Since 1978, Zymurgy magazine has been the leading light for amateur brewers in North America and around the world. The magazine features innovative and award-winning recipes, articles on do-it-yourself projects, explanations of brewing science, presentations of brewing techniques and a coveted annual Best Breweries in America survey in which its readers voted on the best breweries in the nation. Last June, the Zymurgy readers’ refined palates readers named Bell’s Brewery of Comstock, Michigan, the number one brewery. Since Bell’s and number three voted brewery Russian River Brewing of Santa Rosa, California, don’t distribute in Washington state, Peaks and Pints thought
TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, MARCH 6 2018: Pelican Beak Bender IPA and The Lowest Pair PREFUNK: Pelican Brewing Co. has added a new IPA to its year-round line-up. Pelican calls its new Beak Bender IPA “a contemporary hop-forward yet astonishingly drinkable IPA. A super clean bitterness and punchy, juicy hop flavor are the hallmarks of this unique beer.” Brewmaster Darron Welch invented “The Hopppinator,” a more productive and sanitary system for dry-hopping beer, introducing much less oxygen — the hop pellets go directly into the clean vessel, then the brewer seals the vessel and purges with CO2. As a result, there
Along the Oregon Coast ominous clouds can blow in at a moment’s notice. These storm systems bring heavy precipitation and high winds across the entire Pacific Northwest seaboard. Often the strongest squalls will be over in a matter of minutes while others can last for days. Monstrous waves, some twice the size of a two-story home, can batter the coast. Knowing exactly when a storm will hit land is very difficult to predict. There are, however, a couple storms pounding Peaks and Pints today, thanks to Pelican Brewing Co. The Pacific City, Oregon brewery’s coastal chaos craft beers are swirling
Californian Gary Fish established his brewpub concept, Deschutes Public House, in downtown Bend in 1988. 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 Butte Porter in obscure Bend, Oregon into a macro success, as the state’s largest brewer by barrel count. Deschutes Brewery is still family and employee owned, the brewery is known for brewing a diverse line-up of award winning beers including the popular Fresh
Bring your leather-bound book and enjoy Boulevard’s Manhattan Cask Still Ale at peaks and Pints in Tacoma. We’ve always wished we could have partied during the Roaring ’20s — with their bathtubs full of gin, fabulous fashions and gangster-owned, back-alley bars. But, thanks to Boulevard Brewing Co., it’s easy to go back in time and drink to everything that the 18th Amendment didn’t stand for. The Kansas City, Missouri, brewery has released the quintessential beer cocktail. Its limited Manhattan Cask Still Ale, a big imperial stout that was aged in barrels formerly used to age the
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,
Party like Tacoma Cabana: Stone Scorpion Bowl IPA Tacoma Cabana, nestled in Tacoma’s hip lower Pacific Avenue, offers a waggish combination of strategic lighting, dangling blowfish, bamboo, Hawaiian textiles and just enough kitschy accents to conjure up a live rendition of “Tiny Bubbles” and scream for a Scorpion Bowl. Co-owner and fez-topped Jason Alexander, armed with recipes from Trader Vic’s and Don the Beachcomber, pours scratch tropical craft concoctions incorporating his own ideas, infusions and syrups, including a Scorpion Bowl — a giant masterpiece of multiple rums and tropical fruit juices set ablaze in the center. It’s a beautiful thing,
Here is something you can do. Set up that nifty little Panasonic camcorder you received for Christmas next to Peaks and Pints’ fireplace. Now, plop yourself down in front of it and have a friend sit just off to the side and then both of you pound our craft beer flight today — Craft Beer Crosscut 3.3.18: A Flight of Angst — then hit the “Record” button as you share your deepest beliefs about 2018, but you two answer them employing only tense, cryptic bursts of pseudo-lingo that make sense only to you and our taxidermy, all while making sure
Thurston County’s beer roots run as deep as its famous artesian wells. In 1896 successful Montana brewer Leopold Schmidt opened the Capital Brewery after discovering the famous artesian water was ideal for brewing beer. Originally housed in a stackhouse in Tumwater, and eventually renamed Olympia Brewery, it was a significant player in the region’s sudsy brew movement. The brewery slogged through Prohibition during the early 20th century and ownership changes 50 years later. The brewery closed in 2003 when its parent company shuttered the Tumwater plant and moved the production operation to Irwindale, California. In 1993, Crayne and Mary Horton
Wow, seems like just yesterday Three Magnets Brewing Co. was a newborn brewery, entering our lives. There may be some newer kids on the scene, but Three Magnets still remains one of the best. Evergreen State College alumni Nathan and Sara Reilly, who had been running Darby’s Cafe for nearly a decade in downtown Olympia, opened neighboring Three Magnets in November 2014. They hit the lottery when they hired head brewer and “Local Sourcing Liaison” Pat Jansen, who also hit the lottery with assistant brewer Jeff Stokes. Together, they brewed a wide range of award-winning craft beers. Jansen moved on
