Walk a 30-minute beer tour between Narrows & Matchless at 5 p.m. Thursday inside Peaks & Pints. 6-Pack of Things To Do in Tacoma: January 12–18 Mid-January in Tacoma doesn’t demand attention — it leans in, clicks on a headlamp, pours something dark with intention, and waits to see who’s willing to meet winter where it actually lives. This is a week where myth, motion, music, malt, and mischief quietly agree that the season rewards curiosity, not hibernation. The Daily Outside: Sasquatch Hunt, FeederWatch | Monday, Jan. 12 Attention gets playful on Monday as The Daily
Eight sightings. One legendary suspect. A perfectly ordinary trail suddenly acting very suspicious. The Daily Outside: Sasquatch Hunt, FeederWatch … 1.12.26 Monday’s Daily Outside asks you to notice what’s already out there — whether it’s a rumored Sasquatch on a familiar trail or a very real bird splashing in a backyard bath. Playful Exploration & Park Wandering University Place Parks — Sasquatch HuntJanuary 5–16Chambers Creek Regional Park (Grandview Trail) Somewhere along the Grandview Trail, Sasquatch has been sighted — allegedly. The Sasquatch Hunt turns a walk at Chambers Creek Regional Park into a self-guided scavenger hunt
Breweries are choosing financial stability over extra square footage. Mashing-In News: Sports Bra Lands WNBA Legend, Inside Rochefort GOOD MORNING, SOUTH PUGET SOUND! Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 — Howard Stern turns 72 today! Today’s craft beer news captures an industry recalibrating with purpose—where expansion is thoughtful, closures are strategic, non-alcoholic beer proves its craft credentials, and clarity, community, and restraint are shaping what comes next. The Sports Bra Lands WNBA Legend Renee Montgomery as Investor, Launches Playmakers Initiative The Sports Bra, the world’s first bar dedicated exclusively to women’s sports, announced WNBA legend and Atlanta Dream
Milk stout began life not as dessert, but as reassurance — a beer built to steady the hands and soften the day. In the early 1900s, British brewers folded lactose, an unfermentable milk sugar, into stout not to chase sweetness, but to add body, calm, and the illusion of nourishment. These were restorative beers by reputation and intent, poured for dockworkers, new mothers, and anyone who needed ballast against the grind. Over time, the style shed its medicinal language but kept its soul intact: stout made gentler, rounder, more humane. Lactose didn’t turn stout into candy; it turned it into
Learning how the mountain stays safe, one run at a time — women riding with women, from first chair to last sweep, turning skill, trust, and mentorship into muscle memory. The Daily Outside: SheJumps, Tacoma Light Trail Ends 1.11.26 Sunday’s Daily Outside is about learning how to move through a place with confidence — whether that place is a steep, consequential mountain or a familiar forest path you suddenly see more clearly. Mountain Skills & Women’s Mentorship SheJumps — Calling Women In Ski Patrol Sunday, Jan. 11, 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Crystal Mountain This is a full-day
Ten years ago, Steve Luke stepped away from Elysian and struck the match on Cloudburst Brewing, not because Seattle needed another brewery, but because it needed one that refused to behave. Safe was never the assignment. From day one, Cloudburst spoke in one-offs — a restless churn of hop experiments, fleeting recipes, and glorious “don’t get attached” beers that built a national reputation on surprise, precision, and just enough gleeful troublemaking to keep things interesting. Now the 10th anniversary has arrived in full Seattle weather and volume: Jan. 9–11 at the Shilshole location, layered with celebratory pours and good chaos,
