Peaks and Pints Prefunk: Nightmare Before Niros Stop by Peaks & Pints for a three-can flight of Nightmare Brewing before the DJ Niros show at Jazzbones Thursday, Nov. 17. DJ Niros will create visually infused light shows with original music videos during Ladies Night at the Sixth Avenue club tonight. Peaks & Pints Prefunk With ravenous passion for horror flicks and death metal and a disdain for cookie-cutter IPAs, Billy Powell’s Nightmare became real in December 2018. He founded the Long Island-based, but not based, Nightmare Brewing Company. Powell honed his homebrewing skills Sand City Brewing in Northport, New York,
Fargo’s most impressive brewery, in both size and beer offerings, is still Drekker Brewing Co. In September 2014, after seven years of homebrewing, writing business plans, watching Viking movies, and dialing in their branding, scientist Mark Bjornstad, builder Darin Montplaisir, businessperson Jesse Feigum, and engineer Mason Montplaisir opened Drekker in what was once North Dakota’s most rough and rowdy frontier town. Originally located in a downtown space where Drumconrath Brewing now operates, Drekker moved a few blocks west into a huge brick building that once housed a locomotive repair company. After pouring concrete over the tracks, Drekker installed brew tanks,
Scottish style beers can be a malt lover’s dream beer with its smooth sweetness and body. The epitome of malty, scotch ales is boiled twice as long as ordinary beer, caramelizing the sugars to build these deep flavors of maple and molasses. Recipes may include peat-smoked malt, which can lend smoky, earthy tones to the aroma and flavor. Scottish ales commonly fall into four general types: Light, Heavy, Export and the Scotch Ale. Historically these distinctions carried labels of the shilling currency, which reflected the price charged per barrel of beer in the 19th century. For example, 60 shilling was
Nearly everyone loves to eat a good strawberry. When strawberries are in season, there is almost nothing as satisfying as walking out into the garden and harvesting a colander full of these sweet, fragrant, and beautiful fruits. But damn you strawberries! You’re only fresh during June and July in Washington state. Then, they become ticking time bombs. Within a day you have withered; in three days you are moldy. Still, your flavor lives on from the freezer, or in hard cider. The fresh taste of strawberries, soft and deep red, backed by mouth-watering sweetness and previous alcohol. Today, Peaks and
Located in the Seattle neighborhood of Interbay, near the Magnolia Bridge, and started by friends Colin Lenfesty and Mike Murphy who worked in the local beer business, Holy Mountain might sit at sea level but its name gives nod to Mount Rainier, the ominous holy mountain that looms over Seattle, as well as a song and album by doom/stoner band, Sleep. Holy Mountain’s heart is its foudres and innumerable barrels, which churn out saisons and wild ales that tend to have mild sourness and stunning depth thanks to complex malt bills and a mix of Brettanomyces and local microflora. While
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 11.11.22 Hey party people 
It’s the weekend and Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 11.11.22 has some new friends for a hang. … Bale Breaker Brewing Frenzgiving: Collaboration with Varietal Beer, Single Hill Brewing, Wandering Hop Brewery, and Cowiche Creek Brewing, this hazy IPA is dry hopped with equal parts Citra, HBC 586, and HBC 630 for notes of mango, pineapple, peach, nectarine, and lychee, 7.1% Fort George Brewery Dismal Nitch: Dismal Nitch is named for the purportedly darkish, depressing cove where Lewis & Clark were stranded in 1805. Dismal Nitch
6-Pack of Things To Do November 11-13 2022 To the men and women who served our country with pride and integrity, your service inspires ours. Here are six things to do in Tacoma this weekend. Cheers! MOVIES: Tacoma Sister Cities International Film Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary with feature films from eight of Tacoma’s sister cities through Sunday at the Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma’s Proctor District. On the playbill are films from Norway, Mexico, Croatia, Korea, Cuba, Morocco, Japan, and Taiwan. Some are films of the past and some are new, and all of them are critical favorites spanning
