This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree is the Ponderosa lemon hybrid at W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory in Wright Park. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Ponderosa Lemon Hybrid When life gives you rain, go see a Ponderosa lemon hybrid. “The tree is over 100 years old, and yet it is still quite small,” says Sarah Low, executive director of Tacoma Tree Foundation in regards to this week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma highlight. “Not all trees are giants, but they are beautiful just the same. The W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory at Wright Park offers a chance for us to observe
Peaks and Pints New Beers In Stock 1-7-20 A new cherry bakery stout, new vanilla stout, new pear and peach IPA and new peanut butter porter walk into a bottleshop. … Avery Brewing PEAR OF PEACHES: Imperial hazy IPA packing a punch of fruity flavors due to modern day dry hopping with Simcoe and Amarillo then traditionally dry hopped with Mosaic hops. 9% Ecliptic Brewing MERIDIAN VANILLA STOUT: Finished with vanilla beans, Ecliptic’s dry Irish style stout has a smooth mouthfeel with notes of cacao and roast. 5.2% Iron Horse Brewery PEANUT BUTTER DEATH: Body is similar to Iron Horse’s
In the early 1700s, it was common for London pub patrons to ask for blends of the various available brews. Historical documents say the Brits called their mixed beer beverage “Three Threads” using a third of a pint each of ale, lager and a strong brew called “Twopenny.” Eventually, bartenders told the Three Threadheads to take a flying leap off the London Bridge. Around 1730, a brewer named Harwood came up with a solution. He re-created the flavor of Three Threads into a single craft beer called Entire before it reached the pub. This beer came to be loved by
Peaks and Pints pours a flight of Isenhower Cellars i-Label wines this winter season. Isenhower Cellars i-Label Red Wine Flight Brett and Denise Isenhower met at an Indianapolis hospital where they were both working as pharmacists. They married in 1995, fell in love with wine shortly thereafter, and by 1999 were crushing grapes in Walla Walla. Their Isenhower Cellars’ wines are plush, smooth and light-footed yet sweepingly complex. Peaks and Pints presents a flight of Isenhower I-Label Series reds this winter, with the core of this wine series emerging from Eritage Vineyard in the rolling wheatfields
Peaks and Pints Tap List Monday January 6 2020 includes Reuben’s Brews’ Bloody Crikey, not Bloody Cranky Justin! Peaks and Pints Tap List: Monday January 6 2020 Peaks and Pints houses a mind-boggling array of suds: some 650 or so bottled and canned in our cooler, with another 28 on tap, including nitro lines. While craft beer remains our foundation, you don’t have to be embarrassed for ordering artisan craft cider, wine, cold brewed coffee and kombucha as those delights are on tap too at Peaks and Pints. To follow our tap list live from your
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Ford v Ferrari Ford v Ferrari, director James Mangold’s tale of the Ford Motor Company’s attempt to build a faster race car than Ferrari in the 1960s, is a rare, high-octane blend of art and entertainment, screening at 7 p.m. at the Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma’s proctor District. In this action-dramedy, Matt Damon stars as Carroll Shelby, an automotive designer and engineer forced to hang up his racing helmet after being diagnosed with a heart condition. Realizing Shelby’s talent, Ford executives ask him to lead their new racing division, which they hope will
Barley and hops get most of the credit for giving beer its flavor, but yeast plays an essential role too, creating the alcohol and carbonation through the process of fermentation. Yeast is everywhere — on our bodies, in our food, floating in the very air we breathe. One of the earliest domesticated organisms, the single-celled eukaryotic fungi helped transform humanity when ancient people learned to bake bread — and more importantly, brew beer. When you go to purchase a sour beer in today’s beer world, you’re either buying a kettle sour or a traditional sour/wild ale. Because the Seattle Seahawks are
With more than 21 breweries Eugene is an ideal place to experience an Oregon brewery scene. Like regional winemakers, Eugene brewers benefit from the Willamette Valley’s rich agricultural basin. The Pacific Northwest is a major producer of barley for malt, and Willamette Valley is one of the top domestic producers of hops. With growing conditions similar to Germany, the delicate hop flower has flourished there since the 1870s. Another esteemed ingredient praised by Eugene brewers is the clear, soft water of the McKenzie River. Mountain springs and melting snow from the Cascades feed the McKenzie River, recognized as the best
