Peaks and Pints Beer Parade 2.16.20 No President’s Day Weekend is complete without craft beer, and a craft beer parade. And no neighborhood struts that tradition better than the Proctor District. We’re live at Peaks & Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District for Peaks and Pints Beer Parade 2.16.20. The Peaks bartenders are back, parading their current favorite craft beers. This week’s grand marshal is John Munn, managing artistic director at the Lakewood Playhouse. He looks spry for having celebrated the theater’s 82nd anniversary last night. First up, bartender Phaedra with Nightmare Brewing’s Scaphism Imperial Stout. It’s scary good. Spenser
Peaks and Pints Tap List Sunday February 16 2020 includes Top Rung Brewing’s award-winning My Dog Scout Stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday February 16 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your
He’s been the man behind Keep It Like Vic Secret, What The Flocc, WHOHOO!, Big Tom Milkshake IPAs, and Aroma of Tacoma IPA, among many more beers. He’s watched hundreds of soccer games on the big screen. He’s seen his fare share of face painters and fire dancers. He canned 60 beers in 2018. He spent more weekends than he can remember at festivals and fairs — and he constantly battled the Joint Base Lewis-McChord traffic to make sure he would eventually marry his wife, Brittany. Jeff Stokes knows a thing or two because he’s brewed a thing or two.
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 2.15.20 If you need another excuse to enjoy craft beer — it’s President’s Day Weekend. Why exactly did we earn the privilege of another three-day weekend? President’s Day honors a fellow beer lover — our first president, George Washington. Not only was Washington an avid beer drinker and brewer, he also provided beer for voters during his election. Can we bring back that practice? Receiving free beer for a vote sounds like a powerful incentive. This President’s Day remember to pour one out for the homie or simply cheers to your fellow beer
Craft brewers brew pilot batches as building blocks for future recipes. These small-batch beers are, basically, experiments. Brewers try new things, new recipes, and new concepts. If it’s delicious, or at least interesting, the beers make a test run in the brewery’s taproom. Brewers and bartenders will monitor feedback. If the beer’s a hit, then it’s more than likely made available for distribution. In 2017, Bale Breaker Brewing launched a 5-barrel pilot brewhouse that’s an exact replica of the their 30-barrel production brewhouse. The Moxie, Washington brewery uses the pilot system to test new ideas and get creative. They call
Peaks and Pints Tap List Friday February 14 2020 includes Rogue Ales’ Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Friday February 14 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your phone, click
Though Orson Welles would beg to differ, Peaks and Pints says — we’re never really alone. We have books and podcasts and Instagram and long reads about barrel-aging and whether stationary bikes are inherently sinister, sentient beings. And then there are the humans we encounter every day, from buoyant Met Market employees to stone-faced red-light runners. Though the best — and undoubtedly most entertaining — humans, we’ve found, hang at Peaks & Pints. We love you Peak’s guests! You laugh at our jokes. You tactfully ignored our daily wineglass crashes. Today, you are our Valentines, Peaks & Pints Pals. Enjoy
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 in the quiet Woodlawn neighborhood of Northeast Portland as a restaurant and nano-sized brewery. Breakside celebrates their 10th anniversary in 2020, changing up their seasonal lineup, adding new year-rounds and new series of beers. With two Portland brewpubs and a production facility in Milwaukie, Oregon, Breakside is continuing to show-off their diverse lineup and ability to brew a wide range of beers from all three locations. Today, Peaks and Pints, once again, pours
Peaks and Pints Tap List Wednesday February 12 2020 includes Firestone Walker Parabola 2020. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Wednesday February 12 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your phone, click here for
