We Drink Beer So You Don't Have To

Are we burning out, or is the beer just getting boring? How many beers can one suck down in a lifetime and still get wowed? Not many apparently.
Read on, dear reader, read on:

Snoqualmie
Summer Beer Pilsener ABV 5.6%
Little to none (or is it no) nose, maybe a hint of lemon drop. Lemon pith on the tongue. Other than that not much else going on here.

2 out of 5

E9
Pale ABV 6% approx.
Very fresh, maybe not ready for market. Tastes a little like banana laffy-taffy. Solid finish for a young beer. Will be interesting to see where this ends up.

3 out of 5

Iron Horse
High Five Hefeweizen ABV 6%
Brewed with ginger and honey. Again, no nose to speak of. Do we speak of noses? Apparently not. Soda like carbonation. Ginger is very subtle and the honey comes through very lightly at the end. Decent mouthfeel, but needs more of something..ginger maybe?

1 out of 5

Rubicon
IPA ABV 6.5%
What's that smell? Them's there hops, Love that gummy worm aroma. Smells good but tastes like shit. Oh dear, we hope this is off.

No score

Lagunitas
Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Imperial Mild ABV 9.03%
Tastes like a liquid fruit roll-up but with a weird after taste. Kind of like artificial cotton candy, not the real stuff we are used to..very sweet. If you want to get a 9 year old drunk on craft beer this is it.

2 out of 5

Southern Tier
Oak-Aged Unearthly IPA ABV 11%
More cotton candy on the nose. Comes across with that big Southern Tier intense, stick to yer gums, complex, profile. Imagine your morning orange juice with a load of hops. The oak is a distraction but not overwhelming.

3 out of 5

Dogfish Head
Raison D'Etre ABV 8%
For those of you whose foreign language skills revolve around the "Dos mas, dude" school, Raison D'Etre is foreign for "reason for being." Unfortunately, we could find no reason for this beer being (that's a segue, from the Italian seguire, to follow).
Enough etymology already. The beer smells like an old smoky motel room. Smoky flavors up front, too, with a big sweet malty profile. Taste's like Christmas pudding, that's foreign, too. Maybe if you're from the Right Coast, and this is what you're used to, you would get what this is aiming at. We didn't.

Unanimous 1 out of 1

Southern Tier
Backburner Barleywine ABV 10%
Smells like Nestea. Slightly sweet but not overdone, surprising for this brewery. But this is what barley wine should taste like. Not over-hopped and not too sweet. The finish, however, brings us to near fisticuffs. Lip-smacking or non-existent? You're going to have to decide for yourself because we are all drunk by now.

3 out of 5 (That's 2s and 4s)

Rodenbach
Grand Cru Flanders Red Ale ABV 5%
Sour cherry pie nose morphing into A1 sauce. Little bit of apple and a hint of cranberry but puckery on the front of the palate. Needs some time, and sipping, to bring on the wine like flavors and complexity.

4 out of 5 (Included a 1 and a 5)

Dumpbucket
We often enjoy our dumpbucket experience. Who can predict what might be created from the random accumulation of discarded slops? Well, maybe anyone could.
Smells awful, like a wet diaper. In the history of dumpbuckets possibly the worst. Cover cardboard with earwax, not your own, suck on it, and it might taste like this. Still not as bad as Cali-Belgique though.

