Beer Line Blog

Craft Beer Crosscut 11.13.17: A Flight of Music-Themed Beers

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You know what would go great with your craft beer? Some music. Few things go together like drinking craft beer and listening to music. It’s a combination so universal, it’s no wonder why brewers like to have their beverages associated with their customers’ favorite bands and artists. Some have even brewed beers with the style and artistry of these musicians in mind. In fact, Felipe Reinoso Carvalho, Ph. D., a researcher in Brussels who found you can enhance the flavor perception of your favorite brew by listening to the right jams. You’re constantly surrounded by sensory stimuli, like sound, sensation, scent,

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.12.17: A Flight of Strata and Vic Secret

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Childhood friends Jim Solberg and Roger Worthington reunited in 2008 to create Indie Hops and reboot Oregon State University’s hop-breeding program with a huge donation. They were determined to do something new and enlisted Shaun Townsend, a PhD in breeding and genetics, to lead the effort. They gave him the mandate of breeding a hop that could flourish in the Willamette Valley, produce a hop with associated with mango, oranges and other fruits and herbs. Eventually X-331 emerged, which was later named Strata. Vic Secret’s hop story began in 2000 when it was developed from a seedling created in the

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TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, NOV. 11 2017: Veterans Day and Denizens of the Dark

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TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, NOV. 11 2017: Veterans Day and Denizens of the Dark PREFUNK: Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans and current troops serving in our military. Our freedoms, our heritage and the way of life we enjoy today are made possible because of you. As a thank you Peaks and Pints will offer $1 off all pints to veterans and active military, all day! Peaks and Pints also has a Proctor Business District “Start Your Giving Early” veterans giving tree in our little lodge. Charitable souls can pick up ornaments from the tree and make less fortunate veterans’

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.11.17: A Flight of Sour Power

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Sours get their trademark tartness and sourness from bacteria and wild yeasts — Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, Brettanomyces and other critters — which you wouldn’t find in other styles of beer. Each type of bacteria gives its own trademark flavor and aroma: Lactobacillus has a yogurt tang, Acetobacter has the sourness of vinegar, and Brettanomyces has a barnyard, earthy, or farmhouse aroma. For some of the sour styles, the wild bacteria and yeast come into the beer during an open or spontaneous fermentation, with open vats of wort exposed to the natural air. Other sour styles don’t use open fermentation, but they

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.10.17: A Flight of Vanilla Cupcake Day

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Nov. 10 has been designated Vanilla Cupcake Day by someone. Nobody knows exactly who, and who cares? The real question is why it’s not a national holiday. According to NationalDayCalendar.com, cupcakes can be traced back to 1796, when there was a recipe for “a cake to be baked in small cups” in American Cookery by Amelia, Simmons, a great woman. They were originally baked in heavy pottery cups — sounds like a messy cleanup. The paper cups are less fussy. Vanilla beans, like coffee and chocolate, only proliferate naturally in tropical latitudes, and, like wine grapes, the various strains reflect the qualities

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TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, NOV. 9 2017: Matchless-Chainline Japanese lager release party and more

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TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, NOV. 9 2017: Matchless-Chainline Japanese lager release party and more PREFUNK: Matchless Brewing Co. head brewer Pat Jansen and Chainline Brewing head brewer Aaron Blonden where hanging out chatting up Japanese lagers when it donned on the two that maybe they should collaborate on said style. It’s Aké was born. Their take has pearled white saké rice and a restrained use of Czech Saaz hops for a delicate, floral and dry craft take on the lager style. This all leads to a body reminiscent of the soft notes found in traditional saké along with a finish that

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.9.17: A Flight of Session Beer

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What is a session beer? Well, it depends on whom you ask. The term’s precise origins and coinage are fuzzy. Beer experts can’t seem to agree on a specific year, for instance, but consistently point to British pub culture as its inspiration. It’s generally agreed upon, however, that any brew bearing the description should be low in alcohol but tasty enough to enjoy for a prolonged period of time, or “session.” The ABV issue is a bone of contention throughout the sessionsphere. The general consensus is no higher than 5 percent ABV, featuring a balance between malt and hop characters

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TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 2017: Climb For Clean Air and Snacks For Schools

