Peaks and Pints Six Pack 10.16.18: Tech N9ne Tacoma How fast is too fast? Rapper Tech N9ne’s supersonic lyrical delivery tests the boundaries of human comprehension. The Kansas City-based MC was bestowed his name thanks to his ability to spit out words with the speed of a TEC-9 semiautomatic weapon. Tech N9ne later gave his handle a double-entendre by stating the “tech” was short for “technique” and “nine” representing the number of completion — therefore his name signifies his total ability to rhyme like a champ. OK. Tech N9ne plays Tacoma’s Temple Theatre this Friday, Oct. 19. Stop by Peaks
Peaks and Pints has Three Magnets Coffee Tompkins, Revision Hops In A Can, Evil Twin Molotov Heavy, d’Achouffe N’Ice Chouffee, Aslan Simcoe Slice and Three Magnets WOOHOO! X in the cooler. Peaks and Pints Six Pack 10.15.18: Fly You To The Moon Peaks and Pints may never know the exact words Neil Armstrong and his wife, Janet, spoke in the hours before he boarded Apollo 11, but we think it was, “Dammit, Janet, I love you.” The latest Neil Armstrong flick, First Man, screens at The Grand Cinema. Ryan Gosling is Armstrong — from his days
The term “farmhouse cider” stems from traditional cidermaking days when cider was made on a farm and its adjacent orchard was where its fruit was grown, in very small batches, utilizing timeworn techniques. Many makers believe farmhouse cider is more than a region of apple origin or a fermentation method — it’s a philosophy that yields a beverage with a strong sense of place. Others believe farmhouse cider is generally produced from fruit grown onsite or just down the road. A true farmhouse cider is also unfiltered, unpasteurized and produced with minimal intervention from the cidermaker. Our cider flight today
Peaks and Pints celebrates second year with Cool Camp “Hey, guys, Double Mountain Brewery suggests we call our second anniversary brew and new house beer, Cool Camp IPA,” says Ron Swarner, co-owner of Peaks and Pints and the guy writing this story. “Sounds pretty cool,” replies Robby Peterson, my business partner and the cool guy whom overseas our kitchen, among other things. “Should make plenty of happy campers,” adds Justin Peterson, our third business partner, twin to Robby and the cool guy who overseas the business side to our bottle shop, taproom and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District. Peaks and
Fancy Pants Sunday: Rodenbach Vintage 2015 The Beerumnati are abuzz about “sour beer,” as breweries increasingly try their hand at tart saisons, garnet Flemish ales and lambic-inspired fruit beers. This means that the word “sour” gets thrown around like sprinkles at a cupcake convention, but it applies wholly to Rodenbach Vintage. While the original Rodenbach is a blend of “young” and oak-aged red ale, the more than 200-year-old Belgian brewery’s limited vintage release is unblended, every ounce of it matured for two years in a single wine barrel. During the beer’s long slumber, live yeast chow down on residual sugars,
The Seattle Seahawks’ road to the playoffs will include a lengthy detour. The Seahawks will play in one of the NFL’s games that take place in London this morning, Peaks and Pints time. The Hawks will face the Oakland Raiders at 10 a.m. at the new stadium of the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur soccer team in north London. Seattle will be the designated “road” team, meaning the Seahawks did not give up one of their eight home games for next season. In celebration, peaks and Pints will pour Craft Beer Crosscut 10.14.18: A Flight of English Beer. Traditional British
Drop by Peaks and Pints and grab Three Magnets Anything Gold Brut IPA, Silver City MxPx Best Life IPA, Pike Douglas IPA, Prairie Consider Yourself Hugged, The Bruery Mischief and Revision Elevation Calculation. Peaks and Pints Six Pack 10.13.18: Mission Possible Tom Cruise is back at the Blue Mouse Theatre with the sixth Mission: Impossible flick, Fallout, so we can all appreciate his perfectly preserved physiognomy. He actually broke his ankle during filming, causing what was announced as a nine-week halt in the production. But of course, he was back at it after only seven weeks,
Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, the founder and man behind Evil Twin Brewing, was a physics and English teacher in his native Denmark before starting Copenhagen’s Ølbutikken, a highly regarded beer store. He’s also an evil twin himself. His brother, Mikkel Borg Bergsø, brews under the Mikkeller label. Jarnit-Bjergsø, however, has done his best to outshine the good twin. He founded Evil Twin in 2010 as a nomadic brewery. Like his brother Mikkel, Jarnit-Bjergsø would concocts a recipe for his beer and hand it to another brewery with some extra capacity. In 2012, Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø moved it to Brooklyn and relocated there with
