Celebrating Women in Whatcom County

Janet Lightner, manager of Boundary Bay Brwery, pictured above with bucket

Looking for a great local gift that will make YOU feel good too?  Check out the HER Calendar that celebrates Whatcom County women that were nominated by the community AND benefits 12 local nonprofits!  Last May, fifthonsixth – a local marketing agency – asked their Facebook community who the most beautiful and successful women in Whatcom County were.

They stressed that they were looking for women who were beautiful and successful inside and out.  The response they got was overwhelming!  Out of hundreds of answers, over 30 women were chosen to be featured in the calendar’s professional and classy black and white photos…including our very own Janet Lightner!

The calendars can be purchased online or at the various locations across Whatcom County including The Greenhouse, Old World Deli, the Pickford, Village Books and here at Boundary Bay Brewery.  HER calendars retail for $20 each (plus tax) and the proceeds of the sales will support local charities like the Whatcom Humane Society, the Bellingham Food Bank, Whatcom Land Trust, Make Shift and the Pickford Film Center.

Vines vs. Twines

Join us in the Beer Garden for Vines vs. Twines on Sunday, June 26th from 5-8 pm.  Enjoy  live music by Marvin J’ “playing with my friends” and a pairing of wines and beer with chili, salads and desserts. This year, there’ll even be a chili cookoof with an entry from our very own Soup Dude!  You’ll also get to peruse lots of  local businesses who will be participating in this event to showcase their products and get a chance at winning great local products in hourly raffles.

This battle of the palette is a fundraiser for The Bellingham Sister Cities Association (BSCA) and the money raised will help support their international people-to-people exchanges. A portion of the proceeds will also go towards relief efforts in Japan.  Advance tickets are $15 for students and Bellingham Sister City Association members or $20 for nonmembers. You can purchase your advance tickets here at Boundary Bay Brewery, Community Food Co-Op, Village Books or at the Saturday Farmer’s Market on June 18th.  Tickets will also be sold at the door for $25.

In 1956, in an effort to lessen the chance of future world conflicts, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a program between the United States and other nations that would bring people together to create and strengthen partnerships between U.S. and international communities. The aim was to build global cooperation at the municipal level, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development. The Bellingham Sister Cities Association (BSCA) is a part of that International Sister Cities program.

Bellingham maintains sister city relationships with  Tateyama, Chiba, Japan (since 1958),  Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia (since 1982),  Nakhodka, Russia (since 1989),  Punta Arenas, Chile (since 1996),  Cheongju, South Korea (since 2008) and Vaasa, Finland (since December, 2009).  Currently, the BSCA is working on establishing a new sister city relationship with Tsetserleg, Mongolia.  The relationship with Tateyama is the most active and includes regular events such as an annual city hall staff exchange and community cultural visits. Tateyama frequently fields a team for the annual Ski to Sea race, or at minimum has representation in the Ski to Sea parade.

The BSCA is a not for profit association which is funded solely by membership dues, business and individual support.

Local Connections – Book Fare Cafe

We’re always looking for new ways to keep our Boundary Bay Brewery blog interesting and engaging.  One of the new ideas we’ve come up with is something we’re calling “Local Connections.”  By now, we’re sure you know that supporting local business has always been important to the way we do OUR business and when we realized that we could extend that outlook to our blog as well, we got really excited!  There are an incredible number of interesting, unique businesses in our little corner of the Northwest who choose to have Boundary Bay beer on tap (see the complete list here) and we’re starting to showcase them on our blog through video interviews at the establishments themselves.

Our very first episode in the Local Connections series was filmed earlier this month at the Book Fare Cafe, located inside Village Books, right here in Bellingham. The owner, Charles Claassen, was gracious enough to turn over his morning to our video camera and questions…check out what he’s got to say about beer, books and keeping business local:

The Best of 2010

It’s hard to believe, but another year is already drawing to a close and it’s got us in a reflective mood over here at Boundary Bay Brewery.  So, today…we’re looking back!

Cheers to our 15th Anniversary!

2010 marked our 15th anniversary and we had a fantastic party here at the brewery to celebrate!  We ranked as the largest selling brewpub in the nation for the third year running and were voted the Best Brewpub in Washington by the readers of Northwest Brewing News – also for the third year in a row.  The Northwest Brewing News Readers choice awards also named Boundary Bay Brewery for Best Scotch Ale and Best IPA…which makes our IPA the winner for the last five years consecutively!

