Northern Exposure: Seattle Brews at the Great Canadian Beer Fest
If you are a serious craft beer connoisseur, you're likely very familiar with the biggest beer event of the year: The Great American Beer Festival held in Denver, CO at the end of September. But, less talked about, yet heavily attended is our neighboring nations' equivalent: The Great Canadian Beer Festival. Not nearly as large, but equally awesome, the GCBF is held at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, BC. The event is a two-day beer bonanza kicking off on Friday (Sept. 9th) from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and continuing on Saturday (Sept. 10th) from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. This will be the 18th year running for the beer fest and crowds of around 8,000 are to be expected to attend. Breweries from all over Canada and the United States will be featured -- 58 in total this year, five of which will be from our fair Emerald City.
The 5 Seattle breweries at this years' GCBF will be Big Time Brewing (located in the U-District), Elysian (now with 4 locations throughout Seattle), Pike Brewing (located in the Pike's Place Market), Pyramid Brewery (down by Qwest Field) and Three Skulls (in association with Baron Brewing, out in South Seattle near Boeing Field). Here's what these guys will be bringing across the boarder to showcase their beers:
Big Time:
Prime Time Pale Ale*
Coal Creek Porter
Powderfinger Rye Ale*
Scarlet Fire IPA*
Elysian:
Avatar Jasmine IPA
Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Pike Brewing:
Double IPA
Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale
XXXXX Stout*
Naughty Nellie
Monk's Uncle Triple*
Pyramid Brewery:
Haywire Hefeweizen
Audacious Apricot Ale
Three Skulls:
Black Berry Porter*
Hop the Plank IPA
Blood Orange Wit
*Cask Conditioned
If you're thinking of jumping on a ferry and heading up to Canada this weekend because I've made your mouths water with anticipation over this event, good luck finding tickets! The tickets for GCBF go on sale online on a Saturday morning in July and sell out for both Friday and Saturday within one hour of going live for purchase. But, mark your calendars for next year (weekend after Labor Day) and keep an eye on their website or Facebook page. Now I better go track down my passport.
Cheers!