In November 2017, Kim Sturdavant, brewmaster at San Francisco’s Social Kitchen and Brewery, had an idea that worked so well, the brut IPA has become one of the hottest new IPA varieties. Sturdavant used a special enzyme in the fermentation process to create a hyper-dry, Champagne-like finish. Brut IPAs are also lighter in color than other IPAs and tend to be effervescent and sparkling. They’re loaded with hop character, but have almost no bitterness, which makes them very refreshing. How is such a thing possible? In a nutshell, brewers use enzymes, which are proteins that convert the barley into sugars, which
Incorporated in 2009 as Noble Brewing Co., Brewmaster Curt Plants, Ty Barnett and Pratt Rather signed a lease in 2010 for the space it now occupies in Bend, Oregon. In 2011, just before opening their taproom, they changed the name to GoodLife Brewing because plenty of businesses used the name Noble and they wanted to set their enterprise apart. That same year the new brewery was awarded the People’s Choice Award for its new Mountain Rescue Pale Ale at the Bend Brewfest. Sweet As Pacific Ale, along with another one of the brewery’s early beers Descender IPA, continues to enjoy
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 10.10.18: Chocolate Malts and Fresh Hops What’s up, South Sound! I need a soldier that ain’t scared to stand up for me. Known to carry big things, if you know what I mean. LET’S GET TO DRINKING! BOMB! Prairie Artisan Ales: This imperial stout is aged on coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and ancho chili peppers. It pours completely jet black with a foamy java head, leaving some lacing on the glass. The smell of chocolate malt, strong espresso, vanilla and a hint of pepper waft off this rich brew. Thick and creamy, it assaults
To craft a fresh hop tour de force, Bale Breaker Brewing Company and Crux Fermentation Project teamed up to simultaneously harvest fresh hops from two valleys in two states on the same morning, combining them into each other’s kettle that very afternoon. One rooster woke Team Bale Breaker summoning them to load two trucks of Simcoe hops from neighboring fields with one truck returning to their Moxie, Washington brewery while the other truck raced toward Crux in Bend, Oregon. The other rooster roused Team Crux to load up two trucks full of fresh Mosaic hops straight outta the Willamette Valley
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. In addition to winning gobs of medals for individual brews, these obnoxiously talented brewers from Paso Robles California, often take home the major hardware at competitions like the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup — titles such as “Brewery of the Year” or “Brewer of the Year.” Peaks and Pints would be hard-pressed
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 10.8.18: Ten FIDY and friends It’s Columbus Day, the leaves are falling from the trees, and the sun is setting earlier each day. Whether you are mourning the end of summer or celebrating the approaching winter, fall is a great season for craft beer drinking. Head to Peaks and Pints for today’s suggested Six Pack. … A TERRIBLE IDEA HAZY IPA, 21st Amendment Brewery: A collaboration with fellow Bay Area brewery, Fieldwork Brewing, A Terrible Idea is a hop-forward hazy IPA that hits the nose with floral, dank and piney particles before sliding across the tongue
Fall is (finally) here! Between living up autumn life with apple and pumpkin picking, flannel everything, cold-weather recipes — and all of the aforementioned captured on your friends’ Instagram feeds — Peaks and Pints bets you’re ready for cider. The fall harvest brings farmers and communities together to celebrate another year of fruitful labor. It is a time of shorter days, cooler nights and great apples. Put down those Mexican lagers. Back away from the pilsners. Summer may have lingered a little longer than expected in Western Washington, but the times finally appear to be changing. Meaning that Peaks and
It’s a grand idea. Pairing the Tacoma Film Festival with Peaks and Pints. Lights! Camera! Pints! Rising from Commencement Bay like a 50-foot antediluvian beast, the 13th annual Tacoma Film Festival kicked off yesterday with full-length films, shorts, theme nights, filmmaker chats and happy hours through Oct. 11. The happy hour peaked Peaks and Pints interest, because of all the craft beer, cider and wine we house in our little lodge in the Proctor District. From 3-7 p.m. today, Oct. 5, we’ll host a happy hour before the screening of Thunder Road at neighboring Blue Mouse Theatre. In addition to
Abbey beers are that family of beers originally brewed by monks dating back to the Middle Ages, Peaks and Pints suspects, but certainly a common feature of monastic brewing from the 19th century forward. Included in that family is the dubbel — a medium-strength amber/brown ale that serves as a great platform for lots of fantastic malt flavors and fermentation characteristics, along with some supporting herbal/earthy hops. Dark fruit, burnt sugar, citrus esters, clove, a touch of banana and more all feature in what ends up being a surprisingly dry beer. The trick (there’s always a trick, isn’t there?) is
