Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners Second Round April 19 RON SWARNER: Laid-back is the essence of Friday. That means an early lunch with a pilsner. Then, blaze from work early to grab another pilsner. Dinner with friends at Peaks and Pints and plenty more pilsners … you know the routine. The mere thought of lifting a finger to wash the mountain of dishes in the sink should make you shudder. Yesterday, a good chunk of the South Sound changed its Thursday routine. Voting in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners was added to the mix. Yesterday saw the most votes
Oct. 17, 1989, the Pike Place Brewery, as it was then known, officially opened in the old Liberty Malt Supply space under the Pike Place Market on Western Avenue in downtown Seattle. At the time there were only three other craft brewers in Washington state and IPAs were hard to find on tap or in bottle. A lot transpired at the brewery since, including a name change to the Pike Brewing Company, but Charles and Rose Ann still proudly own the brewery and the history of beer museum that doubles as their restaurant and taproom. Tonight, Peaks and Pints celebrates
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners Second Round April 18 RON SWARNER: Peaks and Pints honestly had no idea how the Tournament of Beers: Northwest Pilsners would be treated. Much like the actual NCAA bracket, the 64 breweries voted in are strikingly different. Some Washington and Oregon breweries have been around for a while and have huge fanbases; others are mid-majors, known mostly to those living in the brewery’s same city. Some people have stood inside Peaks and Pints and passionately expressed dismay at the pilsner tournament seeding, even though the public seeded it. What we do know is: thousands of
Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners has hit Second Round action today, which means 32 pilsners brewed in Washington and Oregon remain. Chosen through a nomination process in February, the top 64 vote getters — the cream of the crispness — began competing April 5, Monday through Friday, on our website, until the championship game April 27 inside Peaks and Pints craft beer bar, bottle shop and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District. It’s just like March Madness, only with way more Saaz hops. To vote on today’s action, click here. To get you in the pilsner voting mood,
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners Second Round April 17 RON SWARNER: Now it’s getting exciting. The hops are really starting to fly, and the water is so soft that you’ll have to beat the Charmin bear off with a stick. OK, so that’s a horrible analogy. Point is: This is serious. Today, the Tournament of Beer officially kicks off its Second Round, meaning 32 pilsners remain, and the competition is as hot as ever. Who will be crowned champ Saturday, April 27? The path to pilsner greatness starts today. PEAKS AND PINTS WEATHER GUY: My forecast calls for cloudy skies
June 15, 2006, Ninkasi Brewing Company set out with a single mission: Perpetuate Better Living. Operating under this core purpose, the brewery has grown from a two-man team — Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge — to become the 35th largest craft brewery in the United States, operating entirely from its facilities in Eugene, Oregon and employing more than 100 employees. Producing award-winning craft beers, giving back to each community that serves its beers, and garnering national recognition as a top employer are just a few milestones the brewery has achieved since it opened with Total Domination IPA on the fateful
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 16 RON SWARNER: Low and behold, today marks the closing of the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners’ First Round. After today’s battles the bracket will officially be down to 32 pilsners brewed in Washington state and Oregon, and breweries start hiring cheerleaders. Seriously, how can you not get excited when head brewers dress in pilsner costumes and perform jigs on bar tops while their taproom crowds goes bananas? It’s those moments that make the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners so awesome. PEAKS AND PINTS WEATHER GUY: My forecast calls for mostly cloudy
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. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a flight of Dragon’s Head Cider that we call Peaks and
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 15 RON SWARNER: For the past week Peaks and Pints presented you with a compelling question: Who makes the best pilsner in the Pacific Northwest? And you have responded in multitudes. Sick days have been used. Friendships have fallen apart. Floor malters and Saaz growers living together — mass hysteria! PEAKS AND PINTS WEATHER GUY: My forecast calls for partly cloudy with chance of snow showers along Ingalls Creek Trail in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Hi around 35. Chance of precipitation 20%. I definitely have a secret Pinterest board dedicated to my
Founded in 1997, Brewery Ommegang has been bringing Belgium to America with resounding applause. Designed with a traditional Belgian farmhouse in mind and built over a former hop farm in Cooperstown, New York, all of Ommegang’s beers are brewed with traditional Belgian ales in mind, courtesy of Belgian beer exert Don Feinberg. With the enormous success of HBO’s fantasy epic, Game of Thrones, a beer-and-TV-show partnership could have easily ended up in the hands of an unsympathetic conglomerate. To our great fortune and excitement, Brewery Ommegang took the helm of crafting beers based on our favorite fantasy show. Tonight, nearly
