A couple of notables “Beer Weeks” are in the news right now:

Seattle Beer Week officially started today, and lasts through the 17th. SBW features a week and a half of fantastic events all over the city, making me totally envious (and thinking there should be a “Bend Beer Week”). The Washington Beer Blog (fittingly enough) is already posting some good coverage.

Pike Brewing was asked to brew the inaugural beer for Seattle Beer Week, and they brewed their first ever Double IPA for it—which is pretty notable in that Pike has been around for 20 years, and in this day and age you can’t swing a dead cat without knocking over someone’s glass of DIPA. Hopefully they’ll bottle it and I can get my hands on some.

American Craft Beer Week kicks off on Monday the 11th and lasts all next week (also through the 17th).

America’s small and independent craft brewers are making special plans for the annual American Craft Beer Week (May 11-17), a national celebration highlighting the culture and contributions of craft beer. These brewers want the week to inspire beer enthusiasts to declare their independence by supporting breweries that produce fewer than 2 million barrels of beer a year and are independently owned. In the works are special brewery tours, beer and food pairing events, special release craft beers and festivals all across the U.S.

Apparently there is also a Declaration of Beer Independence to go along with this year’s ACBW. More importantly, though, is the directory of brewery events wherein you can find out if any of your local breweries is doing anything special for the Week.