Happy Sunday! We’ve been swamped with Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs happenings so our we haven’t stalked Instagram as much as we would like this week. We did notice the crappy Swedish beer, as well as National Pretzel Day and the forth coming Cinco de Mayo. Be sure to keep posting those craft beer waffle photos and be sure to tag @peaksandpints if you’d like a chance to be featured! Cheers! https://www.instagram.com/p/BTRVW0TBvZh/?taken-by=pintplease https://www.instagram.com/p/BTSSQujlEn0/?taken-by=thebeeroness https://www.instagram.com/p/BTRri-DBB1U/?taken-by=filip.adam https://www.instagram.com/p/BTUppGfAz6-/?taken-by=beerblog https://www.instagram.com/p/BTXTzthjwQe/?taken-by=twobeersbrewing https://www.instagram.com/p/BTVCJ4Yjdyo/?taken-by=10barrelbrewing https://www.instagram.com/p/BTWeTHHhzKA/?taken-by=beerliveshere https://www.instagram.com/p/BTZWU49jvSI/?taken-by=tacomabeer https://www.instagram.com/p/BTXQPpiFL2r/?taken-by=breaksidebrews https://www.instagram.com/p/BTcVFYBlZDg/?taken-by=craftybeermaven https://www.instagram.com/p/BTc7UrUD1-C/?taken-by=thehopsartist https://www.instagram.com/p/BTg7eTNll5n/?taken-by=allagashbrewing
Rainy Daze Brewing Co. head brewer/woner Mike Montoney, left, and Walking Man Brewing Co. head brewer James Landers pose at the Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs Championship Party Tournament of Washington IPAs: Champion crowned — It’s a simple equation. Take water, grain, hops and add yeast. Then, it becomes tricky. Choices need to be made. Clear or hazy? English hops or American “C” hops? Session or double? In those choices lies the path to India Pale Ale greatness. Over the past three weeks we’ve pitted 64 of Washington state’s best against one another in the
Mr. Blackwatch performs at The Spar tonight. Photo courtesy of Facebook SATURDAY, APRIL 29 2017: South Sound events + craft beer … The Spar + Peaks and Pints = Hoohah Dockyard Derby Dames + The Ram = Dread MISTER BLACKWATCH In 2012, Tacoma musician, producer and actor Doug Mackey got the band back together — the band being Mr. Blackwatch, which was born, lo, many years ago when the band had issues with cows, kites, a monster, a snake, a robot, bongos and “Orange,” and the only cure was to work through the issues musically. The
April 7-29, 2017, Peaks and Pints pitted 64 of Washington state’s best in a frothy head-to-head battle of the IPAs. We speak, of course, of the Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs. Sixty-four state IPAs were selected and seeded by the public throughout March 2017. Some IPAs fell easily by the wayside, either faltered due to a rogue yeast pitcher or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Hop by hop, the state drank its way through the first tow rounds followed by the Sweet Wort 16, the Hot Break Eight, the Final Four and today’s Championship Game between Rainy
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Final vote and tonight’s party — For more than three weeks, Peaks and Pints challenged 64 of Washington state’s best India Pale ales to go IBU-to-IBU in a showdown of craft combat. Some fell easily by the wayside, either due to a rogue mash tun cleaner or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Hop by hop, the state drank its way down to yesterday’s Final Four: Rainy Daze Goat Boater IPA, Top Rung Shift Trade IPA, Stoup Citra IPA Walking Man IPA. It was do-or-die, win-or-fly, bring-your-best-or-oxidize. Friday, April 28, Final Four Washington IPA Games
Brass Monkeys perform at The Swiss tonight. Photo courtesy of Facebook FRIDAY, APRIL 28: South Sound events + craft beer … The Swiss Restaurant & Pub + Peaks and Pints = Funky B Sharp Coffee House + Dystopian State Brewing = Banjo and bottles SO THIS IS WHAT CHA WANT Close your eyes and those memories of baggy Ben Davis pants, Caesar haircuts and the Beastie Boys performing at the first KNDD Endfest on Aug. 8, 1992 at the Kitsap County Fairground just might come flooding back. Tribute bands are now the best way to hear