Knuckle-o-meter: Red Zone
Hobo: Gimme a quarter.
Chugability: In Pullman, maybe.
Panel: < π

Shameless Self-Promotion

Appearing tonight at the Red Hot:

Yakima Craft Brewing IPA (Yakima, WA)
Avery IPA (Boulder, CO)
Boundary Bay IPA (Bellingham, WA)
Mirror Mirror (Bend, OR)
Maritime Pacific Clipper Gold Hefeweizen (Seattle, WA)
Elysian Golden Boot (Seattle, WA)
NITRO: Deschutes Cinder Cone Red (Bend, OR)
Yakima Craft Brewing Good Monkey Belgian Strong Golden Ale (Yakima, WA)
Hales Troll Porter (Seattle, WA)
Fish Tale Poseidon Imperial Stout (Olympia, WA)
Rainier (The Beer From Here)

Chris also mentions this stuff coming soon:
Elysian/New Belgium's Collaboration Trip 2, Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale, Big Al's Smoked Porter and, thanks to our broheims at The Parkway, The Red Hot's new Randall (THE HOP DOG!) will all be in the house VERY soon! The cask engine project got sidestepped, but rest assured, it is coming soon as well. The bike for reCYCLE the Bike Night #3 will be up on Sunday!

Meanwhile, the Parkway tapped Left Hand 4oo LB Monkey IPA, Victory Rauch Porter, Silver City Deluxe Malt Liquor, and Elysian Cyclops Barleywine. I also hear that they are planning to tap Pliny and Homo next Friday.

We Drink Beer So You Don't Have To

In anticipation of this week's US vs. Belgium thing at the PW (Wed. May 27th 6pm -close) we sucked down a lot of Belgiany, and some of your actual Belgian, beers.
Here's what we came up with:

Dupont
Foret Saison ABV 7.5%
Sweet and slightly skunky, honey aroma. Meringue like head. Mouth feel similar to a cider, bubbly and apple-like. Lacks the cow manure and hay flavors we might expect from this style. Kind of like a High Life Saison. Some rubber band aromas in the back end. We'd like to try this beer at the brewery.

3 out of 5

Boulevard
Zon Witbier ABV 4.4%
Ahhh, the delicious aroma of artificial banana. Is that the aroma of fake banana or a fake banana aroma. You decide. But it smells better than it tastes. Very clean, possibly too clean. Your tongue might ask "Where's the beer?"

1 out of 5

Gouden Carolus
Hopsinjoor Blond ABV 8%
Less cloudy than urine, mine at least. Very lively out of the bottle, shampooey almost. Cheese on the nose, some hops but not much bitter.

2 out of 5

Huyghe
Delirium Tremens ABV 8.5%
Rife with flaky schmegma! That was fun to write. Butter, apples and grain on the nose. Big in the mouth. That was fun to write, too. Balanced, buttery, flavors with a subtle, pleasant, spicey finish. Maybe pepper or eucalyptus.

4 out of 5

Gouden Carolous
Tripel ABV 9%
Not very tripely for a tripel. Fizzy, like a soda , and an astringent nose. An odd flavor, lacks schmegma. Could use more creaminess, and more banana.

1 out of 5

Boulevard
Long Strange Tripel ABV 9%
Aaah, a beer with some color. Smells good, nice carbonation, and a creamy mouth feel. We like it so far. Caramel and spice, well balanced with candy sugar...mmm. Significant body and a hint of sourness in the back. That's a good beer.

4 out of 5

Ommegang
Abbey Dubbel ABV 8.5%
Smells like wort..you know that smell. Toffee and raisins and dates up front and in the middle. Slightly burnt malt, or well roasted, we couldn't decide.

2 out of 5

Unibroue
Trois Pistoles ABV 9%
Smells like chemicals, you know... chemicals, and copper. And way too sweet.

1 out of 5

Fort George
North II Grand Crue Belgian Barleywine ABV 8%
Smells kind of like a Hot Tamale. Spicy and sour on the palate but lacking body. Very different and interesting, though. Might benefit from barrel aging or leaving alone for a couple of years.

3 out of 5

Huyghe
Delirium Nocturnum ABV 9%
More flakey, flakey schmegma. Coppery nose. Disappointingly boring. Not unlike malty pennies.

1 out of 5

Pike
Double IPA ABV 8%
Piney aromas with hints of fresh bread. A Northwest double needs a little more oomph. Would make a great regular IPA.

