
And that’s it. 8 beers, 5 ounces apiece, and this only scratches the surface. If you want to see the rest of the beers featured at the festival, visit https://files.constantcontact.com/572ea8d3101/0efa2c4f-7865-4369-a494-b082359510cd.pdf?rdr=true. With tickets still on sale, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/15th-annual-washington-brewers-festival-tickets-84805005053 to and select your day or days. For more information, visit https://www.washingtonbeer.com/festivals/washington-brewers-festival.php.
