This weekend the West Coast will be the best coast for beer lovers. We got a couple of great beer events coming up in Tacoma, Washington and in San Luis Obispo, California that we’re ticketing and both are well worth the time and the hangover. But, don’t worry it’s a three day weekend, so why not whoop it up on Saturday so you have all day Sunday and Monday to recover?

The first one I want to talk about is the Brews & Bites festival happening in Mission Plaza in downtown San Luis Obispo. This event is in its third year and is presented by the good folks at the San Luis Brewers Guild. The Brewers Guild is made up of San Luis Obispo County-based breweries and this festival is an opportunity to showcase their craft beers. Not only will the beer be local but there will be food from local restaurants and music by local bands Funk in Public, Lakes and The Ragged Jubilee. There will also be four  breweries out of northern Santa Barbara County this year so that’s eleven breweries total pouring four-ounce tastes. The price of admission gets you twenty-five taste tickets AND a commemorative Brews & Bites pint glass. What a deal.  Tickets are going fast for this one so be sure head over here and pick up your tickets before their gone. Door admission will be based on a  first-come-first-served basis.

Here’s a great video from Lakes, one of the bands playing Brews & Bites this weekend, that gives viewers a little taste of the tracks from their album “The Agreement.”

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/14063486 w=400&h=225]

The other event happening on Saturday is The Tacoma Craft Beer Festival which promises over forty craft breweries pouring over eighty craft beers. Participating breweries include established Northwest stalwarts like Red Hook, Deschutes Brewery, Fish Brewing Company, Widmer Brothers Brewing and The Pike Brewing Company, combined with scrappy up-and-comers like the Georgetown Brewing Company, the Alpine Beer Company and Schooner Exact. There are even a couple breweries from outside the Pacific Northwest: New Belgium Brewing Company out of Fort Collins, Colorado and Kona Brewing Company, based out of Kailua, Kona on Hawaii’s big island, giving beer lovers a cross-section of the exciting things happening in the craft beer world around the country. Admission gets you a 5.5 oz commemorative taster glass and ten tasting tokens, all for only $25. If you get your tickets now, you save $5 off the admission price so get your tickets here and save that $5 for extra tastings. You’ll be glad you did.

If you hurry, Washington Beer Blog is giving away tickets. All you have to do is comment on the blog post and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win two free tickets. They’ll randomly pick a winner tomorrow so get over there and let them know your favorite brewery that’ll be pouring at the festival.

There you go West Coasters! Now get out there and DRINK SOME BEER! That’s an order.

Image courtesy of Getoutslo.com