Ready for beer lovers

For its sixth year running, Penticton will host its annual Beer Week, after revealing its fundraiser collaboration beer made by all eight breweries.

The annual celebration sees the eight breweries known as the Penticton Beer Blocks come together to celebrate Penticton’s craft beer industry through events and the annual Do Good collaborative beer release.

Penticton Beer Week runs this year from Oct. 4 to 14.

This year’s Do Good brew was imagined and brewed by all Penticton breweries at Tin Whistle Brewing Co.

Tin Whistle Owner Alexis Esseltine said this year, the charity the group chose to donate to is the BC Parks Foundation.

“This is a forest Pale Ale we've made with spruce tips and juniper berries. So a really nice fit for our partners, BC Parks Foundation, who's working to keep wild places wild here in the Okanagan and beyond in the province of BC,” she added.

Starting Thursday, the beer will be available on tap on Tinwhistle, along with other breweries and tasting rooms around town, beverage partners, liquor stores, bars and restaurants in the Okanagan and beyond.

“We kick off beer week with this great collab beer release, but it continues on,” Esseltine said.

“We have a brewer showdown at Cannery Brewing, which is where all of their brewers brew different beers and compete for their title. We have the Penticton Beer Run, which is kind of a cult-followed event at this point. People dress up, they run from Abandoned Rail to Tin Whistle to back downtown to the breweries, hitting breweries all along the way, eating some food, and it culminates just down by Okanagan Lake in a big, big party.”

There’s also a magic show at Highway 97 brewing, beer karaoke at the Barley Mill Brew Pub, a Beer Stein Painting Party at Tin Whistle Brewing and a big Oktoberfest party at Abandoned Rail in their barley fields, among plenty of other events.

“We're celebrating the incredible friendship between breweries here in this town that has kind of put us on the map in Canada for the incredible craft beer we make here,” Esseltine said.

She added that having the event in October is very nice to build up business in the shoulder season and let the “locals really run wild.”

“It's a great chance for our locals to come around. We also get a ton of folks that come in from out of province, out of the city, out of Penticton, coming in to celebrate alongside us.”

Check out the Penticton Beer Week webpage at VisitPenticton.com for more information, a list of Penticton Beer Week hotel packages, a list of locations where you can find the Do Good collaboration beer, and detailed events listings.