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TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 2017: Climb For Clean Air and Snacks For Schools PREFUNK: Lung cancer sucks. It’s the number one leading cause of cancer death for men and women in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. More than 100,000 people are diagnosed every year, more than two-thirds of who have never smoked. In the past 37 years, the lung cancer rate has risen 98 percent among women, and fallen 28 percent among men. ALA’s Climb for Clean Air trains everyday people to summit a mountain and then leads them on an expert-guided climb to raise

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Beer Flight of Mystery 11.8.17

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Beer Flight of Mystery 11.8.17: Peaks and Pints presents a flight of five craft beers, but you won’t know what they are. We choose, and you guess the five beers. Write number “1” in the box next to the beer you think is the first beer in the flight and so on. Use your taste buds to match the mystery beers with this beer list. Isn’t that incredibly fun?! Guess all five and win a prize! OREGONIZED LOVE Riverbend Brewing: IPA with flavors of fresh cut pine, flowers and mild crispy pale malt 6.5% ABV, 65 IBU HARVEST ALE Founders

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.7.17: A Flight of Dark Times

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Do you need a craft beer to match your feelings about the aftermath of a swarm of uncontrolled megafires? What would you like to drink will pondering an unprecedented machine-gun blast of devastating hurricanes, one after another? Is there a craft beer that reminds you of the biblical-scale flooding we have seen this year? Wackos with machine guns? Science-denying governors? Yeah, probably not. We do live in a time of surreal madness and thrumming dread. And, certainly breweries don’t brew beers to celebrate death and greed and sorrow and murder. But, all the evil cranked to 11 is on Peaks

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.5.17: A Flight of Citrus and Tropical Hops

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Yesterday, Peaks and Pints had citrus on the brain. It brought back memories of our incredible warm past summer. Geez, we miss the warmth. All we can think of now is a striped tote bag, our faces slathered with SPF 90, flip flops and a cooler full of tropical and citrus craft beers. We could grab a plane ticket to paradise and stuff our suitcase with craft beer made with hops having flavors and aromas ripped from a fruit bowl, including Motueka (lemon, lime, tropical)), Citra (papaya, mango), Cascade (grapefruit), Mosaic (berries), El Dorado (watermelon, pears), Amarillo (orange), Galaxy (peach,

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TACOMA PREFUNK SUNDAY, NOV. 5 2017: Three Magnets Deuce Juice and Dia de los Muertos

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TACOMA PREFUNK SUNDAY, NOV. 5 2017: Three Magnets Deuce Juice and Dia de los Muertos PREFUNK: Clint Dempsey isn’t your typical soccer player who hits the tanning salon in between games. Once he’s off the pitch Dempsey transforms into rapper “Deuce” and goes back to the hood and spits fire flame bars in the streets, yo. Three Magnets Brewing Co. isn’t your typical brewery. The award-winning Olympia brewery drops everything when a soccer game hits its big screen. It makes complete sense Three Mags brewed a beer to honor the reigning superstar of soccer, Deuce. Three Magnets recently brewed Deuce

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TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, NOV. 4 2017: Task Force Red Leader Celtic Ale and Swindler

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Hi, Swindler TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, NOV. 4 2017: Task Force Red Leader Celtic Ale and Swindler PREFUNK: There is nothing better than kicking back on a Saturday afternoon with sandwiches, swapping war stories with friend, and knocking back a couple craft brews. But what if, when you separated from the military, you could make beer for a living? Jon Alexander and Colin Miller did. Thirty years ago, the duo brainstormed a craft beer brewery while serving with the 2nd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). The idea of starting a brewery after they were done

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.4.17: A Flight of Citrus

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Citrus is synonymous with refreshment, and it’s never been easier to find creative craft beers that incorporate actual citrus. The usual suspects — lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit — and more exotic ones — blood oranges, yuzu and beyond — are finding their way into craft beer with admirable regularity and equally admirable results. Brewers pack juicy fruit notes into their beers with the right hops. Cascade hops, of course, are redolent of grapefruit pith, and stylish Citra hops live up to their tangy namesake. But, that’s not the only way to get that orange and grapefruit infusion, obviously. Increasingly,

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TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, NOV. 3 2017: World Sandwich Day and Improvised Shakespeare Company

