This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree is the Dunkeld larch next to the duck pond at Point Defiance Park. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Dunkeld Larch “Spring brings with it so much change, more this year than usual,” says Sarah Low, executive director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “From one week to the next we have been observing different trees blooming and leafing out. This week it is the larch’s turn. It is one of just a few coniferous trees that loses its needles every fall. And unlike our deciduous trees, the larch looks completely done
Have you been racking your brain, looking for just the right way to celebrate National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day? Wait — you weren’t even aware that this important holiday takes place every April 21? Oh. My. Imagine it — the slightly bitter taste of the cocoa powder hits your tongue. Then, a layer of creamy dark chocolate pulls the taste back from the edge, without becoming too sweet. And finally, the satisfying crunch of a fresh cashew. OK, dialed in? We have the perfect way to celebrate this important holiday: Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Chocolate Nuts On The Fly.
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Sweet 16 April 21 You’d be hard pressed to find a crazier two weeks of flagship beer voting than what we have witnessed during Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. We discussed 1980s craft beer history, grunge, barn burners and epic failures. Now, the Tournament of Beer moves onto the Sweet 16, and although your bracket may be in ruins, there is still plenty of great flagship beers to watch, and plenty of stories to follow. So, read up on yesterday’s action, and then vote on the four games today. Sixteen
Tacoma Strong: Monday, April 20 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do It’s Monday, which means Peaks and Pints is closed for one day for rest and family time. We’ll will re-open tomorrow, Tuesday, April 21, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills, take-out food and a special to-go beer flight. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS A GoFundMe has been set up to
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Second Round April 20 Now it’s getting exciting. The Willamette hops are really starting to fly, and the Two-row malt is getting so thick you cut it with a knife. Today is the last day of the Peaks and Pints’ Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Second Round and the competition is as hot as ever. Who will be crowned on April 25? The path to West Coast flagship greatness continues. OK, let’s apply hand sanitizer, and dive into today’s Second Round West Coast flagship battles with a little corresponding-era music imagination, if you
Fancy Pants Sunday: Alesong Rhino Suit Down south over yonder hills, just outside Eugene, Oregon, Alesong Brewing & Blending focuses almost exclusively on small batches of oak-aged and Belgian-inspired brews since it first began producing beer in early 2016. Alesong has stood out among the crowd with its blending and barrel-aging techniques. The brewery typically releases four beers every quarter, made with seasonal ingredients. Since it’s Sunday, and we have Alesong’s Rhino Suit Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Milk Stout in the house — welcome to Fancy Pants Sunday: Alesong Rhino Suit. The name Rhino Suit isn’t something the three Alesong owners
Everybody knows 4:20 is the time to smoke pot. And everybody knows 4/20 is the international pot-smoking day, thank to some high school kids in San Rafael, California, back in 1971. The phrase started as “420 Louis,” meaning at 4:20 [they’d] meet by the Louis Pasteur statue outside the high school and get high. They called themselves The Waldos. Lagunitas Brewing brewed a beer in their honor, The Waldos Special Ale. Every year Peaks & Pints offers a flight of dank beer on April 20 with fun weed innuendos. This year, our annual tradition has met some challenges. First, we’re
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.18.20 Another round of new beers and ciders have landed at Peaks & Pints just in time for the weekend. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.18.20 includes beers from breweries that normally exist as draft only, but draft no longer rules the roost during these challenging times. Aslan Brewing MOSAIC IPA: A two-grain IPA made with 100 percent floor malt from Warminster, England, and the ever-pungent Mosaic hop sourced from Yakima for a balanced body, copious hop resin, and silky mouthfeel. 7.2% Chainline Brewing PUGET SOUND IPA: Chainline Brewing’s Puget Sound
Tacoma Strong: Saturday, April 18 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is open today from 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills, take-out food and a special Showy Pilsner to-go beer flight. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS Narrow Brewing has released Tropical Dreams, a 4.5 percent tart wheat ale conditioned on grapefruit and pineapple available to-go noon to 4