3 out of 5

Dumpbucket
No better or worse than anything we sampled tonight. It's roasty and creamy and barely metallic. Some lingering hops, actually it's damn good!

Knuckle-o-meter: Neutral
Hobo: Would go to town
Chugability: A fat zero
Panel: Unanimous 3 out of 5

Gayl Bertagni

I received this today:

The Swiss pub will be closed through Sunday, May 31st, reopening for business on Monday, June 1st.

The celebration of Gayl Bertagni’s life will continue on Saturday, May 30th beginning at 3:00 pm at The Swiss Pub, 1904 South Jefferson, Tacoma, WA 98402. The Swiss is expecting quite a bit of turnout, and while they will be providing some food for the guests, would also like to request that you please bring a dish that you would have enjoyed sharing with Gayl.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Emergency Food Network and support your local farmers.

USA! USA!

It's unlikely that the US will emerge victorious from The Parkway's USA vs. Belgium beer challenge. They haven't come close in years past but it is a pretty good excuse to drink a bunch of great beer. The tasting runs from 6pm to close on Wednesday May 27th and the line-up will probably look like this:

Big Al’s Trippel vs. Witkap Pater Tripel

Great Divide Saison vs. Dupont Foret

Hale’s IX Golden vs. Van Honsebrouck Brigand

Cascade Mouton Rouge vs. Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru

Victory Abbey 6 vs. Delerium Nocturnum

Allagash Wit vs. Hoegaarden

Avery The Rev. Quadrupel vs. Gouden Carolus Rood

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice vs. N’ice Chouffe

And don't forget the giant bottle of Ste. Feuillien Tripel, a beer that is probably worthy of a 5 out of 5. See you there.

Gayl Bertagni

I got the news late Friday night and it sounded so improbable that I went to sleep believing it was. Saturday sucked.
If you knew Gayl you already know about her passion, her compassion, her smile, and her vibrant approach to life. But, here's what I thought about on Saturday morning:

Years ago, waiting for my shift to begin on a Saturday night Gayl would put a huge plate of Carbonara in front of me and make me feel like I was the only person in the world she would feed that night. Man, that Carbonara is good!

I'd been called in for a performance review. I'd recently been made weekend manager at the Swiss, a position I had little experience at, so I was a little apprehensive. Bob, Jack, and I sat silent in the office, maybe they were more nervous than me. After a while Gayl, always busy in the kitchen, arrived and sat down, looked around and said, "Mister O, you're doing great." Jack and Bob nodded mutely. End of review. And I got a raise.

The last time I saw Gayl was at the Christmas party. Looking for her, I wandered back into the kitchen, because I could, where I found her slaving away making sure everyone was fed. As always, I got a kiss and a huge hug, just what I went looking for, of course. I'll miss that.

I owe a lot to the folks from the Swiss. Jack and Bob taught me the bar tending and managing ropes, but it was Gayl with her encouragement, and her confidence in me, that gave me the confidence to continue on my path. I wish I had told her that.

It's impossible to imagine the Swiss without Gayl: It's impossible to imagine the world without Gayl.

We Drink Beer So You Don't Have To

Clearing out the old back pack I came across some flaking parchment containing the well-considered notes of tastings long gone. I know you could care less but here is the longest Panel report ever. Forgive the occasional brevity:

Unibroue
Quatre-Centieme Ale on Lees 7.5% ABV
Brewed for the 400th anniversary of somewhere very old. Pale lemon yellow colour with a slight haze. Aromatic nose. Lemony but sweet, maybe like a lemon meringue but richer...custard! Slightly sweet in the finish with hints of spice and white pepper. Vive les Francophiles!

3 out of 5

Rogue Issaquah
White Frog Witbier ? ABV
A cloudy yellow urine color (you can tell already we don't like this one) with a delicious Heinie skunk aroma. First impressions are of cheap Chinese food..no body and all spice. Apparently, there are thirteen ingredients in this beer so perfectly balanced they could have used none. If you've ever chewed on an East Indian dude's nuts, as we all have, this beer will remind you of that night. And I hope you still keep in touch with him.

