During Prohibition, three-fourths of America’s apple orchards were cut down, and cider makers no longer had enough fresh fruit when the alcohol ban was lifted in 1933. With few exceptions, only culinary apples grown for cooking and eating fresh remained. Today, consumers are gravitating back to hard cider because it represents a sustainable, locally grown, gluten-free alternative to beer. While most consumers know the basics of beer or wine, the cider industry has to overcome some basic misconceptions such as how cider is made and what it tastes like. Hard cider is not brewed like beer; it’s fermented like wine.
Oh you fancy 70K! Fancy Pants Sunday: Against The Grain 70K There are many reasons to try a beer. Perhaps you’re a fan of the style. Maybe you enjoyed the beers made by the brewer at another brewery, or you heard positive things from a friend. Maybe it just sounds good. Or, as was the case with Against The Grain Brewery, the packaging caught your eye. Featuring irreverent and witty cartoon illustrations, Against the Grain’s bottles are full of attitude that jumps out at you on the shelf. In 2011, Adam Watson, Sam Cruz, Jerry Gnagy and
Fermentation, at its most basic, is the process by which yeast eat sugars found in wort and convert them into alcohol. There are two major places where fermentation can occur during the brewing process: in stainless steel tanks (the most common) or in wood vessels such as barrels, foeders or puncheons. Beer aged in barrels will absorb some of the various chemical compounds present in the wood, such as lactones (floral aromas and flavors), phenolic aldehydes (vanilla), and the simple sugars (caramel). When the beer is first in the barrel, it will begin to absorb very strong caramel and vanilla flavors,
This summer marks 30 years since Californian Gary Fish set up Deschutes Brewery in downtown Bend on Bond Street, back when Bond Street was a much emptier place. Deschutes has since grown to become one of the United States’ representative craft breweries, distributing from coast to coast and making Bend synonymous with beer in the minds of many. Named after the Deschutes Rover, Deschutes was Central Oregon’s first brewery. Fish hired John Harris (founder of Ecliptic Brewing Co.) from McMenamins. Legislation and a growing provincialism for locally crafted beers soon turned the microbrewer of Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black
The hefeweizen has been around a long time. Some beer historians say it was brewed as far back as the 11th century. In German, hefeweizen (pronounced HEH-feh-vite-zen) means yeast wheat, so called because the beer is traditionally unfiltered, leaving the tiny particles of yeast sediment to turn the golden beer cloudy and turbid. It may be this suggestion of solidity that leads Germans to occasionally refer to hefeweizen as bottled bread. The beer style can have a variety of flavors including clove, vanilla, apple, banana, even bubblegum. They have low amounts of hoppiness. Hefeweizens are made with more than 50
TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6 2018: Avery Plank’d Imperial Porter and Bradley Palermo PREFUNK: Avery Brewing’s Nuttiest Professor, Expletus and Tweak has a new sibbling in Peaks and Pints’ cooler: Plank’d. A new addition to Avery’s experimental one-and-done Barrel Series, Plank’d is an imperial coconut porter aged for three months in rum barrels. It hits the tongue with coconut and rum then fades into a long chocolate finish. Oh, and it’s 16 percent ABV, which is why this description is so short. Let’s try to write a couple event suggestions for today. … 7 P.M. I CAN ONLY IMAGINE: The
Though strong Belgian pale ales have existed for centuries, the “tripel” name wasn’t used until the Trappists monks at Westmalle Abbey changed the name of what they’d call Superbier, their heaviest pale ale, in 1956. The Flemish Dutch word for triple, tripel suggests three times malt and strength. Much of tripel’s mystique comes from the innocent deep golden color, soft maltiness and customary, intriguing yeast stamp. That is followed by a sucker punch in the range of 8 to 9.5 percent ABV, a combination that offers culinary-quality complexity rivaling any darker brew. The burnished golden color, sometimes glinting of orange,