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TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, NOV. 3 2017: World Sandwich Day and Improvised Shakespeare Company PREFUNK: There is literally a food-related holiday pretty much every day of the year. You know this as you follow along with our daily Craft Beer Crosscut beer flights. Every month (and many weeks) seem to honor some type of food as well. Nothing is neglected: Artichoke hearts? That’s March 16 of course. Quiche Lorraine Day? May 20. The third week of October is National Kraut Sandwich Week (what does that even mean?). And November alone is Good Nutrition, Peanut Butter Lovers’, Pecan, Pepper, Raisin Bread and

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.3.17: A Flight of Vanilla Bean

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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

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Hiking: The Paradise Glacier Loop

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Seeker Vulture skirts a crevasse on the Paradise Glacier. Hiking: The Paradise Glacier Loop Peaks and Pints receives after-action reports from Them Vultures with photographs of trail scenery and, of course, a Peaks and Pints shirt-wearing shot. Seeker Vulture and Chatter Vulture of Them Vultures have submitted a report on what they call “The Paradise Glacier Loop.” Oct. 28, the two Vultures pushed off from the Mount Rainier Paradise Inn parking lot headed on the lower portion of The Skyline Trail to Mazama Ridge.  Heading north, they hiked the Paradise Glacier Trail (more or less, since a lot of it

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Craft Beer Crosscut 11.1.17: A Flight of Peaks and Pints

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Peaks and Pints has hosted 291 different daily craft beer and cider flights since we opened on this date in history in 2016. That’s 260 more than the number of glassware we broke. The number of times our electronic menu screens malfunctioned is 280 times less than the number of flights we served. The Grit City Sirens burlesque troupe has performed in our bottle shop 289 days less than the magic flight number. Our chalk “A” frame sign sat outside overnight 283 less days. A helium balloon as been trapped on our ceiling 256 less days. But, Peaks and Pints

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Hiking: Camp Muir

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Dawn breaking on Tahoma Hiking: Camp Muir Chatter Vulture, he of the hiking and craft beer drinking group Them Vultures, enjoyed a solo trip to Camp Muir last month. He was the first person on Tahoma that morning. “I had the whole damn mountain to myself until about half an hour into the descent,” says Chatter. Chatter made the ascent from parking 5,400 feet to 10,188 feet in four hours and 45 minutes, knocking off two hours on the way down. “A beautiful day, but wind gusts up to around 25 knots were, in a word, tiring,” reports Chatter. “I typically

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TACOMA PREFUNK HALLOWEEN, OCT. 31 2017: Green Flash Treasure Chest and The Battle of the Sexes

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TACOMA PREFUNK HALLOWEEN, OCT. 31 2017: Green Flash Treasure Chest and The Battle of the Sexes PREFUNK: In 2011, Green Flash Brewing Company launched the Treasure Chest program, an annual breast cancer fundraiser for Prevent Cancer Foundation nationally, and the Susan G Komen affiliates in their brewing cities of San Diego and Virginia Beach. This is the craft brewery’s 7th annual beer release and special event series to raise funds for breast cancer charities. This year, the new Treasure Chest beer released for the program is an IPA brewed with passion fruit, and it will be available on-draft in 37

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.31.17: A Flight of Dankenstein

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With help from Green Flash Brewing Co. and its sister brewery, Alpine Beer Co., Dr. Hoppy Dankenstein has isolated himself from his family, friends and colleagues. Unknown to them, what Dr. Dankenstein intends to host with Green Flash and Alpine is a night of the stickiest of the icky, the dankest of the dank, the bombest of the bomb-diggity. Dankenstein scoured the two southern California brewery’s cold storage for the most face-meltingly awesome hoppy beers, with the goal of showcasing eight of them at Peaks and Pints Halloween night. We chose five of them for today’s beer flight Craft Beer

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TACOMA PREFUNK MONDAY, OCT. 30 2017: Stone Mocha IPA and Tom Cruise

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TACOMA PREFUNK MONDAY, OCT. 30 2017: Stone Mocha IPA and Tom Cruise PREFUNK: Stone Brewing, once again, resist status quo and offers a 9 percent double IPA brewed — inexplicably — with cocoa, milk sugar and coffee. Stone Mocha IPA blurs the lines between an IPA and a stout. Technically an all-out double IPA, this decadent creation is brewed with the combination of golden-roasted coffee, pure dark chocolate and citrusy hops. The result is a love child of a beer characterized by a beautiful meld of imperial IPA and mocha indulgence. Mocha IPA pours from Peaks and Pints’ Western red

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Craft Cider Crosscut 10.30.17: A Flight of West Coast Cider

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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.