In 2025, the Surfrider South Sound crew hosted 500+ volunteers, performed 10 beach cleanups and sent 3000 pounds of debris packing from our beautiful shores. Photo courtesy of Surfrider South Sound. Saturday’s Daily Outside is about showing up where it counts — beaches, hillsides, marshes, and forest paths — doing the kind of work that rarely makes noise but keeps this place breathing. Coastal Stewardship & Community Care Surfrider South Sound — Chambers Bay Beach CleanupSaturday, Jan. 10, 1-3 p.m.Chambers Bay Beach, University Place Start the year with sand under your feet and something useful in
Fresh cans. Slow sips. Winter vibes. Abbey-dark reflections collide with anniversary fireworks, blushing wilds, steady lager wisdom, communal haze, and barrel-warmed dessert dreams — a six-pack assembled to remind you that winter drinking rewards patience, curiosity, and a little well-earned swagger. BLOCK 15 THE PROPHECIES: Velvet-dark and contemplative, this Block 15 quadrupel layers fig, raisin, cocoa hush, and abbey warmth, unfolding slowly like a candlelit sermon meant to be savored, not rushed, 10.3%, 16oz. CLOUDBURST BREWING QUITE THE PARTY: Brewed for Cloudburst Brewing’s 10th anniversary, this IPA erupts with Nectaron, Simcoe, Citra, and Chinook, sending tropical
Perennial Artisan Ales emerged from St. Louis in 2011 with the kind of cellar-lit ambition that doesn’t bother knocking. Built around brewer Phil Wymore and co-owned with Emily Wymore, the brewery set its sights on beers with intention and backbone — saisons with lift, barrel work guided by patience, and dark ales designed to slow you down mid-sip and rearrange your evening plans. Growth followed, but the compass never wobbled; Perennial expanded its footprint while keeping its center of gravity firmly planted in craft, character, and an ever-curious refusal to get comfortable. Then came Abraxas, and the temperature changed. First
Tacoma Tree Foundation is bringing trees to Hilltop Tacoma. Photo courtesy of the Tacoma Tree Foundation The Daily Outside: Green Blocks, Trails Across the Park 1.9.26 Friday’s Daily Outside leans into the long view — the kind of care that begins quietly and pays off when you’re not looking. From requesting a street tree that will one day cool your block, to wandering forest paths you already love, to lining up spring planting and letting winter light reframe the city after dark, this is a day about choosing attention over urgency. Nothing here asks you to
Kicking off 2026 with curiosity, conversation, and a clear-eyed look at where beer is headed — the Grit & Grain crew alongside fermentation expert and educator Shanleigh Thomson, talking what we drink, when we drink it, and why place still matters. Mashing-In News: Grit & Grain with Shanleigh Thomson, Garden Path Sues GOOD MORNING, SOUTH PUGET SOUND! Friday, Jan. 8, 2026 — Jimmy Page turns 82 today Today’s craft beer news surveys an industry in transition, from big questions about beer’s future and who gets to tell its story, to legal battles over transparency, consolidation reshaping
Toffee didn’t begin as candy so much as an act of controlled recklessness — sugar pushed past politeness, butter browned into something darker, heat trusted to do the slow, irreversible work of transformation. Long before it was wrapped in wax paper, toffee was about nerve and patience, about flirting with bitterness until balance finally clicked. Beer learned this lesson early. When malt is boiled long, when sugars caramelize instead of sprinting, when time is treated as an ingredient rather than an inconvenience, toffee simply appears — not added, not announced, just there. It lives quietly inside old ales, Scotch ales,
Sustainability, but make it drinkable. The Daily Outside: Green Drinks, Environmental Services Thursday, January 8 Today’s Daily Outside lives in the in-between spaces — the rooms where conversations turn into decisions, where listening counts as participation, and where the systems beneath our feet quietly reveal themselves. This is a day for connecting people to policy, curiosity to action, and future planning to present reality, all without needing a shovel, a helmet, or a heroic backstory. Pick one, or let the mix remind you that caring for where you live shows up in more ways than one.