In the world history of beer, pilsners are relatively recent. Around 1840, eons before marketers invented “drinkability,” Czech brewers in Bohemia created pilsner, a light beer that didn’t taste like spongewater. The primary source of the innovation was the use of bottom-fermenting yeasts, which yielded a livelier, more consistent beer than the traditional top-fermented brews. Today, the best pilsners are still found in continental Europe, partly because of demand and partly because it’s home to the style’s signature Saaz hop, Pilsen’s soft water and crackery, paler malt. German and Bavarian styles tend to emphasize bitterness and spicy hop flavor. But stateside,
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Second Round April 18 In March, we pulled the public asking what are the top 64 flagship beers along the West Coast? You chimed in. Friday, April 3, we launched the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships, pitting your 64 flagship picks against each other, similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, only with more Wyeast 1272 yeast strains. Below is a recap of yesterday’s action. The last flagship beers in the Second Round will do battle Monday, April 20. OK, here’s a recap of yesterday’s battles, and a look at Monday’s Tournament of Beer
Hitting the scene in the early 2010s, the New England style India pale ale came to fame thanks to a Vermont brewery, The Alchemist, with their Heady Topper, an unfiltered double IPA that became a cult favorite. The beer was a success, and other New England breweries followed suit: namely Hill Farmstead Brewery, also in Vermont, along with Trillium Brewing Company and Tree House Brewing Co., both in Massachusetts. Call them hazy, New England or Northeast style; they’re all the rage. Even the Brewers Association recognizes the category for its competitions. Though loaded with hops, these small-batch brews tone down
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Second Round April 17 Peaks and Pints honestly had no idea how the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagship would pan out. Much like the actual NCAA bracket, the 64 flagship beers voted in are strikingly different. We’re seeing India Pales Ales battling cream ales, ambers facing off with Scotch ales, extra special bitters paying extra special attention to stouts. Some people have stood inside Peaks and Pints and passionately expressed dismay at the tournament seeding, even though the public seeded it. What we do know is thousands of people are voting. Very short,
Tacoma Strong: Thursday, April 16 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is open today from 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills, take-out food and a special to-go blueberry beer flight. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS Defiantly Tacoma lists local beer joints that offer beer to-go, as well as other local to-go and take-out options. View this post
Beer purists typically scoff at a brew that incorporates anything into its recipe besides water, malt, hops and yeast. So offer them a beer with fruit in it and you’re bound to hear a speech on the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. But if one can get past traditionalist approaches to drinking beer, they might find that fruit can be a fantastic brewing ingredient — such as blueberries. Blueberries can give an earthy richness and complexity to beers, especially with darker styles. But, blueberries are a rare beer addition—the flavor is subtle, and often brewers end up making cloyingly
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Second Round April 16 Beginning April 21, we’ll have cut the field of 64 West Coast flagship beers to the Sweet 16. April 23, it’ll drop to the Great 8. April 25, the Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Championship will go down — picked by you, of course — but online, this year. The Tournament Championship Party is canceled, so no live ballots, no cheers of encouragement, and the winner will be announced the following day on this website. We’ll still award a trophy. And, the winning brewery will have
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.15.20 Thank you to everyone for your continued support during this time. Your support along with your words of encouragement and gratitude keep us going. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.15.20 is happening. … Belching Beaver Brewery BARREL AGED VIVA LA BEAVER: Belching Beaver aged their Viva La Beaver milk stout in rye whiskey barrels for 14 months for immense chocolate and cinnamon flavors integrate with the booze. 12.5% Heathen Brewing HIGHLAND CHARGE: Big brother to Heathen’s McCabe Scottish Export, this Scottish ale packs a big malty nose with light caramel
Amber ale in 2020 might seem a little passé in a world dominated by hazies, adjunct-laden stouts and barrel-aged beasts. But not that long ago, amber was the ale that practically built the craft beer house, as you have witness during the Peaks & Pints Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. Immensely sessionable and immediately recognizable, amber ales were easy to drink — making it an enticing prospect to macro drinkers looking for something different — while also being flavorful enough for seasoned drinkers in search of something lighter. Sure, many beers, from IPAs to extra special bitters to barleywines,