#DrinkWABeer and chill … Once again the Washington Beer Commission is set to launch its Third Annual #DrinkWABeer Instagram Campaign. Beginning Monday, May 8 and running every week through June 5, the Washington Beer Commission will select a winning photo on Instagram that is tagged with #DrinkWABeer. The one caveat is to answer the question “I #DrinkWAbeer because…” in your Instagram post. The grand prize is, drumroll please, four tickets to the biggest beer festival of the year, The 12th Annual Washington Brewers Festival June 16-18, 2017 at King County’s Marymoor Park. Full Sail Brewing Company’s
Bred in England in 1934 from a Canterbury Golding female plant and the male plant OB21, Northern Brewer is one of the original hop strains used in the first stages of breeding at Wye College in the early 1900s. Northern Brewer has been used in the breeding process of many varieties of hops including Hueller, Perle, Record, Northdown, Challenger, Viking and Saxon, among others. Easily identified by its dark green leaves, Northern Brewer has a moderate alpha acid profile and a pleasant aroma making for a great bittering hop that is also sometimes used as a late boil addition. As
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Final Four — Washington state loves India Pales Ales — at least according to the thousands that have voted in our Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs. Yesterday’s IPA voting action doubled the previous highest vote count for a single day. And favorites fell. They fell hard. Every winner yesterday won by capturing 73 to 83 percent of the vote, except the Stoup Citra IPA vs Fremont Lush IPa game, which trade leads all day until 8 p.m. What four hop-slinging breweries’ IPAs will move onto the Final Four? The barrel roll please … Thanks to
Forest Beutel performs at The Valley tonight. THURSDAY, APRIL 27 2017: South Sound events + craft beer … The Valley + Peaks and Pints = Music Olympia Film Society + Three Magnets Brewing Co. = Ghosts and Octopi BYE BYE BEUTEL The Valley down the street from the Tacoma Dome has a great show at 8 p.m. Tacoma’s Baron of Bluegrass Forest Beutel will hit the road for a month-long tour of the Southwest but no before performing bluegrass, blues and folk punk at The Valley. Scheduled to give a musical hug to Beutel include Rock
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Hot Break Eight — Indeed, the Hot Break Eight is fully fleshed out: Silver City Tropic Haze IPA, Rainy Daze Goat Boater IPA, Wet Coast Moving Day IPA, Top Rung Shift Trade IPA, Stoup Citra IPA, Fremont Lush IPA, Walking Man IPA and Bale Breaker Bottomcutter IIPA. It’s interesting to note that that Bale Breaker is the highest seed remaining in the Tournament of Beer, a No. 3, and the only double IPA in the group. Surprisingly, only one Hazy IPA made it to the Hot Break Eight, Tropic Haze. It’s all come down to eight.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 2017: South Sound events + craft beer The Mule Tavern + Peaks and Pints = As You Wish Capitol Theater + Northwest Beerwerks = sour, bitter and stout PRINCESS BRIDE TRIVIA Oddly enough, The Princess Bride actually flopped when it first came out, thanks to a studio that had no idea how to market it. Was it a kids movie? A fantasy film? An action adventure? A romantic comedy? Because the answer was yes to all of those questions, it never quite found its audience and it wasn’t until it was released on VHS that it began
Rainy Daze Brewing sales executive Jon Jump might be a busy man today. Tournament of Washington IPAs: Sweet Wort 16 — The best India Pale Ale in Washington state? You think you know where to find it. We all do. After weeks of feverish voting (and with the help of a complicated computer program stolen from cavemen) we at Peaks and Pints have watched you, beloved voters, narrow down the state’s IPAs from 64 to the very best 16, the creamy mouthfeel of the crop. Yesterday, the first eight IPAs in the Sweet Wort 16 did
Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. founder Steve Navarro, left, faces off against Top Rung Brewing founders Jason Stoltz, middle, and Casey Sobol in the Tournament of Beer Sweet Wort 16 today. Tournament of Washington IPAs: Sweet Wort 16 begins: For more than two weeks we presented you with a compelling question: Who makes the best India Pale Ale in Washington state? And you have responded in multitudes. Vacation days have been used. Neighbors have started feuds. People are selling their wine cellars. Craziness! The competition had been whittled down to the Sweet Wort 16. Yes, 16