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 10.2.18: Fresh hops, Jolly Roger and Googly Eyes COWICHE CANYON FRESH HOP ALE, Fremont Brewing: This wildly popular small-batch fresh hop pale ale blends organic Citra and Simcoe hops grown exclusively for Fremont on a single farm at the mouth of the Cowiche Canyon Conservation area in Yakima. Cowiche Canyon Fresh Hop Ale is Washington state’s first Salmon-Safe certified beer. A portion of all sales fund the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. 6%, 12oz GOOGLY EYES, Wander Brewing: This double IPA sees Mosaic, Cascade and Citra hops in the kettles for a bitter, earthy, orange-y, crazy mix
Dark and Stormy night at Peaks and Pints Funny how taste can trigger memories. A sip of Bordeaux and you’re shopping Saint Germain; a pint of Guinness and your semester abroad comes flooding back; just a drop of tequila and . . . well, that was your 21st birthday, and you haven’t touched the stuff since. Then, there is the Dark & Stormy, which consists of dark rum and ginger beer — sometimes with a sprig of mint, sometimes a wedge of lemon. It brings back memories of pirates and Bermuda. But unlike the gin and tonic, it’s a drink
Long-time environmentalist, community organizer and homebrewer Matt Lincecum brought his bank statement to a well-known real estate developer to lease space to his startup craft brewery in the middle of a recession in the “center of the universe” aka Seattle’s funky Fremont neighborhood. Apparently $10,000 and awesome homebrewed beers CAN get you somewhere. In August 2009, Lincecum kegged his first Fremont Brewing craft beer. Today, Fremont is regarded as one of the best craft breweries in Seattle with distribution throughout the state, as well as Oregon and Idaho. In addition to its reputation for consistent quality and innovation, Fremont Brewing
Peaks and Pints doesn’t pour the cocktails the Sterling Cooper staff drank all day and all night, but we can come close with craft beer. Many brewers have brewed craft beers that mimic mixed drinks. When beer is your job, you don’t necessarily want to go home and drink more beer. So it’s no shocker that on his or her down time, brewers like a stiff cocktail — which has led to craft beers that taste like cocktails; what a vicious, delicious cycle this is. The base is beer (usually, but not always, a strong one), but then the brewer
“It is indeed bad to eat apples; it is better to turn them all into a cider.” Benjamin Franklin recorded this comment when overhearing a Native American’s response to the story of Adam and Eve. One hundred eighty years before the United States, an iron screw likely was taken from a hard cider press and driven into the central mast of the Mayflower to prevent the ship from sinking. Indeed, hard cider played a pivotal role in the formation and of the early colonies in many aspects. The pilgrims relied heavily on apple cider for their basic survival needs — cooking, sanitary
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 9.28.18: All the hops Because Friday. FRESH FLUFF, Matchless Brewing:Fresh Fluff is made by subbing out all of the hops in Matchless’ hazy All Fluff IPA with fresh versions of themselves: fresh Citra in the whirlpool and fresh Eldorado in the dry hop for soft and fluffy with deep layers of melon, grass, citrus and tropical fruit. 6.2%, 16oz FRESH IPA, Fort George Brewery: Within 24 hours, over a ton of fresh Azaccas from Roy Farms were harvested, transported, and packed into Fort George’s brew tanks in order to create fresh flavors of citrus and
Last September, Peaks and Pints released The Hunt For Fresh Hoptoberfest on the masses, a month-long autumn beer party marrying up two popular seasonal beers — fresh hops and Oktoberfest. Women dressed in lederhosen. Men got fresh … hop beers. Hop farmers and malters began living together — mass hysteria! This year, Son of Fresh Hoptoberfest was unleashed at our bottle shop, taproom and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District. The month-long Son of Fresh Hoptoberfest ends Sunday, but not without a Son of Fresh Hoptoberfest craft beer flight today. Enjoy bright, hop-hazy fresh-hop beers, just hours from field to kettle
MORNING FOAM FOR THURSDAY, SEPT. 27 2018: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way down to the Grand Canyon, at least for Will Smith. … Peaks and Pints’ Son of Fresh Hoptoberfest is not only a worthy successor to last year’s fresh hop-Oktoberfest mash-up, Hunt For Fresh Hoptoberfest, but even better as we are not forcing our guests to listen to tuba music from open to close, not screening a pictorial celebration of German culture, 1740-1914, 1950-present and not hosting a wet-dirndl contest. Nope, through Sept. 31, we’re offering bright, hop-hazy fresh-hop beers,
Founded in 1995 by head brewer and founder, Dick Cantwell, CEO and founder, Joe Bisacca and founder, David Buhler, Elysian Brewing has grown to become one of Seattle’s largest craft breweries. The three gentlemen were in their 30s when they opened the original Elysian bar on Capitol Hill. The men expanded the company to include Elysian Tangletown in the Green Lake area, Elysian Fields in Sodo near the sports stadiums, Elysian BAR near Westlake Center and a production facility on Airport Way South in Georgetown in 2011, that is until they sold to AB-InBev in 2015, in which Cantwell left to
