Despite yesterday’s afternoon downpour, the crowd’s disposition seemed sunny inside Top Rung Brewing Company. The Lacey brewery’s second annual Hoptoberfest set the record for most people to walk through their door on a single day, and won me over on the taste side. As guitarist Murray plucked a mighty fine tune or 20, I sipped the most delightful Top Rung Imperial Barrel Aged Pyrolysis Stout — dark and malty with notes of coffee and chocolate boosted with a smooth, bourbon finish. Co-founders Casey Sobol and Jason Stoltz also released their new Shift Trade IPA, a 6.2% ABV shot of pineapple
Adam Paysse, Colin Lenfesty and Mike Murphy opened Holy Mountain Brewing Company in Seattle one year ago. After stints at Schooner Exact Brewing Co., Bainbridge Island Brewery and Westland Distillery, the three well-respected local beer veterans have gain quick respect for their outstanding farmhouse and sour barrel-aged beers, as well as hoppy west coast styles and lagers. Paysse climbed the mountaintop and descended with a clean, visual brand idea. With the help of designer Brian Steely, certain Holy Mountain bottles don beautiful line art animals. The blended oak aged Brett Saison “The Gray Tower,” cherry and raspberry “Clarette” and the
The kings of the beer geeks, in our book, are the brewery sales representatives, or beer reps. It’s their job to know beer inside and out. They need the knowledge to have intelligent conversations with their boss, the brewery owner, the brewery’s brewmaster, as well as the distributor who, er, distributes their beer, the establishments that sell their beer and the consumers who attended their brewery promotions — the people who matter the most. Here are our favorite photos of beer reps, as well as a few beer distributor reps, we snapped this past summer. Enjoy.
Few craft beer entrepreneurs contemplate selling their business when they first get started. Unlike, for example, the typical entrepreneur in the software industry, craft brewers — at least the ones we know — were inspired by the love of magnificent beer, a spirit of adventure and the romance of creating a small manufacturing business. When home brewer Steve Navarro approached venture capitalist Brent Hall of Pinnacle Capital Partners to help finance his dream of resurrecting the Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. in Tacoma, Hall was so moved by Navarro’s passion for his craft, that he became a co-partner in the
It wasn’t just the biggest comeback of the week, the month or the year. Warren G. Harding’s come-from-behind win Friday night was the largest in his Craft Beer Fan League history, as he overcame a nine-beer deficit with late pumpkin ale and cider rallies en route to earning an 15-14 victory over his league-rival Magic Realism, the name he goes by in league play, at the Washington Beer Commission’s Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival in Avista Stadium, Spokane. For the second year, Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival is taking the field at Avista Stadium, the home of the Spokane Indians
Pat Nagle squeezed past a long table of diners to adjust the hi-fi player loaded with oompah songs, which was sitting atop of several beer barrels beneath white and blue-checkered pennant flags. He paused, studying the capacity crowd where once were his fermenters and Brite tanks. The Harmon Brewery & Restaurant – the flagship Harmon Brewing Co. restaurant in downtown Tacoma – recently converted its brewing room into an event space and future café for Harmon’s Hop Coffee franchise. All brewing production takes place at the Harmon Tap Room in Tacoma’s Stadium District. Last night, the room took the shape
In this modern world of impersonal digital connections face-to-face relations between maker and consumer seem as out of date as clay tablets. Enter the beer-pairing dinner — or in case of last night’s dinner at The Swiss Restaurant & Pub, the beer/cider-pairing dinner. Velvety voiced, wildly charismatic Eric Willard shared his beers, his cider and his wisdom with a group of 40 or so. Willard is somewhat of the ultimate authority on beer and cider as he is part owner of Two Beers Brewing Co. and Seattle Cider Company, the sister companies — located a quarter inch from each other
