Dionysus — god of wine, inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, also known as Bacchus and the Liberator — was a huge presence Jan. 29 during Day One of the Strange Brewfest Port Townsend. The inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy was invited to attend the 12th version of the annual beer festival as this year’s theme was “Greek Gods” and to “party like Greek gods and goddesses” at this “Mount Olympus of beer festivals.” Dionysus was seen photo-bombing people as they took selfies holding deliciously strange liquid. He boogied to the LoWire band in the American Legion to which
Positive week for the South Sound craft beer scene. Specific South Sound Gravity: New Breweries Edition The South Sound Craft Beer Scene Index measures the state of the greater Tacoma and Olympia area craft beer scene. [+3] Four-alarm smiles were seen at Top Rung Brewing Co. in Lacey when its new, 1,500 lbs., 11-feet tall 20 barrel fermenter arrived from Portland. [+2] Peaks and Pints reported five South Sound breweries — Fish Brewing Co., Three Magnets Brewing Co., Top Rung Brewing Co., Harmon Brewing Co. and Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. would collaborate on an India
Three Magnets Brewing Co. head brewer Pat Jansen chats with Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. director of brewery operations Steve Navarro during the South Sound Brewery Medal Showcase at Puyallup River Brewery in July 2015. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner Tap handles in most South Puget Sound drinking joints and restaurant symbolize the progress our region is making toward reinvigorating its brewing traditions of pre-Prohibition era. Today, 40 or so craft beer breweries call the South Sound area home, including Fox Island, Graham and a neighborhood garage in Central Tacoma. Is the South Sound a recognized craft
Casey Sobol, left, and Jason Stoltz brew Three Sixty Red in their Top Rung Brewing Company in late November 2015. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner The image of the craft beer brewer is now familiar to most beer drinkers: beard, rubber galoshes, a baseball cap, consuming endless beers. … It’s not just one long keg party in waterproof shoes at Top Rung Brewing Company in Lacey, Washington. Founders Casey Sobol and Jason Stoltz are all business. Sure, they joke and spray water at their sales rep Mike Besser at every opportunity, but the two Thurston County firefighters
For us, there’s nothing quite like a good Porter; we can recognize one almost by its aroma alone. These dark, often full-bodied beers have something of an attitude thanks to their caramel and chocolate tones. And it’s a beer with a good story. The origins of the ale trace back to the 1700s, when it was a favorite beer of the porters who worked the London shipyards. Popular legend has it that brewers and bartenders got tired of tapping separate kegs for each of the current three styles: “beer,” “ale” and “twopenny” (a beverage of specious origins most famous for
JOHN SWASEY: Live from the Proctor District in Tacoma Washington, it’s the 2015 South Sound Christmas Beer Parade. And let me tell you the City of Destiny is aglow this afternoon. South Sound breweries are parading their Christmas beers down 26th Street before hundreds of happy folks. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I’m John Swasey. If you’re a Christmas beer fan or a friend of a Christmas beer fan, Buddy the Elf, this will be an afternoon to remember. Your thoughts on that matter? BUDDY THE ELF: I saw a dog today. SWASEY. That’s terrific. I can’t speak for the
After you’ve made your list, checked it twice, and managed to buy gifts for those who’ve been nice, you still have a huge task ahead of you: wrapping them. And if presentation is important in food preparation, it matters even more in gift giving. But be forewarned: for the most part, pretty packages take time … about as long as it takes to down a pint of craft beer. Obviously. If you’re one of the lucky few able to wrap exemplary gift packages faster than a speeding bullet, this might just not do you any good. If you’re are a
This isn’t your typical Saturday night in White Pass Ski Area lodge. People are hanging out rather than racing down the mountain to Packwood cabins. Two bearded dudes are rockin’ guitars and harmonicas in front of the fireplace. Kids are running around like maniacs. But the real difference goes beyond the Sitzmark Lounge’s clientele last night. Ten breweries and cideries are pouring their craft. Welcome to Brews, Brats & Boards. The White Pass Volunteer Ski Patrol hosted the party last night, a night of craft beer and cider, wine, brats and silent auction to raise money for the ski patrol’s