MONDAY, APRIL 25 2017: Tacoma events + craft beer … The Grand Cinema + Peaks and Pints = International night Blue Mouse Theatre + Parkway Tavern = Holy Spirit COMING-OF-AGE STORY “My mission is really to capture what it means to be African,” says a secondary character, a fledgling filmmaker, early in Ayanda. “I feel like we’ve been completely misrepresented. It’s not all civil wars.” Anchoring the film’s faux-documentary subplot, that character is clearly the surrogate for screenwriter Trish Malone and director Sara Blecher, spelling out their own goal for Ayanda, which screens at 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. at The
Summer in a box! MORNING FOAM FOR MONDAY, APRIL 24 2017: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way down to the nobodies. … The sixth annual Bellingham Beer Week is underway, loaded with craft beer events through Saturday, April 29. Bellingham Beer Week began in September 2012 with a like-minded group of publicans, craft brewers, and supporters of great beers. For a complete schedule, click here. Pike Brewing is reaching new heights this summer, bringing beer and food lovers an expanded experience in Seattle’s Shrine to Beer.| Coming soon
Clan Gordon Pipe Band plays out the Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs Second Round. Tournament of Washington IPAs: Second Round ends today — Beginning tomorrow, we’ll cut the field of 64 Washington state India Pale Ales joints to the Sweet Wort 16. Then, April 27, it’ll drop to eight. Saturday, April 29, we’ll announce the winner of the Tournament of Beers — picked by you, of course — at our bottle shop, taproom and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District. On that Monday, we’ll cut the online voting at 4 p.m. and take the voting live
Every month Peaks and Pints invites a craft brewery to create a three-hour soundtrack off our Jukebox, pour its craft beer and host a specific theme. We call the Monday nights SudsPop. Firestone Walker is our guest brewery this month. At 6 p.m., Firestone Walker will celebrate British pub life with 20-ounce pours of its DBA and Union Jack India Pale Ale and three hours of British pub tunes. We thought we’d offer a sample beer flight of British-themed beers to the mix, including the two Firestone Walker craft beers. Enjoy Craft Beer Crosscut 4.24.17: A Flight of British. Samuel
Today, the German Beer Purity Law — Reinheitsgebot — celebrates 501 years of absolutely nothing but barley (or wheat), hops, water, and yeast. Not so much as a spruce tip or cacao nib may defile anything called “beer.” Across Germany, breweries, brewing museums, beer gardens and micro-breweries will mark the purity law anniversary by opening their doors to allow a glimpse behind the scenes for visitors to experience the art of brewing as well as its long history. German brewing traditions are influenced by the highly controlled pragmatic Bavarian approach of the Reinheitsgebot coupled with the flamboyant, daring, and just
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Second Round results — For more than two weeks, Peaks and Pints challenged 64 of Washington state’s best IPAs to go IBU-to-IBU in craft beer combat. Some fell easily by the wayside — either due to a rogue taproom employee or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Pint by pint, we drank our way through two weeks. It was do-or-die, win-or-fly, bring-your-best-or-acetaldehyde. Here’s a recap of yesterday’s Tournament of Beer Second Round action. The last eight Washington state IPAs in the Second Round battle Monday, April 24. See you back here Monday to begin the
According to Daffodil Festival organization hype, “The 55th Annual Junior Parade is hosted by the Proctor District of Tacoma and is geared to children, by encouraging the growth of creativity and fun in even the youngest. Costumes, pets, music and non-motorized floats make this parade a very special event. And you know the Daffodil Princesses will be there to kick things off, by leading the Parade and sticking around to watch all of the other entries perform, too!” Peaks and Pints is thrilled to have a front row seat to this annual parade. We love the annual parade in the rain.