They can never rise. They can immediately fall. They are difficult to make. They are temperamental. Dating back to 18th-century France, “soufflé” is derived from the word souffler — meaning “to breathe” or “to blow,” a soufflé is a baked egg dish made with an egg yolk custard that gets combined with beaten egg whites to help give the soufflé its signature puff. The light and ethereal textural wonder can be made sweet or savory, with popular variations ranging from cheese and spinach to chocolate and lemon. Since today is National Chocolate Soufflé Day, we’re going with the chocolate — and by “going
In April 2018, Peaks and Pints will host the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters. Chosen through the nomination process below, the top 64 vote getters — the cream of the malts — will compete Monday-Friday on our website April 6-28. Through online voting, Washington, Oregon and Idaho porter drinkers will pick daily winners until the Best Porter in the Pacific Northwest is crowned. It’s similar to our Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs last year, only with way more roastiness. The toasty-to-roasty battle of the porters grand champion will be announced at the Tournament of Beers Party April 28 at
Aslan Brewing recently opened Aslan Depot: Barrels & Blending, a taproom, barrel-aging facility and event space in downtown Bellingham’s historic Union Depot building. In celebration, the Bellingham brewery held its first barrel-aged bottle release: Space Eagle Brett IPA and Frances Farmer Rustic Saison. Space Eagle is a foeder fermented, four grain Brett IPA that is double dry-hopped with Citra and Hallertau Blanc. Frances Farmer is an expressive rustic saison aged in foeders for up to 6 months. Both bottles sit in Peaks and Pints’ cooler.
“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
Mike Weksler, Jack Houston and Paul Bastian had been pushing through Alameda Brewhouse’s exit doors with kegs of their Royale Brewing Co. Pilsner and Fat Unicorn Pale until they found their own brewhouse down the street in Northeast Portland, followed by their own taproom in the city’s St. John’s neighborhood. Recently, Royale Brewing signed on with Alpha Distributing bring the brewery’s craft beer to Western Washington, including Peaks and Pints. Royale Garrison Porter: Named after their taproom, this porter offers malty aromas of dark chocolate and toasted caramel. It’s mid-palate is home to hints of liquorice and caramelized raisins. Expect
Polynesian culture washed onto America’s shores after World War II, when soldiers returned from the South Pacific armed with aloha shirts, Hawaiian music and a thirst for tropical beverages. We’re not sure who brewed the first tropical-inspired craft beer, but honing in on the tropics can be accomplished via a couple different techniques. First, many of the recently released hops have flavors and aromas ripped from a fruit bowl, including Citra (papaya, mango), Mosaic (berries), El Dorado (watermelon, pears), Galaxy (peach, melons), Hull Melon (honeydew) and Galaxy (pineapple). Dial up a recipe with these hops, used later in the brewing
SOUTH SOUND PREFUNK THURSDAY, FEB. 22 2018: Double Mountain Destiny City Film Festival Night and BrewDad hugs PREFUNK: Proctor District’s historic Blue Mouse Theater will host the fifth annual Destiny City Film Festival Feb. 23-25. This year’s program will feature 28 films from across the globe, alongside local films by directors in the Pacific Northwest. The three-day festival will highlight films across a variety of themes along with a screenwriting panel. It’s awesome. Peaks and Pints will raffle off a Destiny City Film Festival VIP package during our Lodge Meeting with Double Mountain Brewery tonight. A full festival pass, as
Founded on St. Patrick’s Day 2007, Double Mountain Brewery has a clear mission: “Make great beer for craft beer fans.” Ever since then owner Matt Swihart (when not playing guitar in his band GreenNeck Daredevils) has worked hard to meet this mission, focusing on uncompromising beer quality, with ingredients such as two-row pilsner malts from British Columbia, Belgian yeast strains, fruit from Hood River orchards and Northwest hops. Famed for both their hoppy and sour fruit beers such as IRA, Vaporizer and Devil’s Kriek as well as the brewpub in downtown Hood River’s awesome pizza, family friendly atmosphere and live
No matter your level of scientific aptitude or superstitious cajoling, one thing is true: Something has shifted. There is no normal anymore. The old charts, measures, predictable trajectories have jumped the rails. Science hasn’t failed us; it’s proved all too accurate, more than even most scientists could have predicted. It’s enough to make you believe in the supernatural, in karma, in a wicked, but understandable form of divine retribution. Or maybe just craft beer and cider. Here are a few new delights in Peaks and Pints’ cooler. … 2 Towns Ciderhouse Passion Statement: a small batch cider pairing Yellow Maracuyá passionfruit
Tomorrow, you’ll have a lot of leftover cherry pie. It’s cool; you won’t bake it from scratch, you’ll bake it from frozen. It will be a Chef Pierre frozen pie, Sara Lee’s food service industry brand. You’ll be too busy to bake one from scratch to celebrate National Cherry Pie Day. It happens. It won’t be too bad — the cherries will be tart, the crust will be so-so, but it will be a little heavy on the cornstarch. Just invited the garbage collector, the neighbors and several small children to eat a large slice of cherry pie tomorrow morning.
