Election Night Stouts Tacoma Can you hear it? That’s the sweet sweet sound of silence on the horizon. We’ve finally arrived at Election Day, which means by tomorrow the barrage of political ads will be all but a distant memory. Until then, we thought we’d help make election day a little more satisfying with new roasty, boozy imperial stouts: Reuben’s Brews BBIS: The majority of the barrels in this year’s blend have been aging for about one year, and the addition of some two year-aged BBIS into the blend adds layers of complexity. 14% Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper: This
Peaks and Pints Tap List Tuesday November 5 2019 includes Reuben’s Brews Life On Mars IIPA Peaks and Pints Tap List: Tuesday November 5 2019 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
It has been 413 years since Guy Fawkes, an English conspirator against the crown, was arrested and executed for his part in an attempt to blow up the Parliamentary branch called the House of Lords while the young King James was inside it. In 1605, England had just laid to rest one of its most famed monarchs — Queen Elizabeth I, popular, never married, and protestant. Her father, King Henry VIII, established the Anglican Church of England to break with Catholicism — declaring himself head of the newly minted religion. Elizabeth left no heirs, so instead the crown passed to
Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Sugar Maple Walt Whitman wrote in his preface to Leaves of Grass, “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.” Peaks and Pints’ soul-satisfying spots can be found under trees. Inspired by our house beer, Kulshan Brewing Tree-dimensional IPA, Peaks and Pints branches out for a weekly look at terrific trees of Tacoma, in conjunction with our friends at Tacoma Tree Foundation. The TTF recommends we kick the series off this week with Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Sugar Maple. Sure, it’s lost all its leaves, and probably feeling really naked, but the sugar maple in Tacoma’s Wright Park is definitely Tree-dimensional material.
But as any boozer who’s been awake in 2019 knows, hard seltzer has risen from the sea like a terrifying, gluten-free Kraken, throwing its dark, lower-calorie shadow across craft-beer’s hazy fleet of ships. Hard-seltzer sales, led by White Claw, have grown by more than 200 percent over the past year, according to Nielsen data, and the $550 million category could grow to $2.5 billion by 2021, according to MarketInsider. Peaks and Pints carries a few hard seltzers, as well as mead and hard kombucha. We thought it would be fun to add a little excitement to our weekly Monday cider
Peaks and Pints Tap List Sunday November 3 2019 includes Decadent Ales S’mores IIPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday November 3 2019 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
You fancy Ommegang My Watch Has Ended Fancy Pants Sunday: Ommegang My Watch Has Ended You’ve seen them. A giant of a man wearing a Wun Wun mask weeping at a bus stop bench. Your neighbor gardening with a Khal Draogo foam Arakh sickle. A proud parent cheering at Stadium Bowl donning The Hound helmet. Thronies don’t know what to do with themselves since the Games of Thrones finale. “What do I do now?” asks the barista making White Walker face foam art. If only there were a closure beer. If only. Over the last few
Trees provide an indispensable service. They block the sun, color the landscape, and give us something we can truly look up to. And the extra oxygen? Yes, trees filter countless pounds of CO2 though all those sun-dappled branches to make us healthier. And happier. Because of pine trees. We mean, clearly. They also stand silently as physical corroboration of the passage of time, tangible proof that the world existed before we happened to arrive at a given spot. Sadly, many millions live nowhere near a good, healthy clump of trees, much less a deep, funky forest that, within minutes of
Peaks and Pints Tap List Saturday November 2 2019 includes Seattle Cider Punch Bowl. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Saturday November 2 2019 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
Peaks and Pints has hosted 987 different daily craft beer and cider flights since we opened on this date in history in 2016. That’s 686 more than the number of forks we accidentally dumped into our trash bin. The number of times our electronic menu screens malfunctioned is 799 times less than the number of flights we served. Our chalk “A” frame sign sat outside overnight 950 less days — two never returning inside. Xfinity Internet had to be reset 430 more times than flights served, including 640 days less without Outside TV. A playing card has been stuck on
Peaks and Pints Tap List Thursday October 31 2019 includes Perennial Fantastic Voyage pastry stout Peaks and Pints Tap List: Thursday October 31 2019 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
Healthy, active, stubborn, funny, Tacoman 12-year-old Ella has an ailing heart. After weeks and a steady line of shoulder shrugs by medical professionals, an echocardiogram revealed she had severe heart failure, dilated cardiomyopathy. She had been dying due to a lack of blood flow to her internal organs, which all showed signs of damage. Mary Bridge and Seattle Children’s Hospital summoned their best, holding her Ella’s hand through procedures and surgeries many adults couldn’t handle. Recently, Ella underwent a third heart surgery. Her parents have partnered with the non-profit Children’s Organ Transplant Association, or COTA — experts at raising tax
