Southwest Washington’s legendary beer trail is a wild, unpredictable route that sends adventurers marching across golden prairies and paddling crystalline rivers, descending misty valleys and cresting majestic mountains.
Or maybe it just seems that way — when you’re on your third local microbrew and feeling fine.
Lewis and Clark’s elite group of wilderness rangers was the Corps of Discovery; now, elite Southwest Washington beer rangers can join a special Pour of Discovery — and arrive at a destination that’s guaranteed to be a zillion times happier than foggy, frigid Cape Disappointment.
This summer’s Vancouver Brewfest will colonize Esther Short Park for the entire weekend, with 60 Pacific Northwest breweries, cideries and meaderies offering more than 120 drink varieties. Whatever your taste buds are craving — a blueberry beer from Vancouver’s Beerded Brothers Brewing? a “black IPA” from Ashtown Brewing of Longview? Maybe even a chocolate porter from Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters, Ore.? — you’ll find it here. Plus, the food court will feature local favorites such as Tommy O’s Pacific Rim Bistro, Woody’s Tacos and Vida Flare.
If You Go
What: Vancouver Brewfest.
When:4-10 p.m. Aug. 12; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 13; 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Aug. 14.
Where: Esther Short Park, Columbia and West 8th Streets, Vancouver.
Cost: $30 day pass, includes 10 drink tokens and 4-ounce tasting glass. Additional tokens $1.50 each. Three-day passes, $42.
Web:VancouverBrewfest.com and PourofDiscovery.com
‘HISTORY OF WASHINGTON BEER’ on Sunday
• Michael F. Rizzo, the author of “Washington Beer: A Heady History of Evergreen State Brewing,” will be down the block from the Vancouver Brewfest at Loowit Brewing, 507 Columbia St., from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free admission.
Organizer Cody Gray expects a whopping 6,500 people to attend the three-day beer bonanza. All told, that’s 500 more guests, eight more breweries and around 40 more drink options than last summer’s Brewfest.
“We just keep growing and getting more popular each year,” Gray said. “And of course we’ll also have lots of live music, an oversized version of beer pong called Bear Pong, and plenty of prizes to win during the weekend tournament.”
Main-stage entertainment includes everything from the sweet ’60s and ’70s sounds of Echoes of Yasgurs on Friday night, the classic rock of Boneyard on Saturday night and the alt-Americana of Norman Baker and the Backroads on Sunday afternoon. That’s just a sampler; check the website at vancouverbrewfest.com for the whole schedule of musical acts.
Day passes for the Vancouver Brewfest are $30 each and include a 4-ounce tasting glass and 10 drink tokens. Additional drink tokens are $1.50 each. A weekend pass costs $42 for all three days.
Words to the wise: Minors, including babies in strollers, are not allowed at the Brewfest. Instead of driving yourself, consider taking a taxi; your advance e-ticket gets you a $5 discount from Vancouver Cab on the way there, and your festival wristband gets you another $5 off your return trip. Call Vancouver Cab at 360-737-3333.
Disabled American Veterans get free admission with DAV card but must purchase tasting glass and tokens; that adds up to at least $8 in savings. All proceeds from this nonprofit event are divided between local charities Northwest Battle Buddies, the Disabled American Veterans and Second Chance Companions, a no-kill animal shelter.
Passport to support
Some local beer adventurers already joined that intrepid Pour of Discovery earlier this year, and will arrive at the Brewfest bearing passports and collecting commemorative prizes — a T-shirt, hat and growler to be filled by the participating brewery of their choice.
Brewfest organizer and Army veteran Gray launched the Pour of Discovery passport program to encourage exploration of our legendary local beer trail — and to support Northwest Battle Buddies, a Battle Ground charity that trains and matches service dogs with veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. Passports are $5 apiece, with $3 of each sale going directly to charity.
“The reaction to them has been great,” said Amy Seibel, co-owner of Ghost Runners Brewery in Vancouver. “When we started out, each brewer got 50 passports, and we sold out almost right away. People are digging them.” The first round of 500 passport sales has already resulted in Gray cutting one $1,500 check for the charity.
He’s looking forward to contributing a lot more. It costs about $23,000 to train each dog.
“This helps with boarding, food, almost everything that the dogs need,” said Northwest Battle Buddies administrator Teresa Morkert. “We train each dog for six months, making sure they can pass a good-citizen and public-access test on elevators, MAX trains, at airports and in restaurants. And donations really help us get more dogs to more veterans.”
“I’ve had my dog for about a month and she’s amazing,” veteran Matt O’Neill said. “She wakes me up from nightmares, comforts me, helps me with anxiety and just really helps me live my life day to day. I sleep better because I know she’s there. I’m much more relaxed.”
Passports must be stamped and turned in no later than Sunday to be eligible for prizes. If you bought a passport but didn’t get to every brewery, don’t despair — there are prizes even for making it to half of them.
The next passport — the 2017 Spring Edition — will be available on Sept. 1 at participating Southwest Washington breweries.