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Second Round April 15 Now it’s getting exciting. The Cascade hops are really starting to fly, and the Crystal malt bags are piling up so high you could call it Crystal Mountain. OK, so that’s a dumb analogy. Point is: this is serious. Today the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships officially kicks off its Second Round, meaning 32 flagship beers remain, and the competition is as hot as ever. What West Coast flagship beer will be crowned Saturday, April 25? The path to flagship greatness starts today. Here’s a recap of yesterday’s battles,
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.14.20 We’re back from our day off with Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.14.20. Visit us — at a socially responsible distance — fill up a growler or grab some of the new beers below and tell us your most embarrassing moment that happened at Peaks & Pints. We could all use a good laugh and some good beer right about now. Cheers, friends! AleSmith Brewing PAINTED MIRRORS: The first “Hopwright” release of 2020 is this hazy IPA loaded with Nelson and Citra hops for an aromatic hop-bomb bursting with bright
Tacoma Strong: Tuesday, April 14 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is open today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills, take-out food and a special National Pecan Day to-go beer flight. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS Top Rung Brewing offers online ordering for pick up starting at 3 p.m. today! View this post on Instagram
Did you it’s National Pecan Day? Yup, National Pecan Day is celebrated annually April 14. Nuts are known to be an appetite-curbing, healthy snack, but why do we have a national holiday devoted to a single nut? Well, the pecan is the only naturally occurring nut produced in the US. It was a staple in the diet of Native Americans as early as the 1500s and is currently expected to remain in the top three most-consumed nuts in America along with peanuts and almonds. A perfect instance of something everyone considers a nut, but pecans are actually seeds of a
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 14 Lo and behold, today marks the closing of the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round. After today’s battles the bracket will officially be down to 32 beers that put West Coast breweries on the map, and breweries start hiring appropriately social-distanced cheerleaders. Honestly, it if gets more exciting we’ll start to understand why Dick Vitale is always yelling through his facemask: “This awesome, baby, with a capital ‘A’! Without wasting anyone’s time with flagship related basketball innuendo or sappy stories, on to a recap of yesterday’s action followed
Tacoma Strong: Monday, April 13 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do It’s Monday, which means PEAKS & PINTS IS CLOSED TODAY ONLY FOR REST AND FAMILY TIME. Peaks and Pints will re-open Tuesday, April 14 from 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills and take-out food. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS Wooden City has amped up its local beer selection to pair
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 13 In 1996, we launched Tacoma City Paper, an alternative rag that targeted younger readers with an emphasis on arts coverage and a more freewheeling editorial style. Most of the editorial staff resided in the namesake city we covered, but a few lived on Capitol Hill in Seattle. We had two editorial staff meetings — one in our Lakewood office and the other at Elysian Brewing. We drank The Immortal IPA and discussed downtown Tacoma’s arts renaissance, what was the latest restaurant to open at Ninth and A Street, and to
Fancy Pants Sunday: St. Bernardus Abt 12 Barrel Aged Sour Brouwerij St Bernardus is famous for both their beers and their heritage. The brewery used to brew the famous Westvleteren beers before the monastery returned all production back to within the abbey’s walls. Their Abt 12 quad represents what Westvleteren 12 used to be before the abbey changed their yeast strain. St. Bernardus soured their quad, which is focus today — Fancy Pants Sunday: St. Bernardus Abt 12 Barrel Aged Sour. The Belgian quadruple is the strongest in a series of Trappist styles, beginning with the single (better known as
Tacoma Strong: Easter Sunday, April 12 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Happy Easter! Peaks and Pints is open from 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. today for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills, take-out food and a special Easter to-go flight. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS Wet Coast Brewing in Gig Harbor is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for curbside service. View this post on