The historical epoch of Armistice Day began with the Nov. 11, 1918, signing of a ceasefire between Germany and the Allied powers of World War I. President Woodrow Wilson initiated it. In the South Sound, we’re reminded of war’s impact more often than people in most other cities. But even so, it’s not often enough. Our freedoms, our heritage, and the way of life we enjoy today are made possible because of our military veterans. Today’s 100th anniversary of Veterans Day honors all of America’s veterans for their patriotism, service, and sacrifice. And for their families, there is no better
Founder Paul Arney and his team are focused on one thing at The Ale Apothecary — making truly unique beers, using strictly Oregon ingredients — including local barley, wheat, hops, barrels, and even the wild yeast drifting around the high desert air — aged in oak, waiting patiently for the right moment to express themselves. Ex-Deschutes brewer Arney bottle conditions his beer, allowing for natural carbonation and more complex flavors that are unlocked after further aging, and as a result, everything at their Bend, Oregon taproom is in bottles. And much of it is already spoken for through the brewery’s
Tillamook, Oregon, is a sleepy, remote, and often damp coastal town 74 miles west of Portland. It smells of sea air and dairy farms. It’s also home to founder and head brewer Trevor Rogers’ de Garde Brewing, whose singular focus is spontaneously fermented, barrel-aged beers. The brewery, found near the Tillamook Air Museum’s massive blimp hangar, barely distributes, meaning fans must either track down bottles on the Internet or visit in person. Once you’re there, the handful of wild ales and guest rarities on tap and limited-release bottles available to go don’t disappoint. Berliner weisses, Belgian ales, porters, and more
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 11.8.22 It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time for new craft beer cans and bottles. Stop by Peaks & Pints after you vote and grab Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 11.8.22 for all the chatter tonight. AleSmith Brewing Barrel-Aged Vietnamese Speedway Stout: Massive barrel-aged stout brewed with gallons of Vietnamese coffee with a phin-style filter that gently percolates water through ground coffee for chocolatey and bold-tasting coffee plus notes of oak, vanilla, and bourbon barrel in this massive barrel-aged stout, 14.2% Belching Beaver Brewing Barrel-Aged Peanut Butter Milk Stout: Part of
When Utah’s strict liquor and beer laws changed in 2008, entrepreneurs David Cole and Peter Erickson were able to pursue their longtime dream of opening Epic Brewing — a strong beer microbrewery in Salt Lake City, Utah, like those found in their home state of California. Having started an international aquaculture company in Utah in 1992, Cole and Erickson were no strangers to food and drink (and the art of making them well), so when they teamed up with acclaimed brewmaster and fellow beer geek Kevin Crompton, the trio immediately set to work brewing a carefully curated collection of strong
Founded in August 2020 by CEO Caitlin Braam, Yonder Cider makes savory, subtly sweet and high ABV ciders in Wenatchee with a taproom in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, which is shared with Bale Breaker Brewing from the Yakima Valley. Crafted using a blend of bittersweet cider apples and juicy dessert apples, Yonder ciders are hardly simple, and never straightforward, but you can always count on them being interesting. “Cidermaking is a playground of the pretty and the ugly, the bitter and the sweet: It’s never a one-note song when done well, says Braam. “Our apples reflect the striking, complex terroir of
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 11.6.22 Grab Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 11.6.22 from our cooler and enjoy while the Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals today. 21st Amendment Fireside Chat: Rich, dark, English-style winter ale brewed with spices until the San Francisco brewery knows they have a beer worth sharing with the nation, 7.9% Fast Fashion Catch of the Day: Fresh hop IPA brewed exclusively with Segal Ranch Anchovy hops for notes of candied watermelon and stone fruit with a touch of pine and juniper, 6.8% Firestone Walker XXVI Anniversary Ale: In addition to iconic
The Proctor District launches their fourth annual “Meet Me At Proctor’s Peppermint Place” today. Through Dec. 25, the Proctor District will wrap the North Tacoma business district’s light posts to resemble candy canes, light a Christmas tree, host a Proctor merchant holiday window contest voted on by the public, offer a coloring contest for kids with fun gifts donated by local business, and load up the calendar with holiday events. Enjoy hot or cold beverages at the restaurants, browse the shops, and enjoy the Saturday Farmers’ Market. It’s been a difficult year for everyone, and the Proctor District hopes it
