On this day in 1909, Tacoma put on its fanciest hat, gathered its loudest marching band, and declared itself center stage at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Tacoma Day was a spectacle—15,000 proud residents parading through 20 blocks of downtown Seattle, speeches about Mt. Rainier and industrial supremacy, fireworks over Elliott Bay, and a not-so-subtle reminder that the City of Destiny had every right to strut. Today, Peaks & Pints raises a taster glass (or five) to Tacoma’s chutzpah with a beer flight brewed entirely within city limits. No I-5 traffic jams. No bridges. No Seattle collabs. Just Tacoma breweries doing what they do best: fermenting boldness, innovation, and identity into every keg, can, and bottle. From Tacoma’s first craft brewery mooning us to the youngest brewery on the flight giving us a high-5, this flight is a declaration: Tacoma brews loud. Tacoma brews proud. Tacoma brews Tacoma. Peaks & Pints in Tacoma puts Tacoma on its Wednesday flight, Peaks & Pints Tacoma Day Beer Flight.
Peaks & Pints Tacoma Day Beer Flight
E9 Brewing Moon Maiden
6% ABV
Ah, Moon Maiden — a name that sounds like a forgotten ’70s prog album and drinks like apricot starlight filtered through oak and alchemy. E9 Brewing summons this farmhouse ale from the depths of its foudre with mixed cultures, Okanogan apricots, and just the right amount of cosmic funk. It’s tart but not sharp, juicy but not sweet, dry but not parched — the kind of beer that might whisper fermented lunar secrets if you tilt your glass just so. Drink it while pondering how Tacoma got so damn good at making beers that feel like spells.
Odd Otter Ottermelon
5% ABV
Behold Ottermelon, the beer equivalent of a backyard slip ’n slide on the hottest Tacoma afternoon, cannonballing straight through your wheat-beer expectations. Odd Otter Brewing, those perennial mischief-makers of Pacific Avenue, toss the usual banana-clove Hefe notes out the window and instead infuse this summertime classic with a fat wedge of watermelon joy. It’s hazy, it’s juicy, it’s barely 5% — which is just enough to make you giggle without making you nap. Think wheat fields in swim trunks. Think Tacoma in a watermelon sugar daydream. A beer that doesn’t take itself seriously, because it knows you will.
Narrows Octo IPA
6% ABV
Some IPAs arrive cloaked in haze and Instagram filters. Not Octo IPA. This Narrows Brewing stalwart comes barreling in from the western lip of Tacoma with eight metaphorical arms full of pine, citrus zest, and just enough Centennial swagger to remind you that bitterness still has teeth — and charm. Built on a simple 2-row malt base and fermented clean with Chico yeast, it’s not trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s trying to drive it straight through a sunlit hop field with the windows down. An IPA for the parade route, the porch, and the pause between the Tacoma Day speech your grandpa has on the menu tonight.
7 Seas Hold Fast Double IPA
7.7% ABV
Hold Fast Double IPA doesn’t saunter — it ropes itself to the mast and howls into the gale. Brewed by 7 Seas Brewing in Tacoma’s old Heidelberg brewery with the kind of defiant swagger Tacoma Day demands, this hop cannon fires Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe, Comet, and Azacca into a bright burst of tangerine oil, resinous pine, and dank floral bravado. The malt is present but polite, like a good ship’s crew — letting the hops command the helm while keeping the ride smooth. It’s bold, it’s bitter, it’s beautifully balanced. A beer made not to drift, but to drive straight into whatever waves come next.
Sig 5th Anniversary IPA
7.8% ABV
Sig Brewing’s 5th Anniversary IPA pops into the glass like a defiant birthday candle you didn’t ask for—but damn, are you glad it’s lit. At a confident 7.8% ABV, this West Coast IPA is hopped up with Roy Farms Chinook and Strata in the kettle, then double-dry-hopped with Strata CGX, Galaxy, and Nelson Sauvin, layering juicy tropical fruit atop dank resin and pine. Sticky but not sloppy—this is a beer that cheers to half a decade of Sig evolution while still dropping into your throat like permission to stay loud.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