Known as the “Super Cascade,” Centennial hops share similar aromatic qualities of Cascade without any of the same genetics in the pedigree. 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. Enjoy five craft beers brewed with Centennial hops in our Craft Beer Crosscut 1.3.20: Flight
Consider the vanilla bean. The Aztecs did. In addition to inventing long words ending in “atl” and awesome mythology, they had the patience to figure out how to cultivate vanilla — a particularly difficult flavor to come by. The pods are the fruit of an orchid plant (Vanilla planifolia), and they have to be cured and fermented over the course of about six months. If that weren’t involved enough, the high-maintenance orchid itself has to be pollinated by hand. Mexico continues to be a major producer, but bourbon vanilla pods from Madagascar are considered to be the Chanel No. 5
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree the Western red cedar in the Puget Creek Natural Area. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Western Red Cedar “How about Western red cedar, Thuja plicata?” asks Sarah Low, executive director of Tacoma Tree Foundation in regards to this week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma highlight. She couldn’t finish her sentence before we screamed, “Yes!” Peaks and Pints pours draft beer, cider and wine from a Western red cedar log found in the Key Peninsula area. Artist, guitarist, woodworker, solar power expert and owner of Matt’s Concrete Repair, Matt Eklund — with help from
Let’s face it, 2019 has been a dumpster fire. We could fill an entire novel with all the tragic and unfortunate events that have proved to be a major bummer over the past 12 months, but will instead focus on turning the page, moving on and looking forward to a brighter future. New Year’s Eve is an occasion to drink with friends (if you wanna), to dress up in your nicest duds (if you wanna), to laugh your ass off (if you wanna), and to remember all of the good things that happened over the past 12 months (yes, there
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Jumanji Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flights are back on! Today, we’re pairing five ciders with Jumanji: The Next Level. With its latest installment, the Jumanji franchise hasn’t elected to modernize itself the way the previous one did by upgrading the titular activity from a board game to a video game — which is a shame, because Peaks and Pints was looking forward to seeing Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan navigate a Jumanji environment injected straight into the human retina. As the gang return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own,
You fancy Superstition Blueberry Spaceship Box Fancy Pants Sunday: Superstition Blueberry Spaceship Box In 2009, husband and wife Jeff and Jen Herbert were planning a Thanksgiving dinner in their Prescott, Arizona, home when Jeff decided to create a beverage that paid homage to Jen’s family’s roots in Vermont. He busted open a home brewing kit she gifted him to make an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water and adding maple — mead. By 2012, the couple turned their hobby into Superstition Meadery, a mead and hard cider company that averages 3 million in revenue, including the
What are the first couple things that come to mind when you hear of Marshawn Lynch? The Beast Quake run and Skittles, right? If you don’t mention those two things, you probably don’t know the man, the myth, and the legend they call Beast Mode. Today, the 33-year-old, five-time Pro Bowler running back will don a Seattle Seahawks jersey again to face the San Francisco 49ers tonight. He has signed a deal that lasts only for the remainder of this season. He last played in Seattle, leading the Seahawks to a Super Bowl XLVIII victory in 2015. In celebration, Peaks and
Peaks and Pints Tap List December 28 2019 includes Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist Hazelnut Vanilla Latte. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Saturday December 28 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,
If you drink enough lattes, you will come to realize that some are indisputably better than others. But, once you account for differences in quality, you have to admit, there’s a sort of sameness about them: espresso plus steamed milk, maybe a flavor shot or some sweetener. It almost makes you feel sorry for baristas. Why shouldn’t they get to experiment with flavors the way brewers do? Brewers incorporate coffee in their brew in several ways: mixing beans into the malt build, infusing during barrel aging or straight up cut the beer with cold press. With so many kinds of