Block 15 bartender Tana cheers her brewery’s First Round win. Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 13 RON SWARNER: The subject of pilsners is, like the subject of barbecue, vexed and fraught with controversy. What constitutes a great pilsner? Who makes the best in the Pacific Northwest? Everyone seems to have his or her own favorite, and everyone’s an expert. Throughout the month of February we polled the public asking what are the top 64 pilsners in Washington and Oregon? You chimed in. Friday, April 5, we launched the Tournament of Beers: Pilsners, pitting
Our daily craft beer sampler flight has landed in a Cascade hop field, the citrusy workhorse of the craft beer industry, but today we’re focusing on Centennial: Cascade’s bigger, more bitter, less flowery cousin. Centennial hops were first bred in 1974 as a cross between many different strains including Brewers Gold, Fuggle, East Kent Golding and Bavarian hops. The name comes from the Washington state Centennial Celebration, which occurred in 1989, just before the public release of Centennial hops in 1990. Centennial is a great dual-purpose hop and can be used successfully for both bittering and aroma. Centennial hops are
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 12 RON SWARNER: Over a three-week period, Peaks and Pints pits 64 of the Pacific Northwest’s best in a Grandpa hops-to-Grandpa hops battle of pilsners. This is a tournament, folks, not a playoff. Each match is do or die — one misstep and you’re out of the dance. Not willing to put in the time, effort, and money to pull a water report and consult the available resources on brewing water chemistry, and you can pack your brewers paddle and go home. Sure, there are plenty of brewers wearing “Light As A
Sam Calagione started making beer in 1995 when he opened Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats in the beach community of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It was the smallest commercial brewery in America at that time. Within a few successful years, the company activated a major expansion, switching from making very small, homebrew-style batches to industrial-sized sessions in a sizeable brew house. Dogfish Head expanded and moved to a 100,000 square foot facility in nearby Milton, Delaware in 2002. They’re one of the largest craft brewers in America but yet there may be no brewery today that exhibits such a dedication to
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 11 RON SWARNER: As with some many good things in this world, simplicity is the key to Pilsner’s success. Lightly kilned malted barley, spicy Noble Saaz hops that so define the aroma and flavor of this style, lager yeast, and soft water are all that’s needed for the skilled brewer to produce a fine pilsner. These ingredients combine for a clean, simple beer. Welcome to day five of the Tournament of Beers, featuring 64 Northwest brewed pilsners competing in the mother of all pilsner brackets. PEAKS AND PINTS WEATHER GUY: My forecast
In 1974, Larry Sidor walked into Olympia Brewing Company wearing galoshes. Two decades later, he ran out. He couldn’t take dumbing down lagers anymore. He found happier times at Deschutes Brewery, developing legendary recipes such as The Dissident, The Abyss and Red Chair. In 2012, he and Paul Evers opened Crux Fermentation Project in a former AAMCO transmission shop in Bend, Oregon, with the complete freedom to brew whatever they desired, and by desire that meant sublime IPAs, complex barrel-aged Flanders reds and restrained pilsners. They designed the brewery for non-traditional brewing methods such as decoction mashing, open fermentation, oak
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 10 RON SWARNER: It was 1842 when a young Bavarian brewer named Josef Groll created the world’s first golden, hoppy lager in a small town located in what we now know as the Czech Republic (but which was then Bohemia). That town, which eventually lent its name to the beer style Groll pioneered, was Pilsen. As is the case with so many great innovations, the creation of pilsner was the product of a fortuitous union of ingredients and methods — in this case the pale barley malt, soft water and Saaz hops
Firestone Walker 2019 Parabola and pals Peaks and Pints Six-Pack 4.9.19: Parabola and Pals THE WALDOS SPECIAL ALE, Lagunitas Brewing: The Waldos’ Special Ale landed today. The Petaluma, California brewery brews this seasonal triple IPA as a tribute to the Waldos, the group of kids who attended San Rafael High School in the early 1970s. The kids received their name because they would hang out leaning against a wall. The Waldos are most well known for being the founding fathers of 420. They created the slang term as a covert way to gather after school at
Consider the lager. Lagers are typically brewed at a low temperature to allow the yeast to reach its maximum flavor potential. The lower temperatures cause the lager to ferment at a much slower rate than ales. However, the results are a brew that is clearer than ales, which are brewed at higher temperatures. Lagers are brewed using the yeast called Saccharomyces uvarum. It does not rise to the top like the yeast used in ale but does end up at the bottom once fermentation is reached. This particular yeast does not sporulate as a result of being a more fragile yeast.
