Before Sunday slips back into its usual, sensible quiet, there’s one last luminous echo from October’s Tacoma Arts Month: Arts at the Armory, the annual metamorphosis of the Tacoma Arts Live‘s historic Tacoma Armory into a living, humming cathedral of creation. For one weekend only, more than 130 local artists gather beneath those cavernous rafters to coax cold November light into something incandescent — ceramics still warm from the kiln, prints whispering fresh ink, textiles soft as early snowfall, glass catching the sun like bottled fire. It isn’t merely a market; it’s a communal pulse, a temporary city of color and intention where neighbors become patrons, patrons become collectors, and everyone leaves carrying a piece of Tacoma’s beating heart.
Eventually, even the most art-hypnotized wanderer needs a landing pad — a warm table, five small glasses, and a moment to breathe through the thrill of the treasures now rustling in your tote. That’s where Peaks & Pints unfurls its welcome.
So today, we offer the After Art at the Armory Beer Flight — a five-glass meditation for the art-saturated, the treasure-laden, the Tacoma-proud on the market’s final day. Think of it as the city’s soft exhale: a place to set your new sculpture, admire your fresh print, turn over your handmade talisman, and let good beer blur the line between reflection and celebration. Spread out your finds, sip slowly, and watch them sparkle all over again through the gentle glow of a flight designed for admiration and delight.
Hit the Armory. Fill your tote. Then come here and compose your Instagram masterpiece.
Here’s Sunday’s flight…
Peaks & Pints: After Art at the Armory Beer Flight
Claim 52 THICC: Vampire Variety
5% ABV | Smoothie-Style Sour | Eugene, OR
A full technicolor rush kicks off the flight with Claim 52’s THICC: Vampire Variety, a smoothie-style sour that bites softly but dramatically, as though the fruit gods grew bored and threw a rave inside the fermenter. Pineapple, raspberry, peach, grape, watermelon, and vanilla blend into a riotously thick pour, perfumed with tropical swoon and peach-creamsicle sorcery. Tartness flashes first, followed by creamy fruit waves that feel like a summer produce stand reincarnated as mischief. INSTAGRAM SNAP: The perfect companion for anyone who just bought a Nightmare Before Christmas–ish tree ornament and now wants a beer that matches that exact chaotic whimsy for the Internet.
ColdFire Easy Tiger Pilsner
4.7% ABV | Pilsner | Eugene, OR
A gentle reset follows with ColdFire Brewing‘s Easy Tiger, gliding in with the unruffled composure of a cat stretching into a sunbeam it absolutely owns. Built on German Pilsner malt and hopped with Lemon Drop, Lorien, and Saphir, it flashes grapefruit zest, lemon lift, and a whisper of herbs before settling into a crisp, pepper-kissed finish. There’s an ease to it — clean, balanced, quietly confident — the ideal palate-cleanser after 130 booths of sensory overload. Instagram Snap: Pair it with that Easy Tiger comforter you definitely didn’t need but absolutely bought anyway — a serene still life of stripes, calm, and perfect restraint.
Old Schoolhouse Eddy Hopper IPA
6.5% ABV | Hazy IPA | Winthrop, WA
Momentum returns with Old Schoolhouse Brewery‘s Eddy Hopper IPA, swirling in with the breezy charm of a river guide who’s memorized every eddy by heart. Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe, and Southern Cross saturate the glass with mango, mandarin, pine, and floral lift, pouring soft gold and finishing clean as a mountain breeze. It drinks smooth, juicy, and self-assured — a hazy that doesn’t follow fashion so much as let hops speak their truth. INSTAGRAM SNAP: Grab the fluffy bunny named Eddy at Arts at the Armory, park him next to a taster of Eddy Hopper, and behold the weekend’s most adorable beer-bunny crossover.
Ladd & Lass Olympic Peaks
6.8% ABV | Northwest IPA | Seattle, WA
Ladd & Lass Brewing‘s Olympic Peaks steps in with the quiet authority of a mountain range at dusk — garnet-tinged, resin-bright, and shaped by Centennial, Simcoe, and Citra riding a base of 2-Row and Vienna malt. Citrus zest sparks first, pine follows, and a warm, coppery malt line hums beneath it all like the last sunbeam slipping off a ridge. It’s crisp, contemplative, beautifully Northwest. INSTAGRAM SNAP: Position this beer beside your newly acquired embroidered Olympic Mountains topography sweater for a perfect shrine to texture, terrain, and handmade detail.
Hoof Hearted The Astro Turf of Hair
10% ABV | Triple Hazy IPA | Marengo, OH
Rounding out the flight is an unapologetic spectacle: The Astro Turf of Hair, a Hoof Hearted Brewing triple hazy IPA that struts in like a glam-rock fever dream. Nectaron, Riwaka, and Kohatu unleash mango, peach, passionfruit, and a sly herbal undercurrent, all wrapped in a soft, dreamy body that hides its 10% ABV with suspicious charm. It’s playful, indulgent, and joyously weird — exactly the sort of beer that embraces art-market energy and turns it up a notch. INSTAGRAM SNAP: Photograph it next to one of the market’s wilder wigs — lavender bobs, neon mullets, whatever calls to you — because nothing pairs with a beer this delightfully unhinged like a new hair identity.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
