A Vote for May

Last weekend was the final ramp up of Tax Season but still I found some time to attend Vancouver Brewfest at Esther Short Park. Tents were set up on the corner of Sixth and Columbia to shelter participants from the rain but the weather did not dampen spirits. There was a good crowd when I attended Saturday night and when the skies opened up overhead, we all squeezed in a little tighter and became good friends.

We ran into Pete O'Toole, President of Great Western Malting, one of the brewfest's sponsors, and Amanda who works in their Malt Innovation Center, both of whom we met days earlier at a lecture presented by the Port of Vancouver at Warehouse '23. It was nice to see them again and have the opportunity to say hello and to thank them for sponsoring the brewfest. It's something we look forward to every year.

There were 40 breweries represented at the brewfest which made it very difficult to choose what to try with my 8 tokens. I ended up buying more tokens but found it impossible to try everything. I should have done some homework beforehand but as it was, there was no time. (Because, taxes.) Since then, I've been to the Brewfest's website and looked at all the breweries that were there. (I was going to list them all here but they're already listed there, with links to brewery websites.)

The breweries were from Washington and Oregon while one, Caldera Brewing Co, also had a significant presence in California. I was surprised to learn there were two breweries in the area that I'd never heard of, one right here in Vancouver. Northwest Passage Craft Brewery is located on East Minnehaha in Vancouver. They brew in small batches and distribute to local bars, restaurants, and taprooms. Their Facebook page promises a taproom of their own sometime soon.

Captain's Brewing Company, in Ridgefield, is also a small batch brewer coming to restaurants, bars, and taprooms soon. If you had done your homework, you could have had a sneak preview of things to come last weekend at the brewfest.

The other thing that was surprising was that no one broke their glass tasting pint on the brick walkway. Have you ever been boating? Have you ever noticed that when a boater falls overboard, he somehow never spills his drink? He falls in with his arm extended high into the air so when he goes under, his drink is saved. It was a little like that. While no one fell, we heard more than a couple glasses tumble onto the bricks and while the crowd always cheered, miraculously, the glass never broke.

It was a well-attended event even if it wasn't otherwise populated by a lot of tax professionals. It was nice to get out of the office and take a much needed break during a 7 days work week. I'm already looking forward to doing it again. But, next year, can we do this in May?