Easter is a time for families and friends to gather and observe traditions, like going to church, enjoying favorite recipes, sharing stories and participating in community egg hunts. But for the majority of Americans, today’s Easter Sunday will be the strangest in recent memory. Indeed, Easter is smack in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, reminding us to appreciate life’s simple pleasures, sweet craft beer. Yes, Easter has usurped the giant solid chocolate bunnies, Easter baskets, and that impossible-to-vacuum-up plastic grass. Cadbury Eggs? We know some people love these things, but people love fried pork rinds, too. Let’s face it
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.11.20 Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.11.20 has new craft beers to-go in our cooler for you to hide night around the house or yard tonight. Alesong Brewing & Blending RHINO SUIT IMPERIAL MILK STOUT: A blend of the first two batches of beer brewed at Alesong, this imperial milk stout is matured in bourbon barrels to add velvety layers of vanilla, coconut, and bourbon to the sweet and chocolaty malt flavors of the base stout. 12.2% Allegory Brewing GALACTIC GHOST: Hazy IPA loaded with Australian Galaxy hops and Oregon-grown Comet
Today is the traditional birthday of Gambrinus, sometimes called King Gambrinus, considered to be a patron saint of beer, brewing and/or Belgian beer. Not an “official” saint, at least not in the Catholic Church, but a legendary figure. Around the year 1100, the brewers of Brussels deliberated which strong and courageous man should be their leader. They organized a contest, at which a large beer barrel was placed on the ground. The one who could carry it to a spot two stone’s throws away would become their head brewer. Among many who registered for the contest was a Duke from
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 11 Over a three-week period, Peaks and Pints pits 64 of the West Coast’s best in a malt-to-malt battle of flagship beers. This is a tournament, folks, not a playoff. Each match is do or die — one misstep and you’re out of the dance. Sluggish yeast due to cold water, krausen is forced into the airlock, and you can pack your brewers paddle and go home. Sure, there are plenty of new brewers wearing “Frankie Says Extract” T-shirts who can still brew a mighty fine batch of their brewery’s flagship.
Tacoma Strong: Friday, April 10 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is open from 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. today for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills and take-out food. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS 7 Seas Brewing Gig Harbor is open 2-6 p.m. today for drive-thru only. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 7 Seas Brewing (@7seasbrewing) on
Galaxy hops are known among IPA lovers for their overflowing citrus, peach and passion fruit flavors. Tropical island aromas dominate the nose, lifting you away to a far off destination of flavor, like the coast of Australia, where these hops are grown since the mid-1990s, but released commercially in 2009. This Aussie-native hops hail from a lineage of male European cultivars — particularly Perle —bred with local Australian high alpha varieties. Galaxy hops are versatile; they can accent and compliment, or take center stage as the primary flavor. Their high alpha acid content make them especially suited to aroma hopping
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 10 Spoiler alert: Yesterday, Maritime Pacific Flagship Red lost their Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships game to another longtime Washington state stalwart craft brewery, Mac & Jack’s Brewing and their flagship, African Amber Ale. It wasn’t a shocker as Mac & Jack’s African Amber Ale could run for governor of this state, and win. No, we announce the game’s result early because, as mentioned previously, this tournament has summoned our wonder years of craft beer, and Maritime Pacific was one of our hangouts in the early 1990s. One of our
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.9.20 Flowers bloom, jackets get placed in storage and new beer makes its way onto the Peaks & Pints’ shelves. If today’s recent weather is any indication, spring is officially here. And while Peaks and Pints doesn’t want to jinx it, we’d be lying if we told you we weren’t already daydreaming of returning seasonals that pair well with warmer temps and added sunshine, and maybe a couple of the stout below, haha. Enjoy Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.9.20. American Solera Brewing POWER TIPA: Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, American Solera
You can’t explain triple IPAs to your grandparents and you can’t explain it to the religiously terrified and you can’t describe it to those who, no matter what you say, refuse to see such a beer style as anything other than some sort of freaky-deaky boozy Sam Calagione-worshipping Pliny-romp thing. Peaks and Pints has brought in a few new triple IPAs for some reason. Maybe it’s the self-quarantine? Maybe we were drinking a triple IPA when we submitted the orders. Whatever the reason, we have the following triple IPAs in the cooler for you to enjoy at home. We’re calling