The pandemic canceled the Washington Beer Awards in 2020. The next year, the Washington Brewers Guild and the Washington Beer Commission moved the Washington Beer Awards from the Washington Brewers Festival held at Marymoor Park in Redmond during Father’s Day Weekend to early November at the Washington Craft Beer Summit in Puyallup. This year, the ninth edition of the Washington Beer Awards were held, once again, during the Washington Craft Beer Summit at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup. Early this year, a panel of judges evaluated 1,400 beers submitted by 179 breweries from across the state. All the beers
6-Pack of Things To Do Nov. 4-6 2022 The world ain’t so bad. In our day, we had to dial rotary phones with our fingers. We had to wait four days for a letter. Buy records in a store. Read a map. Use dial-up modems. Now one can plan weekend events via the 6-Pack of Things To Do Nov. 4-6 2022 newsletter produced by a craft beer lodge. Yippee! HOPPY HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE: The holiday season is a time to be charitable, and there are scores of specific ways to donate in Pierce County this winter. Usually, that means donating
We’re going to see some weather this weekend in Western Washington. The North Sound and South Sound will see the worst of the rain, with 1 to 3 inches of rain expected north and 1 to 4 inches expected south of Tacoma. Rivers will quickly rise as relentless heavy rain pounds the area through Friday afternoon and early evening. Wind will also be a factor for the Puget Sound area on Friday afternoon, with potential gusts in the 35 to 50 mph range. Snow levels will quickly plummet early Saturday morning, so anything that falls Saturday and Sunday will be
Peaks & Pints met Conrad Andrus during the 2015 Craft Brewers Conference in Portland, Oregon. He gave us a tour of Culmination Brewing where he was head brewer. Since then, we have bumped into this talented gentleman on numerous occasions — both inside his former home at Culmination and at other breweries and beer festivals. During the pandemic, Andrus left his five-year brewing job at Culmination to join head brewer Mat Sandoval at Modern Times Beer’s Belmont Fermentorium, a Portland location for the San Diego brewery, where we bumped into Andrus again. Our next encounter should be at Living Haus
Today marks Peaks & Pints’ sixth anniversary. After five false opening dates due to construction, we finally opened Nov. 1, 2016 to a packed house. Today also marks our 1771st beer and cider flight. That’s 300 more days than our men’s bathroom paper dispenser has worked. That’s 200 more days since the playing card has been stuck on our ceiling near the cooler. That’s 12 more days than regular Dave has sat at Bar Stool #1. Our first beer flight — an in-house beer flight with a stunt man theme — dropped Jan. 14, 2017. A daily flight followed that
6-Pack of Things To Do: Oct. 31-Nov. 1 From boo! to brew … SCARY SPOTIFY BEER FLIGHT: Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that it’s Halloween. But then again, if you’ve been living in a cave, every day is fit for batty behavior, and today is no exception! Peaks & Pints is going to put the “eerie” in beerie, or something. Mix Master Chu dropped by Peaks & Pints last week with a Spotify Halloween Playlist to pair with scary beers from our cooler for your listening (and drinking) pleasure. The beers and pairing songs are below
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that it’s Halloween. But then again, if you’ve been living in a cave, every day is fit for batty behavior, and today is no exception! Peaks & Pints is going to put the “eerie” in beerie, or something. Mix Master Chu Chu dropped by Peaks & Pints last week announcing he created a Spotify Halloween Playlist to pair with scary beers from our cooler for your listening (and drinking) pleasure. The beers and pairing songs are below with the actual playlist on Spotify — search “Peaks and Pints 2022 Halloween Beer
“Milk is for babies! When you grow up you have to drink beer.” So declares Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1977 film, “Pumping Iron,” (Seriously, it’s a classic. If you haven’t seen it, add it to your Netflix.) But the decision of whether to drink milk or beer now seems as anachronistic as Lou Ferrigno. The craft beer boom has injected new life into the milk stout, an English classic that withered with the advent of World War II and the milk rationing that followed. Milk stouts, trendy as they may be, are here to stay. Also called “sweet stouts,” milk stouts
