GO BIG, OR GO BIGGER >>>

Ed. note: The venue for the Big Beer festival has been changed to the Foss Waterway Seaport.

Beer brewers are constantly pushing the boundaries of their craft, often times brewing beers that defy mainstream beer styles and/or looking at other alcoholic beverages for inspiration. Strong, or big, beers are just one of the many byproducts of this artisanal approach to brewing. The processes involved to create such beers aren't simple. Brewers spend a lot of research time, money and trial and error to cultivate their super yeast strains that can survive the high-alcohol brewing environment and produce well-attenuated beers that have a minimum of six percent alcohol by volume.

These brewers should be rewarded for their big beer efforts. These brewers should be celebrated. More importantly, beer drinkers should be able to taste the big beers - maybe 60 or so of them under one, rustic roof.

Enter the Big Beer Festival. 

Bennett Thurmon and Roxi Lee, two forces behind the annual Tacoma Craft Brew Festival, will celebrate strong, big beers at their new, winter beer get-together, the Big Beer Festival. Twenty regional vendors and around 60 beers will be housed Feb. 16 in the Petrich Marine Dock Foss Waterway Seaport (705 Dock St.) along the Thea Foss Waterway. The festival will be divided into two sessions, one from noon to 4 p.m., the second from 4:30-8:30 p.m. The brewer list is still being finalized, but Lee and Thurmon said they received thumbs up 18 brewers including local brewers such as Engine House No. 9, Tacoma's Harmon Brewing Co., Wingman Brewers, Tacoma Brewing Co., 7 Seas Brewing, DUO Brewing, M.T. Head Brewing Company, Bremerton's Silver City Brewery, Eugene's Ninkasi Brewing Company, Deschutes Brewery from Portland and Edmond's American Brewing Company.

Advance tickets will be $20 at brownpapertickets.com, which includes a 5.5 oz., commemorative taster glass and six tasting tokens. Additional pours will cost $1.50 each. Admission will go up to $25 the day of the event. Proceeds will benefit YWCA. Northwest Mini is the main sponsor.

Big Beer Festival updates will be posted every Tuesday on the Tacoma Craft Brew Festival's Facebook where you may learn a thing or two about the brewers and beers participating.

The latest news out of the Big Beer Festival camp is a private, pre-festival party to be held 7-9 p.m. Feb. 15 inside the Petrich Marine Dock. Titled "The Works," this preview party will serve five to 10 beers brewed exclusively for The Works - beers not available at the Big Beer Festival. For $50, you may taste samples of these special one-offs, as well as gain access to both sessions the next day. Only 200 tickets will be available for The Works. Works tickets go on sale today at Brown Paper Tickets.