Three cheers for honeybees! Name any other insect that makes food we eat. There isn’t one; only the honeybee produces two to three times more honey than they need for their hive. We get their surplus. Between 50 and 100 plants are visited by honeybees during one collection flight from the hive. Nectar is collected when the worker visits a flower and inserts her proboscis (or straw-like tongue) into a flower. She carries it in her “honey sac” or second stomach to the hive, where it is used to make honey. Pollen sticks to hairs all over her body, which
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 9.25.18: Dead Sandworms and Tasty IPAs There likely won’t be any sandworms, but as you most likely know Tacoma native Frank Herbert, best known for the hugely popular Dune science-fiction novels, is getting a namesake park in his home town. The Metro Parks Tacoma Board of Commissioners approved naming an 11-acre waterfront site “Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park,” and a winding pedestrian loop being built on the same site the “Frank Herbert Trail.” The public space is currently under construction on land that once housed the former ASARCO copper smelting operation, next to the
Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, a panel of 293 judges from 13 countries bestowed 306 medals on a record-breaking field of roughly 8,496 entries from more than 2,404 breweries. In a ceremony at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, the Brewers Association awarded prestigious gold, silver and bronze medals in 102 beer categories covering 167 different beer styles (including all subcategories), establishing the best examples of each style in the country and earning a symbol of brewing excellence. Eighty-three beers was the average number of entries per category with Juicy or Hazy India Pale
Cider was last popular when America was fighting the Civil War. Kind of makes sense if you think about it, since that was also the last time long beards were the rage. What drove this cider craze? One big factor was that unlike 25 years ago when they missed the craft beer breakout, big multinational brewers were paying attention this time and aggressively entered the market with their own products. Anheuser-Busch InBev rolled out Stella Cidre and Johnny Appleseed, MillerCoors launched Smith & Forge and Sam Adams has already successfully launched Angry Orchard. Their constant TV and print ads raised
Hood River Hops Fest so wet … hopped Staying inside on a rainy day sounds like the sanest thing to do, unless you are in outdoor adventure land Hood River, Oregon, and have a wristband that allows you access to 60-plus craft beers brewed within 24 hours of picking the hops off the bine. Hundreds braved the rainfall to get their fill of fresh hop beers at the Hood River Hops Fest yesterday. Those beer drinkers, dressed for the forecasted cloudy day, actually all fit under the tents during one full-on buckets of rain session. The sun and rain played
Late summer is harvest time, and in the craft beer world, that means wet hop ales. These seasonal delights are brewed with perfectly ripe, freshly picked “wet” hop cones, which impart the truest possible aromas and flavors a hop can provide. As opposed to the usual dried hops, wet hops begin to decay in a matter of hours. For years, breweries have been going to great lengths to gather them in time, even renting airplanes to haul back loads of the delicate flowers from the country’s most fertile hop-growing regions in Oregon, Idaho or Washington’s Yakima Valley. Obviously, because of
Germans have been perfecting the art of brewing for centuries (Weihenstephan since 1040 AD), and have greatly influenced the technology, terminology and processes we use today. German lagers are nuanced, refined, accurate and precise. These lagers are tricky to make well to insure ultimate quaffability en masse and Ein Maß — those one-litre mugs. Many German lagers, especially the ones made for Oktoberfest, are malt-forward, but never sweet, sticky or cloying. Rather, the beer’s maltiness evokes the comfort of rich, fresh baked bread. Peaks and Pints presents a flight of German beers — including one hefe — tonight, piggybacking off
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 9.19.18: Evil Twin Irish-ish and more ish A slew of new beers have landed on our shelves today! ADAM, Hair of the Dog: Hair of the Dog deserves its reputation for being far ahead of the curve on the unconventional conditioning game, which head brewer Alan Sprints has been practicing since he first visited Belgium in 1991. Adam is a recreation of a historic beer-style, originally made in Dortmund, Germany and was the first beer ever released from this brewery. The beer is rich and smoky, with notes of chocolate and dark fruit. 10%, 12oz
The party began in October 1810, when a great horse race was organized to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Everyone had so much fun that it was held again, and eventually became an annual event, dubbed “Oktoberfest” in 1872. It has since evolved into a 16-day Munich blowout in late September and early October. Oh, to be in that great mass of humanity, dancing to the throbbing polka beats, scarfing down sausage, kraut, and strudel, and most of all, imbibing from the holy grail, er, stein, or today at Peaks and Pints —
