Perhaps the best thing about Vancouver’s pair of Brewfests is that they raise more and more money for local charities.
“I can’t believe it’s been eight years of Brewfests, and it just keeps getting more successful,” said organizer Cody Gray. “Last spring was our best Spring Brewfest yet. We donated $7,500 to charities from spring alone. Then, last August was the best Summer Brewfest yet. We donated another $18,000. Last year was our best year.”
Maybe the crowds can keep the trend going in 2019, setting more records for charity support through the sampling of local microbrews. Spring Brewfest is coming right up.
“We’re sticking with local charities,” Gray said. A primary beneficiary used to be Northwest Battle Buddies, he said, but that Battle Ground effort to match service dogs with traumatized veterans has grown so successful, “it’s gone nationwide. So we’ve decided to shift” to some other local charities, some of them veteran-related and some not.
If You Go
What: Vancouver Spring Brewfest.
When: 4 to 9:30 p.m. April 12; 1 to 9 p.m. April 13.
Where: Propstra Square at Esther Short Park, Columbia and Sixth streets.
Tickets and add-ons: $25 cash or $27 credit for pint glass and 8 tokens; $35 or $37 for pint glass and 18 tokens. $10 or $11 for “designated drivers,” unlimited nonalcoholic beverages at Foody Blues. $5 or $5.50 for four additional tokens (no single token sales). Four tokens equal 1 pint.
Restrictions: 21-and-older only. No pets.
On the web:http://vancouverbrewfest.com
Esther Short Park’s Lineup of 2019 Drink Fests
• June 7-9: Craft Beer & Wine Fest. Whiskey, cocktails and food too. Kicks off with a Friday night tribute to Queen by Salem band Fat Bottomed Girls.
• Aug. 10-11: Vancouver Brewfest. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, featuring cover band Echoes of Yasgurs.
• Aug. 23-25: Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival. Lineup to be announced.
• Sept. 5-14: North Bank Beer Week. Anchored in Vancouver but spanning all of Southwest Washington, Long Beach to White Salmon. Many activities and new brew releases.
Gray said the charities benefiting from this year’s Spring Brewfest are no-kill animal shelter Second Chance Companions and the educational Mount St. Helens Institute; and the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center, the local branch of Disabled American Veterans in downtown Vancouver.
“As a former combat veteran, it’s important to me to take care of the guys and girls who come home from war and need help,” Gray said. “Unfortunately, we still have a problem with humans wanting to kill each other. I’m an anti-war combat veteran, can you tell?”
He’d rather just celebrate local beers — and invite the rest of us to join the fun.
Parties in the park
This weekend’s Vancouver Spring Brewfest marks the early, possibly soggy launch of party-in-the-park season. When it debuted a few years back, Spring Brewfest was a few yards to the south, on the waterfront platform known as Vancouver Landing, but that’s no longer available thanks to construction. Now, Brewfest is up in Esther Short Park, where no events are scheduled on the grass until May. Therefore, the event occupies several big tents in the brick Propstra Square area only.
“It was pretty packed last year,” Gray said, with about 3,500 people visiting over the course of two days. This year, he said, he’s figured out a better arrangement for the brewers and vendors, and he’s predicting both a slightly larger crowd (3,700 people) and a little more elbow room.
But there won’t be live music, he said, because shoehorning a stage into Propstra Square would displace as many as 10 breweries. That would be defeating the purpose, he said (but don’t despair, music will be back later in the year; see the festival schedule below). “It would be nice to have music but then it would get so loud, you wouldn’t be able to talk about drinking beer,” Gray said.
Let’s talk about it. This year’s Spring Brewfest will feature 42 brewers, each one offering a pair of their prime pourables. Many of Clark County’s favorite homegrown breweries will there, from Brother Ass and Brothers Cascadia through Fortside and Ghost Runners to Shoug Brewing and Trap Door. Plus, peruse the offerings of some out-of-town visitors, including Allegory Brewing of McMinnville, Ore., Dick’s Brewing of Centralia and Modern Times Beer of San Diego.
“We’ve hand-selected some one-off and specialty beers,” Gray said. “This year it’s a mix of hand-selected beers and those our brewers chose.”
If beer isn’t your thing, you’re still welcome to check out ciders from Swift Cider (Portland) and meads from Author Mead (Vancouver). Four food vendors will be there too, and food from the nearby Vancouver Farmers Market is always welcome.
The basic admission package is $25 at the door for a pint glass and eight sampler tokens; $35 for the pint glass and 18 tokens; or $10 for “designated driver” admission that gets your unlimited nonalcoholic pours at Foody Blues in the food court. Additional sampler tokens are four for $5. Any unspent tokens from Friday, or previous Brewfests, can be spent on Saturday, when you can get free readmission with your wristband and pint glass.
If you’re a disabled veteran with ID, you get free admission, but still must buy your pint glass and tokens.