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 9 RON SWARNER: Favorites or underdogs, Czech or German, Saaz or Hallertau hops — it’s all the same in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners. In the end, brewers from Washington and Oregon have one chance to brew the perfect pilsner, to ensure that fermentation conditions can be met and stay well within the temperature boundaries of the yeast. Screw up the diacetyl rest near the end of primary fermentation and brewers are watching from the sideline — drinking a pilsner, of course. Sixty-four Northwest pilsners were selected and seeded by beer enthusiasts
“The “dry” category of cider is developing the way the IPA category did in beer. When people started shifting away from larger mass-produced light lagers, they shifted to a style of beer that was typically produced by microbreweries — the IPA. Today, beer lovers may gravitate toward a specific variety of hops — like Mosaic or Citra or Simcoe — but when the IPA started to become popular, that wasn’t the case. Cider finds itself in a similar place. There isn’t as much brand recognition for different apples, so consumers are gravitating toward a style of cider production instead. “Dry”
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 8 RON SWARNER: During the month of February, we asked our Peaks and Pints patrons and the public to vote for their favorite pilsners brewed in Washington and Oregon. Through an online nomination system, beer enthusiasts listed 81 pilsners with the top 64 seeding the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners’ knockout bracket, which kicked off Friday when the first eight pilsners met on our wooden floor. This scenario continues Monday through Friday, until the tournament’s final game, April 27. PEAKS AND PINTS WEATHER GUY: My forecast calls for light rain this afternoon
You fancy, Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout Fancy Pants Sunday: Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout You know the drill. Make some beer, quit your job, start a beer business. It’s what Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers did when starting the Founders Brewing Company out of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1997. The road to greatness wasn’t easy. The duo came face-to-face with bankruptcy before they ditched the unremarkable craft beers switching to flavor-packed, complex brews that are Founders’ signature today. Soon enough, Founders became recognized on the national and international brewing scene, with accolades from Ratebeer, Beer Advocate, and the World Beer Cup.
It’s not a national holiday, at least not yet. But that doesn’t stop people from celebrating. National Beer Day is today. The day is historically relevant because it commemorates the date in 1933, when the Cullen-Harrison Act, signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt, went into effect. That allowed beer to once again be legally manufactured and sold in this country. Enough states then approved the 21st Amendment later that year to formally bring an end to Prohibition, which started in 1919. So, while National Beer Day isn’t a national holiday, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate. Peaks and Pints presents
Climb Oskar Blues Steep Coast Strata A rotating-hop series is a singularly named beer that uses new, sometimes not-even-named-yet hops with each release. It’s a chance to drink fresh IPAs, learn about some new hops and don’t overthink it. Oskar Blues has a Mountain IPA Series in play. According to the series hype, “Experimental hops. Boundary-pushing IPAs. East Coast? West Coast? Neither. Stay High.” OK. Peaks and Pints has Oskar Blues Steep Coast Strata in our cooler. In a nutshell, Strata (formerly known as X-331) is an open pollinated German born Perle hop that was growing in a backyard in Corvallis, Oregon. Strata
Berliner weisse is a rare thing: a sour beer, intensely flavored and the embodiment of refreshment. Its tartness is generally mild; its carbonation high; its soft, wheaty flavor refreshing. Even Napoleon was a fan — a popular story says he dubbed the beer style “the Champagne of the North” while occupying the German capital in 1809. As you might expect, the style is said to have originated in Berlin near the end of the 16th century and was at one time the most popular beverage in the city. Three aspects set it apart from other beers: It’s brewed with wheat,
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners First Round April 6 RON SWARNER: Sixty-four Washington and Oregon pilsners were picked by the public for the Tournament of Beer, which kicked off yesterday with two games in the Seattle/Greater King County region and two games in the Oregon region. Brackets don refrigerators, break rooms, brewery hallways and birdcages. Birthday parties have been moved to craft beer serving restaurants. Everyone is discussing Saaz hops and lager yeast temperaments. It’s crazy fun. PEAKS AND PINTS WEATHER GUY: My forecast calls for snow at White Pass Ski Area with more snow through Sunday. Three inches of
