Brothers Steve and Scott Houmes — who witnessed the leisure suits, 8-track tapes, Ziggy comics and yellow smiley faces in the ’70s — went on to become restaurateurs. In September 1996, they added craft beer to their lives when they teamed up with brewmaster “Big Daddy” Don Spencer and opened Silver City Brewery in Silverdale, Washington. The Houmes’ mission was to create happy, community-oriented restaurant and craft brewery. In 2004, the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce named Silver City Business of the Year. Smiley face. However, those living outside Kitsap County donned sad faces as MacFarlane’s Scotch Ale and the other Silver City brews kept a close distance to the Silverdale brewery. In 2008, smiles appeared when the Houmes began distributing their beer around the Puget Sound. Demand for Silver City grew rapidly. In May of 2010, the brothers moved their brewery operations to a new, 7,600 square foot production facility and taproom in Bremerton. The Silverdale flagship brewpub became a larger, restaurant-only operation. Sept. 10, 2018, Bremerton’s oldest craft brewery turned 22 with the energy of a human the same age. Peaks and Pints is certain as we write this beer flight introduction Silver City brewed three more beers. Let’s take a breather and enjoy Craft Beer Crosscut 10.26.18: A Flight of Silver City.
Craft Beer Crosscut 10.26.18: A Flight of Silver City
Silver City Foxy Lady
6.2% ABV, 12 IBU
Silver City’s Foxy Lady scored a gold medal in the Belgian-style fruit beer category at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. It’s a Flanders red, a style originating in the West Flanders region of Belgium, this red ale gains a raspberry-like tartness from fermentation on Lactobacillus. Foxy Lady — aged in oak barrels and featuring Pilsner, Vienna, Caramel and Wheat malts — is delightfully crisp, but also hearty, brew that will satisfy all your cravings on these final summer days.
Silver City Ridgetop Red
6% ABV, 15 IBU
Silver City Brewery’s Ridgetop Red brought home GABF gold in 2009, and though it takes some unexpected turns on the tongue, it’s clear why it’s a winner. There’s a beer for everyone. Ridgetop Red is everyone’s beer. Full-bodied and smooth, this ale surges hits the tongue with grainy caramel sweetness before lifting into pear and passion fruit notes. It’s never overly sweet, but it also doesn’t completely dry out in the finish: A touch of bitter Liberty hops kick in at the end, completing a well-balanced swallow.
Silver City Ziggy Zoggy
5% ABV, 40 IBU
As we mention above, restaurateurs and brothers Steve and Scott Houmes teamed up with brewmaster “Big Daddy” Don Spencer to open Silver City Brewery in September 1996. In May of 2010, the brothers moved their brewery operations to a new, 7,600 square foot production facility and taproom in Bremerton where they eventually brewed Ziggy Zoggy. Ziggy Zoggy is such an easy-drinking, tasty beer brewed in the Bavarian tradition of kellerbier or zwickelbier. It’s unfiltered and has great malt flavor but enough bitter hop character to satisfy a Northwest palate.
Silver City MxPx Best Life IPA
6.2% ABV
Bremerton punk legends MxPx have been playing with a dangerously youthful hysteria for 27 years. Guitarist Yuri Ruley and drummer Tom Wisniewski are a tight combination of pulsing notes and solid beats, and Mike Herrera’s undulating bass line and strenuous vocals is the funky, nasty glue keeping it all together. Distinctly left coast, MxPx is music for youth on the fringes of conformity. In January 2017, Silver City and MxPx brewed a California common “Secret Weapon,” named after the band’s 2007 hit of the same name. The beginning of this month, the two entities collaborated again, this time brewing the hazy IPA, MxPx Best Life. The unfiltered IPA takes on a lightly tropical, juicy, Left-Coast hop character with a malt bill incorporating flaked wheat, fermented with the brewery’s specialized “haze” yeast.
Silver City Hop Generator Wet Hop IPA
6.7% ABV, 66 IBU
There’s something ultra-satisfying about Mos Generator’s plump, swollen riffs — like rolls around Fat Albert’s stomach, they’re something you can really grab onto. The Port Orchard trio effortlessly possesses the meaty dissolution that all stoner bands would kill for. Silver City Brewery partnered with Mos Generator on this fresh hop IPA featuring Azacca, Columbus, El Dorado, Citra, Cascade, Cashmere, Chinook and Mosaic hops for citrus and tropical fruits on the nose followed by bitterness and slightly dank flavor, which is so Mos Generator.