Green Tacoma Day 2015 includes an opportunity to volunteer at Oak Tree Park. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner National Public Lands Day, which calls for volunteers to spend a day working to improve and restore trails, campgrounds and natural habitats, officially fell on Sept. 26 this year. But related events across the South Sound and the nation take place over a two-week period, during which time the call will be answered by helping hands. If you’d like to be among them, Oct. 10 is the day when the eighth annual Green Tacoma Day consumes area parks. Volunteers
If you like drinking beer in public places, well you’re in luck, our tippling exhibitionist friends, because there are some pleasurable opportunities this week in the South Sound. TUESDAY, SEPT. 29 >>> Spokane’s No-Li Brewhouse will pair five of its beers with a five-course dinner at Pints and Quarts in Lacey. 6 p.m., $55, Pints and Quarts, 1230 College St. SE, Lacey, 360.438.9183 WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 30 >>> Each year Green Flash Brewing introduces a limited-release beer starring a new pinup-inspired icon. For 2015 they have the national debut of Treasure Chest, an IPA brewed with grapefruit, prickly pear juice and
Once an infinitesimal share of the beverage market, hard ciders have seen great increases in interest over the last several years and are starting to register in the consciousness of American consumers, especially in Gig Harbor. The second annual Cider Swig was held Saturday, Sept. 26 — National Public Lands Day — at Sehmel Homestead Park in Gig Harbor. Proceeds from the Cider Swig support environmental education and conservation to maintain and expand area parks, trails and natural areas around the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula community. After everyone found parking, the fun-filled, family-friendly afternoon of cider sipping and apple
The difference between fresh hops and dried hops in beer brewing is like the difference between a mug of Laurelwood Fresh Hop Free Range Red and a bottle of Miller Lite. Unlike conventional beers, tasting a freshly hopped brew is a seasonal experience as the hops’ cone-shaped flower only blooms once a year. The fresh hops need to be trucked to the brewery right away, and the brewery needs to make the necessary adjustments to its equipment. Also called wet-hop beers, these creations utilize hops within 48 hours of their harvest, at which point they are added to the brewing
Ten Washington state breweries earned 13 medals Saturday in the Great American Beer Festival competition this weekend in Denver’s Colorado Convention Center, including six gold medals, one silver medal and six bronze medals. The South Sound was in the big house, with Fish Brewing Co. and Three Magnets Brewing Co. earning bronze medals in the prestigious competition, and Silver City Brewery out of Bremerton scoring gold. More than 6,600 beers were entered by 1,552 breweries from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, searching for medals in 92 categories covering 145 different beer styles. A total of 275 medals
Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. head brewer Steve Navarro will lead brewery tours during the one-year anniversary party. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. celebrates its first anniversary with — you guessed it — beer. Yes, seems like just yesterday Pacific Brewing was a newborn brewery, entering our lives at a time when breweries seem to be popping up everywhere. From the ashes of the original Pacific Brewing & Malting that graced Tacoma’s Brewery District in 1897, the brewery reopened last year on the other side of town, with a family-friendly taproom to
At some point this summer Pacific Brewing and Malting Co. sales executive Andy Kenser was hanging out at Half Pint Pizza Pub. Kenser digs this vibe in the joint, as well as the large selection of craft beer. He struck a conversation with employee Joe Abarca, who is also lead singer for Tacoma rock-reggae band The Approach. They chatted up craft beers and local music. Kenser is a fan of the band. When Kenser mentioned Tacoma brewery Wingman Brewers brewed a beer, Mighty HighPA, with local reggae band Mighty High, Abarca face lit up. With a thumbs up from Pacific
