City Life
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B2
TACOMAWEEKLY.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013
SECTION B, PAGE 1
BIG
BEERS, BIG
FLAVORS, BIG
PUNCH
New festival will showcase potent, local brews at Foss Waterway Seaport By Ernest A. Jasmin ejasmin@tacomaweekly.com
O
ver the last four years, the Tacoma Craft Beer Festival has grown into one of the South Sound’s premier showcases for regional brewers. And this weekend organizers of that event will unveil its new, winter counterpart: The Big Beer Festival, which will be held in two 4-hour sessions, one starting at noon and the other at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, at Foss Waterway Seaport, 705 Dock St., in Tacoma. Despite its name, the new festival will have a more intimate feel; only 1,500 tickets were made available compared to the 3,200 who attended Tacoma Craft Beer Fest last summer. “This is a new event, so we didn’t know how it would be,” said Bennett Thurmond who runs the festival with his fiance Roxi Lee. The “big” in Big Beer Fest refers primarily to the potency of concoctions that local brewmasters have whipped up for the inaugural event; 20 small breweries are participating, the likes of Tacoma’s Harmon Brewing Company and Engine House No. 9; Bremerton’s Silver City Brewery; Graham’s M.T. Head Brewing Company; Seattle’s Full Sail Brewing Company and Deschutes Brewery from Portland. And all their beers will contain a minimum of 6 percent alcohol by volume. Beyond that, attendees can expect to sample a wide range of styles and flavors. “Big Beers are extremely popular as people’s appreciation, and tastebuds, have grown to accept those,” said Mike Runion, co-owner of Gig Harbor’s 7 Seas Brewing. “There is aging that goes along with those beers because of the higher
alcohol,” he explained. “You don’t want to taste alcohol and ethanol, and sometimes aging those beers actually settles them out. Sometimes they’re aged in kegs, stainless (steel). But sometimes they’re aged in whiskey barrels or wine barrels, again adding more flavors and complexity to the beer.” 7 Seas will be bringing its locally popular Ballz Deep Double India Pale Ale, which can be found in Tacoma at Stadium Thriftway, Tacoma Boys and Metropolitan Market. The brewery will also bring the last kegs of its winter seasonal beer Belgian Imperial Stout. “We bring in a different yeast strain that imparts a lot of banana, clove notes to it,” Runion said, describing the latter. “There’s a lot of roast notes in there. We also wanted to go a bit bigger with it, so it’s 9 percent (ABV.) It will definitely warm you up after a nice day.” Harmon Brewing will have several new beers on tap including its 11th Street IPA which was introduced at several Tacoma restaurants and taverns on Valentine’s Day to commemorate the recent reopening and 100th anniversary of the Murray Morgan Bridge on 11th Street. “I used 11 different varieties of hops and incorporated that into an IPA,” head brewer Jeff Carlson explained. “And then, for the 100 year anniversary, the hops will provide an IBU level of 100,” he added. IBU refers to the International Bitterness Units scale, which measures bitterness in beers. Harmon Brewing will also unveil a few collaborations with Dry Fly Distilling. Batches of Steep and Deep Winter Ale, Imperial Amber Harvest Ale and Striker Stout were aged in barrels from the Spokane distillery.
“It’s just like making wine or anything like that,” Carlson said. “You’ll pick up colors, aromas and flavors from that barrel. You’ll definitely get that whiskey aroma coming through. (Since) most of the barrels are made out of oak, usually that oak will tend to impart a little bit of a vanilla flavor to the beer.” Morgan Alexander is the new kid on the block. He’d been making his own home brews since high school. In 2010 he opened the Amocat Cafe at 625 St. Helens Ave. with the intention of dedicating half the space to coffee and the other half to beer. “But during the opening, the Health Department made me kind of shift my entire floor plan around, which precluded beer making from happening,” he said. Alexander finally got Tacoma Brewing Company up and running late last fall. Amocat hosts tastings on Friday nights; and Tacoma Brewing will have a few selections flowing through a light tap and dark tap this weekend. The light tap will be dedicated to IPAs, all of which will be a hefty 10 to 13 percent ABV. “The dark tap will be Bourbon Stout,” Alexander said. “We’ve been serving that and it’s been really popular. It’s very bourbon forward. This batch was made with molasses so it has kind of an added rich feel and flavor depth from the molasses.” Advance tickets to Big Beer Fest are $20 and include a 5.5 oz. commemorative taster glass and six tasting tokens. Additional pours will cost $1.50 each. Admission will go up to $25 the day of the event. Some proceeds will benefit YWCA Pierce County’s domestic violence prevention programs. The most up-to-date festival info is available at www.tacomacraftbeerfest.com.
THE THINGS WE LIKE ONE STR8 BEASTIN’ IT
DASH Center for the Arts will produce the eighth annual dance showcase KRUNK: “Str8 Beastin’ It” on Feb. 16, 7 p.m. at Theatre on the Square. Hosted by the teen members of Reality Check Dance Teams, KRUNK is a showcase instead of a competition that brings together dancers, dance companies and their audiences as a tribute to dance. KRUNK is a family-friendly event, showcasing all styles of dance. More than 50 dancers of all ages participate and the talent and showmanship are electrifying! See performances by Reality Check, Koncrete Movement, Kontagious, Audacity Cru, RCX, the Bosses, Dance Expressions and many more. Tickets $15 at DASH Center, 1504 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at (253) 5079466 or www.thedashcenter.org.
TWO CHAMPAGNE SUNDAY
Seattle gets a taste of Tacoma’s musical goodness on Feb. 22, when the Hard Rock Café in Seattle (116 Pike St.) hosts live performances by headliner Champagne Sunday and guests Raymond Hayden and The Monsters In The Dark. This promises to be a night of honest, original music played by seasoned musicians who bring it every time they are on a stage. $8 advance tickets, $10 at the door, starts at 9 p.m.
ing the Oscars on the big screen and enjoy Farrelli’s Pizza and select desserts throughout the evening. Win free movies for a year by choosing the most correct Academy Awards, and come dressed as your favorite onscreen character to have the chance to win $100 from a local restaurant. Win great raffle prizes and amazing silent auction packages. All proceeds to go to the Grand Cinema’s Digital Conversion Campaign. Get tickets at (253) 593-4474 or www.GrandCinema.com
FIVE
FOUR SONGWRITERS CIRCLE
THREE ACADEMY AWARDS PARTY Make Feb. 24 your red carpet night by attending The Grand Cinema’s annual Academy Awards party at Theater on the Square. Enjoy the evening watch-
J.W. Sparrow of rural Pierce County fame and Gary Kanter, a New York-born songwriter/humorist with a passion for topical songs. Admission is free.
At 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, three highly entertaining Pacific Northwest songwriters will perform in a songwriter’s circle at King’s Books (218 St. Helens Ave.): Steve Nebel accompanied by wife Kristi Nebel,
ROCK OUT WITH SCIENCE! Seattle-Olympia rock duo Science! will play “Seattle Song,” “You and Rachel” and other cuts off last year’s self-titled debut album on Feb. 15, at Tacoma’s Harmon Tap Room, 204 St. Helens Ave. The show starts at 9 p.m., with a lineup that also includes Christine Salazar and Deborah Page. Cover is $5, and you have to be 21 or older to get in; call (253) 2122725 for more info.