Watching Bellingham, Washington’s beer scene progress during the last few years has been amazing. To go from one brewery to 30 and counting in the last few years is nothing short of impressive. And now, seeing brewers testing the boundaries of traditional palates, breweries engaging the community in all sorts of events and activities, farm to pint initiatives and bringing culinary pairings into the mix — these are all ways in which the Whatcom County breweries and craft brew scene continues to kick butt. Peaks and Pints hosted eight Bellingham breweries last night in what the cool kids call a
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners Round One April 5 RON SWARNER: Live from the Proctor District in Tacoma Washington, it’s the 2019 Tournament of Beer: Northwest Pilsners. Peaks and Pints annual Tournament of Beer is special — it’s a time scour social media, eat too many sandwiches, and scream too loudly at the giant bracket sitting on top of our cooler. But most importantly, it’s the time for people to celebrate their love of craft beer. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, I’m Peaks and Pints co-owner Ron Swarner. If you’re a pilsner fan or a friend of a pilsner fan,
Fort George Brewery is releasing early tastes of their 3-Way IPA via a spring version of its annual Festival of the Dark Arts. The Lupulin Ecstasy festival brings back past and present 3-Way collaborators for an event at Astoria, Oregon’s the Flavel Mansion Saturday, May 25. As you sip this year’s 3-Way IPA brewed with Fort George’s our good buddies from Cloudburst and Ruse, you will witness attractions and live performances, a festival glass and access to craft beer brewed by former 3-Way collaborators sprinkled around the grounds, and entry into the Captain George Flavel Mansion for the day. Plus,
New York state’s growth of the craft beer segment continues to be strong and New York State’s share of that growth has exceeded that of breweries on the national level. The number of New York state breweries grew from 95 in 2012 to 415 in 2018. The state’s craft beer industry is currently fourth in the country with an economic impact of $3.4 billion dollars. In 2018, New York state was the sixth largest beer producing state in the country. The outlook for breweries in New York state remains strong with more breweries-in-planning than ever, continued barrelage increases and growth in
Morning Foam: Brooklyn Lager, Marilyn Strickland, lightning fast lectures GOOD MORNING, SOUTH SOUND! Tuesday, April 2, 2019 — Agent Phil Coulson turns 57 today! Peaks and Pints Weather Guy has the week’s forecast for the Olympics Mountains. Today’s Morning Foam was compiled while watching Keanu Reeves take the bus. … https://twitter.com/keanusgf/status/1109843353804386304 PEAKS AND PINTS DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS BROOKLYN LAGER, Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Lager won the Gold Medal for Amber Lager at the 2018 World Beer Cup because it’s one of the most refreshing Vienna lagers you’ll ever try. That malty nose showcases some caramel sweetness and some fruitiness, which is surprising
Traditional perry is not the same as pear cider, which is often apple cider that has pear flavoring added to it, and may be what comes to mind for most people when they hear about perry. A true perry is made from pears alone and has a light, refreshing sweetness. Perry pears are smaller than culinary or dessert pears. As with apple cider, the fruit is picked, crushed and pressed to extract juice, which is then fermented. However, unlike apples, all pears contain a sugar alcohol called sorbitol that yeasts cannot metabolize. A completely fermented perry, therefore, has a residual
Morning Foam: Ecliptic-Brooklyn Brewery Tap Takeover, Glitter Beer official style GOOD MORNING, SOUTH SOUND! Monday, April 1, 2019 — Jimmy Cliff turns 70 today! Peaks and Pints Weather Guy has today’s forecast for Oyster Dome. Today’s Morning Foam was compiled while watching the trailer for The Beach Bum…. PEAKS AND PINTS DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS GILLIAN’S RED, Mazama Brewing: This American style red ale grabbed silver at the 2016 Best of Craft Beer Awards. It has lots of hop character from late addition Centennial, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops. 6.3% SOME PAPER, Mirage Beer Co.: Harvested from the pelletizing machines, hop hash
You fancy, Revision Barrel-Aged Finite Madness 2018 Fancy Pants Sunday: Revision Barrel-Aged Finite Madness 2018 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 his brewery. In March 2017, he and his head brewer, Jeb Taylor, opened Revision Brewing Company in
No Sleep Till Brooklyn Brewery: Black Chocolate Stout On July 4, 1994, when Manhattan Brewing was closed for the holiday, brewer Garrett Oliver brewed a version of Black Chocolate Stout in the empty brewery. Oliver fumed over Manhattan Brewing cancelling all their employees’ health insurance without telling them, so when Brooklyn Brewery co-owner Steve Hindy came a calling, Oliver listened. Three weeks later, after Oliver poured his Black Chocolate Stout for Hindy, the deal was done. The amount of Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout brewed in 1994, their first year in business, dwarfed all the sales for imperial stout in
