Arnold Palmer has a drink named after him, so why not Dracula? Samuel L. Jackson? Chewbacca? Peaks and Pints presents a flight of craft beer named after celebrities, most of whom had absolutely nothing to do with brewing the beer, one that’s really not a celebrity. This is pure hops homage at play. And it’s good fun. Swing by Peaks and Pints today for Craft Beer Crosscut 10.10.19: Flight of Celebrities. Craft Beer Crosscut 10.10.19: Flight of Celebrities Cascade Vlad The Impaler Aler 10.3% ABV Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire,
Peaks and Pints Tap List Wednesday October 9 2019 includes Gigantic Brewing’s The Simcoe Awakens fresh hop pale. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Wednesday October 9 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
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 10.9.19 If you want to drink the beer equivalent of a Pumpkin Spiced Latte, you have options. Whole patches of them, in fact. But if you’re looking for some great autumn releases that aren’t gourd-inspired, Peaks and Pints has your back, including these new arrivals to our cooler. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 10.9.19 includes Fresh hops, imperial stouts and winter warmers. Cheers! Brasserie d’Achouffe N’ICE CHOUFFE: The gnomes are back; this time popping out of our indoor Spalted Big Leaf Maple stump. N’Ice Chouffe winter ale is brewed with thyme and
October in Washington brings juicy plums, the smell of boiling Dungeness crab and pumpkin spice lattes. But for beer drinkers, October means wet hop beers. One of the most seasonally specific styles that a brewery can make, wet-hop (or fresh-hop — there isn’t a difference) 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 August and September, with the bounty arriving in early October, at least
Peaks and Pints Tap List Monday October 7 2019 includes Odd Otter Samuel Helles Jackson. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Monday October 7 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
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight and Movie: Abominable Stop by Peaks and Pints for a flight of five ciders before or after catching Abominable at the Blue Mouse Theatre, which screens at 7 p.m. Enjoy Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight and Movie: Abominable before or after the fabled snowmen shows up on the roof of an apartment complex in China, and it’s up to a bunch of scrappy teenagers to get him back home. Along the way, they have to outsmart enemies that include a predatory British collector and his zoologist assistant. (PG) Finnriver Oak & Apple
Peaks and Pints Tap List Friday October 5 2019 includes Fremont Brewing’s 2019 Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star Imperial Stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Friday October 4 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
It was 2007 when Ron and Jackie Walcher opened Skookum 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
In the past, pumpkin beers were o’plenty — American colonists would substitute pumpkin for grains in their beer. The popularity of the style began to wane in the 1800s as whole grains became more widely available. Eventually, pumpkin beers were rare — a seasonal sideshow, showing up only in the breweries daring enough to make them and enjoyed only by drinkers willing to take a chance on the oddities. As the craft beer craze took hold in the 80s, so too did the revival of the pumpkin ale with Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale arriving in 1985 claiming to use an
Peaks and Pints Tap List Monday September 20 2019 includes Moonraker Brewing’s Sails Meeting IIPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Monday September 30 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
In late 2010, Corvallis homebrewers Aaron Sarnoff-Wood and Lee Larsen filled a gap in the college town’s drinking scene — cider. The duo opened 2 Towns Ciderhouse crafting unique ciders brewed with the traditional English and French-style’s tannic apples, Oregon grown, of course. Named after the cities of Corvallis and Eugene (Larsen’s a Beaver; Sarnoff-Wood a Duck), 2 Towns believes “… that the long history of cidermaking demands respect and deserves to be done right,” states the cidery’s motto. “Starting with the highest quality whole ingredients from local farms, we take no shortcuts in crafting our ciders. We never add
Pacific Northwest hops are harvested each year from late August through September, which means beers brewed with the freshest hops available, known as wet-hopped beers, arrive in early October. What are fresh-hop beers? Simply put, they’re brews made with hops that are pulled off the bine and go straight into the kettle. The vast majority of the hops used by U.S. breweries are cultivated in Oregon and Washington. For the most part, these hops are dried and processed before being sold to professional and amateur brewers, which affects the flavor punch. With fresh hops, drinkers can expect more hoppiness, more
Peaks and Pints Fresh Hop Friday 9.27.19 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. A new batch of fresh hops arrived to Peaks and Pints today. Drop by our craft beer bottle shop in Tacoma’s Proctor District for Peaks and Pints Fresh Hop Friday 9.27.19. Crux Fermentation Project JACK FRESH HOP IPA: Named for hop pioneer Dr. Jack Horner – creator of the