Today, Peaks and Pints centers on strong ales for our daily beer flight — including Belgian and American strong ales — in a flight we’re calling Craft Beer Crosscut 12.27.19: Strong Ales. Belgian strong ales malty character can be rich and sweet, with complexity in flavors that include roastedness and mild hoppy bitterness. They are commonly brewed with Candi sugar, which can add to the style’s alcoholic strength, which ranges from 7% to 11% ABV. We also include several American strong ales in today’s flight, which are sometimes referred to as old ales, stock ales or winter warmers. These beers
Peaks and Pints Tap List Thursday December 26 2019 includes Culmination Brewing’s Drone Logic IPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Thursday December 26 2019 Peaks & Pints, Tacoma’s temple of fermented reverie, continues its noble mission of overwhelming your palate with purpose—housing some 650 bottled and canned marvels in its chilly shrine of abundance, plus 28 taps (yes, nitro too, because effervescence can be a sensual thing). And while beer remains our North Star, don’t clutch your pearls if you find yourself drawn to a craft cider, a whispery kombucha, or a cold brew communion—we pour
The backstory of Christmastime in a consumer culture always plays out in the alleys of Tacoma. This is where yesterday’s must-haves are temporarily tethered to trash bins in an effort to make room for a glut of new holiday gifts. Scruff-a-Luvs waits to make its final trip to the dump, where it will be entombed with a plethora of plastic playthings. Besides the insult of a scruffy rescue pet getting trashed, there is the sadness that the child who owned this toy outgrew it and now faces a lifetime of toil every time he or she sees a scruffy animal.
Peaks and Pints New Beer In Stock 12.26.19 Boxing Day is observed annually on Dec. 26 in the United Kingdom and other European countries that dates back to the days of Queen Victoria, though some historians trace its origins back much further—to medieval times. Today, it’s largely an extension of the Christmas holiday and a big day for sporting events, shopping, and, to Peaks and Pints, craft beer. In the event you didn’t get enough craft beer on Christmas Day, you’ll want to get in on Peaks and Pints New Beer In Stock 12.26.19. Belching Beaver Brewery PEANUT BUTTER LATTE
The lords have a’lept. The ladies have a’danced. The partridge has ditched the pear tree and has run away with one of the French hens. You spent months planning for Christmas Eve, but do you have any plans? Peaks and Pints has two ideas for today: See the ultimate sad sack Charlie Brown and his sad sack little Christmas tree find the holiday spirit in the Christmas classic A Charlie Brown Christmas at Tacoma Musical Playhouse at 11 a.m. followed by a holiday beer flight at Peaks and Pints. The TMP Honor Camp presents the seventh annual A Charlie Brown Christmas, adapted
You know you’re already humming “White Christmas” in your head. If you aren’t, we are. The Grand Cinema screens the classical musical film White Christmas at 1:15, 3:30, 6:30 and 7 p.m. But beyond simply watching, you will be immersed in the total “The-Best-Things-Happen-When-You’re-Dancing” experience — you will have the chance to sing along at the 1:15 and 6:30 p.m. screenings. Or at least you can move your lips to the words to pretend like you’re singing along. That part is up to you. The beloved 1954 film brings to life the story of song-and-dance men Bob Wallace and Phil
You fancy Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet gift box. Fancy Pants Sunday: Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet When attending a holiday party, it’s simply good manners to show up with a gift in hand. Most people make do with a six-pack or a mediocre bottle of wine, but why not bring something your host will truly enjoy and appreciate — authentic beer recipe from 1679. Ho, ho, ho it’s Fancy Pants Sunday: Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet. It’s common knowledge that the four basic ingredients in brewing beer are malted grain, hops, yeast and water. Most breweries tend to stick to variations
“There’s children throwing snowballs / instead of throwing heads / they’re busy building toys / and absolutely no one’s dead!” So sang Jack Skellington in Tim Burton’s bedtime story of a Christmas gone wrong, Nightmare before Christmas. Peaks and Pints adores this flick. In fact, we built today’s craft beer flight around the movie, Christmas Beer Crosscut 12.22.19: Sandy Claws. Nightmare Before Christmas tells the tale of Skellington, The Pumpkin King of Halloween, who, growing bored of his seasonal work, decides to move out of his comfort zone, assuming the mantle of his physical opposite: Santa Claus, or as Skellington