It was 2007 when Ron and Jackie Walcher opened the brewery down a dirt road near Arlington. Today, Skookum head brewer Hollis Wood and his small team churn out “big bold strong” craft beers in a giant facility with a popular taproom down the street from the Arlington Airport — managed by an angel, a big, bearded lovable man named “Angel.” Skookum Brewery brews beers that are locally sourced, with more than 90 percent of their barley grown and malted in state, on equipment predominately purchased locally including several pieces made in Washington state. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 2.11.20 Monday has already kicked your ass and Tuesday is staring you in the face. Hello Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 2.11.20! Alaskan Brewing IMPERIAL OATMEAL STOUT: Alaskan Brewing’s imperial oatmeal stout combines coffee and chocolate flavors and a smooth, creamy texture with a generous helping of oats. 9% Chainline Brewing CONTRAST IPA: First, Chainline Brewing and Narrows Brewing collaborated on Compare IPA. Contrast is the logical succession. The two breweries brewed with the same Compare hops but three completely different yeasts. This hazy juice bomb offers overripe mango, papaya, fresh
Peaks and Pints February Get Stouts Done hacks your entire existence to gain maximum stout drinkability and improved overall stout management. The Tacoma Proctor District craft beer lodge promises to maintain six stouts on our Western cedar tap log through February. You’ll now be able to get stouts done faster and more efficiently — at least for 29 days. You’ll also now be able to enjoy stouts, milk stouts, imperial stouts, pastry stouts, nitro stouts and other variations from your barstool while clearing your junk mail of witbier promotions, blocking sour beer spam, or deleting someone’s Twitter blip about the
You fancy Avery Mephistopheles! Fancy Pants Sunday: Avery Mephistopheles In 1993, Adam Avery launches his Avery Brewing Company in a garage off an alley in Boulder, making him one of the pioneers of Colorado’s craft beer scene. At first, consumers were apprehensive when it came to the new tastes Avery introduced to the market place. In 1996, Avery was among the first breweries in Colorado to offer an IPA. Many of the deliveries were returned because the beer tasted too bitter. In 2003, Andy Parker joined the team, bringing an excitement for high-gravity brewing and barrel
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 2.8.20 This has been one of the wettest winters we can remember, with flooding, heavy winds, cold temperatures and even snow! Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 2.8.20 offers rainy day beers we think should be on everybody’s rainwater bucket list. Baerlic Brewing DAD BEER!: The taste is similar to your great great grandpappy’s lager, but much more pronounced. Some white rice like sweetness, some water crackers, a slash of orange, and a hint of floral hops finish it off. 5.6% DARK THOUGHTS BLACK IPA: Baerlic Brewing cold steeped roasted wheat for
Peaks and Pints Tap List Saturday February 8 2020 includes Block 15’s Love Potion No. 9 sweet stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Saturday February 8 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your
Baerlic Brewing brews down-to-earth beers made by down-to-earth guys. In 2014, then-homebrewers Ben Parsons, a graphic designer, and Richard Hall, who earned his paycheck as a bike mechanic, took their work-a-day approach to life and transplanted it into Baerlic, which means “of barley” in old English. Tucked onto Southeast 11th Avenue in Portland’s Central Eastside — in the midst of one of the densest thickets of breweries in the city — the “stubbornly independent brewery and taproom” Baerlic has thrived thanks to devoting a significant part of their taplist to lighter, crowd-pleasing lagers and pilsners. Their work-a-day approach has paid
Peaks and Pints Tap List Wednesday February 5 2020 includes Matchless The Grail hazy IPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Wednesday February 5 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your phone, click here
Tonight, Peaks and Pints hosts its inaugural Peaks and Pints Pastry Pairing Pop-up, launching the series pairing Urban Family Brewing’s “Hearts” sours with The Vintage Baker’s cupcakes. It’s a Valentine’s Day prefunk, if you will, pairing the Seattle brewery’s Briar Heart, Heart of Stone, Heart Strings, Coffee Dark Hymn and Addition by Addition sours with the Puyallup bakery’s dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache buttercream, orange sponge cake with apricot infused buttercream and tiramisu cupcake soaked in coffee topped with a Chantilly mascarpone. The pairing begins at 6 p.m., but the Urban Family sours will pour all day in a
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 2.4.20 Look up. The number of stars, they say, are somewhere around 300 sextillion. And 300 of it is a 3 plus 23 zeroes, or three trillion times 100 billion, or a number so mind-scramblingly large that to imagine it crosses some internal threshold of basic understanding. Wait, there’s more. Three hundred sextillion, says our big brains, also happens to be the rough sum total of all cells inhabiting all human bodies on planet earth at this particular moment. 300 sextillion stars, 300 sextillion cells. Isn’t that fascinating? Isn’t that an odd coincidence?