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.29.17: A Flight of Oats

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One of America’s favorite breakfast foods is celebrated each year on Oct. 29, National Oatmeal Day.  There are many health benefits to eating oatmeal: a bowl of oatmeal daily can lower cholesterol; may reduce the risk of heart disease; may reduce your risk for cancer (according to the American Cancer Society, eating a diet high in fiber may help reduce your risk for cancer); low in fat; low in calories; good source iron and fiber. Back in the day, most of the oatmeal recipes began with steel cut oats. The oats were soaked overnight in cold water, salt and maple

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Peaks and Pints Hop Roast Coffee Beer Festival

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Peaks and Pints Hop Roast Coffee Beer Festival “Tamocha?” asked the U.S. Census Bureau. “No, Tacoma,” Peaks and Pints replied. “Tamocha? The U.S. Census Bureau asked again. “No, Ta-co-ma,” we annunciated. “Tamocha?” again, the Bureau asked. “Yes, Tamocha. Peaks and Pints is located in Tamocha, Washington,” we reluctantly agreed. That phone conversation confirmed we needed to host a craft coffee beer festival. Peaks and Pints will celebrate the unification of coffee and beer when we present our Hop Roast Coffee Beer Festival today from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at our little lodge in Tacoma’s Proctor District. The following craft

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TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, OCT. 27 2017: Ommegang Winter is Here and Tinder Live

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TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, OCT. 27 2017: Ommegang Winter is Here and Tinder Live PREFUNK: Winter has come to Westeros, and everybody is feeling the chill. Brewery Ommegang, the company that’s long worked with HBO to put out Game of Thrones-themed beers, is recognizing that fact with another libation in Peaks and Pints’ cooler: Winter is Here, a Belgian-style double white ale, brewed with pilsner malt, white wheat malt, and soft red wheat flakes, hopped with Saaz hops, and spiced with white pepper, sea salt, coriander and sweet orange peel. 7:30 P.M. TINDER LIVE: Lane More walked into the kitchen of her

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.27.17: A Flight of Chocolate Malt

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Chocolate malt is used primarily for its potent flavor and color property, which can make an impact on a beer even in small quantities. Though it can provide sugar for fermentation, that quality is less important than what they can do to the flavor and aroma of the final beer. Chocolate malt is made by gently roasting kilned malt to brown it. This creates a deep, roasty and bitter flavor that is often compared to — you guessed it — chocolate, although it has the lightest flavor and aroma profile compared with black malt and roasted barley. What it lacks

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TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, OCT. 26 2017: Stone Enjoy By 10.31.17 and UFOs

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TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, OCT. 26 2017: Stone Enjoy By 10.31.17 and UFOs PREFUNK: Founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, Stone Brewing has come a long way since opening up in San Diego, California in 1996. The ninth-largest craft brewery in the U.S. has been dubbed “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice. Stone launched its Enjoy By series in 2012, releasing IPAs brewed specifically NOT to last — meaning drink up the freshness before the expiration date. Enjoy By 10.31.17 starts hoppy and tropical thanks to — Simcoe, Citra, Nugget, Super Galena, Delta, Target, Amarillo, Cascade,

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.26.17: A Flight of Estate Breweries

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The wine industry is fond of speaking about the individual flavor characteristics that it takes from its environment. This terroir is present in all growing things that are tended with passion and care. The environment that builds flavor is more than simply the soil or the climate: it is also the passion and commitment of the grower. Craft beer believes in the same values. The “estate” brewery concept stems from European origin, in which beer was brewed at individual farmhouses with ingredients grown onsite and fermented with naturally occurring, airborne yeast. Many modern-day breweries are making an effort to return

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TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25 2017: Deschutes Black Butte Porter Nitro and East Bay punk flick

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TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25 2017: Deschutes Black Butte Porter Nitro and East Bay punk flick PREFUNK: Deschutes Brewery named its first beer and flagship brand porter after a stratovolcano in the Deschutes National Forest near its brewery in Bend, Oregon. On the nose Black Butte Porter bears a hint of nuttiness, followed by the unmistakable smells of rich yet soft milk chocolate. Black Butte is slightly bitter in the first sip, but mellows out with a chocolate and roasted finish. As creamy and chocolaty as it is it’s even more creamy on nitro, which it is today at Peaks