MORNING FOAM FOR TUESDAY, JUNE 5 2018: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way to the epic beer toss. … Washington Beer Blog has the details on this year’s Washington Brewers Festival over Father’s Day Weekend at Marymoor Park in Redmond, including the new rules and the participating lottery-winning breweries. Returning for a fourth year, Silver Moon Brewing will again lead the charge for cancer prevention, education and research with its annual “F* Cancer” campaign. Benefitting the American Cancer Society West Region, the campaign aims to raise funds through the sale of Silver
Astoria’s Fort George Brewery has brewed 3-Way IPA since 2013, featuring two different craft brewery collaborators every year. This year, Holy Mountain Brewing Co. and Modern Times Beer shared ideas and techniques with Chris Nemlowill of Fort George Brewery, and after 6.66 people brewed six batches, presto(!) — the final 2018 Fort George 3-Way IPA. Peaks and Pints will host the Fort George 3-Way IPA release party for the South Sound tonight. In conjunction, Peaks and Pints presents an all-day flight of the three, 3-Way breweries that we call Craft Beer Crosscut 6.5.18: A Flight of 3-Way IPA Breweries. Holy
Peaks and Pints Craft Beer Cooler Bagging: In Stock June 4, 2018 When hiking our cooler save room in your backpack for these restocks and new craft beers. … 70K, Against The Grain Brewery: This is essentially Against The Grain Brewery’s 35K Milk Stout recipe doubled: double roasty, double chocolatey, double creamy, double delicious. Then, the Kentucky brewery aged it in Angel’s Envy Bourbon barrels for notes of rich molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, roasted malts, dark sugars, oak and coffee with a bitter finish. 13.1%, 750ml CITRA ASS DOWN, Against The Grain Brewery: As the name implies, this Imperial IPA’s
In Europe, cider (or cidre, or sidre) is shorthand for an alcoholic beverage of fermented apples. In Britain it’s dry as the humor. France likes a dash of sweet, while Spanish versions run stringent and musty. In America, 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
Oleg Noleg performs at The Valley tonight. Photo courtesy of Facebook TACOMA PREFUNK: SATURDAY, JUNE 2 2018: Epic Big Bad Baptista and Oleg Noleg PREFUNK: Epic Brewing thrilled imperial stout fans when it created variations on their Big Bad Baptist, an imperial stout made with coffee beans and cacao nibs, including Big Bad Baptista with vanilla, cinnamon, Mexican coffee roasted by Blue Copper and Solstice Chocolate cacao nibs. It’s luxurious to say the least, with a pleasant warming sensation generated by the cinnamon and alcohol. Peaks and Pints tapped Big Bad Baptista this morning. Enjoying the
Until somewhat recently, the great state of Utah had fairly strict liquor and beer laws — only beers under a certain ABV were permitted to be brewed. But when the laws changed in 2008, entrepreneurs David Cole and Peter Erickson were able to pursue their longtime dream of opening Epic Brewing — a strong beer microbrewery in Salt Lake City, Utah like those found in their home state of California. Having started an international aquaculture company in Utah in 1992, Cole and Erickson were no strangers to food and drink (and the art of making them well), so when they
While barbershop promo photos and tongue-in-cheek song titles like “Diagnostic Front” might paint a lighthearted picture, bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis of Los Angeles two-piece Big Business will rock your face off at Alma Mater tonight. TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, JUNE 1 2018: Ninkasi Whiteaker Series No. 2 and Big Business PREFUNK: Northwest of downtown Eugene, Oregon, the Whiteaker neighborhood has long been a must-stop on devout beer lovers Eugene pilgrimage, thanks to Ninkasi Brewing, which planted its flag here in 2007. The brewery honors its neighborhood with a “Whiteaker Series” of beers, which “Series
Hops are a resinous, sticky green flower (and from what Snoop Dogg taught us, so too is that sticky icky icky — weed). The hops used in brewing are the flower of a climbing plant that’s a member of the hemp family. They grow on bines (not vines) that can reach more than 16 feet tall. The hop flowers contain lupulin, a sticky substance that contains essential oils, bitter acids and resins, and that is released when boiled. Hops are added during the brewing process and play an important part in balancing the flavors and aroma of the beer, as