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree is the “Vanderwolf’s Pyramid” limber pine at Fawcett Elementary at East 60th and East A Street. Photo credit: Pappy Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: “Vanderwolf’s Pyramid” limber pine “I love the big, established trees that create shade and beauty, but every tree has to start somewhere,” says Sarah Low, executive director of Tacoma Tree Foundation. “In the built environment of a city such as Tacoma, most trees are planted by people (hint: people like you). Last fall, Tacoma Tree Foundation planted some trees with the help of fantastic volunteers at Fawcett Elementary. Three
Whether its Miller Lite, Coors Lights, or Bud Light, the top cheap beers in the nation are low-calorie and watery. Then, there are beers such as Michelob Ultra that are promoted with athletes and for those with active lifestyles. Ugh. In crap beer, all of the goodness typically associated with beer has been filtered out, until it’s stripped clean to nearly water-like proportions. OK, you’re freaking over the high calorie count of craft beer. Thankfully, there were always full-flavored, semi-low-calorie options like Guinness, but for the most part bigger, full-flavored beers — most in the craft beer world — are
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships nominations open In April 2020, Peaks and Pints will host the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. We’ve swept the court of last year’s pilsner tournament for West Coast brews that spawned, defined and advanced the craft beer movement, broken down by decades. Chosen through the nomination process below, the top 64 vote getters — the cream of the craft — will compete Monday-Friday on our website April 3-25. Through online voting, Washington, Oregon and California craft staple drinkers will pick daily winners until the best West Coast flagships from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s
Are you enjoying Peaks and Pints’ February Get Stouts Done month? Could you use a break from the deep, dark deliciousness? Good news: it’s Monday, which means Peaks and Pints offers a flight of cider. Today, we pair the flick Frozen 2 with cider in what we call Monday Cider Flight and a Movie: Frozen 2, which is perfect since it snowed this morning. In the story, Elsa and her friends are compelled to leave home to seek their personal destiny in a land farther north. The animation is more refined, more realistic, and the story isn’t a simple rehash
Peaks and Pints Tap List Sunday February 2 2020 includes Bale Breaker’s Hazy L IPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday February 2 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your phone, click here
In the buildup to Super Bowl LIV, all eyes are on Patrick Mahomes, the 24-year-old superstar quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes is just one game away from adding a Super Bowl ring to his rapidly growing collection of impressive statistics and electrifying highlights over his first two seasons as a starter. Standing in Mahomes’ way is the NFC’s best defense as the San Francisco 49ers have regained their early-season dominance on that side of the ball. It is only fair that this matchup gets top billing in the biggest game of the year, but there is another side to
Peaks and Pints’ staff knows February’s a struggle with cold rain and wind in the South Sound, and that’s why we’re making it rain stouts every day this month. First, stouts are one of our favorite craft beer styles, and second, it’s cool to sip a single style from several brewers side-by-side. Not all stouts — a style marked by the use of roasted malts and barley — are created equal though, with alcohol levels, recipes, flavorings and textures running the gamut. From the traditional stouts that emerged after porter rose to popularity in England in the 1800s to today’s kaleidoscope
A small cadre of Belgian iconoclasts go on quietly stirring the imagination of brewers around the world, showcasing deliciously dry, hop-forward beers, rustic farmhouse offerings, bold and complexly balanced strong ales, and all manner of tart and funky brews, including the unparalleled sensory experience that is authentic lambic. Gueuzerie Tilquin is one of those iconoclasts. Pierre Tilquin founded the small family brewery based in Bierghes, Brussels, in 2009. He exclusively blends lambic beers, such as the ones in today’s Peaks and Pints beer flight, Craft Beer Crosscut 1.31.20: Flight of Tilquin. Tilquin purchases worts from Boon, Lindemans, Cantillon and Girardin,
