With two dozen breweries, a century of beer-brewing history, and a strong Northbank Beer Week, beer news out of Vancouver, Washington, is hardly new. But that’s exactly what’s happening as the Vancouver homebrewing film Hold My Beer screens at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Kiggins Theatre in downtown Vancouver. Brian Tashima, a long-time board member of Autism Empowerment and widely recognized for his Joel Suzuki series of sci-fi fantasy fiction books featuring autistic characters, tells the story of an autistic young adult who, after a tough conversation with his parents, discovers a newfound passion for craft beer with aspirations of one day opening his own brewpub. The 21-year-old young man, Val, feels directionless until he discovers a passion for homebrewing. With encouragement from his family, Val reconnects with his estranged father, a former homebrewer, and the two bond over their shared interest. As Val navigates the challenges of brewing and life, he learns about family, forgiveness, and self-discovery. In celebration, Peaks & Pints presents a Wednesday flight of beer brewed in Vancouver. We’re calling it, Peaks and Pints Vancouver Beer Flight: Hold My Beer Flight.
Peaks and Pints Vancouver Beer Flight: Hold My Beer Film
Victor-23 Birkebeinerpils
4.7% ABV
On a stormy evening in November 1971, a man known as D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 flying from Portland to Seattle. In Seattle, D.B. released all the passengers once the plane was refueled, and he was given two parachutes and $200,000 in cash. The plane soon departed, and the pilot was directed to fly south on the Victor-23 airway. Somewhere in Southwest Washington, Cooper lowered the rear stairway and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Victor-23 Brewing celebrates this unsolved crime daily from their brewery on St. Johns Street in Vancouver. Their Birkebeinerpils Nordic-style pilsner, honored by the famous Norwegian ski race, is crisp, refreshing, and crushable.
Brothers Cascadia Grain To Glass
5.5% ABV
Sherman Gore, Richard Tiffany, and Jason Bos had big eyes when their bosses of Portland-based Laurelwood Public House & Brewery sold their popular Battle Ground location to Eric and Paula Starr, who transformed the space into Northwood Public House & Brewery. The trio convinced the new owners to dust off the cobwebs on a 2-barrel brewing system so they could brew beer for the neighborhood. Three years later, Gore, Bos, and Tiffany opened Brothers Cascadia Brewing in the Vancouver neighborhood of Hazel Dell on April 10, 2017. The trio opened with a 12-barrel brewery in an auto shop, which allowed for a wall of 40 oak barrels separating its long bar from the brewing floor. Brewed with Motueka, Cascade, and Amarillo hops, this American pale ale offers a citrusy lemon-lime, floral, and mild pine hop profile, mingling with a malt backbone reminiscent of toasty, biscuity fresh baked bread.
Loowit Brewing Silent Trees IPA
6.6% ABV
Peaks & Pints has a new house beer, Loowit Brewing Silent Trees IPA. On the morning of May 18, 1980, after a century and a quarter of quiescence, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake triggered the explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens. The volcano’s northern face collapsed, burying Spirit Lake and the headwaters of the Toutle River beneath hundreds of feet of avalanche debris. The accompanying blast sent winds of 600 mph and 400 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit, sweeping across the landscape, leveling forests, vaporizing foliage, and searing soils. When the smoke and ash cleared, more than 240 square miles of forest north of the peak became silent. A fringe of standing, dead, ash-covered trees formed a “ghost forest” around the blowdown and the ground was blanketed with tephra and ash. Mount St. Helens is also known as “Loowit,” a Native American name for the mountain, specifically from the Klickitat tribe, and is often associated with a legend where Loowit was a beautiful maiden transformed into the mountain. In 2010, longtime friends Devon Bray and Thomas Poffenroth opened Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver, Washington, helping revive the city and quickly became a force in the Southwest Washington beer scene. Loowit Head Brewer Landon Smith joined the ownership team during the pandemic and continues his tradition of brewing excellence. Loowit Brewing collaborated with Peaks & Pines on the Tacoma craft beer lodge’s house beer, Silent Trees IPA. Paying homage to the trees around Mount St. Helens and the outdoor enthusiasts who join Peaks daily in Tacoma’s Proctor District, Silent Trees IPA is the perfect beer to toast the Loowit Trail. This challenging loop circumnavigates Mount Saint Helens through the trees. Silent Trees IPA continues Peaks & Pints’ love affair with old-school piney IPAs, this time brewed with Simcoe, Columbus, and Chinook for all the pine and citrus.
Trap Door TANG
6.8% ABV
One is bound to get thirsty when one is orbiting Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. That’s presumably what happened to astronaut John Glenn while taking his jaunt around the globe on Feb. 20, 1962. Unfortunately, the poor taste of the onboard life support system water (due to a nontoxic chemical reaction) made that option not particularly attractive. Luckily, Glenn had Tang. Too bad he didn’t have Trap Door Brewing’s TANG when he landed. It’s a classic Trap Door New England-style IPA with a soft, fluffy body and minimal bitterness. Featuring El Dorado from Roy Farms and Mosaic from Yakima Chief, this batch of TANG radiates orange PEZ with a supporting cast of grapefruit.
Fortside BBA Night King 2024
14% ABV
In 2015, Michael Difabio and Mark Doleski, both Vancouver’s Prairie High School graduates, opened the 3,900 square-foot Fortside Brewing Company on the “Fort”-side of the mighty Columbia River. The “Fort” represents Fort Vancouver, a monumental landmark in the Pacific Northwest that persists as a strong, powerful, and resilient symbol of this area’s heritage. Their bourbon barrel-aged Night King is a rich, velvety brew layered with notes of cocoa powder, coffee, and tons of chocolate, finishing with sweet hints of marshmallow.
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