pFriem Family Brewers wasn’t born so much as engineered into being — a precision-built fusion of Belgian reverence, Pacific Northwest wildness, and Josh Pfriem’s relentless compulsion to chase the perfect pint. Since opening in Hood River in 2012, the brewery has grown into something like a cathedral for craft drinkers: a place where stainless tanks gleam like instruments, the Columbia River wind rattles fermenter jackets, and beers emerge with both scientific clarity and monkish devotion. Their lagers are sharpened to a blade; their IPAs hum with hop geometry; their mixed-culture and barrel programs are practically liturgical, pulling fruit and oak into compositions that feel more like seasons captured in liquid than anything as mundane as beer. pFriem’s reputation now spans festivals, continents, and palates — yet the heart of it remains the same: a family-rooted brewery hellbent on making beer not just delicious, but meaningful.
Peaks & Pints has its own long-running winter ritual entwined with the brewery’s — our annual “We’re pFrieming of a Craft Beer Christmas,” an evening when the taplist glitters like a holiday altar and Josh’s creations arrive as if Santa traded sleigh bells for stainless tri-clamps. Each December, we turn into the South Sound’s unofficial pFriem embassy: cellar gems uncapped, fresh batches unveiled, beloved classics returning like prodigal cousins, and always a room full of murmured awe. Farmer Matt arrives, the place hums, and suddenly Hood River and Tacoma feel like neighboring villages sharing one radiant solstice toast.
And now here we are again, with today’s flight arranged like a constellation across the bar — fruit-laced wilds, oak-aged reveries, West Coast sparks, and holiday darkness — each pour its own tiny comet. Think of this lineup as an invitation to wander pFriem’s winter galaxy and taste how elegance, season, and intention can collide in five directions at once.
Peaks & Pints pFrieming Beer Flight
pFriem Stone Fruit Cuvée
6.3% ABV | Barrel-Aged Fruited Saison | Hood River, OR
Stone Fruit Cuvée arrives like a warm breeze drifting in from some remembered August, unfolding apricot flesh, nectarine perfume, and peach-skin glow coaxed from Gunkel orchards and rested in French oak. Melon and orchard nectar glide in behind it, chased by a hush of wild yeast and a faint oak exhale that feels almost conspiratorial, as if the barrel room and the Columbia Gorge traded secrets. It finishes bright and gently funky, a saison that doesn’t mimic fruit so much as echo the memory of picking it.
pFriem La Mûre
6.49% ABV | Barrel-Aged Fruited Sour Ale
La Mûre enters the glass with the ceremony of a winter ritual, layering Oregon black-caps, marionberries, and raspberries into a dark, wine-tinged tapestry. French oak offers rose and white pepper murmurs beneath the fruit, while acidity sweeps clean through the palate like a taut violin string catching the last of the dusk light. Pomegranate, acai, pine, and earth appear in slow, cascading waves until the whole thing settles into one ruby-lit moment where summer briefly returns, refuses to leave, and tastes all the better for it.
pFriem + Green Cheek Beer Company California IPA
7% ABV | American IPA | Hood River, OR & Orange, CA
This collaboration with Green Cheek Beer bursts in like two hop fanatics racing each other down a sun-washed boulevard, Mosaic and Mosaic Cryo glowing electric while Citra and Eclipse flick citrus sparks in all directions. Pineapple light skims across the palate, pulled tight by a crisp, resin-trimmed bitterness that snaps everything into beach-day focus. It drinks like coastal joy rendered in hops — bright, breezy, and crafted with the kind of exuberance only two breweries having far too much fun can manage.
pFriem Double IPA
9.1% ABV | Double IPA
Double IPA marches forward with coppered radiance, its aromatics buzzing with papaya heat, strawberry hints, and grapefruit baked in high summer sun. Chinook, Amarillo, Simcoe, and El Dorado rise together into a hop-built monolith that spills open with citrus pulp, papaya candy, and a piney scrape that feels like tangerine rind dragged across warm wood. The finish stays clean and luminous, offering a bold, generous hop journey that somehow expands the room around it.
pFriem Belgian Christmas Ale
8.5% ABV | Belgian-Style Strong Dark Ale | Hood River, OR
Belgian Christmas Ale settles into the glass with the glow of stained glass kissed by candlelight, weaving dark candi sugar, milk chocolate softness, and orange zest warmth into a profoundly comforting winter hush. Coriander wanders through the malt depth like a secret solstice spell, and Perle, Tettnang, and Cashmere offer a delicate herbal lift around the edges. The result feels like a midnight feast in some monastery kitchen — spiced, rich, and softly radiant — meant for fireside gatherings and December nights that last a little longer on purpose.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