Peaks and Pints is pouring Sierra Nevada Beer Camp #208: Little Stronghand Imperial Oatmeal Stout, which is special for several reasons. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s Beer Camp is the ultimate brewing experience. The Chico, California brewery invites beer industry folks and fans into its brewery for three days where Beer Campers inspect the bottling line at an arm’s reach; explore a freezer bigger than a house where hops are stacked to the ceiling; pedal across Sierra Nevada property on a 12-seater beer bike outfitted with fresh kegs of Celebration Ale; watch the research lab test batches; shovel hops; taste experimental
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 Founder 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. Flavorful, complex, and often stronger than your average pint, Founders’ beers aren’t for
“Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” So sang Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney as they skipped along a Milwaukee sidewalk together. In 1976, Laverne & Shirley debuted in the top slot of the Nielsen ratings, pulling in some of the biggest numbers television had seen in a decade. For eight seasons, the roommates and Shotz Brewery coworkers got into uproarious, I Love Lucy–like hijinks in Wisconsin. Much of the show’s success was due to Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, who brought personal touches to their title characters. As zany as the show could get, these felt like real people … working at a
Little Beast Bes Tart Wheat Sour, 750ml Two years before Little Beast Brewing opened in Beaverton, Oregon, co-founder Charles Porter was brewing at Logsdon Farmhouse Ales in Hood River. The histories state such a fact, but we meet Porter in April 2015 while on a tour with the Craft Brewers Conference held down the highway in Portland. Porter, along with Dave Logsdon, showed us the archaic but highly functional brewing systems Logsdon used to craft their famous wild ales. Porter left Logsdon and opened Little Beast Brewing with his business and life partner Brenda Crow, a cheesemaker, in April 1017.
Happy Saturday Peaks and Pints Pals! Head to Peaks and Pints’ cooler for all the new craft beers and cider Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. Sure it seems totally natural and obvious that you damn well right deserve to get whatever you want, anytime you want, without ever leaving your couch, and never you mind the countless millions of man-hours, massive carbon footprints, cheap factory labor, ridiculous over-packaging and insane technologies required to keep you from ever interacting with anyone other than the stressed-out UPS driver. But, just in case … Double Mountain Brewery, Hood River, Oregon, Oak Aged Dry Cider:
While the topic of bitterness in beer and the various contributing factors is complex, it is universally recognized that iso-alpha-acid, the isomerized form of alpha acid, is a major contributor to the overall bitterness of a beer. This isomerization happens when boiling the wort with hops. Even the quantification of bitterness in beer, often noted as IBU, International Bitterness Units, is essentially a determination of the amount of dissolved iso-alpha-acid by employing spectrophotometry. The conversation is basically an alpha acid race to a compromise. Alpha Acids are dissolving to become iso-alpha acids. Bring on the bitterness. But, the heat that
Gleewood perfoms at The Valley tonight. Photo credit: Adrian Reyes TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, FEB. 15 2018: 2 Towns Ciderhouse and Gleewood PREFUNK: Peaks and Pints welcomes 2 Towns Ciderhouse to our Proctor District lodge tapping the Corvallis, Oregon cidery’s new Pacific Pineapple full of intensely ripe, real golden pineapple character. 2 Towns works directly with a supplier in Costa Rica striving for the tastiest pineapple for a cider that isn’t sugary sweet, then fresh-pressing it with Northwest apples. In addition to the pineapple cider expect other 2 Towns delight pouring from our Western Red Cedar tap
Peaks and Pints loves blackberries. Tart, sweet and complex but guarded by thorny branches, these alluring fruit have been a favorite of ours since we were kids. The sweet allure of picking our own berries for cheap prices has dulled a bit, considering that after we make the drive out to one of the South Sound’s neighboring farms, our gas intake may put the cost of berries on par with Met Market’s offerings. It’s much cheaper to pick taster glasses full of blackberry cider and craft beer from Peaks and Pints’ beer flight tree crosscuts, which you can do today