Teachers and school staff do some of life’s most important work. Yet they are underpaid and don’t get the community support they deserve. Peaks and Pints has many educators as patrons at our bottleshop, taproom and restaurant. We hear firsthand how hard they work and how tough their jobs can be. Smarter Balanced tests, Common Core standards, Smarter Balanced tests, anti-testing sentiment, using these scores to determine who can or can’t graduate, social media bullying — craziness. We also know that while teachers appreciate apples and pencils, what many of them really like is a good craft beer. We’re doing
Fremont Lush IPA and Reuben’s Brews Crikey IPA face off in Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs Second Round action today. Tournament of Washington IPAs: Second Round April 21: Laid-back is the essence of Friday. That means an early lunch with an India Pale Ale. Then, blaze from work early to grab another IPA. Dinner with friends at Peaks and Pints and plenty more IPAs … you know the routine. The mere thought of lifting a finger to wash the mountain of dishes in the sink should make you shudder. Yesterday, a good chunk of the
You could walk away with this kickass Dogfish Head turntable at Peaks and Pints tonight. Peaks and Pints digs music, as evident by our weekly Monday SudsPop music and craft beer nights, in which a single craft brewery takes over our jukebox, pours its beers and hosts wacky games. At 6 p.m., we’ll host a special SudsPop night inviting Dogfish Head to our little lodge for a Pre Record Store Day celebration. Every year, the Baltimore brewery creates the official beer of Record Store Day; this year a tropical blonde ale called Beer To Drink Music
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Second Round April 20: Peaks and Pints honestly had no idea how the Tournament of Beers: Washington State IPAs would go. Much like the actual NCAA bracket, the 64 breweries voted in are strikingly different. Some Washington start breweries have been around for a while and have huge fanbases. Others are mid-majors, known mostly to those living nearby. Some people have stood inside Peaks and Pints and passionately expressed dismay at the tournament seeding, even though the public seeded it. What we do know is thousands of people are voting. Long, lively conversations occur daily beneath
WEDNESDAY PREFUNK: Hoppy Hour Adventure and aliens Acme Tavern + Peaks and Pints = 93 miles and 93 million miles FRIGHT NIGHT For many, many years Galaxy of Terror had only been available to serious collectors who bust their asses to make sure that whatever movie they’re seeking is lovingly burned onto a DVDr and placed into their collection. Why was it so hard to find? It may have something to do with the whole chick being violated by a giant maggot scene for starters. Folks tend to shy away from such subject matter as that. Thankfully, Tacoma’s Acme Tavern
Top Rung Brewing rang the opening bell for the Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs Second Round. Tournament of Beer: Second Round baby! Now it’s getting exciting. The hops are really starting to fly, and the mouthfeels are getting so thick you could cut them with a knife. OK, so that’s a horrible analogy. Point is: This is serious. Today, the Tournament of Beer officially kicks off its Second Round, meaning 32 Washington State IPAs remain, and the competition is as hot as ever. Who will be crowned champ Saturday, April 29? The path to IPA
You know the drill. Make some beer, quit your job, start a beer business. It’s what Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers did when starting the Founder Brewing Company out of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1997. The road to greatness wasn’t easy. The duo came face-to-face with bankruptcy before they ditched the unremarkable craft beers switching to flavor-packed, complex brews that are Founders’ signature today. Soon enough, Founders became recognized on the national and international brewing scene, with accolades from Ratebeer, Beer Advocate, and the World Beer Cup. Flavorful, complex, and often stronger than your average pint, Founders’ beers aren’t for
Happy birthday Grand Cinema! TUESDAY, APRIL 18 2017: Beer and a movie … THE GRAND TURNS 20 We have The Grand Cinema to thank for making special movie moments happen over the past 20 years. The little Tacoma movie house reaches the big 20 officially today, and with such a milestone approaching we can’t help but look back. Vivid scenes of The Grand fostering a community’s love for local and international cinema replay through our heads. Drop by The Grand today wearing your Grand T-shirt and enjoy free admission to T2 Trainspotting, A Stray, Gifted, The
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Final Round One Games: Round Low and behold, today marks the closing of the Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs’ First Round. After today’s battles the bracket will officially be down to 32 Washington state IPAs, and participants start hiring cheerleaders. Honestly, if it gets any more exciting we’ll start to understand why Dick Vitale use to say, “It’s awesome, baby, with a capital IPA!” Plus, our palates are serious blown out already. Without wasting anyone’s time with craft beer related basketball innuendo, on to a recap of yesterday’s games and today’s Tournament of Beer action.