Traditionally, cider was an alternative to contaminated well water on our founding fathers’ agrarian homesteads, but today’s ciders span from bone-dry to syrupy bourbon barrel-aged options and weird, fruity varieties made with apricots and hops. Two of the best artisan ciders will take over Three Magnets Brewing Company’s taps Thursday, Sept. 17, in celebration of Washington Cider Week Sept. 10-20. In fact, the owners of Reverent Nat’s Hard Cider and Whitewood Cider Co. are good friends of Three Magnet’s owners Sara and Nathan Reilly. When his North Portland neighbor begged him to take his backyard apples off his hand in
The following is what I learned during day two of the California Craft Beer Summit in Sacramento Sept. 12, which included a late afternoon Brewers Showcase Festival featuring 150 California breweries lined up outside between the State Capitol Building and the Sacramento River. According to Dr. Charlie Bamforth, professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at the University of California Davis, there’s a beer for everybody. “Some people say to me: ‘I don’t like beer.’ That’s nonsense. You just haven’t found the right beer for you yet. If you like Miller Lite, then I’m sad for you. But at least you
As I drove 725 miles through jockeying semi trucks, dusty lakes and sweltering heat toward the inaugural California Craft Beer Summit, I was certain I would be surrounded by astonishing epiphanies offered up by the beer-famous, controlled debauched, hops overloaded spectacle now underway in the Sacramento Conference Center. After all, it’s been a helluva week in their $6.5 billion industry, one that featured Petaluma’s Lagunitas Brewing Co. announcing a 50-50 partnership with Heineken International and San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewing Co. being gobbled up by MillerCoors LLC. Somewhere soon in Amsterdam, Loote van Leeuwen will be kicking back on his
On sprawling farms clustered around Yakima and Sunnyside, thousands of green Humulus lupulus vines snake vigorously skyward. A relative of marijuana, these hop plants produce resiny, cone-shaped flowers prized for their use as a bittering agent in beer. The fall hop harvest is in full stride in Washington state. That means a steady increase in fresh hop brewing in the weeks ahead and into October, in which the moisture level in hops have reached the optimum 80 percent level and are picked fresh from fields. While Willamette and Centennial hops have been a bit disappointing, YCH Hops — a 100
After the turn of September / In the cloudy skies over Tacoma / Came a roar and a thunder people had never heard / Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird. Up in the sky, a beer in a plane / Baron von Huth is its name. Many breweries tried, but two hit their stride / Early October they’ll release it on the countryside. Tacoma breweries Wingman Brewers and Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. have collaborated on an Oktoberfest beer titled Baron von Huth. The idea soared after Wingman head brewer Ken Thoburn and Pacific Brewing
Carl and Stephanie Leach of North 47 Brewing Co. / photo credit: Pappi Swarner Husband and wife duo Carl and Stephanie Leach have always had beer in common. Their relationship started at Central Washington University when Stephanie enjoyed helping Carl with his home brewing. It became their passion — when Carl wasn’t studying to be an eventual reservist in the Air Force and Stephanie wasn’t fine-tuning her studies that eventually lead to a career in tourism. Currently, the Kent-based home brewers look toward the future as founders/business partners of North 47 Brewing Co., a taproom in
It was around beer o’clock yesterday when the South Sound Craft Beer Festival felt like a full-blown happening. Yes, we can use beer o’clock in a sentence. It’s officially a thing. The online platform oxforddictionaries.com announced dozens of new additions earlier this week, including beer o’clock, wine o’clock, awesomesauce, manspreading, butthurt and hangry. Yesterday, beer o’clock was 3 p.m., at least that’s when the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall was jumping — full of Seahawk jersey-wearing beer drinkers tasting the IPAs and other awesomesauce from more than 30 Washington state breweries. For us, the “appropriate time of day to start drinking