Singer-songwriter Kristen Marlo will perform Wednesday, Feb. 14 at Peaks and Pints bottle shop in Tacoma. Photo credit: Pappi Sawrner Catching up with Kristen Marlo, it’s the new extreme sport. The object? Just to keep up with her. Tacoma’s much-beloved singer-songwriter rattles off a laundry list of her current events as if she’s chugged a partyball of Georgetown Brewing Bodhizafa IPA. Incidentally, one of the things Marlo is amped about is her Valentine’s Night show with Georgetown Brewing at Peaks and Pints — where she often pours Bodhi during her Monday through Friday daytime bartending stints
MORNING FOAM FOR WEDNESDAY, FEB. 14 2018: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way to the Gold Medal. … Saturday, Feb. 24, more than 130 Washington breweries will open their doors for a simultaneous open house, which gives beer lovers a unique opportunity to create their own adventure. Plot an itinerary for a personalized brewery crawl, travel to a few destination breweries you’ve always wanted to try or simply drop into the nearest participating craft brewer in your neighborhood. Each featured brewer will have their own lineup of surprises in store, including samples,
As many of you probably know, Valentine’s Day is today. (And for those of you who didn’t know and just avoided their partner getting mad at them for forgetting, you’re welcome.) Whether you’re married, dating or single, gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, a virgin or a stone cold hoochie — you’ll need something to do tonight. Hell, we all need something to do every Wednesday night but let’s not make ourselves crazy. One Wednesday night at a time. Who needs red roses, Godiva-dipped strawberries and rebarbative Hallmark schmaltz? OK, it’s true; we secretly crave all of these things and more. But,
Valentine’s Day conjures up visions of classic couplings: Romeo and Juliet, John and Yoko, sweet fruit and chocolate. Combine those latter two with some beer, and you have a three-way that will warm the cockles of the most demure drinker. In preparation for the Hallmark holiday, Peaks and Pints presents a beer flight with that share the flavors of the usual Valentine’s day gift: chocolate covered fruit. Indeed. While the bitterness of an especially hoppy beer might not be ideally suited (unless, of course, you were recently dumped – when bitterness might be appropriate), there are a number of offerings
TACOMA PREFUNK FEB. 12 2018: Ballast Point High West Barrel-Aged Victory at Sea and Phantom Thread PREFUNK: When it comes to imperial stouts and porters, you are going to be hard-pressed to find a beer that can go toe-to-toe with Victory at Sea Imperial Porter with Coffee & Vanilla in a blind tasting. This beer is a true standout in its original form, but Ballast Point has decided to step things up a bit this year by creating an incredibly special, barrel-aged version that has been simply named High West Barrel-Aged Victory at Sea. The brewers at Ballast Point took
Corvallis, Oregon, is a graceful, seductive, sophisticated and humane version of the platonic form of a small Northwest college town. It offers a kinder, gentler vision of hippie populism and liberal social planning: artsy trashcans covered in ivy, preserved frontier architecture, little cafes with outdoor seating and a general atmosphere of quaintly unified purpose. The college town is also home to some of the state’s best breweries and cideries. The idyllic little city of Corvallis, which sits snug against the Willamette River about an hour and a half south of Portland, is home to the state’s agricultural college, which also
SOUTH SOUND PREFUNK SATURDAY, FEB. 10 2018: Block 15 Brewing IPA Party and Tacoma Love Show PREFUNK: Dec. 31, 2011, Track 7 Brewing Co. opened for business in Sacramento, California. It grew from 340 barrels of beer in its opening year to just under 1,200 barrels in 2013. That’s not surprising since 1,000 people showed up to the brewery’s opening day – causing a line out the door for three hours. At 4 p.m. today, Peaks and Pints welcome Track 7 to Washington state tapping six kegs with famous track 7’s off albums pumping out of our jukebox. Track 7
With tree-huddled mountain greenery and foggy windswept adventuring around every turn, there’s no denying that Northern California is giving the southern half of the state a run for its money when it comes to the tip-top trio of biking, camping and craft beer. Since Peaks and Pints is a craft beer bottle shop, taproom and restaurant, let’s talk craft beer. Northern California was the wellspring of the craft beer movement, which can be loosely traced from Anchor Brewing in San Francisco to Sierra Nevada Brewery in the young-at-heart college town of Chico, and then to the world. Indeed, Northern California