Teachers and school staff do some of life’s most important work. Yet they are underpaid and don’t get the community support they deserve. Peaks and Pints has many educators as patrons at our bottle shop, taproom and restaurant. We hear firsthand how hard they work and how tough their jobs can be. Smarter Balanced tests, Common Core standards, Smarter Balanced tests, anti-testing sentiment, using these scores to determine who can or can’t graduate, social media bullying — craziness. We also know that while teachers appreciate apples and pencils, what many of them really like is a good craft beer. We’re
Plunking a slice of orange on the side of a glass of beer is a distinctly American tradition — one Peaks and Pints wishes would kindly die. Not only do oils found in the peels of these fruits hinder head formation and rob you of precious aroma; they’re unnecessary. Brewers are already skilled at incorporating orange flavors right into a beer, using the fruit to harmonize with similar notes found in hops or to spice up smooth wheat. Tired of all that peeling? Get your daily dose of Vitamin C with five orange-y craft beers in our flight today, Craft
TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, MAY 29 2018: Everybody’s Brewing On That Dust IPA and slam poetry PREFUNK: Remember when Austin Powers came out of the cryogenic process, which took a while to comp … compl… complete, the International Man of Mystery underwent laser cutting, the warm liquid goo phase, reanimation, cleansing and evacuation — all in that order. That last one just took a long time. Yakima Chief Hop Union’s innovative cryogenic process doesn’t take as long, and there isn’t a warm liquid goo phase, but the results are delicious craft beers. Using YCH Hops’ innovative cryogenic process, lupulin glands are separated
Today is National Biscuit Day. Yes, fake food holidays are stupid, but biscuits are not stupid, and therefore Peaks and Pints will drink a lot of them. Indeed. We speak of Biscuit malt and biscuit notes in craft beer. Biscuit malt is aptly named for the biscuity flavor it imparts. It’s also sometimes described as a “saltine cracker” flavor, which Peaks and Pints thinks is more fitting than “biscuit.” Biscuit malt is a relatively recent type of malt made possible by the invention of the first drum roaster in the early 1800s during Britain’s Industrial Revolution. It’s produced when germinated,
SOUTH SOUND PREFUNK MONDAY, MAY 28 2018: Occidental Hefeweizen and Crocodile Seandee PREFUNK: The German Beer Purity Law — Reinheitsgebot — is two years past its quincentennial: 500 years of absolutely nothing but barley (or wheat), hops, water and yeast. Not so much as a spruce tip or cacao nib may defile anything called “beer.” Occidental Brewing’s brewmaster Dan Engler mostly brews beers in the spirit (if not the letter) of the Reinheitsgebot. Opening in 2011 in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood, Occidental makes some of the best German-style beers in the Northwest, including their authentic Bavarian Hefeweizen. It’s hefeweizen makes
Cider is almost exactly like wine, except that it’s made with apples instead of grapes. Good cider very rarely tastes like apples. A lot of the commercial, industrial, processed cider that uses concentrate and lots of sugar tastes like apples or green apple Jolly Ranchers. Finer cider should taste of other fruit, and it should have earthy characteristics. The hallmark of a good cider is that doesn’t taste like kids’ apple candy, just like good wine doesn’t taste like concord grapes. Today is Monday, which means Peaks and Pints pours a flight of cider. It’s also Memorial Day. Take time
Peaks and Pints Craft Beer Cooler Bagging: In Stock May 26, 2018 When hiking our cooler save room in your backpack for these restocks and new craft beers. … 1918 DUBBEL CENTENNIAL, Atwood Ales: Atwoods Ale’s family farmhouse was built in 1918. This beer marks the Blaine, Washington brewery’s 100th batch, brewed in March of 2018. To celebrate the “hundreds” of accomplishments of both their farmhouse and their brewhouse, the Atwood family brewed this “dubbel centennial” abbey-style ale, using Belgian and Skagit Valley malts, their estate-grown Centennial hops and a fresh pitch of Trappist ale yeast. The result is a
TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, MAY 26 2018: Tacoma Brewing Cigar Box Cedro Deluxe before weirdness PREFUNK: Brett IPA? Casual drinkers will wonder who or what Brett is and, tasting the beer, shrug and smile. Nerdier beer fans will recognize the name as a shortened nickname for Brettanomyces, a wild yeast strain. But that’s confusing, too; haven’t we all learned that Brett beers are barrel-aged, funky and dry? But Brett IPAs taste of none of those things; in fact, Tacoma Brewing Co. brewed one aged on Spanish cedar, Cigar Box Cedro Deluxe. The 7.2 percent ABV IPA is bright and sharp with
“Saison” is the French word for season. This style of farmhouse ale was created before mechanical refrigeration was used in brewing. Saisons were intended to provide refreshment to thirsty farm workers on hot days, thus the farmhouse connection. Because the style emerged as a seasonal beer, often brewed in the winter and made without temperature controls, the original characteristics of the style were all over the board. In the funky world of sours, wild ales, and farmhouse ales, you never quite know what you’ll get once Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and all their microscopic friends finish their wort buffet. Brewer and drinker
So what makes a dark beer dark? It all comes down to the malts. Though all beer relies on malts (cereal grains that have been allowed to germinate, then dried to halt the germination process), dark beers are unique in their use of black and dark malts. These grains are heavily roasted to achieve the characteristic color as well as the caramelized, toasty flavors we love. The blanket term “dark beer” encompasses everything from classic styles like schwarzbier (a dark German lager) to the relatively new and trendy black IPAs. The most familiar dark beers, however, are generally billed as
Rod Cook showcases his new album, UNCOOKED, at The Spar tonight. Photo courtesy of Facebook SOUTH SOUND PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, MAY 23 2018: Stone VirtuALE IPA and Rod Cook album release PREFUNK: With the release of Stone VirtuALE IPA, Stone Brewing is the first to put to use INCOGNITO, a brand new proprietary technique for processing hops. The resulting Citra and Mosaic extracts highlight different qualities of the otherwise familiar hops. While hop extracts have been around for years, new processes for separating the lupulin from the plant material offer new layers of complexity for brewers to
American craft breweries began seriously researching Southern Hemisphere hop varieties last year because many hops varieties grown in the United States are becoming more expensive and more difficult to get as the craft-brewing industry expands and more consumers embrace craft beer. The main Australian hop regions are the states of Tasmania and Victoria; the main varieties grown there are the high-alpha varieties Millennium and Super Pride. Together these two varieties amount to almost one-third of Australian hop production, followed by Pride of Ringwood and Topaz, which together account for roughly one-quarter. The other varieties of note are Nelson Sauvin, Victoria,
TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, MAY 22 2018: Block 15 London Chronicle and pop-punkers Belmont PREFUNK: The porter style originated in England as the popular preference of the porters who worked in the shipyards. The style, an ale, is commonly dated to the mid-to-early 1700s. Nick Arzner’s Corvallis brewery Block 15 makes a delicious London style porter, London Chronicle. It’s the perfect dark beer for a warm spring afternoon, balancing a complex malt profile full of chocolatey, nutty grist character with refreshing drinkability and a crisp, roasty finish. Peaks and Pints pours Block 15’s London Chronicle from our western red cedar tap
Barrel aging is totally a thing. Well, it has been for centuries. Before industrialization, Europeans fermented beer in wood, stored and shipped in wood, and poured directly from wood. Beer spoiled often. Life was hard. By the mid-20th century, most breweries had happily traded their temperamental wooden barrels for the reliability and convenience of metal tanks. Beer spoiled less. Life was decent. However, brewers have long known that wood-aging can add flavor and depth to beer, especially if said barrel previously contained Kentucky bourbon, Jamaican rum or Washington state wine. The result is a beer more complex than most, as