Merchant du Vin exists because Charles Finkel — alongside his late wife, Rose Ann — trusted American drinkers with something deeper. Founded in 1978, long before imported beer was fashionable or even widely understood, Merchant du Vin became a quiet act of cultural translation, carrying centuries-old European brewing traditions across the Atlantic with care, patience, and conviction. Charles may have been the public evangelist, but Rose Ann was the backbone and co-architect of the vision, shaping relationships, logistics, and trust with the same steady hand that defined the company’s soul. Together, they believed that beer could be more than refreshment
Today’s Tacoma History Walking Tour may encounter fewer downtown shoppers and fewer cars than in the 1950s — thanks to the Tacoma Mall. Photo courtesy of Richards Studio Photographic Slides (D75923-4), Northwest Room at Tacoma Public Library The Daily Outside: Trail Babies, Tacoma History Walking Tours Jan. 7 Wednesday’s Daily Outside moves at a human pace — from tiny first steps in Point Defiance to long, story-rich sidewalks downtown, with future planning and evening wandering layered gently in between. This is a day about learning how to be outside at every scale: caring for small people,
Awards don’t make a stout great, but great stouts do have a way of quietly accumulating hardware. This Peaks & Pints Award-Winning Stout Flight moves with intention, a steady progression from everyday excellence into barrel-aged depth, guided by balance, patience, and craft that keeps earning its way onto podiums. These aren’t novelty dark beers chasing sugar spikes or shock value; they’re stouts that win the long game, built with restraint, structure, and flavors that know exactly when to lean in and when to step back. From approachable classics you could happily revisit all night to rye- and bourbon-barrel gravity meant
A regular day at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, upgraded with a side quest. Smith Treasure Hunt Tuesday turns skiing and riding into a game of observation, curiosity, and just enough mystery to keep you looking twice. Photo courtesy of Crystal Mountain Ski Resort The Daily Outside: Smith Goggles, Native Plants … Tuesday, Jan. 6 Some days stretch from mountain side quests to quiet, close-to-home care — today’s Daily Outside does both. It gracefully holds Crystal Mountain and Tacoma sidewalks in the same frame, which is exactly what this list is doing. Adventure & On-Mountain Play Crystal
#PubJanuary asks drinkers to show up for local breweries when winter is toughest, spotlighting taprooms as community hubs with food, events, and NA options. Mashing-In News: #PubJanuary, Flannel Fest GOOD MORNING, SOUTH PUGET SOUND! Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026 — Kate McKinnon turns 42 today! Tuesday’s craft beer news swings from community-minded winter survival mode (#PubJanuary and flannel-and-charity season) to deep-style nerdery and big-ticket spectacle, with American bock history, Utopias’ barrel-aged bravado, and a fresh wave of genuinely good non-alcoholic beers rounding out the mix. #PubJanuary Urges Drinkers to Support Local Breweries Through Winter The #PubJanuary campaign
Winter is when pears finally stop apologizing for being subtle. Apples can shout all year if they want, but pears prefer the cold — ripening slowly, holding sweetness in reserve, letting texture and perfume do the real work. In winter, pear becomes less about juice and more about presence: grainy flesh, floral lift, a softness that feels earned instead of rushed. It doesn’t resist the season; it settles into it, growing calmer, quieter, and more compelling as the light fades. Pear ciders follow that same temperament. They move differently than apple-forward pours — rounder at the edges, gentler on the
The Proctor Farmers Market proves winter doesn’t cancel community, serving up storage crops, warm pastries, local meats, and neighborly conversation in its cozy cold-weather form. 6-Pack of Things To Do in Tacoma: January 5–11 January in Tacoma doesn’t hibernate so much as recalibrate — lowering the volume, sharpening the light, and daring you to notice what still glows once the glitter packs up. This is a week of bird counts and bike lights, beer science and civic listening, earnest cartoons and cold-weather carrots — proof that winter isn’t a pause button so much as a tuning
Peaks & Pints house cider Finnriver Buckhorn Dry — crisp orchard apples, a clean Northwest snap, and just enough wild edge to feel like the breeze coming off Buckhorn Mountain on a clear day. A daily guide to caring for, learning about, and enjoying the outdoors right where we live The Daily Outside began as a simple question, the kind that sneaks up on you while tying your boots or staring out a rain-streaked window: what if being outside didn’t have to mean going far, buying more gear, or pretending you’re someone who owns a roof
Join knowledgeable volunteers at Tahoma Bird Alliance to practice backyard bird identification today. Start the week close to home with a couple of simple ways to learn, care for, and enjoy the outdoors right where you live. … Monday, January 5, 2026 Birds & Backyard Skills Tahoma Bird Alliance — FeederWatch at the Tahoma Bird Alliance Office Monday, Jan. 5, 2–3 p.m., University Place This is a warm, indoor way to sharpen your outdoor awareness. Join knowledgeable volunteers at Tahoma Bird Alliance to practice backyard bird identification, compare notes with other birders, and contribute real data