Somewhere between a joke and a necessity lives the holiday sweater. They can certainly be ugly — and something I bumped into repeatedly during last night’s opening session of the Washington Brewers Guild-produced 2015 Winter Beer Fest in Hangar 30 at Seattle’s Magnuson Park. Sweaters with holiday scenes were the seasonal equivalent of Viking hats at summer beer festivals. Now, if being in a hangar full of people wearing ugly sweaters isn’t enticing enough on its own, add more than 50 breweries pouring 160+ dark malty stouts, robust winter warmers, barrel-aged gems and holiday-inspired beers. The Winter Beer Fest continues
Need another reason to love craft beer? Follow @7seasbrew on Instagram Founded in 2008 by 24-year-olds Mike Runion and Travis Guterson, 7 Seas Brewing Co. set out to innovate, to create beers that went where no beers had gone before. They did crazy things, such as fill cans rather than bottles, preserving their beer and the environment. Today, with 14,000 square feet of brewing space, including a popular taproom, beer garden and The Galley food truck, it’s surprising the downtown Gig Harbor brewery has time to devote to their Instagram page. Luckily, they post, and it’s not all duckfaces …
Three Magnets Brewing head brewer Pat Jansen When Olympia restaurateurs Sara and Nate Reilly dreamed up their community hub known as Three Magnets Brewing Co. they didn’t mail in their head brewer selection. Well … they sort of did. Soil superstar farmer and yeast yogi Patrick Jansen, an eight-year home brewer who influenced human behavior with his craft beer, was delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service. A professional brewery with a British-style pub and deep sense of community was enough to sway Jansen away from Publishers Clearing House sad faces and dog mean faces. With
Three Magnets Brewing Co. is an appropriate name for the downtown Olympia brewery. Their strengths have pulled large crowds since their opening in November 2014. This list of proud accomplishments is long for Three Magnets co-owner Nate Reilly, including the quality of the beer. “Going into this project, not being a brewer myself, I really couldn’t have imagined us putting out beer as good as we are now,” says Reilly, who also owns Darby’s Cafe with business partner and wife, Sara. “I was hopeful, but I also had no way of knowing. That was the biggest variable in our business
Oh, we see it coming. Right around Dec. 12 you’ll start to fade. You’ll be at your wit’s end from several weeks of shopping, eggnog and Mariah Carey singing, “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Take a break from the madness! Flee the mall and meet your friends at Tacoma Brewing Company’s Black Sun Russian Imperial Stout bottle release party Saturday, Dec. 12. The Stout screams the holidays, in Russian of course. The refined Russian Imperial Stout was aged in JP Trodden bourbon barrels for more than 18 months. The big beer is balanced by a light mouthfeel, low
Maureen McHugh and Tobin Ropes were down on their knees raising their hands toward the heavens and thanking their lucky stars. They have seen a dreadful revolving door of half-baked restaurants and bars in the space next to their Mad Hat Tea Company on Commerce Street in downtown Tacoma. Last night at 5 p.m., during a rainstorm, on Friday the 13th, the two felt good luck had finally fallen upon them, in terms of neighborly commerce and good will. Dunagan Brewing Co. opened its doors. After graduating from the Art Institute of Seattle, Tacoman Jesse Dunagan worked in San Diego’s
Words and photos from last night’s Harmon Pray for Snow party … At one point during last night’s Harmon Brewery & Restaurant Pray for Snow party people flat out lost their minds. Tacoma musician Steve Stefanowicz performed an acoustic version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” and you could see the Crystal Mountain Resort folks contemplate ripping their shirts off and hang from the rafters. The 40 Below table had a unison headbangin’ thing going. The Harmon employees whooped and hollered down the aisles without spilling a drop of the newly released Harmon Steep & Deep Winter Ale. Similar to the
The Swiss Restaurant & Pub will host New Belgium Brewing for a beer pairing dinner Wednesday, Nov. 18. For details and tickets, check out the Swiss’ Facebook event page: We caught up with Swiss chef Jacob Thacker for a little preview of the dinner.