Always looking for an excuse to party, the astronomically inclined people of Earth recently enjoyed the Perseid meteor shower. In the aftermath, many folks anticipate the changing hue of the falling leaves. Others toil under the rapidly diminishing daylight, raking away said leaves. But if the only seasonally affected vegetation concerning you is the particular combination of malt and hops in your pint glass, this is the most relevant blog you’ll read, ever. Until winter. Pacific Brewing & Malting Co., Tacoma The downtown Tacoma brewery will be releasing several German-style beers to coincide with their one-year anniversary party Oct. 3,
Portland doesn’t have the patent on big-fat beer celebrations. Bend can get down too, with more than 70 purveyors sharing their drinkable bounty over the course of four days, with lively DJs and food to help chase it down. The annual Bend Brewfest wraps up today from noon to 8 p.m. at the Les Schwab Amphitheater. If it was anything like yesterday, expect body paintings, multiple wedding parties, dance parties and piles and piles of gourmet fries. Along with the addition of a Sunday schedule, this year’s festival features a “cider row” of eight regional cideries and two Oregon mead
It’s a wickedly simple concept. Gather ye together a large group of craft beer enthusiasts, targeted for their obsessive adoration of hoppy beers and their preference for Malt Lite and their curious taste in T-shirts, and also for their ability to drink under control and self-deprecate and laugh easily and look at each other like each was sort of crazy for his or her weird and borderline obsession with India Pale Ale. But, you know, in a good way. Thirty Washington breweries bring their IPA, maybe two, maybe a double, even a triple. They will also bring a Pale Ale
FRIDAY, AUG. 7 Slingload Pils release, 5 p.m., Wingman Brewers Wingman Brewers releases a special pilsner for the weekend. The reason is twofold: celebrate beer in the northwest and to give 10 percent of all the sales from that weekend to BRAVO 1-214th GSAB’s Family Relations Group at JBLM. “We encourage people to come down to the taproom, buy some beer and help support their neighbors who are going on deployment and also their neighbors who are having to live without their spouses, mothers, fathers who are deployed,” says Ken Thoburn, Wingman co-owner and head brewer. White IPA release, 6
Unless you’re older than 62 or live in a Tacoma Chinese Tunnel, odds are remarkably good that you’ve already shot a selfie or 20, maybe a 100. What’s your default? What’s your favorite go-to expression? Sweet smirk? Goofy grin? Smoochy duck-face? You know you have one. This is what we do now. This is what we deem important. Because life is nothing if not fruitless, outlandish and wonderful, all at once. Haven’t you heard? Have you heard Harmon Brewing Co. will release a sour beer named after a selfie pose resembling the same facial expression many bust out after drinking
THURSDAY, AUG. 6 Seattle Luvs Tacoma Day, 11 a.m. to close, The Red Hot Seattle breweries flood the taps with discounts. Battle of the Gorge, 6 p.m., Parkway Tavern Washington vs. Oregon. Head to Head. You crown the champions. Famed breweries of the Columbia Gorge battle it out in a head to head taste blind test. Everybody’s Brewing of White Salmon, Wash. and Backwoods Brewing of Carson, Wash. vs. Double Mountain Brewing and pFriem Family Brewers of Hood River, Oregon. Friendships will end this night. Red X release, 6 p.m., Wingman Brewers Tacoma Wingman Brewers will be supporting their friends
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 5 3-Way with friends, 5-8 p.m., The Copper Door Brewers’ night featuring Fort George Brewery, pFriem Family Brewers and Georgetown Brewing with an outdoor beer garden, food trucks and free swag. Randall Night, 5 p.m., Harmon Tap Room Gigantic Brewing Ume Umai & Solid Launch, 5 p.m., The Red Hot Gigantic Brewing co-owner Ben Love will be in the house as Ume Umai (black rice and plum beer) and Solid (American hoppy wheat beer) are launched. Hot Winter Night, 6 p.m., The Swiss Restaurant and Pub Christmas is coming early this year. The Swiss will pour two different
TUESDAY, AUG. 4 Ballast Point Sculpin IPA 5-Ways, 5 p.m., The Red Hot The Red Hot will tap kegs of Sculpin IPA, NITRO Sculpin IPA, Grapefruit Sculpin IPA, Habanero Sculpin IPA and a cask of Blood Orange Sculpin IPA. Who will tap the firkin cask? Will it be you? Scotty The Oaktopus tapping, 5 p.m., Narrows Brewing Co. Oaked IPA? You bet. Pin The Beer On The Brewer, 6 p.m., Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. A big photograph of Pacific Brewing co-owner and head brewer Steve Navarro will hang on the wall with an empty beer hand. Blindfolded contestants will