Until recently, fruit in beer, in America at least, has long been ridiculed, ridiculously branded as “girly” or heretical to beer’s “purity.” However, fruited brews form not only the historical foundation of fermented beverages, especially in Belgian brewing culture, but fruit-flavored craft beers are now a popular trend in American craft brewing, i.e., fruited IPAs. Beer made with peaches is particularly popular with brewers both traditional and innovative, and sipping on a peachy brew is a tasty way to hold on to that fleeting summer feeling. While much of the best examples of American peach brews are made on a very small scale —
When Jeff and Chris Althouse founded Oakshire Brewing Co. in 2006 they were the only employees, brewing Original Amber on a four-barrel system under the moniker Willamette Brewery. In 2008, Willamette Brewery became Oakshire Brewing. Today, Dan Russo is the lead brewer managing Oakshire’s collaborative production team of seven and overseeing the Pilot, Vintage and Core Seasonal programs, including the development of a series of fruited Open-fermented American Farmhouse Ales and four different offerings from their “kettle-soured” Sun Made Berliner Weisse line up. Tonight, Oakshire will be the guest host at Peaks and Pints’ Lodge Meeting, releasing its Heart Shaped
When most people think of lagers they think of pale, clear lagers with snow-white heads and a crisp, light flavor. But that wasn’t always the case. For centuries, dark lager dominated the scene in Central Europe until methods for kilning paler malts came along and we saw the introduction of amber lagers such as Vienna lager and märzen. Eventually, in 1842 Joseph Groll brewed a beer in Plzen, Czech Republic that was golden with that thick snow-white foam. Pilsner was born and the world hasn’t looked back. Today, Peaks and Pints takes a step back into pre-pilsner history to enjoy
TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, FEB. 6 2018: 10 Barrel Dark Queen and Django Reinhardt PREFUNK: Jose Ruiz, a 10 Barrel Brewing brewer, created the 10 Barrel Dark Queen recipe, a take on a traditional German dunkel that showcases malt depth achieved by decoction brewing. Flavors of toasty bread crumbs and soft malt sweetness surrender to a subdued chocolate aftertaste that is light and refreshing. The 4.5 percent dunkel is one of five 10 Barrel beers on tap at Peaks and Pints today with a special 5 p.m. 10BArrelparty tonight featuring a snowboard giveaway. 1 AND 6:15 P.M. DJANGO: Django Reinhardt broke
10 Barrel Brewing Co. is a Bend, Oregon-based brewery with one simple mindset — brew beer, drink beer and have fun doing it, which it proves daily on its Instagram account. By regularly posting high resolution product photography, reposting user-generated content, Boomerang videos, action shots, lifestyle photography and more, this brewery keeps its Instagram following on their toes. Peaks and Pints hosts 10 Barrel Brewing at 5 p.m. tonight, pouring five of its beers and raffling off one of its snowboards, which has made many appearances on the 10 Barrel Instagram. We’ve chosen five 10 Barrel beers for our daily
Ahtanum was the first hop variety to come out of Yakima Chief Ranches breeding program Select Botanicals Group. Three families of hop farmers — Smiths, Perraults and Carpenters — founded Yakima Chief Ranches back in the late 80s. It was actually a Carpenter, Charles Carpenter, who first planted hops in Yakima Valley in 1868. He planted the hop rhizomes, taken from his father’s property, at his homestead in Ahtanum, the namesake of the hop. The Ahtanum hop is full of just as much history as it is flavor. Due to its low to moderate alpha acid content, the Ahtanum has
New Beer Saturday: Boulevard Brewing and others Founded in 1989, Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Co. has weathered a variety of challenges to emerge, survive and prosper, including the 2013 acquisition by Duvel Mortgat, the 147-year-old family-owned brewery in Belgium that also owns Brewery Ommegang. It’s consistently in the top 10 ranking for craft beer in the U.S., thanks to its popular Tropical Pale Ale and Unfiltered Wheat Beer. Originally, Unfiltered Wheat Beer was filtered and clear but never caught on. Boulevard’s founder, John McDonald, who thought it should be unfiltered to begin with, decided there was nothing to lose and
Consensus is a funny thing. Ask most craft fans to name the best beer city in America, and they might tell you Portland, despite the fact that many — if not most — of Oregon’s best breweries are found outside the city limits, including the Willamette Valley, a landscape of rolling hills and farmland about 45 minutes southwest of Portland. Makes sense. Like regional winemakers, Oregon brewers benefit from the Willamette Valley’s rich agricultural basin. The Pacific Northwest is a major producer of barley for malt, and Oregon’s Willamette Valley is one of the top domestic producers of hops. With