Who opens with a 30-barrel system? Matchless Brewing Co. in Tumwater, Washington, that’s who. Award-winning brewmaster Patrick Jansen — who helped lead Three Magnets Brewing Co. to prominence — opened Matchless June 24, 2017, with Grant Bolt, and quickly built a reputation for its wide variety of top notch beers. Shortly after opening, Matchless brought home five medals at the Washington Beer Awards. The brewery reached its production capacity of 2,000 barrels in the first. It’s rare for a craft brewery to excel, and win awards, for all beer styles. Matchless does. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a flight of
No Sleep Till Brooklyn Brewery: Sorachi Ace Saison The Brooklyn Brewery and Ecliptic Brewing tap takeover is going down Monday, April 1 inside Peaks and Pints’ little lodge in Tacoma’s Proctor District. It’s true. Ecliptic picked Peaks and Pints to showcase their newest Cosmic Collaboration series, “5 Beers for 5 Years,” in which the Portland brewery collaborates with five other esteemed breweries to brew five celestial concoctions, then taking each collaboration on separate tours supported by tapped craft beer from both breweries. Brooklyn Brewery certainly didn’t tell famed Brewmaster Harris no; the two breweries brewed an amazing Tangerine Farmhouse Ale
Probably more than any other country, Belgium holds particular prominence to folks around the world who enjoy beer. This young (1830) small (11 million people) country has centuries of brewing traditions built into its history. Belgium’s brewing tradition goes back well over a thousand years. In 1822 Joos Frans Lindemans married a desirable farmer’s daughter called Françoise Josine Vandersmissen. And so the Lindemans family came to own a farm called, Hof ter Wegen. There was farming blood in Joos Frans’ veins, but his sights were set somewhat higher. He was soon mayor of the small town of Vlezenbeek and in the evening, after
Morning Foam: Future Primitive Green River IPA, Dwinell Country Ales, Built To Spill GOOD MORNING, SOUTH SOUND! Friday, March 29, 2019 — Perry Farrell turns 60 today! Peaks and Pints Weather Guy has the forecast for the Ray Westberg Trail. PEAKS AND PINTS DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS GREEN RIVER IPA, Future Primitive Brewing: Future Primitive Brewing opened last year in White Center. The ownership group includes Mike Baker of Artisanal Imports, Dean Hudgins and Ian Roberts of The Pine Box, former Elysian brewer Kevin Watson and Larry Soloman. Their Green River IPA — named after the actual river, as well as the
Beer is delicious. The brewed beverage has been part of human life for at least 5,000 years. In fact many historians believe that the cultivation of grains and subsequent development of beer and bread led to something we all like better than craft beer: civilization. When consumed in moderation, beer provides a relaxing, tasty and filling diversion from the stresses of everyday life. In the heat of summertime, ice-cold ale goes a long way; in winter, a frothy stout served at room temperature can give one energy and nutrition. Being a beer lover in America has never been better. The
Morning Foam: Georgetown Rocketman, Stone vs Keystone, Cat Valley GOOD MORNING, SOUTH SOUND! Thursday, March 28, 2019 — Lady Gaga turns 33 today! Peaks and Pints Weather Guy has the forecast for the Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls area. Today’s Morning Foam was compiled while watching a pigeon jam to “Blurred Lines.” PEAKS AND PINTS DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS BUSHIDO BROWN, Loowit Brewing: A dry hopped double brown ale with robust notes of toffee, cocoa, and caramel accompanied by a balanced hop bite accentuated by the generous dry-hop. 6.8% ROCKETMAN, Georgetown Brewing: Rocketman’s cloudiness can make this style easy to
Andrew Foreman enjoys a Double Mountain Cool Camp IPA at Peaks and Pints in Tacoma. Andrew Foreman Cool Camp: Little Gee Lake Created by colliding tectonic plates, and carved by glaciers and ice, Washington state offers about 1,600 high lakes at elevations of more than 2,500 feet above sea level in western Washington. The fishing is spectacular in these high elevation gems but the experience is punctuated by beautiful, natural campsites, hiking, and breath-taking vistas. Andrew Foreman’s campsite at Little Gee Lake “I catch a book trout every time drop a line
Beer lovers and bakers have always stood by their respective culinary passions — but far fewer of us have put the two of them together. It’s a magical combination. The right beer and cookie pairing is outstanding because it allows you to enjoy more of both elements. Milk washes away or rounds off the edges of a cookie, but beer, especially milk stout, brings out something unexpected from a chocolate chip cookie. A milk stout has a heavier roasted flavor, almost toasted, which compliments the sweetness in the cookie without overpowering it. A milk stout is also a little bit
