Washington Cask Beer Festival

I’m starting to find myself at any alcohol related festival our city has to offer…
My alcoholism aside though… what a fun event!
$ 40 for 25– 3oz tastings… I certainly did not make it to all 25 tastings but I prefer to be limited by tastings and not have to deal with tokens or tickets like some places. I also really liked that they vote for the best beer — We were at the 6pm session so we were able to see what the earlier session voted for.
Also — being inside, there were plenty of bathrooms! I’m personally not a big fan or port-​o-​potties so a large clean bathroom with plenty of stalls was a huge plus.
Next year, I will be making a pretzel necklace so I can blend in with all the other cool beer drinkers.

We’ve been to this particular festival a few times, and this time we decided it would be our last. While it’s always great to have the beer poured by people who work at the brewery or the brewers themselves, the selections at this festival are pretty disappointing. It seemed like every dark beer had coffee or chocolate in it (I kept thinking I should be adding cream and ice, as they all tasted like chilled coffee without the ice), Most of the rest were pale ales or IPAs. That’s fine for a sample or two, but it got old real quick, and every beer ended up tasting like the last one. I had hopes for the one with hazelnut (not to be confused with Rogue’s Nut Brown, this one was from Skagit Co), but the nut flavor was SO strong it obliterated subsequent flavors. I even had a hard time getting the smell out of my plastic cup (which really made me want to be a WABL member, their glass tasting glasses were nice this year).
For this event, WABL did away with the wooden tokens, and gave everyone a punch card that you’d use for your tastes. That was a major pain compared to the tokens! The vendors had to stop and put down what they were doing (which usually involved pouring beer and keeping the lines moving) take your card, punch it, and hand it back. I wonder how their wrists and hands felt at the end of the day? Please, bring back the tokens, or use regular tickets. It’s much more efficient, and they won’t contribute to carpal tunnel syndrome!
There seemed to be confusion when it came to how much beer each sample was supposed to be. I heard later that the glasses were only supposed to be filled half-​full, but almost every vendor was filling the glasses nicely. We had plenty of punches left on our cards, and gave them away before we left. That NEVER happens, this is the first beer festival we’ve been to that we didn’t have to buy more tokens or tickets! Great for beer drinkers, not so much for the festival’s cash box.
The good things about the festival were having real bathrooms, nice ones, and having Dante’s Inferno Dogs as a food vendor. Fisher Pavilion is beautiful, and I look forward to attending the SIBF there this July.

Great beer, great vendors, plenty of tastings and a small and intimate venue that provided everything needed to meet the demand of the festival. The bathrooms were sufficient, I never had to wait in line. The punchcard with 20 tastes was more than enough to try everything I was interested in. The brewers were incredibly friendly. The 4 hour time allotment to try the beers was just right. The soft pretzels and mustard for sale from Bravehorse were a stroke of sheer genius.
I will be back next year for sure! It is great that they limit the tickets to the quantity set, it was just the right amount of people for the space.

Yet another reason to drink beer, twist my arm? Cask festival is an event to taste great beer of the Pacific Northwest in a true form and see how brewers are experimenting with different taste, ingredients and style. Some of my favorites from this event were, Black Raven Snikerdoodle Stout, The Ram’s peachy Keen Pale Ale and Jr. Mint Stout and near the end of the first session I was able to get the guys from Georgetown to tap Lisa, Chocolate Stout and get the first pour!
A little tip, if you join WABL, Washington Beer Lovers association, not only do you get a real glass tasting glass but you get in a separate line and get in 15 minutes early.

Hands down the best beer festival ever.
Yes, I’ve only gone 2 years running thus far — but I’ve seen my share of beer fests from the tents in Bavaria to the high cheese factor «Oktoberfest» that takes place in Leavenworth. The WABL just knows their beer and all the best the state of Washington has to offer is here — cask conditioned no less!
Is it a little pricey to get in? Maybe — but when you consider that $ 35 gets you an all exclusive pass to drink yourself silly on some seriously top notch/​high abv beers, all while indoors?! With limited crowds since there are only so many tickets each year? For four straight hours? Well, in my opinion it is WELL worth the price. Im lucky enough to have WABL member friends — they get in early and always snag a table for us to come back to. Bring snacks, cuz when that hangover rolls around at 10 pm you will be wishing you ate more corn chips.
And again, this is the best. The beers are all excellent — it is hard to go wrong with anything you choose here. I was even able to finish an Oyster porter without much second thoughts (yes it was sort of gross, but yes I was really snockered by the time I braved that sample). The men & women manning the kegs and representing their craft are all friendly, enthusiastic, and may just forget to take your token/​punch your card.
The only thing I am disappointed about is that this only happens once a year *le~sigh* Until next spring Cask festival! I look forward to you again with anticipation.

These WABL events are Serious Beer Business. No half-​assed beer psychouts allowed at these… unlike at some others I could mention.
This was, hands down, the best beer fest I have attended so far in Seattle.
The unlimited drinking from 12−4pm was definitely the way to go. Without having an in, I would not have been able to attend as it was completely sold out. The hardcore beer mofos had this covered long in advance. No Johnny-​come-​latelys allowed to show up at the door here.
This is a cask beer fest which is, I gather, different than the usual beerfests because it’s in casks! SEE? I CAN BE TAUGHT!
I have learned more about coffee and beer in the last year than, I am sure, I would have picked up in 20 years outside of Seattle. You people are hard core caffeinated hopheads, you magnificent bastards!