And so begins Day Two of Tacoma Beer Week, where the air is thick with hops, the weather is moody in the most cinematic of ways, and the city’s pint glasses are slowly but surely preparing for battle. The barley has been summoned. The brewers are caffeinated. And Monday night, dear drinkers, is anything but a warm-up act.
🍻 MONDAY, AUG. 3
Ales. Wheels. Mystery. Mild Risk of Randall Madness.
🧪 Randall Night — 5 p.m., Parkway Tavern
Enter the Randall, that mad-scientist vessel of infusions and surprises. Enter Sean, Parkway’s resident beer whisperer and master of the hop-enhanced unknown. And enter Pacific Brewing and Malting Co.’s Citra Pale, which will be run through … what, exactly? Szechuan peppercorns? Fruit Loops? Spruce tips harvested by druids at midnight? You’ll have to stop by and see, because Sean isn’t telling, and the Randall isn’t confessing.
🎬 Tacoma Neo Noir Tapping — 6 p.m., Narrows Brewing
You know that bottle you saved from 2014? The one you never opened because “it’s a special occasion” and now it lives behind the pickles and that suspicious jar of kimchi? Narrows didn’t forget. Tonight, they blow the dust off a sacred keg of Tacoma Neo Noir, the 2014 Tacoma Beer Week collaboration beer, and put it on tap. It’s dark. It’s smooth. It’s noir in the way that Raymond Chandler would appreciate: brooding, with a hint of hops and a flash of regret.
🎡 Beer of Fortune — 6 p.m., The Ale House Pub & Eatery
Part game show, part beer ritual, part fever dream. Picture it: a giant wheel, labeled with beer styles. Letters on a wall. Pints in hand. The Narrows Brewing and Northwest Brewing teams standing by with raised eyebrows and restless fermentations. If the wheel lands on the style you’re sipping? A letter is revealed. If it’s their own beer? A vowel is theirs. The rest is up to the fates, the foam, and how many saisons you’ve had. It’s Wheel of Fortune meets homebrew club meets improv night at your uncle’s garage.
Three events. One city. Infinite opportunity to drink something you’ve never tasted, say something you might regret, and celebrate the fact that Tacoma, glorious Tacoma, knows how to beer better than most.
Stay tuned. The week is young. The pint is only half full.
For more information, click here.
