The day has arrived – Baltimore Beer Week kicks off tonight at Rams Head Live with the Opening Tap celebration. With more than 300 events at 80 different venues over the course of 11 days, the third annual event looks better than ever. The founders have worked with a mantra of “quality over quantity,” and kept the number of events from getting out of hand, so that all of them can be well-organized and well-attended, lead sponsor Heavy Seas’ Hugh Sisson told the Baltimore Sun.

Bookended by two festivals that pre-existed Beer Week proper, this Saturday’s Maryland Brewer’s Oktoberfest this Saturday (Oct 8; noon–6 PM) and next Saturday’s Chesapeake Real Ale Festival (Oct 15; 1–6 PM), the week includes a variety of ways to celebrate beer. Tours of neighborhoods Canton and Brewers Hill will show off historical sites of breweries past. Tastings from beer makers the world over will fill the bars all over town. Specials firkins and casks will be tapped in huge quantities.

In general, the goal of BBW2011 is “Celebrating all things beer in the Land of Pleasant Living” – a slogan nabbed from Natty Boh, the onetime “official” beer of Baltimore (which is unfortunately no longer brewed regionally, having been sold to Miller and distributed by Pabst). But it’s the thought that counts, and the idea lives on. This week proves it.

Photo courtesy Baltimore Beer Week