Between the St. Patrick’s Day special releases and the jump from winter to spring seasonals, there’s a lot rotating through the brew tanks. It’s a nice reminder of just how productive and imaginative the brewing scene is in the South Sound; the party Saturday afternoon covers only a small but delicious percentage of March’s offerings.
Party Saturday afternoon?
Indeed — four breweries are teaming up for the Tacoma Brewery Spring Showcase 3-9 p.m. at The Valley.
“A couple Tacoma breweries have joined forces for several events,” says Charles Gibb, sales executive at Odd Otter Brewing Company, “but I wanted to see what would happen if four breweries gathered for a single event. Could we get something bigger started?”
Gibb approached Brittany Crowder, craft beer expert and bartender at The Valley in Tacoma, about hosting the Tacoma Brewery Spring Showcase. He thought Crowder’s love of local breweries and the bar’s close proximately to all four participating breweries would be ideal.
“For our customers to taste four Tacoma breweries from one stool — and hang with the brewers — is pretty awesome,” adds Crowder.
Gibb received immediate confirmations from Pacific Brewing & Malting Co., Tacoma Brewing Co. and Wingman Brewers. The fourth participating brewery, of course, will be Gibb’s lifeblood, Odd Otter.
“We are bring two beers each, as well as our brewery swag to auction off,” says Gibb. “The raffle grand prize will be a four-person tour and tasting at Wingman Brewers. We’ll draw that one at the end of the party.”
The beer list is a combination of spring beers and popular sippers. Pacific Brewing will tap their 1897 Pale Lager and the single hop, citrus-y Potomic Citra Pale. Tacoma Brewing will arrive with two of his popular India Pale Ales — Broken Window IPA and Coffee With Aristotle (Coffee IPA). Wingman will tap its favorite P51 Peanut Butter Porter and a “spring IPA.” Gibb says his flagship beers Ottermelon Hefeweizen and Momma Otters Pancake Porter with real Vermont maple syrup will be in the house.
At 9:30 p.m., Tacoma’s new rocking music venue, The Valley, will plug in Tacoma power pop bands Vanilla and The Rallies, plus indie poster Jordani.
The weather folks forecast a party sunny day Saturday, which means The Valley’s back patio will be the place.