1 out of 5

Grand Teton
XX Sweetgrass Double IPA 7.6% ABV
Super malty nose!!! Yikes, a bad bottle we hope.

Red Lodge
Bent Nail IPA 6.3% ABV
Now, that smells like a beer we might want to drink. Nice hop aroma, nice up front, washes out in the middle with a nice hop finish. Easy drinking. What more can we say, it's nice.

A nice 3 out of 3

E9
IPA ?ABV
Very little aroma, piney first but then like chewing on a hop cone. Very dry, so dry it needs some food to wash it down. Or maybe a PBR back.

3 out of 5

Firestone Walker
Union Jack IPA 7.5% ABV
Honey colored, good citrusy nose. A text book IPA, good but not enough oomph to keep our interest. Good beer, though, from people who usually make tires. Very easy drinking for a 7.5%.

3 out of 5

North Coast
Old Stock 12.5% ABV
Oh yeah..that's a barleywine. Or old ale whatever you want to call it. Caramel malt nose, boozy too. Very sweet and alcohol forward with big brandy notes. Calling this a beer seems to do it a disservice. Some disagreement with the scoring though.

2 out of 5

Dumpbucket so far
Knuckle-o-meter: Negatory
Hobo: Once more with the "Hells, yeah..dumbass."
Chugability: 16 out of 17
Panel: An accidental 4 out of 5

Alaskan
White Ale Witbier 5.3% ABV
Smells like yer Grandma's Avon soap, sorry Grandma. Bland and boring throughout. Doesn't taste as good as it smells.....and it doesn't smell that good.

1 out of 5

Pyramid
Curveball Blonde 5.0% ABV
Makes mowing the lawn less fun.

2 out of 5

Victory
Sunrise Weissbier 5.7% ABV
Big, but not overwhelming banana and clove nose. Slightly sweet and a good thick mouthfeel with solid carbonation. Light, fluffy, and refreshing. Lead me to the lawn, dammit!!

3 out of 5

Trade Route
Infidel Pale Ale 8.0% ABV
If anyone has seen a drawing board please direct these guys in the direction of it. Whoever thought that putting lime in a beer was a good idea...oh wait there's those one guys. But if you are going to put fruit in your beer at least make it the tasty part and not the pith. Durian Dunkelweizen anyone?

1 out of 5

New Belgium/Elysian
The Trip 2 ?ABV
Big citrus nose, (I like the sound of that "Hey, you, big citrus nose!") kind of like peeling an orange. Tastes like sugared ruby red grapefruit. Lightly carbonated and falls a little flat halfway on the palate. This was an early taster, so maybe it wasn't quite ready, but again we ask ourselves "Are Belgian IPAs really such a good idea?"

2 out of 5

Powerhouse
Brass Monk ?ABV
Sweet up front. Tastes more like a Belgian IPA than the last offering though we aren't sure it's supposed to. But the sweetness keeps on coming and coming. Hints of citrus notes but not enough to balance that, all together now, sweetness.

3 out of 5

Smuttynose
Really Old Brown Dog Old Ale 9.1% ABV
Malty and roasty. Alcohol is prelevant. Is there really a difference between this, an old ale, and a barleywine? Maybe to you smarter beer geeks. But this is delicious. Slight vanilla thing going on and very rich. Like smoking Grampa's pipe.

3 out of 5

Avery
The Reverend Quadrupel 10% ABV
Who burnt this beer? Smells and tastes like a Chinese, no, a Vietnamese kitchen. All fish sauce and kelp. Very metallic. On the upside, for some, the more we drank the fishier it became.

1 out of 5

Weyerbacher
Old Heather Imperial Stout 8.0% ABV
How is it possible to smell a lack of body in a beer? Slightly roasty and chocolatey but needs much more fatness. Light and watery. Call it a porter and you might have something.

