This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree is the flowering dogwood in McCormick Park in downtown Tacoma. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Flowering Dogwood There is something comforting about the succession of new trees blooming each week,” says Sarah Low, executive director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “Flowering dogwood, or Cornus florida, is one of a few trees that have just started blooming. The horizontal branching gives the flowering dogwood an especially beautiful architecture, which should be preserved whenever possible. The eye-catching “flowers” that are present now are really bracts or leaves; the real flower is in
Most of us watch Internet dancing videos like it’s our job as it is – what if bingeing on giggle-inducing dance moves could actually help someone else pay the bills? That’s the deal The Grand Cinema has struck with several film distributors whose products would otherwise be languishing on the shelf. They’ve got a stuffed-full schedule of movies that viewers can stream for the price of a Grand ticket, and more coming online every week. Everybody wins — the filmmakers get their movies in front of eyeballs, the theater gets some cash flow while they’re closed by the quarantine and
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.28.20 You really can’t mess up Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.28.20. Great selection hitting the shelves today from 21st Amendment, Georgetown Brewing, Kulshan Brewing, Narrows Brewing, and Reuben’s Brews. Cheers! 21st Amendment Brewery SPARKALE SPARKLING ROSE ALE: A sparkling rosé ale with apples, peach, cranberry, and cherry, for a light, fruity, tart flavor and a huge “sparkle factor,” Sparkale is a bit of a departure from 21st Amendment’s staple of bold, West Coast-style IPAs. It is also lower in calories than 21A’s regular beers and gluten-reduced for a flavor that’s as much
Peaches? Nectarines? Many people prefer one over the other. Some say that nectarines are juicier or peaches sweeter (or vice versa). Surprise! The nectarine is actually a type of peach, except that it has a smooth skin compared to a peach’s velvety one. Basically, one tiny recessive gene keeps it from being a peach. Beer made with peaches and nectarines is particularly popular with brewers both traditional and innovative, and sipping on a peachy brew is a tasty way to prepare for that summer feeling. Peaks and Pints presents a to-go peach beer flight we call Peaks and Pints Pilot
Tacoma Strong: Monday April 27 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is closed today for one day of rest and family time. We’ll reopen tomorrow, 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 The Swiss Restaurant & Pub celebrates their 27th Anniversary today with an Alaskan Amber
Sunday Night Barrel Sippers Headed to the backyard tonight? Here are six Sunday night barrel sippers to help keep you warm. … Alesong Rhino Suit: Bourbon barrel-aged imperial milk stout aged in freshly emptied Heaven Hill bourbon barrels for smooth notes of vanilla and coconut to the rich chocolate flavors of the base stout. 11% Belching Beaver Barrel Aged Viva La Beaver: Viva La Beaver imperial peanut butter milk stout aged in rye whiskey barrels for 14 months for immense chocolate and cinnamon flavors integrating with the booze and peanut butter. 12.5% Firestone Walker Cherry Barrel Blossom: Imperial smoked porter
National Pretzel Day is here again. Yup, there’s a day celebrating everyone’s favorite knotted bread, and that’s a good-enough excuse for us to seek out a twisted treat. This doughy, twisted treat has been enjoyed since the Middle Ages. According to legend, Italian monks first invented the pretzel as a reward for pious village children. It didn’t arrive in America until the 18th century by German immigrants settling in Pennsylvania. You’re going to need something to wash that pretzel down with. Just about any beer will work with a pretzel, but to make the most out of the match you’ll
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships: Champion Crowned It’s a simple equation. Mill gain. Mix with water. Boil it with hops. Cool it. Add yeast then ferment. Condition and filter it. Drink. Mixed into those steps is where it becomes tricky. Choices need to be made. Temperature? Cascade or Fuggle hops? Oats? In those choices lies the path to flagship beer greatness. Over the past three weeks Peaks & Pints pitted (and pitted out) 64 of the West Coast’s best flagships against one another in the mother of all reader-voted beer brackets, Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. You’ve seen
Now in its fourth year, this year’s Peaks and Pints bracketed beer competition kicked off April 3, pitting West Coast flagship beers against one another in frothy head-to-head matchups voted online by craft beer enthusiasts. Though the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships ultimately crowns a champion a la NCAA March Madness style, the real purpose is to champion the beers that put West Coast breweries on the map, which might have become forgotten in a sea of hazy milkshake IPAs and pastry stouts. Cascade hops by Cascade hops, the West Coast drank its way through the first two rounds
Tacoma Strong: Saturday, April 25 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Peaks and Pints is open today 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 Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Championship Game 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/WINES Tacoma Brewing Co. offers curbside service 2-5 p.m. today. Just pull up at 1116 Court E in