TACOMA PREFUNK MONDAY, MAY 21 2018: Clown Shoes Shoebelation and Black Panther PREFUNK: Shmaltz Brewing Co. and Clown Shoes Beer teamed up for the most badass collaboration beer, Shoebelation (11.5%). Shmaltz blends its Jewbelation 11 with Clown Shoes Brewing’s Billionaire Barleywine in Wild Turkey bourbon barrels for more than two months. Shoebelation kicks off with fruit notes from the barleywine, with a mixture of bright American style fruit and deeper dried fruit reminiscent of English barleywines. The finish extends the English influence, with a dark biscuity flavor of old ales, probably contributed by the Jewbelation. It’s more of a strong
The Northwest Cider Association announced the seventh annual Oregon Cider Week will go down June 21-July 1, 2018. This year’s celebration of taking apples and pears and making them alcoholic and drinkable might be called “Cider Week,” but for the fruit-flavored purposes of this sprawling festival, “week” has been redefined to encompass 11 days, featuring more than 150 different ciders from around the world. Visit nwcider.com to stay updated on the full list of locations and events. In the meantime, Peaks and Pints presents a flight of Oregon ciders for our weekly cider flight, offering five cider under the headline
Fancy Pants Sunday: Moonraker Wicked Whisper with Maple Moonraker Brewing Co. opened in 2016 in the same Auburn, California industrial park as Knee Deep Brewing, and was later honored as the ninth-best new brewery in the world by RateBeer, a resource for craft beer enthusiasts. Along with additional honors from RateBeer, Moonraker has received recognition in other competitions, including the California State Fair. Moonraker’s solar powered facility cranks out highly coveted New England style hazy IPAs, including Zulu Haze, Hazy Duz It and Electric Lettuce, which await in Peaks and Pints’ cooler. That’s all fine and dandy, but this is
Why isn’t Samuel Smith’s Apricot Ale on today’s beer flight? It’s because Samuel Smith III of Samuel Smith Brewery, right, and Peaks and Pints co-owner Ron Swarner drank it all last night. Remember — or imagine — what beer drinking was like in America in 1978. There were about 85 breweries in the United States and only one was a craft brewery. Imports were few, and almost all were pale lagers. Today, the American beer scene is the most dynamic on the planet. That same year Merchant du Vin introduced Samuel Smith Brewery to the U.S.
The Pacific Northwest has a hop obsession. At any brewery, in any bar, you’re likely to encounter the devout disciples of the bitter plant, known as hopheads, guzzling the latest hopped-up brew. Without doubt, beers like IPAs and Double IPAs (DIPA) are the quintessential Northwest beers. But believe it or not, a hop, now one of the four main ingredients of beer, has not always been the shining star of the brew. It wasn’t until the 13th Century, back when Belgium and the Netherlands were still called the “Low Countries” [Editor’s note: They still kind of are, nether-land], that hops
Peaks and Pints Craft Beer Cooler Bagging: New In Stock May 17, 2018 When hiking our cooler save room in your backpack for these restocks and new craft beers. … BARREL AGED MEXICAN CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER IMPERIAL STOUT, Belching Beaver Brewery: Aged in Templeton Rye Whiskey barrels for 16 months, expect notes of chocolate, cinnamon, coffee and toffee. 10.8%, 500ml LIQUID SWORDS 10TH CHAMBER, Triceratops Brewing: Smooth, clean and slightly bitter IPA with pine and slightly floral notes. 6.5% ABV, 12oz BIG JUICE SMOOTHIE EDITION, Three Magnets Brewing: This thick, cloudy version of the Olympia brewery’s Big Juice Double India
There’s a new sheriff in town, and craft beer has a new style to play with: the New England IPA. Hitting the scene in the early 2010s, the NE IPA came to fame thanks to a Vermont brewery, The Alchemist, with 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. Though loaded with hops,
Since its establishment in 1996, Shmaltz Brewing Company has gone from a Mission District, San Francisco apartment operation, where Jeremy Cowan brewed his first hundred cases of He’Brew Beer that he enlisted his mother to deliver, to a massive brewery just north of Albany in Clifton Park, New York, with national distribution, including Washington state. Cowan wears his Jewish heritage proud — from “schmaltz,” which is Yiddish for “excessive sentimentality in art or music,” to the beer being Kosher certified, to the artwork and incorporation of Biblical Israel’s famous fruits and grains such as figs and pomegranates, aka the “Seven