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.29.22 Swing by our craft beer bar, bottle shop and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District and grab Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.29.22. … Anderson Valley Brewing Huge Arker: After primary fermentation, this imperial stout is aged in Wild Turkey Bourbon barrels for flavors redolent of honey and molasses intertwined with the richness of dark chocolate and the ardent warmth of alcohol, underpinned with hints of coffee, vanilla, and dark fruits, 15.5% Little Beast Brewing Folkvangr: Barrel-fermented dark saison brewed with a Norwegian farmhouse strain of yeast, chocolate wheat and kilned
Fort George Blue Mouse IPA brew day, clockwise from lower right: NW Beverage Sales Executive Mike Bosold, Sirina Turner, Peaks & Pints co-owner Justin Peterson, Peaks bartender Erin Miller, Peaks co-owner Ron Swarner, Peaks bartender Mitchell Lovett, Fort George R&D brewer Matt Rhodes, and Fort George brewer Colin Rosenberger Fort George Blue Mouse IPA in Tacoma makes sense If this was a standardized test the question would be, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is to movies as (blank) is to beer.” The answer? Fort George Brewery’s Blue Mouse IPA, of course. This year marks the 47th
It’s not bizarre to desire lower alcohol beers to spend more time with friends. Actually, it is bizarre. Two veterans of the Seattle beer scene opened Bizarre Brewing with the goal of brewing lower ABV beers in a bona fide community space. Derek Brown and Colette Boilini met working at Fremont Brewing in 2014. Boilini has also served at Holy Mountain and both Cloudburst locations. Brown was the first outside brewing hire at Holy Mountain where he went on to lead their respected barrel-aged beer program. Bizarre Brewing hosts pop-up shops Friday through Sunday at their future taproom location —
In 2000, farmers David and Brenda Simmons switched from selling their slow-moving culinary grapes to making wine, they eventually added a brewery, taproom, and restaurant to their Columbus, Indiana, farm. In 2010, David fell in love with beer after he was gifted a home brew kit. Two years later, the Simmons opened 450 North Brewing. In April 2016, their 450 North Brewing released a hazy IPA. Things blew up, in a good way. They rebranded and grew exponentially. Just as they were a pioneer of hazy IPAs, 450 North was also ahead of the smoothie fruited sour game. Their smoothie
Founder and CEO of Yonder Cider, queen Caitlin Braam Peaks and Pints House of Yonder Cider The October morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that finally hinted at the end of summer. Eerie orange-ish smoke hovered above the Wenatchee Valley coming from the White River and Bolt Creek fires burning above Lake Wenatchee. Wenatchee, on the eastern side of the Great Cascade Mountain Range, served as the birthplace of Peaks & Pints House of Yonder. Yonder Cider Queen Caitlin Braam, who recently fought battles west of the Cascades in the Emerald City —
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.26.22 Wednesdays are always good days at Peaks & Pints and today isn’t any different. Hopefully Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.26.22 can make your day a good one, too! 
Anchorage Brewing Gia Girl: Crushable, juicy, hazy double IPA brewed with Simcoe Cryo and dry hopped with Simcoe for slight sweetness, some dankness and subtle bitterness, 8.4% Bale Breaker Brewing Dormancy: Stout boasting notes of freshly brewed espresso and rich chocolate, 6.8% Claim 52 Brewing Stuffed – Lemon Meringue Pie: Pastry sour brewed with marshmallows and milk sugar, then conditioned
In 2014, Luke Wohlers and his wife and business partner, Trinie Thai-Parker, put Henry David Thoreau’s book, Walden, back on their bookshelf then launched Walden Selections, their Seattle-based wine distribution and import company. Walden’s sales have nearly doubled every year. Today Walden Selections imports 200 to 250 wines from 60 or 70 producers, with an operation in Oregon, too. Their wine book rocks, but Peaks & Pints digs their import beer and cider books, especially after Shelton Brothers importers closed during the pandemic. Peaks & Pints recently received another Walden Selections shipment. Let’s turn it into a to-go beer flight!