Each quarter, Peaks and Pints gather five beers that taste like cocktails for a friendly head-to-head battle. Visit Peaks and Pints, order Craft Beer Crosscut 9.27.19: Flight of Beertails and tell us what you like about each by tagging @peaksandpints on Twitter or Instagram and using #PeaksandPintsBeertails. Cheers! Craft Beer Crosscut 9.27.19: Flight of Beertails Left Hand White Russian Nitro 8.9% ABV, 20 IBU The White Russian had a perhaps unfair reputation as an “unsophisticated” drink, to the point where it’s used as a punchline in the cult film “The Big Lebowski”, where it’s The Dude’s favorite cocktail. Part of
The hop bines sway in the afternoon breeze of a warm September afternoon in the Yakima Valley. Field workers pace between rows of bines suspended on ropes, pulling off a few of the hop flowers — bright green cones whose aroma is an instant reminder that another round of brewers will arrive with empty sacks the next day. Hops are one of Washington’s most prominent crops, their farmers powering the global brewing industry by growing almost 75 percent of the world’s hop acreage in the state, almost all of which is in the Yakima Valley. It thus makes sense that
Perennial had been a long time coming for brewmaster Phil Wymore, who hailed from Weston, a town northwest of Kansas City. Though he was new to St. Louis, Wymore wasn’t a stranger to beer. He planted his roots working as an assistant for the now closed Grindstone Brewery in Columbia. After graduating from Mizzou he moved north to Chicago to work for Goose Island, studied brewing at the Siebel Institute and later brewed for windy City craft brewery Half Acre Beer Co. With all those years of experience under his belt, he began developing his own vision — and chose
Peaks and Pints Tap List Tuesday September 24 2019 includes Finnriver Cidery’s Black Oak. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Tuesday September 24 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
Tens of thousands of people were on hand at the start of Munich’s Oktoberfest Saturday. An hour ahead of the official opening of the world’s largest beer festival, several tents had already closed their doors due to overcrowding. You may be shocked to know that the brass bands performing during Munich’s Oktoberfest celebrations aren’t all polka. In fact, traditional polka from Czech and Poland and relies more on the accordion while German oompah has more of a brass band (Blaskapelle) feel. The brass bands play covers, too, from American oldies, German hits, and everything from John Denver to Bruce Springsteen. As the
Peaks and Pints has the Dupont Blasters Handbook on our shelves, which pairs nicely with The Ale Apothecary’s Sahlie wild ale. Peaks Antiques: Blasters Handbook and Ale Apothecary Peaks and Pints craft beer lodge was once the 1922 Paramount Theatre in Tacoma’s Proctor District, followed by a five-and-dime store our wooden floors outline the faded shelving. We opened Nov. 1 2016 with a collection of antique outdoor oddities that has grown, although most piled high in our attic. We’re on the kooky side, so please enjoy Peaks antiques paired with craft beers. The 16th edition Dupont
Ladies and gentlemen, the brewers have turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign. If you haven’t already done so, please stow your carry-into luggage underneath the barstools. Please take your seat and construct your paper airplanes. And also make sure your friend is in a full upright position. Peaks and Pints will host the release party for Nelson Sauvin, Sauvignon Blanc hazy double IPA, a collaboration between airplane-themed breweries Wingman Brewers and Airways Brewing, at 6 p.m. tonight. In celebration, Peaks and Pints presents an all-day, airline-themed beer flight that we call Craft Beer Crosscut 9.19.19: Flight of Airplanes. Anxious
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 9.18.19 As a crisp breeze blows in the early morning, it is clear that autumn is in the air. Although the sun still shines at high noon, the days are ever so slightly shorter and the nights ever so slightly cooler. With the change in season comes not only pumpkin-spiced everything and the return of flannels, but also harvest. However, it is not just gourds and sunflowers in bloom: Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 9.18.19 has plenty of fresh pickings, including the seven beers below. … Block 15 Brewing FLICKER IPA:
Not all stouts — a style marked by the use of roasted malts and barley — are created equal, 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 of craft variations, the characteristics found within the category are myriad. Today, Peaks and Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District offers a flight of coffee stouts. You could technically file coffee stouts under a master umbrella of “flavored stout,” but with brewers finding new and interesting ways to work with coffee as an
Elton John embarked on a farewell tour consisting of more than 300 shows across five continents between 2018 and 2021, including the Tacoma Dome tonight. One of the last rock ‘n’ roll piano icons is calling it quits after this Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. John, born Reginald Dwight, was a prodigy who purportedly began playing piano at the age of 3. He had classical training, but it was Jerry Lee Lewis he chose to imitate at any school function he had a chance to play. Though performing and composing music came easily to John, it took meeting Bernie Taupin