2 out of 5

Avery
Mephistopheles Stout 15.9% ABV
Tastes like smoky alcohol. Hints of vanilla cola but a lingering bitterness similar to getting an aspirin stuck in your throat. Smells like oil but tastes like soy sauce. Maybe pour it and let it breathe for a while or blend it with the fishy Reverend.

Scored both zeroes and fours.

Russian River
Beatification 6% ABV
That is ungodly sour!! Tastes like sour lemon gummies or strong lemonade. Dry, quick, finish makes it seem refreshing after some of the heavyweights we've consumed this evening. It would be hard to enjoy this if you weren't sharing it with eleven other people. Re-ignited the old debate about whether beer should be drinkable, or just a science experiment.

2 out of 5

The Final Dumpbucket
Classic earwax and soy sauce with that fish rearing it's ugly head.
Knuckle-o-meter: Oh yeah!
Hobo: Happy Hobo
Chugability: Not so much
Panel: 2 out of 5

Blog Blahs

I like to consider myself one of the lamer bloggers on the sphere. Fifty hits is a very good day for me. I dream of devoting more time and energy to this thing and attracting advertisers, becoming rich, getting freebies, etc. Maybe,one day.

My daily rounds of other blogs include the Volcano Spew and South Sound Eats both run by teams of professionals with advertisers to please. So I'm a little curious why Ed Murrieta hasn't posted on South Sound Eats since May 4th. I hope he's OK. I've also heard rumors that there is a new beer guy at the site. Does he know how to write?

It also seems strange to me that the Spew posted nothing for two days, May 16th and 17th. This was last weekend when you would have thought there would be plenty to write about. I'll admit I'm a little miffed that they chose not to post a listing of a weekend event that I was personally involved with. My establishment doesn't advertise in the Volcano, I get that part, but this was a fundraiser for the kids.
Ironically, the only post on Friday the 15th was informing readers about the future arrival of a new and improved Spew.

Tacoma Beer Week

Here's the details of the Red Hot's beer events straight from the horse's mouth:

WEDNESDAY MAY 20th: Stone Glassware Night, 7pm. We'll have Stone 2008 Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, and a fresh keg of Stone Levitation on for Stone Glassware Night. 16oz Stone Tulip Glasses are only $4.00 until they run out, and we'll fill it with 2008 Anniversary Stout for only $5, all night. Stone 20oz. Imperial Pint glasses are $3 until they run out, and we'll fill it with Levitation for $4, all night.

FRIDAY MAY 22nd: FIRKIN FRIDAY & MEET THE BREWERS with Schooner Exact Brewing, 7pm. Come hang with the Schooner Exact gang as they bring us a Firkin of Dry-Hopped 3 Grid IPA. Beer-gushing tapping of the Firkin to commence around 7pm, with $3.50 pints of 3 Grid all night, or until the firkin gives up the ghost.

Those Stone guys are tightwads and those Schooner Exact folks are awesome. Is it something to do with size?

Shameless Self Self-Promotion Dept.

I'm fairly certain none of you have any plans for the next few days so here's a couple of suggestions.

Thursday May 14th 6-9pm
Victory Brewer's Night at the Parkway
Some big shot from the brewery will be at the PW to give away T-shirts and shit and you can expect these beers to be on tap that night:

Prima Pils
HopDevil IPA
Hop Wallop
Baltic Thunder Porter
Golden Monkey Tripel
Old Horizontal Barleywine
Sunrise Weissbier
Storm King Stout
Moonglow Weizenbock
Rauch Porter
Abbey Six

Drink a pint of each of those and show up at the PW again for Georgetown's Bob's Brown Night on Saturday May 16th at 7pm. Not only is this a damn good Brown Ale, but all the proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House. I know that sounds kind of weird but, really, it's a good cause. Find out more here.

