On Saturday, April 9 the Washington Beer Commission’s annual Cask Festival comes to Seattle Center (info here).

This is an auspicious occasion indeed, a chance to try many of your favorite beers—not to mention some new-to-you brews—in unfiltered form.

But there are going to be 70 different beers there. You can’t try them all, I’m sorry to say. And while none of them is likely to be a bad choice, here are some you won’t want to miss:

Herbert’s Legendary Cask Festival Ale: This is the official beer of the Cask Festival. Not trying it would be like going to Disney World and eschewing Space Mountain. It’s just not done. (Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, on the other hand, is highly overrated, according to my fifth grade diary. So feel free to skip that one.)

Hop Villain Black IPA: Black IPA is also called Cascadian Dark Ale by people who want to ensure that the Northwest gets the credit for developing the style. It’s basically a hoppy IPA but with roasted malt flavor. Hop Villain is made by Big Al’s Brewing in White Center. (Elliott Bay Brewing is also offering its Black Ops black IPA, that one is fermented with a Belgian yeast strain and dry-hopped (more hops are added when the beer goes in the cask) with "three different hop varieties," per the description.)

Black Raven in Redmond is responsible for some really great beer. Its Belgian IPA is made "with lemongrass, lemon thyme, black lemon and whole leaf Citra hops" and available on cask at the festival.

Fremont Brewing is definitely one to watch among the local micros. The vanilla-bean flavored Totonac B-Bomb is a first-place people’s choice winner this year. It was aged in bourbon barrels, as was the Kentucky Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout. To which I say: yum.

Schooner Exact (which started in West Seattle but has since moved to SoDo) is another kick-butt local brewery. It has concocted a signature IPA for Brave Horse Tavern, Tom Douglas’s new bar that opens today. The festival is your chance to try it on cask first.

Just last night I had my first pint of Silver City Brewing’s Whoop Pass Double IPA. For a beer that hoppy to be so well-balanced…very impressive. Try it on cask this Saturday.