More than 29 Oregon breweries, taprooms, bottleshops, and cideries closed in 2025, including Rogue Ales. Mashing-In News: Steve Allen Dies, 2025 in Oregon Beer GOOD MORNING, SOUTH PUGET SOUND! Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 — Robert Duvall turns 95 today! Monday’s craft beer news lands at the crossroads of reflection and resolve, pairing hard-earned lessons from Oregon’s recalibrating beer scene and the passing of a true coastal pioneer with forward-looking conversations about sustainability, supply shifts, community-building, and what it will actually take to thrive in 2026—less about chasing trends, more about proving value, deepening roots, and adapting
When the beer’s 20% ABV, the die is d20, and the hat knows spells. Fancy Pants Sunday: Dragon’s Milk x Dungeons & Dragons — D20 Brew: Silver Edition Welcome to Fancy Pants Sunday, Peaks & Pints’ weekly celebration of beers that arrive not with a pop-top, but with a prophecy. This week’s exalted elixir is Dragon’s Milk x Dungeons & Dragons: D20 Brew – Silver Edition, a 20% ABV imperial stout aged in double bourbon barrels and infused with real-world vanilla beans and fantasy-world grandeur. Brewed by New Holland Brewing in partnership with the tabletop titans
Color arrives first — neon, tropical, unapologetic — splashed across labels, glowing in the glass, embedded in the way Tripping Animals Brewing treats beer less like a rulebook exercise and more like a living art project. Founded in 2018 by four longtime friends — Daniel Chocron, Ignacio Montenegro, Iker Elorriaga, and Juan-Manuel Torres — the brewery carried its creative spark from Caracas to South Florida, landing in Doral with Miami’s sun-soaked surrealism fully intact. From the start, fruit, hops, and imagination were encouraged to roam freely, but never without intention. These beers feel alive, saturated with purpose, equally comfortable being
Vanilla is one of those quiet miracles we forget we’re obsessed with. It began life as an orchid — fragile, temperamental, absurdly labor-intensive — cultivated by the Totonac people of Mexico, traded like contraband treasure, fought over by empires, then slowly absorbed into the global bloodstream until it became shorthand for “plain,” a grave misunderstanding vanilla has endured with monk-like patience. Real vanilla is anything but boring: floral and resinous, creamy with a faint smokiness, capable of rounding sharp corners and deepening shadows. It’s less a flavor than a feeling, the aroma of warmth, memory, and dessert plates scraped clean.
Friday’s new beer six-pack includes foggy farmhouse whispers, winter-dark comfort, and hop-bright sparks all sharing the same breath. The calendar flips, the light shifts, and this New Beer Six-Pack slips in like a bracing January inhale — foggy edges, crisp turns, hop-bright sparks — proof that fresh starts taste better when they wander a little and refuse to stay tidy. COLDFIRE BREWING ELISABETH: Citrus peel and gentle oak glide through this barrel-kissed farmhouse blend, winey and sunlit, unfolding with quiet grace as ColdFire Brewing lets complexity whisper instead of shout, 5.5%, 16oz. HETTY ALICE BEER FREEZING
Abomination Brewing has never been interested in subtlety, and that’s precisely the point. Founded in 2017 by homebrewing friends Joe Feldman and Josh Arno, Abomination emerged from Connecticut’s brewing shadows with a mission that felt part mad science, part sugar-fueled prophecy: take indulgence seriously and push it until it glows. What began as a nomadic, Kickstarter-born experiment quickly became a calling card for plush hazy IPAs, milkshake excess, and pastry stouts that flirt shamelessly with dessert while still remembering they’re beer. Abomination’s real expertise lives in that narrow, dangerous lane where overload becomes art, where hops, lactose, spice, and roast
New Year’s Day doesn’t ask for fireworks or bravado; it asks for water, light, and something that understands the power of speaking softly. The Peaks & Pints Clean Slate Flight is a quiet recalibration, a long exhale after the long night, built around beers that prize precision over spectacle and refreshment over flexing. These are clear-headed pours for foggy mornings — lagers and saisons that rinse the static away, hops that snap instead of shout, yeast that hums rather than howls. Picture open windows, a clean notebook, steady footing. Starting fresh doesn’t require reinvention, just attention. Five beers, no clutter,
Let’s not pretend 2025 behaved itself. This was a year that pinballed between triumph and faceplant, between communal joy and late-night doomscrolling, between “we’re so back” and a long, exhausted sigh. Rather than file a complaint with the universe or scrawl a manifesto on a cocktail napkin, Peaks & Pints suggests the older, sturdier solution: hops, turned up, administered with intention. Before we shut the doors and let the glitter finally settle, we revive a favorite end-of-year ritual with a lineup of unapologetically boozy IPAs, each one built to warm, steady, and carry us across the threshold. This all-day-until-we-close-at-9 p.m.