Hops have long defined life at B.T. Loftus Ranches in the Yakima Valley. Back in 1932, Kevin Smith and Meghann Quinn’s great-grandparents founded the family hop farm that’s now run by their older brother, Patrick. Meghann and her husband, Kevin Quinn, and younger brother were keen homebrewers. Wouldn’t it be natural to start a brewery on the farm? In 2013, the trio took down three acres of the farm’s Field 41 and built Bale Breaker Brewing Company, which is surrounded by fields of hops. Bale Breaker has grown to become the fourth largest independent craft brewery in Washington. With a
Double Mountain Brewery Cool Camp IPA makes it to Mt. Rainier’s Camp Muir. Photo by Bryan Johnson Ron Swarner Cool Camp: Camp Muir “Nothing like a little lighting to pick up the pace,” said Win Whitaker as he rushed us up Mount Rainier on a Wednesday afternoon. I nervously laughed at the accomplished guide’s remark as a thundercloud hovered above my fellow American Lung Association Climb For Clean Air climbers and RMI Expeditions guides, buzzing our ice axes and rattling our thoughts. The Whittaker and his team lit a fire under our butts, most likely setting
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight And A Movie: Ad Astra The film Ad Astra is set in the “near future: a time of both hope and conflict.” Brad Pitt plays Major Roy McBride, an astronaut and scientist working on the international space antenna. After a series of unexplained electrical surges nearly takes his life, top government officials confide in him that similar surges in the future may threaten all life on Earth. The surges seem to be caused by an uncontrolled release of antimatter originating from the remains of a mission to Neptune. That expedition, which was tasked with
You fancy Sierra Nevada Tequila Barrel Aged Otra Vez Fancy Pants Sunday: Sierra Nevada Tequila Barrel Aged Otra Vez Craft brewers find the good in wood. Because it’s porous, wood allows for very slow oxidation, which can make darker, malty beers more complex. Beer aged in barrels will absorb some of the various chemical compounds present in the wood, such as lactones (floral aromas and flavors), phenolic aldehydes (vanilla), and the simple sugars (caramel). When the beer is first in the barrel, it will begin to absorb very strong caramel and vanilla flavors, as well as
If you visit peaksandpints.com, you know we observe pseudo-holidays and exploit them into beer flights. But today — well, today is National American Beer Day, an occasion we’ll let serve as an excuse to enjoy made-in-the-homeland brews. Not that we really need one. Last year, as the Brewers Association reports, the number of breweries in this country was at its highest since the 19th century — and many of those 7,450-plus establishments turned out some pretty innovative, complex, and downright delicious stuff. Beer was once the unfussy option, the tonic of the masses. On Cheers, Norm simply orders beer —
Peaks and Pints collaborated with Kulshan Brewing on our third anniversary beer, Tree-dimensional IPA. Kulshan brews Peaks and Pints Tree-dimensional IPA “Ski patrol, mountain biker, wilderness poet, Army Ranger, kayaker …” one by one Peaks and Pints bartender and former ice skater Amy Kirk pointed at guests nestled against our wooden bar as if she was pointing to judges in the movie, “Flashdance.” The avid snowboarder received a hip bump as fellow Peaks bartender and weekly backcountry hiker Erin Miller stepped in pointing, “hiker, hiker and HIKER!” “You’re very tree-dimensional Peaks and Pints!” shouted Katie Johnson,
Peaks and Pints Tap List Saturday October 26 2019 includes the Ecliptic Brewing and Russian River Brewing collaboration, Belgian Style Hoppy Golden Ale. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Saturday October 26 2019 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
“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 definitely here to stay. Also called “sweet stouts,”
Dr. Hoppy Dankenstein has isolated himself from his family, friends and colleagues. Unknown to them, Dankenstein has been experimenting with the stickiest of the icky, the dankest of the dank, the bombest of the bomb-diggity. Dankenstein scoured the planet for face-meltingly awesome hoppy beers, with the goal of showcasing five of them at Peaks and Pints today. Upon learning Dankenstein’s plans, his friends, family and colleagues believe that he’s treading in dangerous territory in creating what they believe is a flight of weed. Dankenstein argues that, yes, “dank” refers to beers that “smell like good weed” but dank also refers
In 1996, Jeff Schons and Mary Jones founded English-focused Pelican Brewing Company in Pacific City — Oregon’s only oceanfront brewpub. Celebrating its 21st year, the brewing company has created tasty treats such as Kiwanda Cream Ale, India Pelican Ale, MacPelican’s Scottish Ale, Tsunami Stout and Doryman’s Dark. Founding brewmaster Darron Welch and Pelican have won more than 300 awards including the 2014 World Beer Cup Champion Small Brewing Company and Brewmaster of the Year. Today, Peaks and Pints offers a five Pelican beer flight we call Craft Beer Crosscut 10.24.19: Flight of Pelican Brewing. Craft Beer Crosscut 10.24.19: Flight of