Peaks and Pints Tap List Monday September 16 2019 includes Matchless CSA Farm Fresh Pale. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Monday September 16 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
At age 19, Nancy and Steve “Bear” Bishop would go on dates to Canada. They fell in love with cider. After making cider as hobbyists for many years, in 2001 they took a trip to the cider making regions of Spain, France, and England to observe commercial operations. When they returned home, Steve and Nancy took a class at WSU from an English cider master, and ordered 900 French and English cider trees, which started their journey into commercial cider making and the founding of Alpenfire Cider (previously named Wildfire Cider). Located in Port Townsend, the Bishops, including their son
You fancy 7 Seas Barrel Aged Saison Fancy Pants Sunday: 7 Seas Barrel Aged Saison French oak barrels have been a revelation for more than two millennia, since the Romans conquered the Gauls (Gaul included modern France) and immediately adopted this new technology thought the Empire. They ditched the wax-lined clay amphorae and began transporting wine in the lighter, tighter sealed, rollable barrels. Today, most French oak comes from one of five famous French forests that were planted in the days when Napoléon built many a ship. Since the days of oak sailing ships have come
Incline Cider Company is about a week away from opening their new Incline Cider House at the Brewery Blocks Tacoma, 2115 S C Street across from the Holiday Inn Express. Production operations will continue in Auburn with the Brewery Blocks Tacoma location being a cider-focused tavern featuring ciders, beer and wine from the Pacific Northwest. Incline co-founder Jordan Zehner and his crew will take a moment away from final preparations to hang at Peaks and Pints today. As a continuation of our 12-day Washington Cider Week celebration we will host Peaks and Pints Washington Cider Week Social: Incline Cider Company
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 9.14.19 The fall brings in a welcoming change as the leaves start to transform into vibrant colors before they gracefully fall to the ground here in the Northwest. Stepping out for fresh air, it noticeably has become crisper as it wisps by. And with everyone ironing their favorite flannels before heading out to enjoy the festive activities of the season. Today, though, we’re sending out an alert that Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 9.14.19 has nothing to do with autumn. Cheers! Belching Beaver Brewery DIA DE LOS DEFTONES: Get a room
In 2009, with sales tripling in less than a year, Two Beers Brewing Co. moved its full operation from a tiny spot in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood into a 2,400 sq. ft. South Seattle neighborhood brewery and tasting room, adding three 250-gallon tanks, one Joel VandenBrink, the founder of Two Beers, launched the Seattle Cider Company in August 2013, with the help from his Two Beers sales rep and a former farm hand Eric Willard. Diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which makes beer difficult to digest, VandenBrink launched the cider company with only two products: Semi Sweet and Dry. VandenBrink didn’t launch
Peaks and Pints argues that autumn is a super season, at least when it comes to food and drink. What we eat and drink this time of year evokes memories more easily than what we consume in other seasons. This is the time of year we dust off crockpots and Dutch ovens for soups and stews, filled — at least right now — with the remaining harvests of our local farms. This is when we flock to orchards for fresh-picked apples, and when we scoop out globs of pumpkin seeds for roasting. We drop cinnamon sticks in hot cider, and
Peaks and Pints Tap List September 12 2019 includes Cigar City Brewing craft beers. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Thursday September 12 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
On the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula is an extension of land called the Quimper Peninsula, named after Manuel Quimper, a Spanish Peruvian explorer, cartographer, naval officer, and colonial official. The narrow peninsula became the home of Port Townsend, Chimacum, Glen Cove and Fort Worden, just to name a few highlights. Today, Quimper Peninsula is home to some of the best cideries in Washington state, including Finnriver Farm & Cidery, When one of Washington’s earliest cidermakers, Drew Zimmerman, retired, Finnriver owners Keith and Crystie Kisler transplanted 1,000 of his trees from Mount Vernon to their Chimacum farm, a heartwarming,
For centuries the first thing that would come to mind when most people thought of the Lake Chelan Valley might be the snow-capped buttes, glacier fed waters of the lake itself or spring break shenanigans. However, over the course of the last few years, this beautiful backdrop has become known as one of the best cider producing regions in the country. The Kludt family has been growing apples on their small family farm in the Lake Chelan Valley for more than 40 years — apples that now feed their Washington Gold Cider in Chelan, Washington. As a continuation of our
Peaks and Pints Tap List Tuesday September 10 2019 includes Breakside Brewery’s Fresh Hop Strata True Gold. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Tuesday September 10 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,