Prairie Artisan Ales didn’t arrive quietly. It burst out of Krebs, Oklahoma in the early 2010s like a neon flare fired into a sky no one thought to watch, gleefully proving that globally relevant, boundary-pushing beer could come from a place most people only knew by highway sign. From the outset, Prairie fused maximalist flavor with unmistakable visual swagger — bottles that looked like underground gig posters, beers brewed as if someone turned the saturation knob past “reasonable” and shrugged. Imperial stouts thick with dessert gravity, sours splashed with fruit and attitude, everything unapologetically vivid and engineered to linger in
Some Mondays call for fireworks; this one asks you to lower your voice and lean in. The Peaks & Pints Monday Cider With Restraint Flight is built around the idea that cider, at its most compelling, doesn’t need sugar or spectacle to make a point. These are structure-first pours — dry apples, serious pears, living wild ferments, oak used with a light hand, and one old-world curveball that quietly rearranges expectations — chosen not to impress quickly, but to reward attention. This is cider that behaves more like good wine or a thoughtful saison: tannin doing the scaffolding, acid keeping
National Box of Chocolates Day lands exactly where it should — December 28, the holiday’s soft landing, when the calendar loosens its grip and indulgence no longer needs a reason or a ribbon. The frenzy has passed. The house is quieter. Somewhere, one last unmarked piece sits in the box, quietly daring you. That’s the spirit guiding this flight: curiosity without obligation, comfort without ceremony, discovery without pressure. Creams, caramels, ganache, dark bars, and the mysterious final bite translated into beer logic instead of candy gimmicks — texture over tricks, patience over punchlines. Each pour behaves like a chocolate from
Caught in that soft, lawless stretch between Christmas indulgence and New Year’s resolution — when calendars lose authority and leftovers feel like a long-term plan — Peaks & Pints’ Saturday Smoothie Sour Flight happily abandons restraint. This is the week when spoons become acceptable beer accessories, balance is a theoretical concept, and nobody is pretending dessert needs permission. These pours are thick, fruit-loaded, pastry-adjacent marvels built for afternoons that drift into evenings, where sweetness shows up early and lingers with confidence. Call it technicolor nostalgia, blender bravado, and just enough sour snap to keep one foot in beer reality. Lean
Boxing Day has never really been about boxes so much as it’s been about the exhale. Born in the long shadow of Christmas across Britain, Ireland, and the old Commonwealth, it was the day when servants finally rested, tradespeople opened their literal “Christmas boxes” of tips and thanks, churches redistributed alms, and households loosened their grip on ceremony. The feast was finished. The guests had drifted off. The fire still glowed. Boxing Day belonged to the people who made everything work in the first place — generosity after spectacle, reflection after excess, the quiet recalibration that follows a day spent
The Winter Light Deficit has reached critical levels in Proctor. Dark afternoons. Flat rooms. December doing what December does. Directive: Proceed to Marcus Harper GlassWorks in the former True Muse space and secure one of his blue glass snowflakes — hand-blown shards of winter light made from fire in Brown’s Point, designed to catch what little daylight we have left and give it back better. These are not just ornaments.They are mood stabilization devices. 🚨 HOLIDAY GIFT EMERGENCY NO. 12: THE WINTER LIGHT DEFICIT Status: Shimmering and acuteLocation: Marcus Harper GlassWorks — Proctor
Back in 2012, somewhere between prairie wind and gloriously questionable ideas, Chase Healey cracked open Prairie Artisan Ales in Krebs, Oklahoma — a town already steeped in beer folklore thanks to the stubborn, century-old keepers of Choc Beer. Prairie arrived loud and fearless, part mad-scientist workshop, part pop-art fever dream. Chase handled the liquid alchemy while his brother Colin detonated color across labels like a Saturday-morning cartoon that had discovered Belgian yeast and existentialism. Prairie Bomb landed like a velvet hammer — stuffed with adjuncts and audacity — helping shove American craft beer toward bigger, darker, stranger territory with a
