American Craft Beer Week is officially recognized by Congress and is celebrated across the nation with a variety of tastings, festivals and other events. However, there were no registered ACBW events in Spokane or the surrounding area and my rough research revealed there were only minor specials being offered by local breweries, ale houses and beer bars. I found myself wondering how Spokane can look to its big brothers to the west (Seattle and Portland) and not take some cues from the vibrant beer communities that have grown there. I refuse to believe that the Spokane market does not appreciate craft beer enough; my rudimentary studies argue strongly for the opposite. But the craft beer lovers I meet somehow remain scattered and do not resemble a community. Perhaps all we need is a world-class brand or a well-organized event celebrating what the region has to offer to serve as rallying point for the craft beer lovers of Spokane and the surrounding environs. Anyone committed to helping to grow local craft beer awareness is welcome to join me to discuss over a pint or two.
Lacking any organized events, I decided to celebrate ACBW in my own ways. Monday consisted of the aforementioned fruitless research into possible beer events at my local haunts and a trip to a fellow craft beer lover for pints from his kegerator. On Tuesday my friend and I bottled our Bagombo IPA, detailed in an earlier blog post. The next two days were dominated by work, but not without a trip to the Post St Ale House for a late lunch on Wednesday. Then, my beer week got a whole lot better: my girlfriend and I left Friday morning to go across the state to the Emerald City for the end of Seattle Beer Week and a Sounders FC match.
We arrived in the late afternoon and did some record shopping then found a place to eat. The vegan chik’n logs at The Bamboo Garden near Seattle Center are amazing, whether drenched in almond gravy or peanut sauce. We then made our way back east a bit to Redmond and the Malt and Vine, where a tasting for Stone Brewing was taking place. We pulled up to a rather non-descript strip mall to find a large bottle store absolutely filled with people. The tasting was a bit understaffed, so essentially you would wait in line, grab a taster and then get back in line. The Cali-Belgique is absolutely stupendous and the vanilla Smoked Porter was quite tasty as well. Final taster in hand, I perused the ample selection of bottles and picked out a few to take home. We headed to our friends house where we were staying and went to sleep relatively early to prepare for the Sounders match in the morning.
If you are in the Seattle area, I highly recommend going to a Sounders match, even if you find soccer to be incredibly boring. The atmosphere of the stadium with the marching band, rabid fans and sea of green and blue is worth the price of admission alone. Definitely participate in the March to the Match from Pioneer Square and then watch the Sound Wave perform outside before entering the stadium (sousaphone hula hoop, anyone?). We were lucky enough to get tickets directly above the crazy fan section behind the southern goal so we were able to join in the chants and songs as much as we could (and resorting to mouthing the words that we didn’t know). The Sounders fell to the San Jose Earthquakes one to nil, but the experience has solidified my growing suspicion that I am more than just a hockey fan and has left me very excited for the World Cup to begin.
I digress. After the match, food was in order so we headed to the U district to seek out the IPA-fest at Big Time Brewing Co. They had thirteen IPA’s on tap, all brewed on premises and the variety was staggering. After waiting in the considerable queue, I started with the Belgian IPA to compare it to the Cali-Belgique from Stone and then moved on to the 21st Anniversary IPA. Both were incredibly good and the sips I had of my girlfriends Meercat and Jasmine IPA’s were just as good. Big Time definitely plays to their strengths with their IPAs. Always clean and balanced, hop heads can rejoice.
After some food and the beers, we were ready for an adventure, but the weather was not cooperating so we decided to head back to Malt and Vine. A tasting for Ninkasi was just wrapping up, but the place was very quiet which helped after a long day of being in crowds at the soccer match. I had been eyeing the Fish IPA on cask the night before and I was not disappointed. Some beers may not take well to casking, but IPAs become wonderfully nuanced due to the harsher aspects of the hops being mellowed. Bright citrus and pine flavors still abound unabated, but without nearly the bite you would find from the same beer traditionally kegged. After one pint, we headed for our friends and again fell asleep early.
Incredibly long post after over a weeks absence, and my apologies for the rambling, but thus concludes my American Craft Beer Week experience. Looking forward to next year…
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