The results are in and Bellingham Beer Week 2017 was absolutely sensational. This year’s events were the most varied, well organized, thoughtful and reflective of our craft beer culture. Everything from Kulshan’s Beer Olympics, to Boundary Bay Brewery’s Cedar Dust Alley, to Aslan’s Cornhole Championship, to everything in between was a hit. The weather was amazing on the kickoff day as well. The feedback from breweries was that turnout was up and the stoke was high.

This was the best Bellingham Beer Week yet! – Dave Vitt, Owner, Kulshan Brewing Company

Lou Waldmeir of Wander Brewing holding his Championship Trophy

Tap Trail (a.k.a Bellingham Beer Week) enjoyed facilitating a few events as well, Beer Market Sweep and Tap Trail Challenge presented by Whole Foods Market. Big congrats to Wander Brewing for capturing the inaugural Beer Market Sweep championship trophy! 2nd place went to Stones Throw Brewery and 3rd place went to Stones Throw Brewery. Tap Trail will be donating the funds, in Wander’s name,to Wander’s chosen nonprofit, Bellingham Food Bank. We’ll have more news on that soon!

Tap Trail’s own Aubrey Laurence won the Tap Trail Challenge, guessing 5 of 6 beer and brewery categories correct from a blind tasting! There’s a reason we asked him to write for us! We hope to build more events in future years. All events created memories and camaraderie for craft beer enthusiasts and our craft beer community.

The kickoff day couldn’t have been any better with the sun shining and people out on bikes roaming the city with the BBW events calendar in their pockets. We received messages and questions from people around the region that were coming here. Having April Brews Day as an unofficial ending party is a heck of a way to send everyone off as well. Tap Trail also teamed up with Max Higbee to design and distribute the first official 2017 ABD Guide Book.

Best beer week yet! – Mari Kemper, Owner, Chuckanut Brewery

Tap Trail coordinated with Bellingham Tourism to bring in some of the region’s best craft beer writers. We want to spread the word about what’s going on here. We invited Ezra Johnson-Greenough of New School Beer and Portland Beer Week and Joe Wiebe of Victoria Beer Week, author of Craft Beer Revolution and Content Director of The BC Ale Trail. Thank you all for coming to Bellingham and getting to know the friendliest beer town around.

This has been the best Beer Week yet! – Casey Diggs, Operations Manager, Boundary Bay Brewery

The collaboration beers were off the hook this year – Three of them and all reflecting the diversity of styles in this craft city by the bay. When we challenge and remove constraints on breweries we get some awesome results!

So what would you like to see at BBW18? How would you rate your BBW17? Take our poll because we want to hear about your experience!

[divider style=”solid” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]

There were over 50 events this year, ranging from brewer’s nights to the above variety show of events. Every beer week is in preparation for the next and we’re already hard at work on BBW18. Stay tuned for details on next year’s event! Thanks for making Bellingham’s craft beer community the best!