Category: Travel in North America

I am not talking enlightenment here, but rather the lofty goals we set out for ourselves for our trip to Seattle: eight new breweries and all the good beer bars we could get to in four days. With the help of our friend Chris Devlin, I am happy to report that we exceeded what we set out to do.

Saturday dawned rainy and cold, with me depressed because I was back wearing dreaded pants instead of my comfy shorts. Merideth and I met up with Chris and his significant other Francesca and searched out an antidote for my woe. Beer you say? No… chocolate.

The Theo chocolate factory is not just your average, run-of-mill, award-winning, organic, fair trade chocolate company… it is also housed in the original Redhook Brewery in the Fremont district of Seattle. They have free samples, too, so after a few minutes of trying an interesting array of chocolate nibbles, I was ready to face the rest of the day.

And the rest of the day began just across the street at the world-famous Brouwer’s Cafe.

Brouwer’s is on many ‘top 10’ lists of best beer bars in the United States and it is easy to see why. An incredible draft and bottle selection awaits the thirsty customer. And they have the cool glass washer thingy too.

Following my rule to always drink local brew when I can, I stuck with the Washington beers on the menu. I ended up drinking two cask ales: Hop Diggity from Port Townsend and Bosun’s Black Porter from Maritime Pacific and two keg beers: Big Daddy’s ESB from Silver City and Snoqualmie’s Spring Fever Belgian-style Grand Cru.

I don’t want to gush on about Brouwer’s, but I have to say, I feel pretty fortunate to have had a pint at some of the best beer bars in the States over the last few months… Toronado, Monk’s, Publick House and now Brouwer’s.

Though the rain had finally stopped, it was still chilly as we walked from Brouwer’s down to Hales.

I have fond memories of our first visit to Hales ten years ago, but I have to admit that we were a bit disappointed in the beers this time around. Not that they were bad, they just lacked any ‘wow’ factor.

From Hales, we walked down to Maritime Pacific Brewing and enjoyed a few standout beers such as the Flagship Red Alt Ale and the Nightwatch Dark Amber.

But what really stood out was two items on the food menu. Lil Mahis are fish versions of the famous slider burgers and were to die for. And the deep fried pickles were also out of this world.

Before we hit the last brewery of the trip, we had a bit of business to take care of at Bottleworks, Brouwer’s Cafe’s bottle shop. Namely, we had to pick up the last few beers for our beer tasting next weekend.

The last brewery of the trip was Stix, located on the shores of Lake Union. There is really nothing to say about Stix, except that they brewed their last batch of beer yesterday. The equipment is already sold and the brewer has a new job somewhere else. So, we got there in the nick of time to be able to count it on the list. Oh… Chris D beat me two games to one in pool… and we also got to ride the S.L.U.T.

We finished the day downtown at the Collins Pub basking in the glory of all that we had accomplished over the last four days. We visited twelve breweries- nine of which were new for us – and over a half-dozen beer bars.

I’ll admit that I came to Seattle with a certain amount of skepticism regarding it’s lofty beer reputation, but I am now somewhat a convert. I have to thank Chris D for helping me see the light.

Click here to view all the images of our Seattle adventure.

 

Buddha spent his life contemplating questions with the aim of achieving true enlightenment. And, in a sense, you could say that is the quest Chris and I have embarked upon.

Friday was certainly an adventure, as we explored parts of Seattle far and wide. We started easily enough at Pike Place Market. Watching, waiting for the fish mongers to throw the fish and braving the touristy crowd through the market. Not yet finding our enlightenment, we decided to continue our quest at Pike Pub and Brewery. Pike’s was a good example of how one should continually revisit places gone before. The beer was much better than we had remembered. While it didn’t lead us to nirvana, it kept us on the path.

We decided that maybe we should give up our control and allow ourselves to be guided by our beer guru Chris Devlin. We met him at Pike and headed to outlying areas of Seattle and to Georgetown Brewing.

Not a brewpub, but a simple warehouse with a small retail space. Chris thought their beer was the best of the trip thus far. I would have to agree. They do four beers (pilsner, pale ale, red, & porter), all very well. The major downside was that they only do kegs and growlers, no bottles. Despite the most excellent beer, this couldn’t possibly be the end of the quest. I still didn’t feel that I had reached a state of utter bliss. Plus, I don’t think Buddha ever stopped. He continued to contemplate life’s big questions throughout his whole life.