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Championship April 25 For more than three weeks, Peaks and Pints challenged 64 of the West Coast’s best flagship beers to go malt-to-malt in a showdown of craft combat. Some fell easily by the wayside, either due to a rogue mash tun cleaner or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Others captured the flags as easily as they did in junior high. Cascade hop by Cascade hop, you drank your way down to yesterday’s Final Four: Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Pelican Kiwanda Cream, Chuckanut Pilsner, and Kulshan Bastard Kat IPA. It was do-or-die,
The last three weeks, Peaks and Pints pitted 64 of the West Coast’s best in a malty head-to-head battle of flagship beers. We speak, of course, of the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. Sixty-four Washington, Oregon and California flagship beers were selected and seeded by the public in March 2020. During this tournament, some flagships fell easily by the wayside, either faltered due to a defective mash tun paddle or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Malt by malt, the United States’ left coast r drank its way through the first two rounds followed by the Sweet 16,
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Final Four April 24 If you were to open a brewery in 2020, chances are you wouldn’t settle on a flagship beer, but a never-ending rotation of experimentation and trend spotting. That makes the 64 flagship beers the public nominated into the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships all the more valuable. May they never fade away. Naturally, yesterday’s beer voting action set the mark for the highest vote count for a single day so far in the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships. And favorites fell. They fell hard. In the 1980s Region,
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.23.20 How are you doing? Do you know what day it is? Social distancing and stay at home orders have made us all lose track of time and social norms. Is it acceptable to have a beer at lunch when working from home? We think we all know the answer to that question. Good luck to everyone out there — stay safe and stay healthy. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.23.20 has some treasures. … Barlow’s Brewery TIGER KING IPA: With notes of nectarine, orange and papaya, Barlow’s Brewery Tiger King
You’ve probably squeezed a cherry into the mouth of a stout bottle, or at least seen others do it. That little twist of cherry turns your chocolate stout into a Black Forest cake. Luckily many brewers these days are infusing cherries into their beers in a produce-aisle range of offerings. Cherries can balance otherwise heavy beers or add extra freshness and flavor to the lighter styles. Cheeries have been added to beer for centuries, especially with Belgian lambic styles, which are called krieks. Cherry beer is no longer a throwback to centuries past. North American brewers are adding cherries to their craft,
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Great Eight April 23 The Great Eight is fully fleshed out: Sierra Nevada Pale, Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Pelican Kiwanda Cream, E9 Tacoma Brew, Chuckanut Pilsner, Double Mountain Hop Lava, Breakside IPA and Kulshan Bastard Kat — eight breweries that — according to our public poll — have the best flagship beer in Washington, Oregon, and California. It’s all come down to eight. All the signs in the brewpubs, the mass emailings to customers and friends, the flagship phone trees have paid off for these eight meaningful craft beers. It’s now crunch(y) malt time
Tacoma Strong: Wednesday, April 22 2020 2 Beers, 5 Love Locals, and 3 Things To Do Happy Earth Day! Peaks & Pints is open until 8 p.m. today for a six-pack, a sandwich and a growler full of the 3-Way Beta IPA so you can dance with the wood nymphs while 10 billion trees growing a quarter millimeter all at once. 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 Brewers Row is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will provide a sustainable future, eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life and foster peaceful progress in the human adventure.” So states John McConnell’s original Earth Day proclamation. Peaks and Pints enjoys McConnell’s Earth Day speech better than Agent Smith’s line in the first Matrix movie where he stares menacingly at Morpheus and speaks about how every mammal on Earth instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, “but you humans do not.
Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships Sweet 16 April 22 The best flagship beer on the West Coast? You think you know where to find it. We all do. After weeks of feverish voting (and with the help of a complicated computer program stolen from cavemen) we at Peaks and Pints have watched you, beloved voters, narrow down the Tournament of Beer: West Coast Flagships field from 64 to the 16 best beers that help launched a movement. Yesterday, the first eight beers in the Sweet 16 did battle. Today, the remaining eight go at it. Without further ado, let’s
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.21.20 On behalf of our entire staff, Peaks & Pints would like to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support us this past weekend! We are so grateful for your constant loyalty and support — you continue to give us hope for what lies ahead. Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 4.21.20 offers a bunch of new hazy IPAs. Cheers! Everybody’s Brewing MAGIC IPA: Kveik strain of yeast brings out juicy flavors, plus remove the label and bring back times of old with a Magic Eye illusion.
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
