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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Growing up surrounded by vineyards and winemakers, Adam Firestone (of Firestone Vineyard) always had an interest in combining the family business with beer making. He found the perfect business partner in his brother-in-law, David Walker, and the two founded Firestone Walker Brewing Company in 1996. Since Greg Koch and Steve Wagner founded it in 1996, Stone Brewing Co. has been producing an ever-expanding line up of well-crafted and often in-your-face beers and interesting collaborations. In addition to winning gobs of medals for individual brews, Firestone Walker’s talented brewers from Paso Robles California, often take home the major hardware at competitions
TACOMA PREFUNK MONDAY, OCT. 16 2017: Maritime Pacific Autumn Kölsch and War For The Planet of the Apes PREFUNK: Let’s talk kölsch. Kölsch is made with ale yeast and is fermented warm, yet commonly aged at colder temperatures, making it a hybrid between the lager and the ale. The kölsch name is associated with a beer from Köln. In Germany it is brewed to strict standards, with 10 to 20 percent wheat. Maritime Pacific gives its Autumn Kölsch a little Northwest bump adding a subtle citrus flavor from an abundance of Amarillo hops as well ad dry-hopping it with Summit
Released in 2012, the Mosaic hop is the daughter of the bitter, earthy hop Simcoe, and was developed by Hop Breeding Co. With leaves hugging the compact cone, the Mosaic hop is beautifully shaped, with an organized and tight-knit appearance. The wonderful tropical and citrus fruitfulness of Mosaic is complemented by a contrasting earthy, piney taste. Craft Beer Crosscut 10.16.17: A Flight of Mosaic Hops features five craft beers with the hop in their recipes. Founders Mosaic Promise 5.5% ABV, 50 IBU Founders Mosaic Promise showcases two unique ingredients: Mosaic hops and Golden Promise malt. Mosaic hops’ natural attributes bring
Based on the original India pale ale (IPA) style that was revived by the American craft brewing movement in the 1980s, the “double IPA” (also known as “imperial IPA”) seeks to take both alcoholic strength and hop intensity to new levels. These big, bold IPAs are known for a strong hop profile with resiny, piney and/or citrus tones, depending upon the type of hops in the recipe. There should be some maltiness that lends balance and flavor complexity. Strength may range from 7.5 percent to 10 percent ABV. Many hop-centric brews seem to be in a race to out-bitter each
Top Rung Brewing Co. in Lacey hosts its annual autumn craft beer event Hoptoberfest today. TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, OCT. 14 2017: Lagunitas Fusion 2000 and Hoptoberfest PREFUNK: Lagunitas Brewing Co. is one of the country’s older craft breweries, having been founded in 1993 by Tony Magee (rhymes!). Today, it’s the country’s fifth-largest craft brewery by sales volume, producing more than 100,000 barrels of beer each year. The Sonoma County company, now owned by Heineken International, has a Fusion Series, which is an experimental draft series that has grown into a national collaboration. Homebrewers, homebrew clubs, retailers and
Rejoice, o dessert lovers of the South Sound! Today, Oct. 14, is National Dessert Day! Why Oct. 14? Why not the infinitely more logical March 14? (3.14 = Pi = Pie.) Why the hell not? Not that you necessarily need a reason to eat pie, but isn’t it nice to have an excuse? After all, dessert does not go to the stomach, but directly to the heart. The very first desserts required the minimum effort and preparation, as ancient cultures were more focused on the nutritional value in food in order for them to survive. However, in modern cultures, a
TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, OCT. 13 2017: Boneyard Bone-a-fide and decades of rock PREFUNK: Heavily influenced by Three Floyds, Boneyard’s Bone-a-fide pale is hoppy like an IPA but without the bitterness. The malts used to create the beer balance nicely with some of the Yakima Valley’s most bonafide dank hop varieties: Cascade, Centennial and Chinook. This medium bodied pale blasts of juicy hops for a citrus/tropical fruit presence with lots of grapefruit, mango, pineapple and orange peel sweetness that is countered by dry, bitter pine needle flavor. Peaks and Pints pours this pale from our Western red cedar tap log today.