Shameless Self-Promotion Dept.

Appearing tonight at the Red Hot:

Rogue XS Imperial IPA (Newport, OR)
Fish Tale Organic IPA (Olympia, WA)
Port Townsend Hop Diggidy IPA (Port Townsend, WA)
Oskar Blues Momma's Little Yella Pils (Lyons, CO)
Snoqualmie Falls Haystack Hefeweizen (Snoqualmie Falls, WA)
Diamond Knot ESB (Mukilteo, WA)
NITRO: Hales Cream Ale (Seattle, WA)
Hales IX Golden Belgian Ale (Seattle, WA)
Georgetown 9LB Porter (Seattle, WA)
Walking Man Walking Stick Stout (Stevenson, WA)
Rainier (The Beer From Here)

And Chris also wants you to know that Walking Man Homo Erectus IPA, Stone IPA, Silver City Porter, and Two Beers Echo IPA should be on before the weekend is out. Also look for new IPAs from Laurelwood Brewing (Hop Monkey IPA) and Terminal Gravity Brewing (errr...IPA) sometime next week!

R. I. P.

Word reaches us that Lang Brewery, out of Marion, Montana, has called it quits. I first met owner Jack Campbell 15 years ago during the brewery's first venture west. He is a great guy and, at the time, made some pretty good beers. More recently, they have tended toward fruity, middle of the road flavors. Whither, Mandarin Hefeweizen now?

They call themselves "America's Most Remote Brewery," and I can only imagine business was hampered by that. But whatever the reason for their demise I hate to lose a brewery.

We Drink Beer So You Don't Have To

A grim start to this tasting, but things did get better and bigger. Too big, maybe, for this week saw our first...trumpets please...5 out of 5. I'm not going to be the spoiler, you'll just have to grind your way through the rest of our ruminations first.

It was cool to see some new faces this week so don't forget Thursday 5pm at the Parkway. Bring a beer to taste and apparently quality is no longer a prerequisite.

Pittsburgh Brewing Co. (AKA Iron City)
American Pale Lager ? ABV
Fails the High Life color test and that's a bad sign. But wait..a little more huevos than the champagne. Is that honey in there, maybe, or high fructose.? Ultimately, nothing says America like a lawnmower beer with an huge fucking eagle on the can. If you can drink a case in an afternoon it's got to be worth...

2 out of 5

Miller
Lite Lager 4.2% ABV
Apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to take a crappy beer (see above) and water it down with soda water. And that is why we gave the American a 2, this is way worse. To its credit it comes in a really cool aluminum bottle useful, perhaps, for cracking some skulls at a Sounders game.

1 out of 5

Samuel Adams
Imperial White Witbier 10.3% ABV
A sweet coconut aroma and a sweet, big, body but weighed down by the alcohol. Makes us wonder why anyone would make an imperial white. Hoping for some inspiration we resorted to reading the label but the promised orange and coriander, standard in a wit, are buried in the alcohol and an off mouth feel. So busy being imperial this beer forgets all else. Call it something else and it might score a three but this is a....

2 out of 5

Midnight Sun
Panty Peeler (AKA Epluche-Culotte) Tripel 8.5% ABV
Well whaddya know, tastes like yer actual Belgian. Many layers of spicy citrus flavors. Bottle conditioning gives the carbonation a little too much sharpness on the tongue. Mellows out with a long-lasting orange peel flavor in the finish. But Panty Peeler, really?

4 out of 5

Midnight Sun
Monk's Mistress Belgian Special Dark 11.5 % ABV
A little chocolate, a little fruit, a roasty yeasty bready belgiany nose promises so much. Tastes like sucking on a mouth full of pennies and very little else. Someone who knows tells us that the metallic flavor comes from the yeast so we assume it must be intended. On the upside the pennies hide the 11.5% so if you can choke one down you'll be drunk by the end of it. Smells better that it tastes.