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 9.18.18: Nitro Dubbel, Tripel Kriek and Trophy Life Here are a few new beers that arrived today. … BELGIAN DUBBEL NITRO, Left Hand Brewing: For an element that’s tasteless, odorless and colorless, nitrogen dramatically alters the perception of a beer’s flavor and aroma. Left Hand Brewing’s new Belgian Dubbel Nitro has all the rich malt flavors of a dubbel with an added velvety mouthfeel. 7.9%, 16oz FIELD TO FERMENT: SIMCOE, Fremont Brewing: Fremont is brewing this single fresh hop ale with three hop varietals sequentially as they are harvested throughout the entire hop harvest in
On its own, chocolate is a wonderful treat. Marry chocolate with the perfect flavor pairing, and the confection becomes even more memorable. Classic pairing — such as chocolate with peanut butter, raspberry or mint — is here to stay, but adventurous flavors are increasingly popular. Pairing chocolate with fruit is nothing new, but instead of strawberries and banana flavors, why not try pumpkin? You may be thinking, “pumpkin and chocolate?” And Peaks and Pints will be thinking right back at you, “Yes, pumpkin and chocolate!” When combined in just the right way — a freakin’ beer flight — pumpkin and
Pumpkins belong to the family of Cucurbitaceae. They are classified to Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbita maxima and Cucurbita mixta, according to the texture and shape of their stems. Pumpkin is poor in taste and carbohydrates but high in vitamins, especially, provitamin A, antioxidants and minerals, and it is mixed with nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice to improve of its sensory properties. Pumpkin is a vegetable, which is healthy and functional, being rich in phenolic compounds, flavonoids and vitamins, and has a low energy. Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) belongs to the family Bromeliaceae and is one of the most important commercial
Fancy Pants Sunday: Finnriver Pommeau For Peaks and Pints, nothing beats the gorgeous evocation of apples in a glass of delicious Pommeau on a crisp fall day. Finnriver Farm & Cidery’s Pommeau apple wine goes through all of the stages of apple metamorphosis: it begins as apple juice, which the Chimacum, Washington cidery ferments into an apple wine. They then fortify this wine with their 100 proof apple brandy (distilled from their cider made with organic Pacific Northwest apples and aged two months in American oak). The autumn apple harvest comes in and the must, or fresh unfermented juice, is
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
Something wonderful has happened with Michigan beer. A gradual loosening of brewing laws has caused the craft beer industry to take off throughout the state. In just a few decades, Michigan now has 330 craft breweries, ranked fourth in the nation, with more opening all the time. In fact, you could argue that, in the last five years, the profile of Michigan craft beer has risen such that, nationally, many regard this as one of the top 10 beer states. From long-timers like Bell’s to award-winning breweries such as Jolly Pumpkin and Founders, brewing has reached a critical mass and
Peaks and Pints Six Pack 9.14.18: Tacoma Teacher Strike Ends You and 2,021 of your fellow Tacoma teachers voted to approve the new contact today. You’re headed back to the classroom Monday. Stop by Peaks and Pints tonight and grab these six craft beers out of our cooler before you go on a cooking and baking spree this weekend. You know that home-cooked meals won’t be a reality again until late June 2019. CAPTAIN OF THE COAST, Pelican Brewing: Captain Of The Coast is back on watch after time spent in Dry Fly Wheat Whiskey Barrels. Pelican’s award-winning MacPelican’s Wee
On sprawling farms clustered around Yakima and Willamette valleys, thousands of green Humulus lupulus vines snake vigorously skyward. A relative of marijuana, these hop plants produce resiny, cone-shaped flowers prized for their use as a bittering agent in beer. October is the traditional time for end-of-the-season harvesting and hops are no exception. That’s good news for beer lovers, as many breweries take advantage of the numerous Pacific Northwest hop farms, creating beers flavored by hops sourced 3-5 hours from the kettle boil. These beers typically have an aroma akin to that of a freshly-mowed lawn and the resinous and deep
MORNING FOAM FOR THURSDAY, SEPT. 13 2018: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way to all the sink holes. … With the North Cascades right at their back door, it’s quite fitting that the newest line of IPAs released by the Kulshan Brewing Company be named the Cascade Peaks IPA Series. The most popular beers in the world aren’t necessarily the ones most Americans would expect. Globally, the beer industry sold $661 billion worth of beer in 2017. While craft beer is on the rise, it makes up just a tiny percentage of
