Raise a pint to the craft at Vancouver Spring Brewfest

From Columbian.com

Fourth-annual event celebrates local brewers, benefits charities

Here, hold my beer.

Wait, what are you doing with my beer? Give that back. Didn’t you know, today and Saturday are Vancouver’s Spring Brewfest?

You’re forgiven for losing track. The fourth annual Spring Brewfest has moved a few yards over from its usual home and is a little hemmed in this year. Because of ongoing construction at the waterfront, the Vancouver Landing patio space is not available, organizer Cody Gray said. So Spring Brewfest will be up in the southeast section of Esther Short Park, on the brick plaza only. The city doesn’t schedule anything on the grass before May, Gray said. No live music this time, either, he said.

That means the beverages themselves will be the stars of this show. That’s no problem; Spring Brewfest will blossom with new and familiar flavours April 13 and 14. Visitors will be treated to the creations of 30 local breweries plus 15 meaderies, cideries and wineries. Each will pour two varieties — plus, many local taprooms put their foamy heads together to concoct something special for this event only: an “ALEtogether Pale Ale” that got brewed at Brothers Cascadia Brewing in Hazel Dell.

“Clark County is now home to 22 taprooms by the last count,” said co-organizer Michael Perozzo, and they enjoy working together and showing off what a friendly, collaborative beer community we’ve got here — so much so that they’ve hash-tagged their partnership projects as #CommunityNotCompetition. “It’s a celebration of the growth of craft beer in the area and the first iteration is set to debut at Spring Brewfest this weekend,” Perozzo said.

New arrivals

Several beverage crafters are new to the festival or new, period. A fledgling Vancouver company called Author Mead will go live and offer its first commercial sales — of a semisweet mead and an Oregon raspberry mead — at this event. Other newcomers are Dwinell Country Ales of Goldendale, with a Berlin-style wheat ale and a dark farmhouse ale; Wolf Tree Brewery of Seal Rock, Ore., with a spruce tip ale and a golden IPA; Thunder Island Brewing of Cascade Locks, with a golden ale and a “Remember the Forest IPA”; and Little Dipper Brewing, based at Battle Ground’s Northwood Pub, with a honey IPA and a classic British brown ale.

“Everybody is continuously innovating beer styles, and we always look forward to seeing what’s new,” said Gray. Check out the complete list of beers and other beverages on the Vancouver Spring Brewfest website, VancouverBrewfest.com.

No-frills, $10 admission at the gate gets you a wristband, but if you mean to drink, you’ll also need to buy a $5 pint glass and tokens for pours at $1.25 each. Those are included in ticket packages priced at $25 (8 tokens) and $35 (16 tokens). Buy your wristband and glass April 13 and get in free April 14. Minors and pets are not permitted.

You’re welcome to use previous Brewfest tokens you didn’t spend. And, Brewfest tokens you don’t spend now can be spent at Summer Brewfest, set for Aug. 10 and 11.

Veterans and volcano

“It’s a great mix of old and new and a great way to support your local craft breweries,” Gray said. “And, it’s a great way to support local charities.”

Gray, a combat veteran from Operation Desert Storm, has supported veterans’ charities throughout his years of brewfesting. This is the fourth annual spring event, but Gray’s been piloting a summer Vancouver Brewfest — a really big outing that takes over the whole park — for the past seven years. Returning beneficiaries of Spring Brewfest include the Northwest chapter of Disabled American Veterans; Northwest Battle Buddies, based in Battle Ground and providing assistance dogs for veterans with post traumatic stress disorder; and Second Chance Companions, a pet adoption network.

Admission to Spring Brewfest is always free for disabled veterans; an ID at the gate is required. Those disabled veterans who want to drink, will still need to buy a glass and tokens, and those who get a designated-driver wristband can enjoy free non-alcoholic beverages. “There is absolutely no charge,” the website says.

New on the charity scene at Spring Brewfest will be the Mount St. Helens Institute, a non-profit educational facility in the foothills of the big volcano. Gray said he reached out to the institute as a potential beneficiary for a simple and non-military reason: “Who doesn’t love the great outdoors? I’m a native Pacific Northwesterner and I’ve been around since before St. Helens blew the first time.” 

By rule, brewers never do their own pouring at Gray’s brewfests; volunteers do that. And the last volunteer shift on Saturday is always staffed by folks from the charities reaping the benefits. “That’s their one contribution for the donation,” he said. Hang around until the end to rub elbows with folks you can really lift a glass to.

Fewer fests

The busy Brewfest scene in Clark County has shaken off at least two previous outings. There’ll be no fresh hops festival in October this year, Gray said, because that event has lost money twice in a row. And December’s Winter Brewfest appears to be a casualty of the bankruptcy of Energy Events, whose major project had been staging the Vancouver USA Marathon.

Here’s the schedule of other upcoming beer- and brewfests in Clark County this year:
• Craft Beer and Wine Fest, June 8-10 in Esther Short Park.
• Vancouver Summer Brewfest: Aug. 10-11 in Esther Short Park.
• North Bank Beer Week: Sept. 20-30. All over Southwest Washington.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2018/apr/13/vancouver-spring-brewfest/