roblog

Bicycle Ale-Liance - 10 May 2012, 3:08:12 PM

I'm a big fan of biking to breweries, in case you hadn't noticed, and the month of May is Bike to Work Month (or just Bike Month, as now seems to be the case). To celebrate, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Schooner EXACT Brewing put their collective heads together and came up with the Ale-Liance IPA. The Bicycle Alliance does a lot of great bicycle advocacy work across the state, and Schooner EXACT makes a lot of great beer. I dropped in on the Ale-Liance release party for a free pint or two, and was not disappointed. So yeah, just wanted to help spread the word on all this: Go for a bike ride! Drink a fine Ale-Liance IPA! Enjoy the beautiful weather Seattle is finally getting!

The limited Ale-Liance IPA from Schooner EXACT at the Bicycle Alliance office

Wingman Brewers - 8 May 2012, 5:48:18 PM

Now that my cousin has moved to Tacoma I'm slowly but surely visiting his nearby breweries. I made my latest trek south for his housewarming/baby shower BBQ fiesta, joined by my brother, and en route we stopped at the brand new location of Wingman Brewers. Pretty convenient location, right next to the train station and bus transit center.

Tripel - 9% - Nice caramel aroma. Really nice and crisp caramel and alcohol flavors to a malty finish. Subtle banana/clove flavor as it warms up.
Dubbel - Don't usually like dubbels, but this one's pretty good. Nice balance of malty sweetness with raisin flavor. Caramel notes, and quite crisp.
Ace IPA - 7.4% - Crisp and hoppy. Mostly floral, but with some grapefruit notes. Good malty base.
Riveter Root Beer - 0% - Cool flavors: coriander, ginger?, honey. Really fun.

Warrior Single Hop IPA - 6.8% - Also crisp and hoppy. Pretty intense and lingering hoppiness. Also has a good malty base. Hops in this one just didn't jibe with me, though.

Cute little tasters at Wingman Brewers -- Tacoma, WA

The careful reader will notice that there's a sixth taster but only five listed. They were also pouring the Ace through a Randall with Siracha hops (but not, unfortunately, Sriracha, which was what my brother heard when it was described). It was a little smoother, sweeter, with more caramel flavor than the regular Ace. Pretty awesome. They didn't have their P-51 Porter or Stratofortress cedar-aged Belgian ale available, so I'll just have to re-visit one of these days. I have the feeling that once my cousin's kid is born, though, there won't be as many parties in T-Town.

Issaquah Brewhouse - 4 May 2012, 7:00:43 PM

Well, it was Earth Day, and I wanted to go on a long-ish bike ride, and the Issaquah Brewhouse was in the middle of celebrating their 12 year "anniversary" (they started before that, but Rogue bought them in 2000). Seemed like the perfect time to go. Google maps said it was an 18 mile ride, one way, and would take an hour 55. As usual, I left later than I wanted, around 2:45, and so had the pleasure of pedaling there during the hottest part of the day (it was a scorcher -- 70!). Managed to arrive at 4:25, however, which made me feel pretty good. I was mighty thirsty as I walked in, and as I eyed the bar for an empty stool I saw an old friend and co-worker of mine, Ed, who I hadn't seen in several years. Originally I thought I would spend an hour there before biking home, but good times were being had catching up with Ed, and then I ordered some dinner, and then there was a brewery tour at 6:00 that had the dubious honor of being the shortest and most stationary tour I've been on (to be fair, the brewing space is not much larger than the equipment, which makes it pretty much impossible for more than one person to move around), and then I received a free beer, and then it was 7:00, and I didn't want to bike all the way back to Seattle at that point. The transit center, as it turned out, was an easy bike ride from the Brewhouse, and so I wimped out and took the bus home. One of these days I'll have to do the round trip ride, because they only had three of their beers on tap, and they were all pretty darn tasty.

White Frog - Nice lemony and bready flavors that balance the slight banana flavor very well. Very refreshing after a bike ride.
Contraband IPA - Floral/citrus hop mix. Nice grapefruit flavor (I don't say that very often), light malty base. Really good.
Frosty Frog - Thick and creamy dark ale with great whiskey/alcohol flavor. Yum!

Flight o' Frogs at the Issaquah Brewhouse -- Issaquah, WA

The fourth beer in the picture is the Chatoe Rogue Single Malt Ale, which sounded a lot better than it tasted, unfortunately. The free beer was the Rogue Freedom Hop, which was good and crisp. One of these days I'll have to take another trip to the Oregon coast and do a long overdue "official" visit of the Rogue Brewery.