October in Washington brings juicy plums, the smell of boiling Dungeness crab, and pumpkin spice lattes. But for beer drinkers, October still means fresh hop beers. One of the most seasonally specific styles that a brewery can make, fresh hop beers are brewed with just-harvested whole-cone hops rushed from farms to brew kettles to capture the most vibrant flavors and aromas of these pungent flowers before they begin to fade. This limits the brewing period to the very short hops harvest season every September, with most of the bounty arriving in early October, at least this year. Today, Peaks and
The wine industry is fond of speaking about the individual flavor characteristics that it takes from its environment. This terroir is present in all growing things that are tended with passion and care. The environment that builds flavor is more than simply the soil or the climate: it is also the passion and commitment of the grower. Craft cider believes in the same values. The “estate” cidery concept stems from European beer origin, in which beer was brewed at individual farmhouses with ingredients grown onsite and fermented with naturally occurring, airborne yeast. Many modern-day cideries are trying to return to
After five years professionally brewing, Alex Ellig opened BreakThru Brewing in December 2020 in Kent, Washington. Homebrewer Ellig began his professional career at Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant in La Jolia, California. Rock Bottom’s head brewer agreed to drink Ellig’s homebrew and give feedback. Five breweries later, including Two Beers Brewing in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood, and time in every position possible at a brewery, Ellig grabbed the finest ingredients, new advancements in hop production technology, proprietary yeast blends and a temporary home at Airways Brewing, Ellig approaches his second anniversary with delicious beer and honors, including a 2021 Sip Magazine
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.21.22 Yeah, the weather might suck, but that doesn’t mean the day has to. Stop by our cooler for Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.21.22 to brighten your day up. 
Black Raven Brewing Festivus Holiday Ale: Holiday pale with cranberries, citrus fruit peels, and seasonal spices, 7.1% Block 15 Brewing Story Of The Ghost: A hauntingly pale ale with notes of dank herbs, pine, and tropical delight, 8.75% Block 15 The DAB Lab, Double Dab: Built around co2 hop extract, incognito, and distilled hop terpenes, this double IPA pairs a
Happy National Apple Day! That’s right; Oct. 21 is National Apple Day. Apple pie. Apple sauce. Apple crisp. National Apple Day celebrates the apple in all its various forms and reminds us that apples are shiny, tasty, and healthy. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” “Apple of my eye,” and “as American as apple pie” are all very common phrases in our language. Be it good health, familiarity, or love, all are used to denote something we hold to be very important to our concept of culture in America. They also call attention to a humble fruit that
Stop by Peaks & Pints tonight to meet former iconic gypsy brewer Brain Strumke, founder of Stillwater Artisanal Ales, as we welcome him to his new home in Washington state. We’ll tap several of his beers that he brewed at his new home base at Talking Cedar Brewery & Distillery, which sits on tribal land in Ground Mound on the southern edge of Thurston County. Strumke, a former Baltimore, Maryland, record producer and DJ founded Stillwater Artisanal Ales in 2010 and helped kickstart the nomadic so-called gypsy brewery movement. Strumke went from homebrewer to traveling international beer celebrity with Stillwater
Winter beer is a slippery category that used to comprise slightly boozy ales brewed with spices and dark fruits but has long since metastasized to include not only those traditional “winter warmers,” but also just about any damn thing a brewery’s marketing department feels like hanging a snowflake on. Slapping a reindeer label on a coffee stout does not make it a winter beer. Winter beers are much darker in color, ranging from a deep amber to a rich black, with distinctively festival flavorings such as notes of dark fruit, roasted barley, chocolate, coffee, and bitter hops. The emphasis is
