Outdoor festival and event season is upon us. Around here, that means celebrating everything from the long-awaited arrival of spring blooms to summer-kickoff races and music fests. And of course, lots of local beer. Add these beer events to your calendar, and sip several spring releases from Sunnyland breweries.
Spring events
Chuckanut Brewery will celebrate May Day with a spring festival on Sunday, May 1. Head to South Nut at the Port of Skagit for live entertainment, beer garden games, food trucks, and special beer tappings. Sound and Fury Morris Dancers will perform from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and award-winning beers will be available.
In Germany, May Day is traditionally celebrated with the release of Maibock (“Mai” is German for May), a rich and strong golden lager. That tradition continues at Chuckanut’s May Day Festival, where you can taste aged 2021 Maibock alongside a new batch of the beer brewed for 2022. Bottles of Chuckanut Maibock (which received a Gold Medal from the Great American Beer Festival in 2020) are only available at Chuckanut taprooms, so snag some of this limited-release beer while you can.
Kulshan Brewing will host Beer Prom on Saturday, May 21 at the Hotel Leo Crystal Ballroom. An annual event benefitting local nonprofit Lydia Place, Beer Prom is pairing up 13 brewers this year to produce six collaboration brews for the event. After attending the 1980s-themed 2018 Beer Prom (and posing with a DeLorean), I can confirm that these events are a ball. You’ve got a month to find a date and plan your ’70s-themed attire before dancing the night away to live tunes by GrooveBot. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online.
Summer sips
The Bellingham Bay Brewers Cruises begin May 25 and run through September. These hour-and-a-half cruises around Bellingham Bay and Chuckanut Bay are offered by San Juan Cruises every Wednesday each summer. Every week, Boundary Bay Brewery and guest breweries serve beer tasters aboard the Victoria Star 2 vessel. Sit inside or wander out on the deck to feel the wind in your hair. Sipping beers on the bay is a peak Bellingham summertime experience. Tickets are $44 and available online.
Two big upcoming events are worth a mention here, too. I’ll have more details on these as they get closer. Whatcom County celebrates Memorial Day weekend with the annual multi-sport Ski to Sea race on Sunday, May 29. A Fairhaven Festival at the finish line includes a beer garden hosted by Boundary Bay Brewery. Additionally, Stones Throw Brewing goes all-out with a block party during the event. Fairhaven Festival is free to attend.
We’ll also have a new bike, music and beer fest launching in Bellingham this summer. Northwest Tune-Up — which Jesse Stanton mentioned in his April 13 music column — will be held July 8 through 10, with 24 participating breweries at the downtown Bellingham waterfront. The area surrounding Kulshan Trackside will be transformed for three days with concert stages, beer tents and an expanded bike pump track. This is going to be a huge event and I’m excited to see which breweries are coming to town. Three-day passes are available online; prices vary.
Recent releases
A whole bunch of beers were released last week for the Sunnyland Garden Party. Even if you missed the four-day festival, you can still taste these new spring brews around town. Releases include an Italian pilsner from Twin Sisters Brewing, a hefeweizen from Stemma Brewing, a blonde Bham City Ale from Wander Brewing, a Cold IPA from Kulshan Brewing and two new releases from Otherlands Beer.
Otherlands’ Działka Pivo is a 4.1% alcohol by volume (ABV) “little beer” made with Czech Saaz hops. In contrast, their Satanic Majesties’ Third Request is a big Belgian-style tripel, brewed “for intense drinkability and celebratory strength.” So whether you’re looking for a low-ABV Czech pilsner or a Belgian strong ale, Otherlands covers the European-inspired beer bases. Pair these brews with Otherlands’ new spring menu, which features a seasonal French salad, split pea and barley soup, and a spiced beet sandwich.
Brandon Fralic’s Drink Cascadia column runs weekly on Wednesdays. Reach him at drinkcascadia@gmail.com.