Inspired by Buddha’s life long search, we continued on a bus ride through the warehouses of south Seattle. In case we were getting too comfortable in that area, Chris D helped us travel to an even more remote spot. Was that his way of helping us to look inward and continue our journey of personal exploration? No, we just took the bus too far and had to wait for the next one to take us back. It was a little iffy there for a minute, but isn’t that what the search for enlightenment is all about, being happy with where you are in your current circumstances and learning whatever lesson you can form the experience? Luckily we didn’t have to wait for the bus too long and soon enough we were back to feeling more confident that we were on the right path.

A few more moments of doubt, but we eventually found ourselves at Laughing Buddha Brewing Company. There we learned two things:

1) The world is a small place where everyone is connected – we met two people who lived in Monterey for 40 years before moving to Sacramento recently.

2) The universe doesn’t let anything die, just take on a new incarnation – Laughing Buddha’s brewing equipment was purchased from San Andreas Brewing in Hollister… one of favorites from our early days of beer travel.

Laughing Buddha slogan is “Beer. Where East Meets West” and they had two beers to try. A brown made with pandan leaf and palm sugar. A little sweet and very tasty. And they had an Asian style lager. Also very refreshing. They have in the works to make a ginger pale ale made with two kinds of ginger. We’ll have to get Chris D to send us some when it comes out because we are reasonably sure that we will not be getting it on the Monterey Peninsula.

We pressed on and went around the corner to Baron Brewing. I was lovin’ it because they brew only German style lagers. Surely this had to be the enlightenment I was looking for. We chatted with a group of locals, who seemed to be regulars at the cozy tasting room. Luckily, they had bottles, so we bought the schwarzbier.

Every good spiritual journey needs to include food to keep you going, so we hit the road again and ate dinner at Georgetown Liquor Company. An excellent vegetarian place with an equally awesome beer selection. We then took the bus back downtown where we started the day.

We ended our night with a final beer at The Stumbling Monk. I’m not sure that we found nirvana yesterday, but if this is what the path to enlightenment consists of, then I am definitely continuing the quest.

Click here to view all the images of our Seattle adventure.

 

My favorite beer at the Great Alaskan Beer and Barley Wine Festival was a cask imperial IPA from the Anacortes Brewery. I wanted to try more of their beers, so we planned a trip outside Seattle to visit Anacortes and a couple of other breweries. All this before meeting up again with Chris Devlin in the evening for a blind IPA tasting at Cooper’s Alehouse.

Anacortes is about an hour and a half north of Seattle, so we started our day by driving out there. On the way back to Seattle, we would hit the small towns of La Conner and Mukilteo. The big drawback of car touring is that we were limited to taster sets, which really doesn’t give you the full experience… at least to me.

Anacortes certainly did not disappoint, except maybe for the fact that their cask beer was bourbon barrel aged (when is there going to be a barrel shortage crisis?) and that they did not bottle their beer. The food was great, too, and Merideth enjoyed her fish tacos.

We sampled a Pils, Amber, Marzen, Honey Cream Ale, Black Lager, IPA and Porter. While the IPA was really, really good, the Porter was the standout.

La Conner, in the heart of tulip country, is only a short drive from Anacortes. Unlucky for us, there was a tulip festival going on and this little town was packed on a Thursday in the early afternoon. We barely squeezed a parking spot and one seat at the bar to sample La Conner Brewing’s beer. The Brown and Pils were the highlights of the five beers we sampled.

Then it was back to I-5 and heading south to Mukilteo where we planned on visiting two breweries. We stopped at one brewery and were greeted by a sign on the door that said ‘closed today’. However, it looked Closed with a capital C.

The other brewery in town was Diamond Knot. They have to be one of the most ‘diviest’ brewpubs we have ever been to… and I mean that in a good way. Unfortunately, Merideth and I only have twelve tattoos between us, which probably wasn’t cool enough for this crowd.