Named for the dragon that guards the apples of immortality in the Garden of Hesperides, Dragon’s Head Cider was founded in 2010 on Vashon Island. Ignoring their last name, owners Laura and Wes Cherry planted a beautiful orchard of apples and pears with production held on site. The Cherry’s don’t believe in cold storing their apples; they press during harvest season at its peak ripeness. Once pressed, the fruit ferments in winter, is blended in spring, and ready to be bottled by early summer. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a to-go flight of Dragon’s Head Cider that we call Peaks
You fancy, Breakside Brewery I Will Roar You Bbl Imperial Stout! Fancy Pants Sunday: Breakside I Will Roar You In 2010 — with his Siebel Institute education, training in Germany and Belgium, and degree from Yale tucked under his arm — Ben Edmunds opened Breakside Brewery as a restaurant and nano-sized brewery in the quiet Woodlawn neighborhood of Northeast Portland. Breakside expanded to a 3.5-barrel brewhouse while winning their first medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2011 where they have earned medals each year since, including 2022. In late 2013 the brewery expanded operations
Friday, stronger offshore winds carried smoke from the Bolt Creek and White River fires into the greater Puget Sound area and is expected to hang around through tonight. An Air Quality Alert is in effect for most of western Washington this weekend. The air quality around the Puget Sound region is unhealthy due to wildfire smoke. Sounds like an opportune time to stay indoors and drink Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Smoke Beer Flight. In the centuries before temperature controls, grain for brewing was dried over an open flame, imparting a smoky quality to the resulting malt. Over the years,
Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.15.22 Peaks and Pints New Beer in Stock 10.15.22 has rad tasty beers for the game. AleSmith Brewing Evil Dead Red: Red ale with an intense aroma of pine and citrus from an abundance of American hops balancing the sweetness and rich, bready flavors of this beer’s caramel malts, 6.66% Block 15 Brewing A Nugg Hugg: IPA with aromatic waves of sweetly dank bud, candied peaches, mango, and spruce, followed dank and fruity herbs, finishing with a lingering wave of resinous pine, 7% Block 15 The DAB Lab, Juice Joint: Dank and citrusy
Mike Klucznik and his wife, Sheila Mullen, opened farm brewery Fat Orange Cat Brew Co. in East Hampton, Connecticut, on Aug. 13, 2016. The longtime homebrewer Klucznik wasn’t a cat person until he met Mullen’s orange-and-white feline, Billy, whose memory now lives on with the brewery. Before they launched Fat Orange Cat, Klucznik worked as a CPA and Mullen as an American Sign Language teacher. Klucznik’s homebrewing medals began to pile up so they opened the brewery as a place to store the medals — and showcase his talents. Today, Klucznik, as brewmaster, works with head brewer Carla Waclawski to
There’s a good chance she’ll never again climb up our Jeep to snap photos with beers behind Peaks & Pints. She’ll probably never sit on top of our cooler to pose twice with Tournament of Beer winners. She’ll most likely stop popping out of our Hoppy Holidays food donation boxes, making people sniff coffee beer from Peaks & Pints mugs, brewing two beers with us, and dressing up like a penguin to climb a tree. Peaks & Pints, and certainly all the other craft beer bars and bottle shops in northern Western Washington, will miss her regular visits. Katie Johnson
6-Pack of Things To Do: October 13-16 2022 Peaks & Pints’ 6-Pack of Things To Do is your go-to source for cool things to do in the greater Tacoma area. It’s completely free, but costs $10,000 if you don’t like it. BEER FLIGHT: Last Saturday, the Seattle Mariners clinched an American League Wild Card win over the Blue Jays and advanced to the AL Division Series against the Houston Astros. The Houston Astros stunned the Seattle Mariners, notching an 8-7 walk-off victory on Tuesday in Game 1. The two sides meet at 12:37 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13 in Houston. In
