Originally published June 18, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified June 18, 2007 at 2:01 AM
Father's Day spent tossing back a few kegs
when the Washington brewing industry was just getting its start — local brewers promoted their industry with a Father's Day weekend...
Seattle Times staff reporter
DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
John Huber of Fish Brewing in Olympia heaves an empty beer keg for distance and accuracy Sunday during the Washington Brewers Festival at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore. Empty kegs — each weighing around 22 pounds — were thrown at two small wading pools for points and bragging rights.
Twenty years ago — when the Washington brewing industry was just getting its start — local brewers promoted their industry with a Father's Day weekend brew festival.
Saturday and Sunday, some 10,000 beer drinkers lifted a cold one at the Washington Brewers Festival at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore. It was a crowd reflective of the recent 35 percent growth in the state's microbrew industry, said Arlen Harris, executive director of the Washington Brewers Guild.
The guild, which sponsored the festival and hopes to raise at least $50,000 from it to use promoting the industry, says the increase results from consumers' interest in local products.
"We love our coffee. We love our seafood," he said. "We invest in our neighborhoods" and neighborhood businesses — especially when the product uses Yakima-grown hops and Palouse malted barley, and has been refined over years.
Nationwide the microbrew industry has grown 17 percent in the same time period — 2005 through 2006, Harris said.
For many of the beer drinkers, the festival was just an annual Father's Day outing and a chance to wander from booth to booth, sipping Diamond Knot lager from Mukilteo, Fish Tale Ale from Olympia or Hop Bomb pale ale from Rock Bottom Brewery in Bellevue and the many other brews, while the kids sipped Big E crème soda at their own soda garden.
Sporting a T-shirt advertising "Polygamy Porter, because one isn't enough," Tom Sullivan of Covington and his family have been making the festival an annual event for years.
Their favorite: Water Street Brewing's Big Phatty Imperial Red.
The microbrew industry started in the early 1980s in Washington with the opening of Grants Brewing in Yakima, Harris said. Today there are more than 90 brew pubs in the state, an offshoot of the home-brewing movement.
Harris said most of those in the industry began as home brewers.
Among them is Big E Ales in Lynnwood, which sent Kyle Swafford into the ring Sunday in the keg-toss competition.
Swafford, who does a variety of tasks at the brewery, including lifting a lot of kegs, stood with his back to two small water-filled pools and time after time chucked the empty keg into the pool some 40 feet away. Each time, he paused to air-punch as the crowd cheered.
![]()
For the past 20 years there has been some kind of beer festival in the Seattle area, Harris said. Over the years, the sponsors have changed, but for the past two years the brewers guild has sponsored it.
Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
DNA, ballistics tie man to cop killing, police say
Reward in Greenwood arsons raised to $25,000
UPDATE - 04:06 PM
2 dead, 2 others wounded at Ore. office park
Greenwood merchants nervous after 3 more arsons
UW to honor war heroes with Medal of Honor memorial

Ken Auletta talks about "Googled"
Ken Auletta talks about Google with Brier Dudley at the Seattle Central Library.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect
- Lt. governor's son shot by co-worker in Kent; gunman then shot self
- DNA, ballistics tie man to cop killing, police say
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Prosecutors consider charges against suspect in police shooting
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- Trucker dies as big-rig plummets off SF bridge
- Huskies are finding talent in Tacoma
- Steve Kelley | Hasselbeck gives Seahawks' sagging season a stay of execution
- King County OKs 'don't ask' law on immigration
272 - Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
264 - Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
210 - McGinn more than doubles his lead over Mallahan
194 - Obama pressed into role as national healer
142 - Resolute Fort Hood soldiers ready for return
131 - Time to bring Ken Griffey Jr. back in 2010
100 - 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
97 - Josh Smith picks UCLA
86 - DNA, ballistics tie man to cop killing, police say
86
- For 80-year-old Maple Valley man, hoops aren't just a dream
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- Silver Lake restaurant destroyed by fire
- Pakistani-American cafe, bar owner on verge of being Granite Falls mayor
- All You Can Eat | Fruit flies: thrill to the kill
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Rainier Pacific Financial calls rescue 'unlikely'