In a country with one boring-ass version of Santa Claus, it’s nice to be reminded that in other countries, Santa can be freakin’ scary. And thus: 2010’s Finnish horror-comedy Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, a cult favorite in which a dumb little kid discovers the sinister truth behind Christmas. In short: Santa’s coming for you at 9:00 p.m. in The Grand Cinema. Then again, Eurotrash Hans Gruber is also coming for you at 11 p.m. The Grand follows Rare Exports with Die Hard, the prototype for just about every contemporary action movie, though its craft has never been repeated, nor
We should all pay more attention to train enthusiasts. No, listen, stop laughing. They embody both the history (choo-choo trains, cow catchers, waving handkerchiefs from the platform) and the future (mass transit, commuter rails, park and ride) of transportation. Further study of their beliefs and practices is encouraged — try, for example the Model Train Festival, the Washington State History Museum’s salute to the tracks and equipment from the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads from the 1950s. There they (and you, should you follow our advice) will experience the museum’s permanent HO-scale layout, the largest permanent train
We all grew up with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Whether we read the book, watched the movies, or caught a theatrical production of the age-old story, a holiday season didn’t get by us without the ghost escorting Scrooge to more Christmases of the past including a merry party thrown by Fezziwig, the merchant with whom Scrooge apprenticed as a young man. Whatever your preferred method of dosing on Dickens was, it would be an injustice, and probably land you on that weird jolly guy’s naughty list, if you skipped Fezziwig Barleywine Ball at Peaks and Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor
Peaks and Pints Tap List Wednesday December 18 2019 includes Perennial Abraxas. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Wednesday December 18 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
The Tacoma Little Theatre stages comic Ken Ludwig’s ’Twas the Night Before Christmas at 7 p.m. It’s the story of Emily, and her pet mouse, Amos, who face another disappointing year of being by-passed by Santa until they find themselves thrust in the heart of all the action at the North Pole. Thanks to a conscientious elf, Calliope, played by Alexandria Bray, they help “save Christmas” for others who were similarly stripped off the Jolly Fellow’s Nice List. Drop by Peaks and Pints before or after the show for a holiday beer flight we call Christmas Beer Crosscut 12.18.19: Nice
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree are the Plume Sawara cypress trees in Tacoma’s Wright Park. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Plume Sawara Cypress “This week I suggest checking out the two Plume Sawara cypress trees, or Chamaecyparis pisifera, in Wright Park,” says Sarah Low, executive director of Tacoma Tree Foundation. “First of all, I think you should get a free beer if you can spell “Chamaecyparis” without looking, just saying. … Also, it’s worth noting when talking about Chamaecyparis pisifera that there are so many cultivated varieties of this species that they can take almost
Don’t let these dark days get you down, filos. Hop in the Christmas Revels’ time machine, journey back to the Balkins days of colorful folk stories, beautiful harmonies, lively dances, resplendent costumes, and intriguing traditions from the region that stretches from the northeastern border of Italy east to the Black Sea. We’re talking singing, dancing, storytelling, beauty, mystery, and hilarity at Tacoma Arts Live’s Rialto Theater. As it has been for the past quarter of a century, this production is directed by B. J. Douglas. It relies, once again, on musical direction by, and the lovely voice of, Megan Oberfield.
The Tacoma breweries support good causes in their communities throughout the year, but at the holidays they also band together to do more. When Douville Home Group and Peaks & Pints approached five such breweries with the Hoppy Holiday Food Drive concept, all five said “yes” faster than you can say “253,” especially when they learned the Emergency Food Network would be the beneficiary. Indeed, 7 Seas Brewing, E9 Brewing, Narrows Brewing, Odd Otter Brewing and Wingman Brewers have been collecting canned goods all month, with the final food count and celebration party at 6 p.m. inside Peaks & Pints.