MONDAY, APRIL 17 2017: Tacoma events paired with craft beer … Blue Mouse Theatre + Peaks and Pints = Bravo! The Swiss Restaurant and Pub + Parkway Tavern = High fives and Hive Fives BATMAN! The Lego Batman Movie ensconces Will Arnett as the definitive modern-day Dark Knight — as long as you get off on seeing crusty old Bruce microwaving leftover Lobster Thermidor while ignoring the pesky orphan he won in a millionaires’ auction. And if you don’t, what the hell is wrong with you? It’s a delightful comedy that’s still in the spirit of the character. The Blue
MORNING FOAM FOR MONDAY, APRIL 17 2017: A seven-taster flight of craft beer news, from the fluffy head all the way down to the last Jedi. … Chainline Brewing will celebrate its second anniversary with a party Saturday, April 22. The Kirkland brewery will offer Crowler cans, limited beers, offer tours, host food trucks and give away stuff. Optimism Brewing taps its first barrel-aged beer Saturday, April 22, and you are invited to the festivities. The Mariners are hosting a beer event during Seattle Beer Week (May 4-14). This year’s Brewery Night at the Ballpark takes place on Friday, May
Maybe if we all took a page from the friendly spirit of the craft beer movement, the world just might be a better place. It’s unlikely there is another fiercely competitive business that delights so much in hanging out together. If the market share is so small for each brewery, why cooperate with your competition? Maybe it stems from the David vs. Goliath syndrome, where craft brewers find delight in sticking together against the behemoths of industrial brewing and are willing to support each other for greater visibility and eventual higher sales. Today’s Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs Round
7 Seas Brewing’s Rude Parrot IPA battle Wingman Brewers’ Ace IPA today. Tournament of Washington IPAs: Round One April 17: For the past week Peaks and Pints presented you with a compelling question: Who makes the best India Pale Ale in Washington state? And you have responded in multitudes. Sick days have been used. Friendships have fallen apart. Maltsters and hop growers living together — mass hysteria! The Tournament of Beer: Washington State IPAs hosts competitions Monday through Friday up to the championship game Saturday, April 29 live at Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom and
We’re grown up now, so Easter is no longer about hunting for eggs — unless they’re perfectly scrambled, done over easy, or sitting elegantly atop the two halves of an English muffin. Yes, Easter has usurped the giant chocolate bunnies, Easter baskets, and that impossible-to-vacuum-up plastic grass. Cadbury Eggs? We know some people love these things, but people love fried pork rinds, too. Let’s face it — no one really likes Peeps. Their sole purpose for existing is to entertain us by having duels in the microwave, complete with toothpick swords. Easter, at least to Peaks and Pints, is about
As we finally round the corner of spring and with it the veritable fruit salad of warm-weather beers. Putting fruit in beer isn’t new. The Mesopotamians were brewing with fruit thousands of years ago. But here in America, the first modern fruit beer was made 32 years ago at McMenamins’ first brewpub in Hillsdale, and featured some blackberries growing up the back fence. Fruitheads really didn’t have their day until Dogfish Head busted out Aprihop in 1999 with the tagline, “A fruit beer for hopheads or an IPA with a fruit problem.” In honor of the forecasted rain-free weekend in
Skookum Brewery brews Tournament of Beer IPA winners on an International brewing system. Over a three-week period, Peaks and Pints pits 64 of Washington state’s best in a IBU-to-IBU battle of the India Pale Ale. This is a tournament, folks, not a playoff. Each match is do or die — one misstep and you’re out of the dance. Wort didn’t cool fast enough, left sediment in the conical fermenter too long, and you can pack your brewers paddle and go home. Sure, there are plenty of brewers wearing “I Hop Craft Beer” T-shirts who can brew