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 10.23.19 includes Standard Brewing’s Faithful And True oak aged saison. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 10.23.19 GOOD NEWS: Our six-pack carriers have returned! No more stacking in four-packs. No more juggling to your car. Just place these six new arrivals in the Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock: 10.23.19 six-pack and confidently walk away. Then, bring back the empty carrier and re-fill with tomorrow’s new beers. It’s so simple. 54-40 Brewing SHARK DESTROYER: “I’m going to go on an overnight drunk, and in 10 days I’m
In 2001, Doug Ellenberger packed up his 1987 Volvo Station Wagon and made the haul from Indiana to Hood River, Oregon, following his love of craft beer and mountainous terrain. He brought with him a few duffel bags belongings and a load of knowledge from his time brewing for Lafayette Brewing Co. He landed himself a job at Full Sail Brewing, honing his craft. In 2002, Christine McAleer left her life and career as a social worker in West Virginia to pursue her passion for the outdoors, landing her in the great Columbia River Gorge. One seasonal gig after the
Peaks and Pints Tap List Tuesday October 22 2019 includes Rogue Batsquatch IPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Tuesday October 22 2019 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 iPhone
In May of 1989, John Maier arrived in the small Oregon coastal town of Newport just in time to create Rogue Ales brew #1. Thirty years and more than 20,000 brews later, Maier still rides his bike daily over the Yaquina Bay Bridge to the brewery where he continues to create innovative brews that have garnered international acclaim. One of the pioneers in the craft-brewing world, Rogue consistently puts out award-winning beers year after year, winning gold in national and international competitions. One of the founding principals of Rogue is to remain a one-off, small in size but large-in-reputation unique
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
Peaks and Pints Tap List Sunday October 20 2019 includes Cascade Brewing’s Vlad the Imp Aler. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday October 20 2019 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
Jeremy Warren is widely admired for his mastery of hops, especially with his signature beer style, India pale ale. In 2012, his Knee Deep Brewing Co. exploded onto the scene when the brewery’s Hoptologist won the prestigious Bistro Double IPA competition in Hayward, California, besting the legendary Pliny the Elder, among others. In 2015, Warren left everyone knee deep in tears when he departed the brewery. In March 2017, he and his head brewer, Jeb Taylor, opened Revision Brewing Company in Sparks, Nevada — one of the largest, hoppiest breweries in Sparks for $2 million with a chill taproom and live music.
Peaks and Pints soup of the day, chickpea and lentil, pairs well with Holy Mountain’s Beyond Life and Death witbier. Tacoma Soup: Chickpea and lentil soup meets Holy Mountain Yes, lentil soup can be as drab as our weather today, but Peaks and Pints offers assertive spices, carrots, celery and the addition of chickpeas, bringing both spice and texture in droves — similar to a Harira, the traditional soup of Morocco and Algeria but without the tomato. ‘In regards to a pairing, Holy Mountain’s Beyond Life And Death oak fermented witbier would be lovely. It is
When you drink local, you drink fresh — but you also support the local economy. We’ll break it down for you: When you drink a beer brewed in Tacoma you’re not only showing some love for a local business, you’re supporting a business that’s outsourcing their graphic design to a local artist. Everyone benefits. Today’s beer sample flight centers on local breweries. Please stop by and enjoy Craft Beer Crosscut 10.19.19: Flight of Tacoma Brew. Craft Beer Crosscut 10.19.19: Flight of Tacoma Brew 7 Seas Water Chopper Gose 4.8% ABV Founders Mike Runion and Travis Guterson opened 7 Seas Brewing
Named after both its founding region in New Zealand and the Sauvignon Blanc grape, Nelson Sauvin is an exciting, distinctive hop varietal that was released in 2000. Hailing from a small bay on the north coast of the country’s South Island, the hop sports a compact cone shape with a tapered end. Nelson Sauvin hops have vigorous spring growth and can lend either a dominant hop character to a beer or something much more subtle. Aromas and taste range from citrus to mango and gooseberry, which are supplemented by hints of pepper and allspice. Known to impart a cool climate
Peaks and Pints New Beers 4-Pack: 10.17.19 After a long session of adulting hard that entailed fighting the I-5 traffic for a quick trip to IKEA, your post-lingonberry meatball hangover cries for a healthy dose of craft beer to balance things out. Welcome to Peaks and Pints New Beers 4-Pack: 10.17.19! Abomination Brewing DRAWING A BLANK: Abomination’s New England-style triple IPA is triple dry-hopped with Galaxy, Citra and Mandarina Bavaria for all the hops, citrus and floral on the nose and palate, although the booze shows up on the tongue then finishes bittersweet. 11.1% Decadent Ales DECADENT CREAMERY MANGO SORBET:
This is the season when people drink way too much, and often argue about Thanksgiving, Christmas, relatives and money. Domestic violence is as serious as it gets. Join YWCA Pierce County and our Tacoma community for Peaks and Pints Gives A Damn: Hops For Hope — a night of beer and conversation about how to empower healthy relationships and prevent domestic violence in the South Sound. Hops for Hope hosts include Jeff Cohen, John Hines, Casey Catherwood, Matthew Jones, and Stephen Murphy, to name a few. YWCA will receive $1 from every draft beer poured at Peaks and Pints from
As the cat days of autumn crest upon the beer world, a familiar collective roar gathers volume. That’s right, it’s once again time for the seemingly perpetual beer complaint of mid autumn: Beers such as winter warmers and Christmas-themed beers are being released earlier than many believe they should, even though we’re still a couple months before the official start of winter. Yes, we’ve entered wet, often windy part of the year frequently devoid of sunshine, but without any of the charms that our customary 1-inch of snow can bring. Peaks and Pints will hang on to autumn, at least
Peaks and Pints Tap List Tuesday October 15 23019 includes Narrows Brewing Beans Imperial Stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Tuesday October 15 2019 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
Prepare to be awake for a very, very long time. Spend an hour or two at today’s Coffee Fest PNW 2019, an extravaganza of everything muddy at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, and it’s unlikely you’ll have a choice in the matter. But once you’ve caffeinated liberally on joe that’s anything but average, you’ll be ready for whatever else comes your way — oh, let’s say a flight of coffee beers at Peaks and Pints. Mixing caffeine and alcohol is nothing especially new. Beyond Irish coffee and Four Loko, brewers have been slowly working coffee into the DNA of craft
Peaks and Pints Tap List Monday October 14 2019 includes Left Hand White Russian Nitro Stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Monday October 14 2019 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
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight And A Movie: The Lion King Over the past few years, Disney has built up a heavy roster of live-action remakes of their most beloved animated classics, including The Lion King currently screening at the Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma’s Proctor District. This remake features an all-star cast including Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, and Billy Eichner — plus James Earl Jones returning as Mufasa (because who else?). Peaks and Pints is not ashamed: we love Disney’s The Lion King. There’s Rafiki runnin’ around being all Yoda-y, Timon and Pumbaa crackin’ wise,
Fancy Pants Sunday: Scaldis Prestige De Nuits Austrian Holy Roman Empress Maria-Theresa enjoyed taxes. When she discovered breweries brewing inside castles didn’t have to pay taxes, she stormed the castles. OK, her people did. In 1769, Joseph Leroy and his brewers left Ghissegnies Castle in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of southern Belgium, and set up shop across the street. Leroy founded what is now Brasserie Dubuisson Freres, the oldest brewery in Wallonia. When Leroy wasn’t farming, he brewed. Most of his beer found its way to local farm workers, as well as the town folk in Pipaix, home of the
Check your calendars, friends. Yep, we’re in October, a month in which your only concern should be which of your lightweight jackets to throw across your shoulders as you tread effortlessly out of your house and also, what creative and intelligent but still sultry and appealing to members of whichever sex you prefer thematic outfit you will be wearing this Halloween — hello e-tailer Fashion Nova “Infinite and Beyond” costume, a much more risque version of Buzz Lightyear with a revealing bra and not much else. But under no circumstances should you spend any time thinking, “Will it snow this
It comes as no surprise that abundant natural resources drove early settlement in Whatcom and Skagit counties in Northwest Washington state. Settlement trends on the west slope of the North Cascades reflect the early settlers’ need to find accessible, suitable farmland, coupled with a desire to profit from the region’s natural resources. From Puget Sound they headed inland, traveling east along the Nooksack and Skagit Rivers, penetrating the unknown country in search of opportunity. Responding to an increasing population, the territorial government began dividing the state into counties. Whatcom County was established in 1857 and included 4300 square miles. Created
Peaks and Pints New Beer In Stock 10.11.19 With autumn beginning, the air cooling, and the leaves starting to turn, it’s time to talk camping. Isn’t fall the absolute best time for camping? Thoughts of crisp, clean air as you set up your tent. Building a campfire that will give you warmth and community when the sun goes down. Along with your campfire, hamburgers, and s’mores, Peaks and Pints New Beer In Stock 10.11.19 offers some delicious beers that compliment the outdoors, food, and fall at its best. The Bruery Terreux FRUCHT: GUAVA: This small batch installment in The Bruery
Peaks and Pints Tap List Friday October 11 2019 includes Scuttlebutt Night Circus strong coconut porter. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Friday October 11 2019 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