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. As a continuation of our 12-day Washington Cider Week celebration we will host Peaks and Pints
In 2008, Craig Campbell and his wife, Sharon, began experimenting with making cider from dessert apples grown in their 400-acre commercial fruit orchards in Yakima, Washington. Despite naysayers who warned that cider apples required a maritime climate, Craig also planted a two-acre test orchard with 25 varieties of cider apples. Today, their two-acre experiment expanded into Cider View, a 30-acre “high-density” cider orchard. In their commercial cidery, Tieton Cider Works, they blend American heritage, English and French cider varietals with dessert apples to capture the best of what each variety brings to the bottle: sweetness, acidity, tannin and aroma. As
You fancy Finnriver Spirited Apple Wine Fancy Pants Sunday: Finnriver Spirited Apple Wine The true-life legend Johnny Appleseed wasn’t planting orchards everywhere because frontier kids needed something to bring to their teachers. He was planting apples because our Founding Fathers needed a drink. George Washington, for example, deterred not to lose again, served cider and libations during his 1758 bid for Virginia’s House of Burgesses. In fact, Washington, an eclectic drinker, distilled his own whisky, sometimes adding it to cider. He also drank three glasses of Madeira each evening. Fortified wines, like Madeira, are simply wines
Peaks and Pints Tap List September 8 2019 includes Reuben’s Brews Festbier. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday September 8 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 and
As a rule, good apples for cider production tend not to be the most aesthetically pleasing of fruits. They’re often small and bumpy, hardly the proverbial apple of our proverbial eye. And hundreds if not thousands of varieties have been lost forever, largely to the encroachment of suburban sprawl. But thanks to the efforts of Northwest Cider Association’s Washington Cider Week, the apple lives on. The 11-day craft cider celebration kicked off Sept. 5 with more than 85 events ranging from the simple to the significant — from dinner pairing menus to Peaks and Pints’ Washington Cider Week Socials. Indeed,
In common American usage, raw apple juice that has not been filtered to remove pulp or sediment is referred to as “fresh cider” or “sweet cider.” The term “apple juice” indicates the juice has been filtered to remove solids. Fermented apple juice is called “hard cider.” In Europe, all non-fermented apple juice is referred to as “juice,” and fermented apple juice is referred to as “cider.” Worldwide, cider varies in alcohol content from less than 3 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) as found in French cidre doux, to 8.5 percent ABV or above in traditional English ciders. New tax legislation passed
Back in the day, George Washington’s troops received rations of it. John Adams reportedly drank a tankard of it for breakfast each morning. Cider apples and their fermented juice were prevalent on American homesteads. Then Americans departed farms for cities, German immigrants introduced beer culture and ultimately Prohibition took a collective axe to cider orchards across the country. It’s not surprising that craft cider has taken root in Washington state — a region of wine and craft beer enthusiasts. Washington is the second largest wine producer and has the third highest number of craft breweries in the country. But when
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 9.5.19 Before you head off to Peaks and Pints to replenish your refrigerator, a question: what’s your favorite September beer … when the weather actually still feels like summer? Here comes Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 9.5.19. … Abomination Brewing Josh was an avid homebrewer for 8-plus years with more than 200 different beers plus some commercial brewing experience. Joe was an avid homebrewer for 5-plus years dabbling in all styles. They both thought German purity law Reinheitsgebot was an abomination. They opened gypsy brewery Abomination Brewing to push beer beyond
Washington state produces roughly 60 percent of the country’s apples, resulting in a flourishing market for hard cider. This time of year means Washington’s apple harvest is in full swing statewide, with apples ready to occupy your homes and future pint glasses. What better way to close out your summer and start the harvest season with a cider week? The Northwest Cider Association’s ninth annual Washington Cider Week, an 11-day craft cider celebration, will see more than 85 events ranging from the simple to the significant; from dinner pairing menus to Peaks and Pints’ Cider Week Socials. Indeed, 4-6 p.m.,
It’s National Macadamia Nuts Day! Quick, grab us a cell phone! We need to call someone. It doesn’t matter whom. It just doesn’t matter! We’re going to mash the keypad until some numbers come out and whomever picks up we’re going to scream with pleasure into the phone until they get to Peaks and Pints and try our beer flight, Craft Beer Crosscut 9.4.19: Flight of Tree Nuts. We’re not talking peanuts, because they’re legumes. We’re not talking nut browns, because they don’t contain nuts. We’re talking about tree nuts, which include, but are not limited to, almonds, Brazil nuts,