Day two of Tacoma Beer Week is upon us. MONDAY, AUG. 3 Randall Night, 5 p.m., Parkway Tavern What on the world will Sean do with Pacific Brewing and Malting Company’s Citra Pale? You’ll have to stop in and find out. Tacoma Neo Noir tapping, 6 p.m., Narrows Brewing Narrows Brewing kept a keg of the 2014 Tacoma Beer week collaboration beer Tacoma Neo Noir. Tonight that sucker gets tapped. Beer of Fortune, 6 p.m., The Ale House Pub and Eatery Narrows Brewing Company and Northwest Brewing Company will be front and center for this game. Letters will be written
Hop Valley, Top Rung and Diamond Knot in the house. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner Thursday, Aug. 6 is a big holiday: National IPA Day (or #IPADay, if you’re joining the cause on social media). Founded by beer aficionados “The Beer Wench” Ashley Routson and “Certified Cicerone” Ryan Ross in 2011 as a way to link breweries, bloggers and beer drinkers, National IPA Day celebrates this particular style because the India Pale Ale is one of civilization’s saner inspirations for a holiday: it evolved from a means of preservation during beers’ arduous travels from England to India;
Nov. 15, 1980: 26-year-old Ken Grossman brewed his first commercial beer, four years after launching his home-brewing hobby. There were just 40 breweries of all makes in the country, with sales dominated by Coors, Miller and Budweiser. From modest beginnings on a 10-barrel brew system, Grossman now owns and operates the largest independent brewery in America ― Sierra Nevada Brewing produced 1 million barrels in 2014 — equal to 331 million 12-ounce bottles. Grossman’s first batch, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, boasted 36 IBUs, at least thrice as high as Bud Light. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone
U.S. Army Rangers, assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, advance toward their objective during Task Force Training on Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., Jan. 22, 2014. Rangers conduct rigorous training to maintain their tactical proficiency. Photo credit: Spc. Steven Hitchcock When you brew beer in honor of the personnel at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, you receive a salute on Peaks and Pints. I’ve given props to Harmon Brewing’s Stryker Stout, as well as nods to the ownership at Odd Otter Brewing Co., composed of current and former soldiers. Tacoma’s Narrow Brewing Company just announced they brewed Lead
Some say the greatness of “Area 13” lies in its surrounding visual birthplace grandeur, the sparkling blue spectacle, the nautical eye candy encompassing all waters south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Others have pointed out how “Area 13” itself is exoticism wrapped in virile prowess slipped into a shiny black sheath of sexy green alienhop. It would appear that head brewer Mike Davis, manager Mary Asami and the Narrows Brewing Co. crew of brewhounds probed every nook and cranny and orifice of extraterrestrial fantasy handbooks to invent the imperialist 9.8 percent ABV lustcreature imaginable. Evidence? Plenty. Let’s start with the
The South Sound is home to 20 or so craft breweries, with a handful of breweries-in-planning here as well — a sign of a growing depth and breadth that makes the South Sound a notable beer region in the country. One of those breweries, the 51-month-old Wingman Brewers, will double its beer-making capacity by the end of August. Last week I dropped by Wingman Brewers for the growth details and found head brewer Ken Thoburn brewing a big batch of his Prop Wash IPA, which is being bottled this week. “We dry-hopped the Prop using the most hops were have
Maybe you’ve seen Michelle Obama’s plate-shaped replacement for the food pyramid, and maybe you’re worried that you aren’t getting enough fruit to fill up that red wedge. A good place was yesterday’s Bremerton Summer BrewFest. The Washington Beer Commission hosted 32 Washington state craft breweries to convince you that fruit beer doesn’t have to taste like Blue Moon. A lot of the breweries created one-off concoctions specifically for this event, such as Top Rung Brewing’s Lacey Lager ran through a Randall full of coffee and raspberries, Fremont Brewing’s Interurban IPA Randalled with grapefruit and Rosemary, and Dirty Bucket Brewing’s Hefen’
