Some breweries chase trends. Some chase medals. And then there’s Vice Beer, which seems to operate like a highly caffeinated transmission intercepted somewhere between a Star Wars convention, a Portland dive bar, and a garage full of half-finished IPA ideas scribbled on pizza boxes at 1:17 in the morning. And somehow — against all reasonable odds — it works beautifully.
Wednesday, Peaks & Pints hands the taps over to Vice Beer and welcomes Michael Perozzo back for his fourth trip through the Grit & Grain Podcast universe, recorded live at 3:30 p.m. in our Events Room. Episode 70 was the origin story — DarthBlazer lore, fandom energy, the strange early signals of a brewery figuring out its own language. Episode 162 felt like momentum building. Episode 188 arrives differently. Vice Beer now walks in as the 2026 Tournament of Beer champion, a 13-seed that survived one-vote knife fights, toppled giants, and beat Fort George by just 12 votes in the final round. Not dominance. Momentum. Community. The kind of win that grows person by person until suddenly the whole galaxy notices.
Which makes this flight feel less like a gimmick and more like a worldview.
Because these beers aren’t just references slapped on labels. They’re extensions of the same idea Vice keeps proving over and over: that humor and precision can occupy the same glass. That fandom can become identity. That beer can still be playful without becoming disposable. So the taps light up with hazy rebel transmissions, tiki-sour hallucinations, baseball-space hybrids, citrus-loaded Cloud City fog, and key lime pie nonsense somehow engineered with actual brewing discipline underneath the chaos.
It’s Star Wars Day aftershock energy spilling directly into Tacoma — loud labels, sharp hops, strange colors, and a brewery fully comfortable being specific instead of universal. Which, honestly, might be why people keep showing up in the first place.
Peaks & Pints Wednesday Vice Beer Flight
Vice Beer Bantha Blue Milk
6.9% ABV | Fruited Tiki Sour | Vancouver, Washington
Electric blue and absolutely unconcerned with subtlety, this thing bursts open with pineapple tang and creamy coconut before banana sweetness rolls through like a tropical hallucination at the edge of the galaxy, the sourness bright enough to keep the whole experience from floating into dessert oblivion while sea salt and bourbon-soaked vanilla add a strange little gravity beneath the neon chaos, turning a one-scene Star Wars beverage into a full cantina fever dream, the finish tart, silky, and just bizarre enough to become someone’s favorite bad decision of the night.
Vice Beer Wookie Lime Pie
5.9% ABV | Fruited Sour Ale
Bright key lime comes charging in first, sharp and tropical and just puckering enough to wake up the entire table before waves of creamy vanilla and honeyed graham cracker soften the landing, the sea salt adding a sly little cocktail shimmer beneath all the dessert-shop chaos, the body silky without turning heavy, tartness keeping everything agile and dangerously drinkable, transforming pie, nostalgia, and full cantina nonsense into a finish that lingers like citrus zest on warm fingers after the last impossible slice disappears.
Vice Beer The Umpire Strikes Back
6% ABV | XPA
A bright crack of grapefruit and tropical citrus flashes across the palate first, then Mosaic’s softer mango glow settles into a clean, breezy frame while a faint piney snap from Columbus keeps the whole thing from drifting too far into sweetness, the body lean and highly crushable, built more for dugout banter and sunlit innings than hop brutality, Vice Beer threading rebellion and baseball mythology into a finish that lands crisp, zesty, and suspiciously easy to keep ordering even after the call clearly should’ve gone your way.
Vice Beer No Sleep ’Til Bespin
7.2% ABV | DDH Hazy IPA
Clouds of mango, grapefruit, and ripe citrus roll across the palate first, thick with that soft Citra-and-Mosaic glow hazy drinkers keep chasing, while underneath the fruit a faint dank edge flickers like machinery humming beneath Cloud City itself, the body plush and velvety without tipping into syrup, bitterness staying low and smooth so the tropical saturation can stretch out and linger, turning hop haze into a full intergalactic afterparty that finishes juicy, dreamy, and suspiciously capable of convincing you one more pint is still a perfectly reasonable idea.
Vice Beer DarthBlazer
6.9% ABV | West Coast IPA
The first hit comes sharp and glowing — lime zest, grapefruit peel, and a flash of tropical guava cutting through a resinous pine backbone like neon sabers crossing in a darkened arena, the bitterness firm but clean, carrying just enough old-school West Coast snap to keep the whole thing grounded while the fruit notes shimmer around the edges, a little swagger, a little menace, the finish dry, bright, and strangely cinematic, like someone just dimmed the lights at center court and the hops decided destiny required entrance music.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