Today marks National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. The word “cookie” is derived from the Dutch word “keokje,” which means “little cake.” Bakers would test their ovens before baking a large cake with a little bit of cake batter — hence, little cakes that served as treats on their own. The earliest cookie-style small cakes date back to seventh century Persia. Cookies are thought to have spread through Europe following the Muslim conquest of Spain. The British began incorporating cookies — or “biscuits” and “sweet buns” — into their daily tea service in the 19th century. English, Dutch and Scottish immigrants
Peaks and Pints co-owner claims new first ascent at Proctor Peak Tacoma, Wash. (May 15, 2018) — Peaks and Pints — the bottle shop, taproom and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District — is thrilled to recognize its co-founder Ron Swarner’s new climbing first ascent on Proctor Peak in North Tacoma, Washington. The route is 1.2 miles of vertical with an overhang of zero meters and a grade of E1— the first climb of this grade. Swarner, a Tacoma native, began the all-day, solo ascent in Old Town Park, next to the Tacoma Mountaineers Sunday, March 24, 2018. The climb starts
Photo courtesy of Sweet Bauer Creations TACOMA PREFUNK MONDAY, MAY 14 2018: Maritime Pacific Chicken Ship and Ruth Bader Ginsburg PREFUNK: Maritime Pacific Brewing’s Regatta Series IPA pays tribute to the lowly, forgotten, sometimes neglected boat tender, the “rotten dingy” — the dinghy that hauls people and supplies to and from the main ship. It’s a workhorse that is rarely treated with the respect it deserves. The latest installment in this IPA series is Chicken Ship, a hazy IPA brewed with 100 percent New Zealand Raukau hops for citrus flavors and a stone fruit finish. Maritime’s
People have known how to make cider for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence shows that ancient European and Asian cultures used apples to make a crude version of cider as early as 6500 B.C. The art of cider making improved over the years as people developed a better understanding of the factors that impact cider flavor. During the sixth century, a profession of skillful brewers was established in Europe. These people made beer-like beverages and also cider. By the 16th century, Normandy became one of the largest cider-making areas in the world. Experimentation with different types of apples ensued, which
Steve Altimari and his wife, Barri, a retired chef who is now High Water’s “chief flavor officer,” briefly owned a brewpub in Stockton, California, in the mid-’90s, Valley Brewing, before opening High Water Brewing Co. They license and fund a contract brewing company with Drake’s Brewing out of San Leandro. After a successful launch, they outgrew their space at Drake’s in two short years. The brewing operation was moved to Hermitage Brewing in San Jose which is still the primary production facility today. As well, EJ Phair Brewing in Pittsburg becomes the High Water production license home and additional brewing
TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, MAY 11 2018: Georgetown Citrus Galaxy and 253 Short Film Party PREFUNK: Last night the 10th Annual Seattle Beer Week kicked-off at Georgetown Brewing, home of the official 10th Annual Seattle Beer Week beer, Citrus Galaxy. According to Citrus Galaxy hype, “We invite you to jump out of light speed, turn off the warp drives and set the thrusters to ‘ah yeeeeeeeeeeah’ as you coast into and through the Citrus Galaxy. No citrus added to this IPA, but a favorable amount of Citra and Galaxy hops give this interstellar chill ride aromas of Mandarin oranges, grape fruit
“Invention, my dear friends, is 93 percent perspiration, 6 percent electricity, 4 percent evaporation, and 2 percent butterscotch ripple.” Those are the words of Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Brewing beer could be said to be much the same, especially these days, when creative beer makers are using all kinds of sweet treats in their recipes, from candy and cookies to cereal and cinnamon rolls. While the notion of a sweet beer may be sickening to those who prefer their hops, malt and water to be unadorned by ingredients more commonly seen in the sticky hands