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 9 There are certain nights in your life that are ruled by forces beyond your control — magic, romance, destiny. Nights where love catches you by surprise. And things are never quite the same again. We were lucky enough to have one of those nights and the memory returns every time we hear, “Pyramid Pale Ale.” One of the major international events of 1985 occurred at Mount Rainier National Park with a six-pack of said beer. It was of course the recent arrival of Gette, the Swedish exchange student who stayed
Tacoma Strong: Wednesday, April 8 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is open from 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. today for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills and take-out food. In addition, Tacoma Strong: Wednesday, April 8 2020 offers a few shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place. Be well everyone! 2 TO-GO BEERS Narrows Brewing now has online ordering for beer delivery. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Narrows Brewing Company (@narrowsbrewing) on Apr 6,
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 8 Now that they’re ubiquitous, it’s hard to remember there was once a time where double IPAs, bourbon barrel-aged stouts, and extremely flavorful beers simply didn’t exist. A time where some brewery helmed by some man or woman had to innovate and actually create these things, and thus change the entire industry forevermore. That time, for us, was the 1980s in Seattle when we caught New Wave bands at the Eagle Auditorium in Seattle, punk rocks bands at Gorilla Gardens in the International District, and drank all the Redhook ESB. Good
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.7.20 Thank you to everyone for your continued support during this time. Your support along with your words of encouragement and gratitude keep us going. New and restock beers hit our cooler today. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.7.20 feature a few. … Bitburger Brewery TRIPLE HOP’D LAGER: Following up on first collaboration beer “Oktoberfest” in fall 2019, Sierra Nevada Brewing traveled to Bitburger Brewery in Bitburg, Germany, to brew this lager brewed with a combination of American hops — Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook — paired together with Siegelhopfen, Bitburger’s proprietary
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree is the weeping willow on North 49th near Winnifred Street in Ruston. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Weeping Willow “Some trees have a way of inspiring the imagination and the weeping willow on North 49th near Winnifred Street in Ruston is definitely one of those trees,” says Sarah Low, executive director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “The tree stands out from a distance because its canopy has been lovingly allowed to spread out a bit. When the wind blows the golden weeping branches sway to create an inviting space below
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships First Round April 7 In all the years we spent growing up in our parents’ house, we don’t think we ever heard them use the word “bouquet.” “Bathroom,” “stinks,” and “indigestion” — these words we heard a lot. In the late 1980s, we hung out with a lovely, fun Australian couple — he was a professor of anesthesiology; she a free spirit. They adored decadent wine, mostly red wines of California, with amazing bouquets. They trained our palettes. We gained an appreciation for bigger, bolder Californian wines, which translated into a desire for bigger,
It’s not a national holiday, at least not yet. But that doesn’t stop people from celebrating. National Beer Day is today. The day is historically relevant because it commemorates the date in 1933, when the Cullen-Harrison Act, signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt, went into effect. That allowed beer to once again be legally manufactured and sold in this country. Enough states then approved the 21st Amendment later that year to formally bring an end to Prohibition, which started in 1919. So, while National Beer Day isn’t a national holiday, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate. Peaks and Pints
Tacoma Strong: Monday April 6 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do It’s Monday, which means Peaks and Pints is closed for today only for rest and family time. We’ll reopen tomorrow, Tuesday, April 7, 11 a.m., to 8 p.m. for to-go sales from our 13-door craft cooler, growler fills and take-out food. Also, eight more beers battle today in the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. Vote at tournamentofbeer.com or peaksandpints.com. In addition, we’d like to give a few more shout-outs to awesome people offering help and relief during the self-quarantining and sheltering in place.