In 2010, we brewed our first Tripel, made an anniversary ale called “15” and created a special brew to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Village Books…and all were met with rave reviews! We got a new Mash Tun and installed our very first beer engine which now lets us provide our thirsty customers with not one but TWO cask ales every day.  We brought home medals from the North American Beer Awards, the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup:  Silvers for our Dunkles Bock (WBC) and our Porter (NABA) and Bronzes for our Cabin Fever (WBC), Imperial IPA (WBC) and Imperial Oatmeal Stout (GABF).

our logo come to life in St. Paddy's Parade!

We had the pleasure of helping over 100 local nonprofits and in bringing the community together for Bellingham’s first annual St. Patrick’s Day parade (thanks to Janet, our General Manager!).  We had a Locks of Love donation party with free haircuts in our beer garden and brought together lots of local and sustainable businesses for our very first Earth Day Sustainability Fair.  We surpassed 10,000 fans on Facebook, held our first (possibly THE first ever?) Virtual Brewers Night and took back the tap as the House IPA at Beveridge Place Pub!

And, besides all that, we’ve kept on keeping on…brewing and bottling all our usuals that you’ve come to know and love, serving up fresh and local Northwest food, hosting events here at the brewery throughout the year and doing our best to help keep Bellingham a strong, local, sustainable community.  It’s been a whirlwind and we’ve had a fabulous time!  We just want to say thank you to all of our incredible fans who are such an important part of what we do.  We could never be a success without the love and support we receive from our community.  So, cheers everyone…and thank you!

 

 

Community Beer

We’ll be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Village Books here in the Boundary Bay Brewery Beer Garden Thursday, June 17th.  There will be a taping of the Chuckanut Radio Hour , live music by The Atlantics, Alan Rhodes, The Bellingham Bean and poet Kevin Murphy. The event is free, and the show will begin at 7:00, right after the regular Thursday evening happy hour.  As an extra treat, we’ve also created a special Anniversary Ale for the occasion.

Boundary Bay Brewery is proud to brew a special Scottish Style Ale to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Village Books.  Village Books has been a long time icon in our community that has drawn a cult-like following and devoted fans.  We wanted to celebrate that history with a version of our Scotch Ale which was our first flagship beer.  Our original Scotch Ale is a hearty beer with a full body and a fine malt character.  With just enough hops to balance the malt, the result is smooth and rich without becoming too sweet.  The beer we’ve brewed for Village Books uses more peat malts to emphasize an earthy, smoky quality which we thought symbolized the long history of this wonderful, independent bookstore in our community.

This is exactly the kind of event that we love so very much here at Boundary Bay Brewery!  We’ve always been strongly committed to strengthening our local community and economy, and a very easy way to do that is to support other local businesses who make a difference in our area.  Village Books is an excellent example of just that kind of business!  Join us here in the Beer Garden next Thursday…to celebrate Village Books and this incredible community we are all a part of.  Cheers!

Boundary Bay Brewery Sponsors April Brews Day

Come join us for good cheer & great beer! April Brews Day will take place at the Depot Market Square on Railroad and Chestnut: home of the Bellingham Farmer’s Market on April 25th from 6-10 pm.

Join lots of local brewers as they share their microbrews in a fundrasier for the MAX HIGBEE CENTER, a non-profit agency that provides recreational opportunities for teens and adults with developmental disabilities.

Admission includes a collectable tasting glass and scrip for tasting these great micro-brews. Additional beer samples and food from local vendors will be available for purchase.

Enjoy music all night by local band, Sabrina y Los Reyes at this large indoor/outdoor event. Tickets on sale at the Community Food Co-op, Village Books and Boundary Bay Brewery.

Books and Beer!

Yesterday afternoon we had our very first Book Club meeting here at Boundary Bay Brewery.  We weren’t sure what the turnout was going to be like and we weren’t really sure exactly how this whole thing would work.  Happily, we had about 10 enthusiastic people show up for the book club and they were full of ideas about what they’d like to read and how they want our club to work!  Collectively, the group decided that our first book is “The Baron in the Trees” by Italo Calvino.  The group will meet every two weeks and deal with one book per month.  So, Calvino’s book will be the discussion subject on April 5th and April 19th.  However, on April 5th (our next meeting), people in the group are bringing a list of suggestions for what else they’d like to read in this book club.  Then, the group will vote on which books they all like and if your book is chosen, you get to lead the discussion(s) that month!  We will be notifying our Bellingham Public Library and Village Books (a great local bookstore!) about our book club book choices and they will do everything they can to have a good stock of the books we’re reading.  Plus, at Village Books, you can get a 15% discount on the books we’re reading once our club is registered (which should be by the end of this week).  Join our book club…we’d love to have you!  We’ll see you at 2:00 pm on April 5th…and then every other Sunday after that!  Happy Reading.