We again sampled five beers: Golden Ale, IPA, Stout, Porter and ‘Industrial’ IPA. The two other attractions at Diamond Knot are the stone cooking and the Anheuser Busch keg urinals. Merideth thought I was a bit strange when I videotaped the urinals… it was all PG rated.

With our beer touring done for the day, it was time to meet up with Chris at Cooper’s Alehouse for a blind IPA Tasting. And we had the bonus of also meeting up with a longtime friend, Crista, who we hadn’t seen in years.

I really didn’t know what to expect from the blind tasting mainly because it is not something we do. But I have to hand it to Cooper’s owner Kirbie for putting on such a popular event. Cooper’s, over the period of three weeks, was rotating 50 different IPAs through his handles and on a Thursday night, they had a full house of people with their bargain priced sample trays.

As for the blind tasting, we rated 13 IPAs in three rounds. I think I got all the right answers, but Merideth chatted with Crista and lost a bit of focus. I will say, though, she did correctly identify the one imperial IPA in an early round in the tasting.

We finished up at Elysian Brewing for dinner and our fourth new brewery of the day. We sampled a Wit, ESB, IPA, Maibock and Porter. Merideth got a pint of the Pils and I got the Porter.

As for the title of this post, I am sure many of you saw my bit in the Boston episode where I was proclaiming my joy that I would not be wearing pants again for the Year in Beer until our trip to Belgium in December. So far in Seattle I have upheld that claim despite highs only in the low 50s, but tomorrow snow(!) is forecast. So, I might have to put on pants again and the thought has me depressed.

Of course, the antidote for this depression is beer… and we are meeting up again with Chris D early in the afternoon and visiting at least 3 new breweries today.

 

As with all our trips, we like to hit the ground running. And for us, that means beer, beer and more beer.

And yesterday, we had company. We were joined by our friend and Seattle beer guide Chris Devlin and two other Seattle beer people; Nat from Big Time and Ian from Brouwers.

Our beer day started with a visit to the Ram Brewery at Northgate. For those of us who haven’t had a high opinion of the chain breweries, it’s time for a rethink. More and more, the brewers are getting the freedom to brew beers outside of the regular lineup and brewer Kevin Forhan is doing just that. We were able to sample an excellent IPA, Saison, Wit and Dry Stout from Northgate’s seasonal menu of beers. Also, I think “The List” Committee will have to revisit the rules of counting breweries. I have to say, after we spent time in the cooler and brewery with Kevin, my opinion is shifting.

We then hit a few highly recommended beer bars/ale houses. We walked and bussed it from Northgate to Duck Island, “The Duck”, somewhat of a dive bar with an awesome beer selection. We then moved the party a few doors down to Uber Tavern. A bit more upscale and swanky little place with another excellent beer selection. They also had a beautiful looking bottled beer case, which made it more like a bottle shop. You can even buy draft beer by the ounce, as well as buy bottles for off sale.

At this point, our party was becoming smaller because Nat and Ian had to get to work. Luckily, Chris Devlin likes to walk as much as we do and walking makes for a good break in between beers. So, the three of us walked around Green Lake to Latona Pub where we had, surprise, a beer! A cute little neighborhood place where the food smelled great. We didn’t eat there, though, because we were ending our night at Big Time.

So we finished our day’s trek at Big Time, after stopping in at the video store to drop off Chris D’s latest rentals. Oh, yea, I also used their bathroom. Lots of beers, with long walks in between. A girl needs a toilet!

Nat served us up at Big Time. The first time we had been there in about 10 years. And, no, it isn’t the exact opposite set up as Triple Rock, but the two are very similar. The pizza was satisfying and the Trombipulator, a Belgian style Triple, was quite good. The boys thought it was excellent and somewhat dangerous at 10%. But, you know me, not only do I generally characterize beers as good or bad, I’m also not a huge Belgian fan. So for me to say it was “quite good” is, in fact, quite good.

Today we are off in the car to hit Anacortes Brewing and La Conner Brewing. Chris D is working today, so we’ll catch up with him later this evening at Cooper’s Ale House for a blind IPA tasting. We’ll also be meeting up with our friend Crista and her husband Dave. We haven’t seen them in years. Should be fun!