From the diary of Myles Clinkerdagger, military leader of the Ruston Way Colony, 1622: Merry Thanksdrinking! It’s been a year since we have been separated from those tools on the Mayflower and Speedwell. Most of us cannot forgive them for not waiting for us on the docks in southwest England. Who leaves in the middle of an English Separatist Church bake sale anyway? Silly Separatists that’s who. Anyway, we couldn’t freakin’ find the Hudson River. A storm send our huge ship, Java Jive, way south. We battled storms for a year before making our way north, then through many passages
Denizens of the Dark is big and burly. If it were a beer, it would be a high-gravity hybrid of the chewiest Russian Imperial Stouts, the Fruit Roll Up of Quadrupels and the weirdest of sweet barleywines. We’d call it a Winter Imperial Double Trappist-Style Extra Stout-Strong Ale (aged in oak, of course). But it’s not a beer; it’s an annual heady festival that isn’t about getting deep-pocketed beer companies to pony up sponsorship dollars. It’s about rewarding beer lovers and promoting the craft by tapping strong, dark delicious beers. The event, organized by Wingman Brewers close to the Tacoma
Fish Brewing Company is chill. The entire staff can chill mad hard. I wouldn’t bat an eye if I saw Fish head brewer Paul Pearson driving a new Lincoln, rolling his fingers and rambling slow soliloquies. They don’t offer spin the wheel hijinks at beer festivals. They don’t publicize their every move. Their beer does all the talking. The World Beer Awards was in Fish’s house yesterday, and you could hear a minnow drop. Fish Tale Ales’ Beyond the Pale Ale, produced by Fish Brewing Co. in downtown Olympia, was named the 2015 World’s Best Beer by the World Beer
Two Beers Brewing releases Wonderland Trail IPA I’m almost certain Fritz Maytag didn’t find inspiration to create an English-style pale ale with American hops while hiking Mount Rainier’s Wonderland Trail. The Stanford graduate who founded Anchor Brewing in San Francisco in 1965 probably didn’t have an “ah-ha” moment to bring back almost-forgotten British technique of dry hopping while climbing out of Longmire toward the top of Rampart Ridge. While we’re Wondering, I doubt Sierra Nevada Brewing Company brewer Ken Grossman drew inspiration to brew a pale ale using whole-cone American hops, including Cascade, while hiking along the banks of Kautz
Things can get pretty freaky at Top Rung Brewing Company. And not just when their sales executive Mike Besser roams the taproom wearing a keg costume. No, the Lacey brewery’s co-founder Casey Sobol was recently freaked a bit by a mysterious knocking sound inside his brewing room. “We recently put in service our new 20-barrel fermenter,” explains Sobol. “When I finished plumbing the tank into the glycol system for the jackets I proceeded to turn the system on, then was sidetracked by a delivery and phone call. I returned to the brewery room and heard this knocking sound.” Sobol was
We continue our Halloween inspired series of scary brewery stories with visit to Narrows Brewing, which sits on pilings above the Narrows Strait next to Narrows Marina. As we have documented earlier this week, brewing beer is an industrial process and can be a dangerous business: you’re dealing with boiling hot liquid, clouds of carbon dioxide that can suffocate workers, kegs and vats under pressure, heavy kegs and equipment, and other dangers large and small. Today, we interview a Narrows Brewing employee in silhouette to hide his or her identity. “My scariest experience in the brew house was almost tipping
Doing our part to keep the South Sound’s Halloween celebrants from choking on family-friendly pabulum, we’re skipping the chainsaw exhaust and dry ice for local brewers describing their scary experiences on the job. Yesterday, Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. head brewer Bethany Carlsen told tales of mysterious movements inside her brewery, and her upcoming Jake’s Blood Red Ale release. Today, we present Harmon Brewing Co. head brewer Jeff Carlson’s horrifying experience, and his Halloween beer suggestions. This past March, Carlson was brewing at the Harmon Tap Room when the mash tun door flew open spilling 180-degree wort into his work
If you think “cask beer” means “flat, warm, and funny tasting,” what you’ve had is some seriously messed-up cask beer — a cask is a lot easier to mishandle than a keg. Keep trying. When experts are involved, this is a damn fine way to do your drinking. Last night experts at Engine House No. 9 tapped a firkin full of their damn fine Don of Time American Pale Ale loaded with grapefruit flavor, due in part to the fresh squeezed citrus profile of Waimea hops. Because cask-conditioned beer is unfiltered and unpasteurized beer that is conditioned and served from
The walled-off entrance to the jail below Old City Hall during the construction phase at Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. / photo courtesy of Facebook We’ve always loved October. Flora is in full regalia for its last fashion show, summer’s hiccups butt into winter’s tentative icy thrusts, and animals are ferociously busy with gathering, storing and various forms of copulation wherever the eye may fall. The best part of October, though, has to be the supernatural event that peeks out from the edge of the calendar — that beautiful, exuberantly wicked holiday that provokes us to