Alpenfire Cider has never behaved like a brand chasing trends; it moves more like a quiet, stubborn philosophy rooted in Port Townsend soil, rain-shadow light, and the conviction that fruit, time, and patience are already compelling enough. Built on estate-grown apples, pears, and berries, Alpenfire leans toward the feral side of elegance — wild ferments, thoughtful barrel work, and an unwillingness to sand down the edges that make cider feel alive. These bottles don’t shout for attention; they hum, crackle, breathe. Each one feels discovered rather than designed, like something you found while wandering an orchard at dusk and wisely
A Barleywine Carol returns to Peaks & Pints on Christmas Eve as a daylight celebration of one of beer’s most patient, generous, and misunderstood styles. This special midday mini-festival leans into Fezziwig joy rather than midnight hauntings, offering a warm, communal send-off to the year before we close for the holiday. On Christmas Eve, the beer lodge remembers. Not politely. Not quietly. Not with folded programs and respectful murmurs. It remembers the way barleywine remembers — slowly, warmly, with oak in its breath and time clinging to its sleeves. The kind of remembering that arrives unannounced,
Peaks & Pints Evergreen Winter Flight doesn’t huddle around the fire or lean into the dark; it steps outside, zips the jacket, and breathes deep. This is Pacific Northwest winter clarity — air that sharpens instead of softens, clear lines instead of blur, resin underfoot instead of cocoa on the tongue. While solstice season elsewhere tilts toward stout gravity and sugar-laced comfort, this flight looks outward to cedar forests, frost-bitten trails, and that bracing pleasure of citrus peel flashing in low winter sun. No roast. Only one hoppy, piney haze. No sweetness doing the heavy lifting. Call it winter, but
A Botanical Overload Event has been detected in Proctor. Seasonal burnout. Hollow gifting. A craving for something that actually smells like meaning.Directive: Proceed to Hawthorn & Honey and stand before their wall of herbs — jar after jar of roots, flowers, leaves, bark, citrus peel, and winter botanicals, many shared with the brewing world. Hawthorn & Honey offers gifts that feel intentional, aromatic, and quietly powerful. 🚨 HOLIDAY GIFT EMERGENCY NO. 11: THE BOTANICAL OVERLOAD EVENT Status: Aromatic and escalatingLocation: Hawthorn & Honey — Proctor DistrictThreat Level: Spice-scented wonder with side effects
Fresh cans. Fresh pours. Winter-approved moods. Peaks & Pints New Beer Six-Pack 12.20.25 Today’s New Beer Six-Pack roams freely across winter moods and hop terrain — velvet-dark indulgence brushing up against forest-bright bitterness and playful, fruit-fueled detours — proof that the best drinking days refuse to stay in one lane. BROTHERS CASCADIA BREWING SLEIGH TIPPER: Roasted cocoa, vanilla glow, and holiday spice pile deep in this imperial stout from Brothers Cascadia Brewing, a rich, reckless sleigh ride meant for long nights and slower decisions, 10%, 16oz. DUCHESS ALES CLAVIS 12 CZECH AMBER LAGER: Duchess Ales delivers
Before you even touch a flight taster glass, the story starts down the street at the Blue Mouse Theatre, where Avatar: Fire & Ash flickers to life in saturated color and elemental myth — a world shaped by flame, residue, rebirth, radiance, and the fragile art of balance. This chapter leans darker and hotter, lingering on what survives combustion and what insists on returning anyway, the way fire both erases and clarifies. It’s the kind of film that clings to you on the walk home — smoke-lit skies, glowing embers, moments of sudden stillness — the cinematic equivalent of standing
Friday’s lineup leans into contrast and comfort — dessert-dark stouts built for long winter nights, bright Northwest hops flashing clean through the cold, and just enough balance to keep every sip interesting. Peaks & Pints New Beer Six-Pack 12.19.25 Friday’s New Beer Six-Pack swings wide and lands confidently — dessert-dark stouts brooding in winter’s glow, bright Northwest hops cutting clean arcs through the cold, all of it stitched together by balance, bravado, and the pleasure of letting contrast do the talking. BELCHING BEAVER VIVA LA CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER STOUT: A creamy reverie of peanut butter cups,