Some people like bud, some people like beer, and some like both. Those who are a connoisseur of both have taken to attributing the term “dank,” a term that means pungent, funky and odoriferous, to both good weed and very hoppy IPAs. Dank means an extremely overpowering odor that can smell like the citrus and pine flavors everyone loves. Dank beers are ones that can easily fill a room with its odor, just like dank marijuana. After all, beer hops and weed nugs are similar in taste and smell, and the characteristics of a particularly dank, hoppy beer can often
TACOMA PREFUNK THURSDAY, OCT. 12 2017: Bainbridge Island Brewing Cornhole Tournament and Tacoma Film Festival PREFUNK: They will lob them high and lob them low. Sometimes they will slide in with much excitement and cheer. Sometimes — oftentimes — they will slide off with a thud and a groan from the lobber. Bainbridge Island Brewing Co. will host Cornhole Island at Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom and restaurant at 6 p.m. It will be flying competitive chaos that night during the cornhole tournament with five Bainbridge Island craft beers on tap, including Fresh Hop IPA, Old Toe Jam Barleywine
The Freighthouse Square hosts the Escape Room Challenge daily through Halloween. TACOMA WEDNESDAY OCT. 11 2017: pFriem-Beachwood IPL and Escape Room Challenge PREFUNK: Remember when Long Beach, California’s Beachwood Brewing traveled north to Hood River, Oregon, to work on a collaboration series at pFriem Family Brewers? Of course you don’t. Well, it happened. And, the pFriem + Beachwood India Pale Lager is now on tap at Peaks and Pints. Classical lager techniques were used for this IPL, but then combined with new school American hops and West Coast hopping procedures. The result, as pFriem puts it,
Champagne Sunday’s video for “Bound” will be part of Track 02 Music Video Showcase at The Grand Cinema tonight. TACOMA PREFUNK TUESDAY, OCT. 10 2017: Boundary Bay The Don and Music Video Showcase PREFUNK: Three things you need to know about The Don. The Don answers to no one. To The Don hop families are everything. The Don is loyal till the end. We speak of Boundary Bay Brewery’s The Don. The 9.8 percent ABV, 100+ IBU double IPA has a hefty malt backbone that balances the substantial gift of hops — Wakatu, Simcoe, Motueka and
Simcoe was introduced in 2000 by Yakima Chief Ranches as a proprietary hop varietal with strong bitter and aromatic qualities. Little has been released about its parentage, but it has been compared to Cascade. Although not used much as a bittering hop, many craft brewers favor Simcoe for its unique aroma profile composed of piney, woody, and grapefruit citrus notes mixed with slightly dank and spicy notes of onion and garlic. The Simcoe hop is polarizing. Like cilantro tasting soap to the genetically predisposed, some think that Simcoe smells like cat urine, or ammonia, and can’t move past it. If you are in
Semi-Iconic: The Ballad of Dick Rossetti screens at The Grand Cinema tonight. Courtesy photo TACOMA PREFUNK MONDAY, OCT. 9 2017: Founders KBS and Tacoma Film Festival PREFUNK: In 2002, Founders Brewing Co. wanted to age their Breakfast Stout in bourbon barrels. A call to Jack Daniels with a request to use their barrels was accepted as long as they picked them up. The first run was a success. Something magical happened in the barrel. The recipe needed refinement since the bourbon notes were overwhelming in the beer. The solution was to create an imperial (higher alcohol
Hops are the spice of beer, providing flavor and aroma. They also add bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt, and they increase the shelf life of the finished beer. This time of year, many American breweries are putting out pales and IPAs that have been hopped with fresh, whole-leaf hops straight from the fields. What this practice does is imbue the beer with a greener, grassier, stinkier hop character that is just about the freshest-tasting beer experience you can have. For the past couple of days Peaks and Pints has turned our daily beer flight into a flight
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 Dankenstein: A Hoppy Halloween Thriller with Green Flash and Alpine — 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. Upon learning Dankenstein’s plans, his friends,
TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, OCT. 7 2017: Founders KBS and The Shining PREFUNK: Arguably Michigan’s most sought-after brew, Kentucky Breakfast Stout is pouring from Peaks and Pints’ Western red cedar tap log — and at first taste, the 2017 vintage is one of the best. Longtime fans will notice the annual Founders Brewing Co. release, an imperial stout with coffee and chocolate, cave-aged for months in bourbon barrels, is even more smooth and balanced than previous years. We immediately noticed less of the boozy heat than last year’s release, with roasty coffee notes taking center stage. Drop by for a little KBS then chase
Kareem Kandi World Orchestra performs at peaks and Pints tonight. Courtesy photo TACOMA PREFUNK FRIDAY, OCT. 6 2017: Founders Breakfast Stout Release Party and Kareem Kandi World Orchestra PREFUNK: Breakfast Stout from Founders Brewing, those agents of darkness, hits each part of the imperial stout holy trinity with vigor: It’s brewed with oatmeal, coffee beans and real chocolate. It’s harmonious, with charred cacao bitterness, oatmeal richness and bright coffee notes. Peaks and Pints celebrates the annual release of Breakfast Stout with a tap takeover at 5 p.m. Come on out and enjoy one of the first
MORNING FOAM FOR FRIDAY, OCT. 6 2017: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way to the hamster bartenders. … Today is Barrel-Aged Beer Day. Looking for ways to celebrate? Click here. Today, Black Raven Brewing releases this year’s version of Festivus, the Redmond, Washington brewery’s annual holiday beer with cranberries, various citrus peel fruit and a brewer’s secret blend of spices. Saturday, Oct. 7, Atwood Ales Farm Brewery in Blaine, Washington is set to release two fresh hops ales produced using hops harvested from their own hopyard, just hundreds of feet away from