You’ve probably already sipped some craft beers from Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewery — like a Fat Tire Amber Ale. The Colorado hallmark was actually first brewed a couple years before New Belgium was founded in 1991, in the basement of (future) co-founder Jeff Lebesch. It was aptly was named after the vacation that Lebesch spent biking on “fat tires” through little villages — in search of good beer, of course. Glancing at the menu for New Belgium’s brewmaster’s dinner at The Swiss Restaurant & Pub next month, Fat Tire graces the menu. Shocker. The popular amber ale with its
Blue Lightning Brew co-founder and head brewer Toren Heald / photo credit: Pappi Swarner My first sip of alcohol at age [fill in the blank] was from a bottle of Johnny Walker passed to me by older roughians. We listened to Led Zeppelin on the 8-track (yes, 8-track — it only played one way, no rewind) and polished off the bottle. It didn’t go well for me. Lesson learned. It was years and years before I was brave enough to try scotch again, and single malt peated whisky from Islay became my choice. When I drink
Odd Otter Brewing Company distribution manager Charles Gibb / photo credit: Pappi Swarner We walked into a building full of Odd Otters. They were busy Odd Otters moments after a staff meeting: one was brewing beer; one was planning marketing, two were pouring beers, one was hugged every 15 seconds by other Otters and the last Otter was chatting up Stars Wars with us. The building, built in the late 1880s, past home of a Sailors and Soldiers Club during World War I and a USO Center in World War II, will be filled with balloons
Hey kids! Want to black out tonight? Then you’re in luck, cause Avery Brewing is bringing its demonically strong Mephistopheles Stout to the Parkway Tavern as part of the joint’s “Avery Demons of Ale” night. First brewed in 2005 as the third installment in Avery’s “Demons of Ale” series, it measures in at 14.5%. That’s evil. Take note Uber drivers: The tavern on Tacoma’s North Slope will also pour Avery’s other Demon beers — super-caramelly, oak-aged English-style strong ale Samael’s Oak-Aged Ale and the dates, plums, raisins and molasses rich The Beast Grand Cru. Other Avery ales to sip tonight
Aaron Poole, left, and Ben Brown discuss recipes in their Destiny City Brewing garage brewery. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner Eighteen new breweries have been added to the Washington State Liquor Control Board’s official list of licensed Washington breweries, including Destiny City Brewing operating out of Ben Brown’s garage in Central Tacoma. Destiny looks like a neighborhood, at least from Brown’s garage facing south toward Cheney Stadium. Inside the garage shoving the camping gear to the edge, sits a hot liquor tank, mash-lauter tun and boil kettle half-barrel system, also known as Destiny City Brewing, where Brown
Photo courtesy of Three Magnets Brewing’s Facebook As Three Magnets Brewing Co.’s owners Sara and Nate Reilly and I stood in centerfield during the Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival at Avista Stadium in Spokane, they let the bottled up glee burst out announcing they would begin bottling their beers last week. The downtown Olympia brewery will launch their bottle program with three beers from their Fresh Hop Series, one beer from their Farmhouse Series, and one beer from the Olympia Coffee Roasters Series, celebrating with two bottle release parties Saturday, Oct. 17. Future bottle releases include
Despite yesterday’s afternoon downpour, the crowd’s disposition seemed sunny inside Top Rung Brewing Company. The Lacey brewery’s second annual Hoptoberfest set the record for most people to walk through their door on a single day, and won me over on the taste side. As guitarist Murray plucked a mighty fine tune or 20, I sipped the most delightful Top Rung Imperial Barrel Aged Pyrolysis Stout — dark and malty with notes of coffee and chocolate boosted with a smooth, bourbon finish. Co-founders Casey Sobol and Jason Stoltz also released their new Shift Trade IPA, a 6.2% ABV shot of pineapple
Adam Paysse, Colin Lenfesty and Mike Murphy opened Holy Mountain Brewing Company in Seattle one year ago. After stints at Schooner Exact Brewing Co., Bainbridge Island Brewery and Westland Distillery, the three well-respected local beer veterans have gain quick respect for their outstanding farmhouse and sour barrel-aged beers, as well as hoppy west coast styles and lagers. Paysse climbed the mountaintop and descended with a clean, visual brand idea. With the help of designer Brian Steely, certain Holy Mountain bottles don beautiful line art animals. The blended oak aged Brett Saison “The Gray Tower,” cherry and raspberry “Clarette” and the
The kings of the beer geeks, in our book, are the brewery sales representatives, or beer reps. It’s their job to know beer inside and out. They need the knowledge to have intelligent conversations with their boss, the brewery owner, the brewery’s brewmaster, as well as the distributor who, er, distributes their beer, the establishments that sell their beer and the consumers who attended their brewery promotions — the people who matter the most. Here are our favorite photos of beer reps, as well as a few beer distributor reps, we snapped this past summer. Enjoy.