Northwest Peaks - 1 Apr 2012, 4:24:21 PM

With a title like "Northwest Peaks" you'd think this would be a post about climbing or similar outdoorsy activity, but April Fools! It is, once again, about beer. Specifically, the NW Peaks Brewery, a one-man show in Ballard, just around the corner from the significantly more funded Hilliard's.

It's a nice casual vibe at the NW Peaks Base Camp. I rolled my bike right in, propped it up against the fence, grabbed a sampler, and sat down at one of the two plastic picnic tables. Other folks wandered in, and the table eventually filled up. Lots of beer talk, and one guy was also a beer biker, although he was on foot that day. Good times.

Hannegan Red - 4.7% - Pretty mellow and smooth. Good maltiness to strong bready finish. Subtle hoppiness. Quite drinkable. Slightly flat, but sometimes reds are.
Early Morning Stout - Good dry coffee flavor and somewhat hoppy. Fairly light on the tongue for a stout, too.
Oak Aged Stuart Stout - Strong oaky/bourbon start. Gives way to dry bourbon/coffee mix. Yum!

Eldorado Pale Ale - Interesting. Lots of floral hops. Somewhat bready. Fairly bold, but light on the tongue. Lingering floral hoppiness. Pretty good, but too floral for me.

Easy climbing with the Northwest Peaks sampler -- Seattle, WA

NW Peaks is one of those places I'll have to re-visit periodically because they have no year-round beers -- new brews every month. There are lots of mountains to climb in the Cascades, and lots of beers to make at NW Peaks.

Pike Brewing - 28 Mar 2012, 11:49:07 PM

It had been a long time since I last visited the Pike Pub and Brewery. I'm not even going to try and remember when that was. I don't think I liked the food all that much, and over time that kind of spread to my view of their beer. Or something like that. Anyway, I walked down to the Market on a surprisingly non-rainy afternoon, and decided to pop in and finally do an "official" visit. The beers turned out to be pretty solid, but after sipping from all six, taking notes, and nibbling on a tasty hummus plate (so maybe I was wrong about the food...), I went back through the samplers, and two of them, after warming up, didn't taste so good anymore. I've been trying to figure out what to do about them: keep them on the Pick list but with a warning that they're better cold, or drop them down to The Rest because they don't hold up if you drink them slowly? It was too hard of a decision, as it turned out, so I just put them on both lists. Oh well.

Naughty Nellie - 4.7% - Golden organic artisan ale. Nice light mix of floral hoppiness and breadiness. Crisp, bubbly. Hoppier than I expected.
Pale Ale (cold) - 5% - "Heirloom amber." Good mix of big bready maltiness and underlying hoppiness. Sort of a cross between a pale ale and an amber.
Kilt Lifter - 6.5% - Great sweet maltiness. Very full bodied. Just enough hops to balance sweetness but not stand out. Yum.
XXXXX Extra Stout (cold) - 7% - Great coffee/chocolate aroma. Great rich coffee/chocolate/bit of smoky flavors that linger. Extremely drinkable.
Monk's Uncle - 9% - Tripel. Banana/clove and slight alc aroma. Banana/clove flavor but balanced nicely with some sweetness, some spiciness, touch of alcohol, slight breadiness. Pretty darn good.
Doubble Troubble IPA - 8% - Strong floral aroma. Very crisp with strong floral and citrus hops. Light but strong.
Post Alley Porter - seasonal - Similar coffee/chocolate/smoky flavors as XXXXX but has a dry instead of a rich mouthfeel. Yay, I used "mouthfeel!"

IPA - 6.3% - lots of floral hops but nice malty base. Good hoppy bite but too floral for me
Pale Ale (warm) - 5% - For some reason, after this beer warmed up a bit, it just tasted bad. Weird.
XXXXX Extra Stout (warm) - 7% - Just like the Pale Ale, when the Stout warmed up a bit, it just didn't taste all that great.

Taster tray at the Pike Pub and Brewery -- Seattle, WA

Since my last post, I found out there are three more breweries in and around Seattle that are churning through the federal licensing process and planning to open this year. Plus, I forgot about three other existing local breweries I have yet to officially visit (or five, if I count Pyramid and Redhook). And then there are a couple I've been meaning to re-visit. So, plenty to keep me busy, without even having to bike very far from home.