Submitted by: Bellingham Beer Week
Last year, Tap Trail took over Bellingham Beer Week. It was a grand affair. But we’ve set our sights high and intend to make it bigger, better and beer-ier. We want to knock on the regional doors of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, and say, “Hey, Bellingham’s craft beer rolls with the best of them!”
Our team met with Bellingham’s craft beer community last week. We discussed collaboration beers, dates, communications, expectations and basically how to organize and amplify this event.
The 2017 Bellingham Beer Week will begin on April 21 and run through April 29. “Why did you move it to April?!” you may ask. Friends, this is the best of all worlds. April is a season that works best for our craft beer community. The closer you move it to summer, the more complex everyone’s schedules become with festivals and events. Not to mention, we want to drive people to Bellingham during spring. Bellingham in spring is a beautiful thing! Let’s show them what we’ve got. BBW is about showcasing not just our craft beer community but our community as a whole. With so much to do in this town, we want to bring it all together. There’s also a number of events that will meld well with Bellingham Beer Week.
- Earth Day is on April 22. I can’t say enough about what this event means to Bellingham. Celebrating da’ earf is what we do. And there are few better ways to do it than through beer!
- Dirty Dan Days on April 23 in Fairhaven is celebrated near Stones Throw Brewing.
- BBW will culminate on April Brews Day, a huge and awesome brewery festival, which drops in on April 29. Folks, the beer FLOWETH. Get ready because we’re teaming up with them to create some goodness.
We’ve also been in touch with our surrounding region’s beer festivals, including Victoria Beer Week, Vancouver Beer Week and the newly formed BC Ale Trail. Seattle Beer Week falls on May 4 and rolls through May 14. We’ll be nicely sandwiched between all of them. Creating a regional force of collaborative-craft-beer-nature with all of them is high on our list.
We’re also instituting a “wild west” philosophy to BBW collaboration beers. There will be no official Bellingham Beer Week beer but we’re going to do you one better. Any brewery that wants to brew up a BBW beer that, “reflects Bellingham’s craft beer community,” or collaborate with others, can do so.
That means you’re going to get multiple Bellingham Beer Week beers. We’ve talked with our beer bars and expect a day or two of Locals Only, where only our local beers will be on draft. Out of towners, you’ll want to head there to get the full scope of our suds. We’re working closely with our hotel partners again and those coming from out of town will be sleeping in the best of sheets. More on this in a bit.
The details of events, beers, t-shirts, schwag and the rest are currently still brewing so stay tuned to Tap Trail and the BBW website for more details. Follow Tap Trail here and BBW here.
BBW 2017 is going to raise the bar. Get ready for over a week of beer and, as we say, “Come for the beer, stay for the beer.”