Posted by Elliott on Thursday, Jul 17th, 2014
On July 12th, Derek and I were lucky enough to attend the 2014 PROOF Washington Distillers Festival while representing the Seattle Spirits Society. The blowout tasting event was held at Fremont Studios and featured 40 craft distilleries as well as several restaurants and other exhibitors.
While it was an exceptionally hot day outside, the AC was just right in the venue, and the crowds quickly amassed to taste all the various spirits. Each distillery sampled several spirits at their booth and good cheer and friendly staff welcomed us as we moved from one to another. The crowd was decisively less rowdy than your typical beer tasting event, but there was still a healthy energy in the air, and even a few people dancing to the music spun by a DJ not far from the entry. Surprisingly, complimentary bottles of water and sizable food portions were available at several places around the event. Kudos to the organizers for keeping everyone hydrated and with full stomachs for the duration of the event.
Derek and I stopped at just about every booth, chatting with the event staff and sampling spirits on our way. Highlights from the event are too many to list, but we've included some pictures above of some of our favorites. At the end of the event, we were able to purchase our favorites from the event spirits store at a decent discount. Our loot included bottles from Bluewater Organic Distilling and Seattle Distilling.
Next year The Seattle Spirits Society is hoping to have a more sizable presence at the event - can't wait!