Peaks and Pints Tap List Sunday December 15 2019 includes Kulshan Tree-dimensional IPA. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Sunday December 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 for iPhone
It wouldn’t be December without a “Peanuts” special or a gift-wrapped tin of cashews in a Christmas stocking. The holiday season is when nut lovers come out of their shells. Sorry about that. But, seriously. ’Tis the season for “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” even though most people have never actually seen such a thing. Then, there are nutcrackers. Tacoma City Ballet’s The Nutcracker & The Tale of The Hard Nut is a glorious production filled with spectacular dancing, live orchestral music, grand scenery, and lavish costumes. Presented for the first time in the beautiful newly renovated Pantages Theater,
Christmas Beer Crosscut 12.14.19: Lighted Boatus Feeling disenchanted this holiday season? Well, there’s a holiday for that. A Festivus for the Rest of Us, created by Seinfeld character Frank Costanza who thought the holidays became to be too much: too much buying, too much stress, too much glitz. Costanza’s Festivus holiday included a Festivus pole, feats of strength and the ritual airing of grievances. What other holidays take place during this time of year? Peaks and Pints found one without an admission charge: Lighted Boatus. SATURDAY, DEC. 14: Lighted Boatus Wake up a 10 a.m. Watch A Christmas Cruise with
Peaks and Pints Tap List Friday December 13 2019 includes Fort George Matryoshka Russian Imperial Stout. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Friday December 13 2019 Welcome to Peaks & Pints, where the cooler glows with the holy hum of 650-or-so bottled and canned miracles, and 28 taps (yes, nitro, you texture-obsessed sensualist) whisper your name in sudsy dialects of joy. And though we are built on the sacred bones of craft beer, we cast no shade if your thirst leads you to a cider, a wine, a cold brew benediction, or the probiotic thrum of kombucha.
Kelly Mero, chocolatier and founder of Kelly’s Chocolates, is at Compass Rose in Tacoma’s Proctor District until 3 p.m. today. A lesser sibling might buy their sister a Nightmare Before Christmas T-shirt at Hot Topic. But not you. You are going to visit Compass Rose Tacoma for their Makers In Proctor afternoons. Throughout the year, the dreamy gift shop in Tacoma’s Proctor District offers pretty and unique personal and home accessories, locally produced artisan jewelry, home décor, stationary, cool kitchen gadgetry and sweet-smelling lotions and potions, and so much more. But, now through Dec. 20, Compass
The Blue Mouse Theatre is getting all nostalgic on us screening a holiday classic tonight. It’s a Wonderful Life follows George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been quashed by family obligation and civic duty, whose guardian angel has to descent on Christmas Eve to save him from despair by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born. George rescues his kid brother at 7 p.m. Stop by Peaks and Pints for a flight of holiday beer we call Christmas Beer Crosscut 12.12.19:
This week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma tree is the Incense cedar at Norton Memorial Park in Tacoma’s Stadium District. Photo credit: Kate Swarner Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Incense Cedar “We have so many spectacular specimen trees in Tacoma,” says Sarah Low, executive director of Tacoma Tree Foundation. “One that has been capturing my attention lately is the Incense cedar in Norton Memorial Park at St. Helens and South First Street. In Tacoma, we are a bit north of the native range of incense cedar but, despite being far from home, this tree is still thriving.” This Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), also known
If all you want for Christmas is a beautiful, live concert, the Groovin’ Higher Orchestra is the answer and they’d prefer not to be wrapped. Rich Wetzel’s Groovin’ Higher Orchestra is a who’s who of big band musicians in the Puget Sound. Some of the musicians have played in the Air Force, Army, Navy bands, respectively, while others have seen the world while playing on cruise ships and with road bands. Yet whatever the past experiences were, they all have one thing in common from recent years: the annual Christmas show. Rich Wetzel’s “Big Band Christmas Dinner Show” will be
Peaks and Pints Tap List Tuesday December 10 2019 includes Fremont Brewing B-Bomb – Coconut Edition. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Tuesday December 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, click
The curses of the December birthday are many. People try to roll holiday presents and birthday gifts into one; the birthstone, blue topaz, can be less than flattering; and the month’s flower, the poinsettia, traditionally decorates porches for the holidays. (The April-born, on the other hand, get diamonds and daisies, a very admirable bloom.) Think of that when strolling through Light Plantasia at the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory. This is not your regular holiday light show. For five nights, 5-7 p.m., you can enjoy the botanical gardens inside the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory illuminated for a stunning and unique holiday
Peaks and Pints Tap List Monday December 9 2019 includes The Lost Abbey Gnoel De Noel. Peaks and Pints Tap List: Monday December 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 phone, click