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Round One April 14: The subject of India Pale Ales is, like the subject of barbecue, vexed and fraught with controversy. What constitutes a great IPA? Who makes the best in Washington state? Everyone seems to have his or her own favorite, and everyone’s an expert. Throughout the month of March we polled the public asking what are the top 64 IPAs in Washington? You chimed in. Friday, April 7 — National Beer Day — we launched the Tournament of Beers: Washington State IPAs, pitting 64 IPAs against each other Monday-Friday, similar to the NCAA Basketball
THURSDAY, APRIL 13 2017: South Sound events + craft beer … Broadway Center + Peaks and Pints = Garrison Keillor and Sumerian Brewing Rhythm & Rye + Fish Tale Brewpub = Hotcabi and Hatchery Creek India Pale Lager TACOMA The fans of Garrison Keillor are a fierce bunch whose radios have for years been tuned religiously on Saturday nights to public radio’s resurrected “A Prairie Home Companion.” And it’s no wonder: A deadpan exemplar of the word “wry,” Keillor has a singular way with the tall tale and an old-fashioned, provincial wit that borders on —and sometimes plunges into —
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Round One April 13: Consider the IPA, or India Pale Ale. Brewing lore traces the history of this beer back to British colonial days. IPA is a beer of English — not Indian — origin. Its predecessor, a lightly-hopped style known as pale ale, was one of the most popular styles in Britain in the early 1700s. Around the same time, the British Empire began establishing itself in India, and when the East India Company began heavy trading, it wasn’t long before there was a great demand for beer among Englishmen living abroad. But trips by
Kristen Marlo and her husband, Luke, hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail in 2016. The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,650-mile-long hiking path spanning the border of California and Mexico to just over the border of Washington into Canada. The trail takes most people five months to walk. Those gutsy few number in the low hundreds each year. On this date in history, 2016, Peaks and Pints bartender Kristen Marlo and her husband, Luke, took their first step on the PCT. Marlo recounts her journey below with, of course, craft beer as her markers, in the
Tournament of Washington IPAs Round One April 12: The showcase ingredient in India Pale Ales is hops, which come from the plant humulus lupulus. This is a vine-like plant that produces hop flowers known as strobiles. Within these strobiles are two prized contributions to brewing: alpha acids and hop oils. Alpha acids provide the bitterness in beer that gives the drinker the crisp, clean finish and acts to balance the sweet malt. The hop oils produce the flavor and aroma, which in the case of American-style hops typically provide flavors and aromas ranging from pine to grapefruit to tropical fruit
TUESDAY, APRIL 11 2017: South Sound events + craft beer … The Grand Cinema + Peaks and Pints = Lorius and Gambrinus Tacoma Rainiers + The Copper Door = Chihuahuas and Sofie MARCH OF THE GLACIOLOGISTS The documentary Antarctica: Ice & Sky shares a stirring portrait of the French glaciologist Claude Lorius whose groundbreaking research in Antarctica gave us the first clear evidence of man-made global climate change. It screens at 1:15 and 6:25 as part of The Grand Cinema’s Tuesday Film Series. Using remarkable archival footage and stunning drone cinematography, Antarctica: Ice and Sky is an epic tale where science and adventure meet,
Tournament of Washington IPAs: Round One April 11: If Washington state had a signature craft beer, what would it be? We’re going with an IPA. If you drink beer, you’ve probably had an IPA. IPA, short for India Pale Ale, dominates sales in the craft-beer world. In 2008, IPA was clearly the most popular category of craft beer — and if you fast-forward nine years to today, its total sales have increased 25-fold. In fact, the most common last drink requested by death row inmates is the IPA (still fact-checking this), and it’s a favorite of office workers, too, who