2 out of 5

Hirschbrau
Doppel-Hirsch Doppelbock 7.2% ABV
First a warning, you must be at least 16 years old to enter the Hirschbrau website. OK so the Europeans are a bunch of lefty pansies but they have some shit figured out. Moving on. Smells like grain-fed meat, or grain-fed dry dog food. Very sweet and sort of German tasting. Shit, we are brilliant aren't we?

3 out of 5

Anderson Valley
20th Anniversary Imperial IPA 8.7% ABV
We've never had a bad beer from this brewery but are we becoming even more jaded? A pleasant citrus and hoppy aroma. It seems that all the West Coast Imperials are morphing into one big ultimate beer. Great, without a doubt, but predictable and samey. However, this is nicely balanced and doesn't destroy the palate like so many others. What does that mean? Have another!

4 out of 5

Midnight Sun
Melt Down Double IPA 8% ABV
Piney nose, pine tree? Pine cone? Pinesol? Big hoppiness, but also big balancing malt. Very dry and bitter, bitter, pucker, bitter. We know IBUs mean nothing at all but 80 is not a big enough number. We've done a few Midnight Sun beers this week so, as you may have guessed they should be at a store near you by now. Give 'em a try.

4 out of 5

Goose Island
Bourbon County Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout 13% ABV
A big pungent nose. Aromas of mac 'n' cheese and definitely booze. Vanilla tones and sweet raisins. This is good, very good. So good, in fact, who needs to analyze it? If only the Angels, shorted on their last offering, could drink this. An utterly faultless beer that after some considerable discussion and more drinking....cue the oboes...we awarded a

5 out of 5

Cascade
Cuvee du Jongleur Sour Ale 8.41% ABV
Who's the jackass that always brings a sour to these things? The guy who likes sours that's who. This one tastes like Sprees. Thankfully exhibits a decent three-dimensional taste experience rather that the usual one-dimension found in most American sours.

3 dimensions out of 5

The Dumpbucket
A creamy mouthfeel, say that a few times for the full effect. We've created a pretty good brown ale here but maybe a hint too much earwax.

Knuckle-o-meter: Better than a lousy IPA
Hobo: Why not?
Chuggability: Sheeit
Panel: 2 out of 5

Seattle Beer Week?

Apparently there's something going on up north to which we are not invited. But, in the meantime, our friends at 99 Bottles are making the most of it. So here's some stuff to do without an invite.

Pre-week kickoff at 99 Bottles
5/5 TUES 5-7:30PM PALE ALES.
Sample 6 for $5. Club $2.50 with special guest Peter Twigg (award-winning homebrewer & new beer blogger of SouthSoundEats.com). Impressive!

5/6 WEDS 4-8PM CHIMAY.
Sample 3 Chimay Trappist ales + 2 G.Schneider German beers + Lost Coast Indica for $1with special guest Jay Baum (NW rep for Chimay, G.Schneider, Lost Coast)

5/9 SAT 3-6PM BELHAVEN
Sample 5 for $1with special guest Bill Hemmen (NW rep for Belhaven Scottish ales)

5/12 TUES 5-7:30PM CONEY ISLAND
Sample 4 Coney + 2 He’Brew for $2.50with special guest Zack Davis (Shmaltz brewing guy)

5/16 SAT 3-6PM JEROME
Sample 4 Jerome Argentinian ales, Casa Beer from Morocco & Sagres Bohemia from Portugal for $1with special guest Georges-Phillipe Bouyer (rep from Pacific Rim Wines)

Sounds kind of cool, actually.

Oh No, Not More Breweries

I'm not sure what's going on, but there seems to be a swine flu-like outbreak of new breweries. Even more mystifying is that they all seem to be located in residential areas: here's the latest from the liquor board new apps.

Grit City Brewing, located at 2915 N 9th St. just a few blocks from the Red Hot.

One of these new breweries HAS to make good beer. Please?