I arrived 15 minutes late. The Puyallup River Alehouse was packed. Owners, head brewers and sales representatives from South Sound breweries gathered in the back, near the beer taps. Puyallup River Brewing owner/head brewer Eric Akeson towered above the crowd as if the beanstalk had been cut. I had to squeeze through a narrow tunnel of beer drinkers to order a beer. Securing a Three Magnets Brewing Co. bronze medal winning Barley Wine, I leaned against the wall, listening to the beer community chat. Harmon Brewing Co. head brewer Jeff Carlson shared his annual Fall Ball Imperial Harvest Ale is
For craft beer enthusiasts who want to drink their beer and smoke it too, Aficionado Cigar Lounge & Store in Tacoma will host Perdomo Cigars of Nicaragua and Top Rung Brewing Co. of Lacey for a night of world-class cigars perfectly paired with the beers at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 30. Perdomo just released a new line of cigars that have specifically been created to pair with various beers. I’m not a cigar smoker, but sensual experiences brought on by handcrafted products are something I’m all about. I know the enhancing effect an exemplary beer can have on food and
This is not your cat’s lager. To many better beer drinkers, lager is a dirty word. It’s the beer that we drank as broke, uninformed college kids — the Bud Lights, PBRs and Heinekens of the world. These beers are pale and watery, and made with adjuncts like corn and rice, and the import versions are often skunky and terrible. Ostensibly a nod to the country’s German heritage, the modern versions of these mass-produced lagers would likely be unrecognizable and disgusting to a beer-drinking immigrant of days gone by. But to a growing number of brewers and beer geeks, lagers
Jacob Thacker, head chef at The Swiss restaurant and Pub in Tacoma / photo credit: Pappi Swarner Beer dinners are a great way to explore craft beer’s myriad flavors. Beer and food have long gone hand-in-hand. Beer is, after all, liquid bread. Pairing beer and food allows the flavors of the beverages and the dishes to blend together, offering comparing or contrasting experiences that highlight the individual components of the dishes and the beers. Often, with successful pairings, the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. The Swiss Restaurant & Pub excels at
Silver City Brewery’s The Giant Made of Shadows is awesome delicious; it did grab a bronze medal at the 2015 Washington beer Awards, after all. But, take that malty Dark Strong Ale in the Belgian Style, age it in Kentucky Bourbon barrels for a year, and the result is double awesome delicious. No, this isn’t a tall tale. The Giant returned to the shadows, aging in single use Kentucky Bourbon barrels, oak and whiskey ran currents through the dark fruit, caramel and coffee. The Bourbon Barrel Aged Giant crushes with richness and complexity, ringing in at 9.9 percent ABV. Silver
Some people and beer from 21st Amendment Brewery Night at Puyallup River Alehouse and Drinking for Conservation and the Slow Loris/Hop Valley Brewing Co. Night at the Parkway Tavern Wednesday, July 8, 2015.
The second annual Tacoma Beer Week officially runs Aug. 2-8 — if you’re counting, that’s actually 7 days. The celebration is all things to the beer enthusiast, with special tappings, competitions, beer games, personal appearances by many local brewers at numerous Tacoma area restaurants and taverns, culminating at the Broadway Center’s Brew Five Three Blues & Brews Festival in front of the Pantages Theater in downtown Tacoma. See the Tacoma Beer Week schedule of events below. Tacoman Zoe Brackney founded Tacoma Beer Week in February 2014 after Narrows Brewing Company and several other Tacoma breweries asked her to organize an
Top Rung Brewing Co. head brewer Jason Stoltz / photo credit: Mike Besser, sales executive at Top Rung Brewing Co. His first beer experience matched that of many other early teens: a room temperature MGD in the backyard while the parents were away. Of course, I hated it,” says Jason Stoltz. “I dumped the rest then hid the can.” Although his love for beer had a rocky start, Stoltz went on to become co-founder and head brewer at Top Rung Brewing Company in Lacey. Between the MGD dump and his brewing duties at Top Rung, Stoltz