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TACOMA PREFUNK OCT. 24 2017: Feed253 and the typewriter

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TACOMA PREFUNK OCT. 24 2017: Feed253 and the typewriter PREFUNK: Feed253 is awesome. The organization strives to end hunger in Tacoma with concentrated efforts to gather non-perishable food through varies channels, including Peaks and Pints. From 6-10 p.m., Feed253 will hang at the Proctor District’s house of craft beer and cider hosting a food drive with 7 Seas Brewing fueling the awesomeness. Drop by with non-perishable food, enjoy 7 Seas craft beer and maybe win two tickets to see Tinder Live with Lane Moore: Halloween Edition Oct. 27 at the Broadway Center’s Pantages Theater. Del Brown and Najamoniq Todd, longtime

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.24.17: A Flight of Happiness

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Happiness knows no particular order, and neither does Peaks and Pints Craft Beer Crosscut 10.24.17: A Flight of Happiness. Anderson Valley Summer Solstice 5% ABV, 6 IBU Thanks to summer’s stronger sunlight and the extra hours in the day to soak it up, you’re more likely to float through the day feeling energized and optimistic. It has to do with serotonin, a hormone that’s been dubbed the “happiness hormone” by scientists. According to Peaks and Pints, Anderson Valley Summer Solstice is dubbed the “happiness ale.” Anderson Valley makes one of the only cream ales that is also a summer seasonal.

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.23.17: A Flight of Boston Cream Pie

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Today is National Boston Cream Pie Day. For those who’ve never had it, Boston Cream Pie is actually two layers of a spongy vanilla cake sandwiching one layer of vanilla pastry cream and topped off with a puddle of chocolate glaze. Why is this cake called a pie? According to urban legend, New England kitchens were more likely to have pie tins than cake pans in the 1855, when a “Pudding Pie Cake” recipe appeared in the New York Herald. In 1856, “Pudding Pie Cake” was put on the menu at the restaurant in the Parker House Hotel (now the

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.22.17: A Flight of Spooky

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Halloween is creeping around the corner like a Commerce Street guttersnipe in search of a bag of cans. Spooky, eh? It’s said there’s nothing new under the sun, and that timeworn chestnut proves particularly true each and every Halloween. For instance, if you under the delusion that you’ll be the only Trump out and about on All Hallows’ Eve, think again. While it’s bad enough that everyone and their mother dresses like a pirate, ninja or zombie during this time of year, copycat costumes tend to be in abundance during All Hallows’ Eve. In other words, we’re expecting to see

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Hiking: Mowich Lake to Dry Creek

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Chatter Vulture takes a breather above St. Andrews Lake Hiking: Mowich Lake to Dry Creek Them Vultures, a group of hiking buddies, are motivated by beer. OK, that’s not fair. The gentlemen are avid hikers who happen to wear Peaks and Pints shirts and drink beer once they loosen the laces at the predetermined peak — and then again at Peaks and Pints on the way home. Peaks and Pints receives after-action reports from Them Vultures with photographs of trail scenery and, of course, a Peaks and Pints shirt-wearing shot. Chatter Vulture of Them Vultures has

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TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, OCT. 21 2017: Matchless Lovely Medusa and Gaytron the Imploder

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TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, OCT. 21 2017: Matchless Lovely Medusa and Gaytron the Imploder PREFUNK: Those fun-loving cats at Matchless Brewing Co. in Tumwater have brewed another lovely new craft beer called Lovely Medusa. The double IPA doesn’t have anything to do with the Greek mythology monster but rather Medusa hops, which delivers strong flavor and aroma characteristics of intense guava, melon, apricot and citrus fruit. Matchless brewers add Simcoe and Amarillo hops and a fairly pale malt bill to the beer for tons of peach and stone fruit character with a nice dankness in the background. It’s freakin’ delicious and

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.21.17: A Flight of Halloween

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Peaks and Pints Weather Guy continued to assert this morning that the French maid outfit he was discovered wearing at Peaks and Pints Friday was “absolutely nothing more than a Halloween costume. … I speak for all South Sound residents when I say one of the biggest threats to our quality of life is purchasing a costume, only to discover on Halloween night that the darn thing doesn’t fit,” the meteorologist said. “As for the accusations that I was waving a feather duster in the air with youthful insouciance while I danced around the room in a paroxysm of erotic