Peaks & Pints presents a flight of JuneShine Hard Kombucha today, in conjunction with tonight’s Lodge Meeting with the San Diego-based hard kombucha company. If Peaks and Pints was to host a hard kombucha company, it was going to be JuneShine. Founders Forest Dein and Greg Serrao live the Peaks and Pints way — outdoor adventures and craft beer. Although, that’s where we stop and the duo venture further. After the conscious eaters noticed a lack of healthy options in the grocery store alcohol shelves, the San Diego residents opened JuneShine Hard Kombucha in June 2018. Kombucha is made by
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree are the London planetrees on Pacific Avenue near South 10th Street in downtown Tacoma. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: London Planetree “Every time I look at the London planetrees along Pacific Avenue near 10th Street, I think how awesome it would be to have a block after block of these magnificent trees,” says Sarah Low, executive director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “London planetrees can grow to be 75 to 100 feet tall, which is quite large for a street tree. However, when we could consider the context of, say,
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 1.28.20 Après ski is as much a part of any winter experience as price-gouged lift tickets and frozen extremities. Thankfully, the post-slopes experience is no longer defined by shot skis and mulled wine. Craft beer has become a mainstay around the hot tubs and fireplaces. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 1.28.20 has got your frozen back. These are perfect ice breakers and pain relievers in beer form. Stock up your cooler or cabin fridge with some of these beers and you won’t be disappointed. Or just throw a sixer in the
While sometimes used to indicate exceptional quality, cuvée generally means that the beer is a blend. Blending beers pre-carbonation has been a practice for centuries. Ninteenth-century English pubs would typically have a cask of strong, old ale on hand that they’d use to spike milder bitters. Belgian gueuzes are made the same way — they’re usually blends of old, sour beers and young, sweeter beers. Try a raw, unblended sour straight from the barrel and you’ll see why. Blending finished beers has seen a boost in popularity of late (and is far more complicated than the traditional black and tan
Happy National Chocolate Cake Day! Celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day at Peaks and Pints You’ve done a great job of sticking to that New Year’s resolution. So, it’s time to reward yourself by celebrating National Chocolate Cake Day, Jan. 27, with a sip of rich and moist cocoa goodness. The following chocolate ales are behind glass at Peaks and Pints, with the exception of Old Schoolhouse’s Melipona Stout, which is on draft. The Melipona is the most chocolate beer we have every tasted. Finished with whole Mexican vanilla pods, Ceylon cinnamon and Blue Star Coffee Roasters cold
Dr. John Dolittle, the Englishman who can talk to animals, has been a part of children’s literature for 100 years, ever since English author Hugh Lofting published the first Dolittle novel in 1920. The character has weaved his way through the century in children’s books, film and adaptations, and radio and television series, the latest being Dolittle from director Stephen Gaghan, which screens at 7 p.m. inside the Blue Mouse Theatre down the street from Peaks and Pints in the Proctor District. Robert Downey Jr., freshly released from his career-defining string of performances as Tony Stark, Marvel’s Iron Man, lends
Peaks and Pints Tap List Sunday January 26 2020 includes Top Rung Brewing’s Edge of Darkness CDA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday January 26 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your phone,
In its quest for world-class lagers, Wayfinder Beer hired award-winning brewmaster Kevin Davey to lead the Way. Unlike most Portland breweries committed entirely to ales, Wayfinder Beer dedicates around half of its beer menu to crisp, refreshing lagers, including pilsners, helles and black lagers. That’s not a shocker. Davey studied brewing science at Chicago’s Siebel Institute and at Germany’s Doemen’s Institute (specializing in German style beers) in Munich before spending three years as lead brewer at Chuckanut Brewing, taking Josh Pfriem’s position who left Bellingham for Hood River’s Full Sail Brewing. Under the tutelage of Brewmaster Will Kemper, the two continued