Few craft beer entrepreneurs contemplate selling their business when they first get started. Unlike, for example, the typical entrepreneur in the software industry, craft brewers — at least the ones we know — were inspired by the love of magnificent beer, a spirit of adventure and the romance of creating a small manufacturing business. When home brewer Steve Navarro approached venture capitalist Brent Hall of Pinnacle Capital Partners to help finance his dream of resurrecting the Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. in Tacoma, Hall was so moved by Navarro’s passion for his craft, that he became a co-partner in the
It wasn’t just the biggest comeback of the week, the month or the year. Warren G. Harding’s come-from-behind win Friday night was the largest in his Craft Beer Fan League history, as he overcame a nine-beer deficit with late pumpkin ale and cider rallies en route to earning an 15-14 victory over his league-rival Magic Realism, the name he goes by in league play, at the Washington Beer Commission’s Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival in Avista Stadium, Spokane. For the second year, Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival is taking the field at Avista Stadium, the home of the Spokane Indians
Pat Nagle squeezed past a long table of diners to adjust the hi-fi player loaded with oompah songs, which was sitting atop of several beer barrels beneath white and blue-checkered pennant flags. He paused, studying the capacity crowd where once were his fermenters and Brite tanks. The Harmon Brewery & Restaurant – the flagship Harmon Brewing Co. restaurant in downtown Tacoma – recently converted its brewing room into an event space and future café for Harmon’s Hop Coffee franchise. All brewing production takes place at the Harmon Tap Room in Tacoma’s Stadium District. Last night, the room took the shape
In this modern world of impersonal digital connections face-to-face relations between maker and consumer seem as out of date as clay tablets. Enter the beer-pairing dinner — or in case of last night’s dinner at The Swiss Restaurant & Pub, the beer/cider-pairing dinner. Velvety voiced, wildly charismatic Eric Willard shared his beers, his cider and his wisdom with a group of 40 or so. Willard is somewhat of the ultimate authority on beer and cider as he is part owner of Two Beers Brewing Co. and Seattle Cider Company, the sister companies — located a quarter inch from each other
Green Tacoma Day 2015 includes an opportunity to volunteer at Oak Tree Park. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner National Public Lands Day, which calls for volunteers to spend a day working to improve and restore trails, campgrounds and natural habitats, officially fell on Sept. 26 this year. But related events across the South Sound and the nation take place over a two-week period, during which time the call will be answered by helping hands. If you’d like to be among them, Oct. 10 is the day when the eighth annual Green Tacoma Day consumes area parks. Volunteers
If you like drinking beer in public places, well you’re in luck, our tippling exhibitionist friends, because there are some pleasurable opportunities this week in the South Sound. TUESDAY, SEPT. 29 >>> Spokane’s No-Li Brewhouse will pair five of its beers with a five-course dinner at Pints and Quarts in Lacey. 6 p.m., $55, Pints and Quarts, 1230 College St. SE, Lacey, 360.438.9183 WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 30 >>> Each year Green Flash Brewing introduces a limited-release beer starring a new pinup-inspired icon. For 2015 they have the national debut of Treasure Chest, an IPA brewed with grapefruit, prickly pear juice and
Once an infinitesimal share of the beverage market, hard ciders have seen great increases in interest over the last several years and are starting to register in the consciousness of American consumers, especially in Gig Harbor. The second annual Cider Swig was held Saturday, Sept. 26 — National Public Lands Day — at Sehmel Homestead Park in Gig Harbor. Proceeds from the Cider Swig support environmental education and conservation to maintain and expand area parks, trails and natural areas around the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula community. After everyone found parking, the fun-filled, family-friendly afternoon of cider sipping and apple
The difference between fresh hops and dried hops in beer brewing is like the difference between a mug of Laurelwood Fresh Hop Free Range Red and a bottle of Miller Lite. Unlike conventional beers, tasting a freshly hopped brew is a seasonal experience as the hops’ cone-shaped flower only blooms once a year. The fresh hops need to be trucked to the brewery right away, and the brewery needs to make the necessary adjustments to its equipment. Also called wet-hop beers, these creations utilize hops within 48 hours of their harvest, at which point they are added to the brewing
Ten Washington state breweries earned 13 medals Saturday in the Great American Beer Festival competition this weekend in Denver’s Colorado Convention Center, including six gold medals, one silver medal and six bronze medals. The South Sound was in the big house, with Fish Brewing Co. and Three Magnets Brewing Co. earning bronze medals in the prestigious competition, and Silver City Brewery out of Bremerton scoring gold. More than 6,600 beers were entered by 1,552 breweries from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, searching for medals in 92 categories covering 145 different beer styles. A total of 275 medals
Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. head brewer Steve Navarro will lead brewery tours during the one-year anniversary party. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. celebrates its first anniversary with — you guessed it — beer. Yes, seems like just yesterday Pacific Brewing was a newborn brewery, entering our lives at a time when breweries seem to be popping up everywhere. From the ashes of the original Pacific Brewing & Malting that graced Tacoma’s Brewery District in 1897, the brewery reopened last year on the other side of town, with a family-friendly taproom to