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.20.17: A Flight of East Kent Golding

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Golding hops consist of a group of traditional English aroma varieties that have been cultivated since 1790. The cultivar originated in England and the hops were named after villages in East Kent (Petham, Rothersham, Canterbury, Eastwell). East Kent Golding is a low-key but much-used English hop with a unique palate. If you’ve tried a few English ales or lagers (or perhaps some certain Belgian ales) chances are you’ve encountered the mellow yet flavorful contributions of the East Kent Golding. They are perfect for using in English-style ales as well as some lagers. The hop has a pleasant spicy aroma and

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TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, OCT. 19 2017: Airways Brewing one-offs and punk rock

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TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, OCT. 19 2017: Airways Brewing one-offs and punk rock PREFUNK: In 2010, Alex Dittmar combined his homebrewing passion and love for 1960’s big jet airliners opening Airways Brewing in Kent, Washington. Seven years later, founder and head brewer Dittmar and crew operate out of much larger facility in downtown Kent. Dittmar brought his former Alaska Airlines job with him with an airline industry theme throughout his taproom and craft beers. Peaks and Pints hosts Airways Brewing during its Lodge Meeting at 6 p.m. The night will focus on Airways’ specialty craft beers, such as their Fresh Hop

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Craft Beer Crosscut 10.19.17: A Flight of Single Hops

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From the peppery notes of Central European hops, to Britain’s floral and grassy hedgerow varieties, to the tropical, citrus flavors of the New World, the hopping options available to brewers has never been greater. These conical, green flowers of the Humulus lupulus species provide not only a vast array of flavors for beers but also create distinctive aromas, varying levels of bitterness and lend a hand with preservation duties. Until recently you would struggle to find anyone who could name the hops used in their favorite beer, but these days the varieties take center stage, emblazoned across beer labels, allowing

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Peaks and Pints First Anniversary Shindig

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Peaks and Pints First Anniversary Shindig From tart and sweet Belgian Flemish red ales to aggressively hopped India Pale Ales and everything in between, the many craft beers and ciders of Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom and restaurant have served as a medium in which community and camaraderie have transcended the business of fermented grains with hops, water and yeast. “We’ve met guests looking for recommendations on first dates who went on to get married to Green Tacoma Project fundraisers to high school reunions to regulars who have become friends,” says Peaks and Pints co-owner Justin Peterson. “We are much more than

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TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18 2017: Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Racer 5 and Jubelpalooza

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TACOMA PREFUNK WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18 2017: Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Racer 5 and Jubelpalooza PREFUNK: Rogue Ales Hazelnut Brown Nectar has hit Peaks and Pints’ Western red cedar tap log. It’s smooth and malty with an aroma of hazelnut. There’s a delicate, authentic aftertaste of hazelnut, and the creamy flavor makes this feel like the perfect beer companion to a rainy day and a novel. 11 A.M. BENEFIT FOR MENDOCINO COUNTY DISASTER RELIEF: The Red Hot is tapping a keg of Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA. For $8, you’ll receive a beer to enjoy, and your entire $8 will be

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South Sound Craft Beer Festival, Learn to Homebrew Day and Project Extreme Brewing

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MORNING FOAM FOR WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18 2017: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way to the feud with Big Beer. … The Washington Beer Commission will host its 4th Annual South Sound Craft Beer Festival Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall. Expect a Halloween-themed haven of at least 120 delicious craft beers, many IPAs, served up by the 40 Washington breweries. The Commons, Portland, Oregon’s beloved farmhouse brewery, will pour its last pint Saturday, Nov. 11. The Commons Brewery will vacate their building at 630 SE Belmont making way for

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TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, OCT. 17 2017: Holy Mountain The White Lodge and New York Public Library

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TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, OCT. 17 2017: Holy Mountain The White Lodge and New York Public Library PREFUNK: The Belgian wit (white) beer is a style that dates back more than 400 years. Holy Mountain’s The White Lodge is brewed with a large portion of wheat along with pilsner malt and oats. The Seattle brewery uses coriander and orange peel in the kettle, lending a blend of citrus and floral characters, and ferment with a traditional Belgian strain. It’s smooth and dry, with coriander upfront, a little citrus and toasted biscuity malt, with a lightly spicy finish. The White Lodge is

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