We celebrate just about every special occasion (i.e. birthdays, really good weeks and sometimes really bad weeks) with a cake. And while Tacoma dessert options are more than plentiful, we’ve somehow exhausted our local options (eating our way through Met Market’s whole cake menu in a few short months) and began thirsting for something new — something worth celebrating, which meant it needed to have craft beer. Happy National Peanut Butter Day! Seriously, it’s today. Skipping traditional desserts we’re celebrating with a beer flight that combines our love of nuts and craft beer. Go nuts over our Craft Beer Crosscut
Peaks and Pints Tap List Thursday January 23 2020 includes Wingman Brewers Peanut Butter Cup Porter. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Thursday January 23 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your phone, click
Valentine Prefunk: Urban Family Hearts Cupcakes Wine and cheese. Sake and sushi. Urban Family and Peaks & Pints. Beer and … cupcakes? Sometimes true love is right in front of your face. You just need to open the Peaks & Pints door to find it. Valentine Prefunk: Urban Family Hearts Cupcakes will pair Urban Family Brewing’s “Heart” sours with The Vintage Baker cupcakes at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5 inside Peaks & Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District. Urban Family will spread the love with Heart of Stone Apricot Sour, Briar Heart Boysenberry Sour, and Tropic Heart Passionfruit Sour — enough
According The Oxford Companion to Beer, “the term ‘brown ale’ can easily be confusing, or at least not much more useful than the term “red wine.’” That confusion, however, is part of its allure, as the style leaves brewers plenty of room for interpretation. The brown ale has origins in 17th century England, where it was a name given to a dark-colored, mild ale. The American Brown is a style that home brewers have helped define over the past 30 years. The contemporary American Brown is flavorful, balanced and medium bodied, with more overall character than its early English cousins.
You don’t have to pack a striped tote bag, slather your face with SPF 50, haul a cooler heavy with ice, or even think about flip flops in order to bring the beach home. And Peaks and Pints doesn’t mean the layer of sand that ends up in the crevices of every tile and floorboard after the fact. Enter pineapple beer. Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) belongs to the family Bromeliaceae and is one of the most important commercial fruits of the world. The pineapples fruits are normally eaten fresh or as fresh pineapple juice. Pineapple fruits are an excellent source
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree the monkey puzzle tree at the corner of North 49th and North Baltimore Street, on the edge of Ruston. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Monkey Puzzle Tree “Monkey puzzle trees are super cool trees,” explains Sarah Low, executive director of Tacoma Tree Foundation. “One of my favorites is at North 49th and Baltimore, which is on private property so you have to observe it from a little bit of distance. It has an awesome view of the Sound. This particular monkey puzzle serves as a reminder that many urban forest
India Pale Ales emerged in the 1700s when British brewers found a market for hoppy beers in India and territories of the British Empire. In 1996, BridgePort launched the first IPA in the Pacific Northwest igniting taste buds with an intensity of hops never experienced before. A few years later, the American spin on IPAs began to capture widespread appeal in the U.S. But the past few years have seen huge changes in the IPA world. Bitter, dank, piney IPAs have been replaced by a new breed of citric, tropical and yeast-hazed brews. The best IPAs brewed today bear almost
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” speech at the March on Washington in August 1963 serves as the touchstone for today’s annual King holiday. He brought hope to untold people both black and white. Remembering his dream matters more than ever today as we witness, still, the openly mocking and demeaning of women, blacks, Islam, and immigrants while ignoring human rights, denying science and climate change, supporting violence and conspiracy, and taking away the health care of millions of Americans. It’s Monday, which means in addition to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s Peaks and Pints weekly cider
Ye be fancy Maui Black Pearl, yo! Fancy Pants Sunday: Maui Black Pearl My left hand is a hook, My booty I took Always squint with one eye wherever I look. A nice wooden peg Serves as me leg I’ll run you through if you confuse a pirate with Queequeg. Yo ho ho and a bottle of Imperial Coconut Porter aged in rum Maui Brewing and pillaging is most of my fun. I say ARRRRRRRRR with a passion I’m a slave to pirate fashion With perfectly torn sea trousers, I look perfectly dashing If I say
