This Valentine’s Day, Tacoma Arts Live will open a unique immersive experience on the art of the French painter Claude Monet at the Tacoma Armory through April 14, 2024. Imagine Monet is the exhibition created by the French directors Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron, the world’s first directors of a digital immersive exhibition. Imagine Monet starts with the famous painting Impression, Sunrise (1872) and closes with the renowned Water Lilies series (1914-1926). This experience features more than 200 well-known masterpieces by the French impressionist with 360° projections on walls and floor plunging visitors into a waking dream, thanks to state-of-the-art Image Totale© technology. Monet was a revolutionary artist who upset the social scene of his time. He is known for initiating Impressionism and as a pioneer of abstraction. Beyond his invaluable contributions to impressionist art, Monet has gone on to become one of the most famous artists of all time. And his favorite muse, flowers, went along with him for every step of the journey. Today, Peaks & Pints presents an in-house flower and floral beer flight as a precursor to Imagine Monet. While your first reaction might be that the last thing you want to put in your mouth is a flower, its addition to beer can be quite tasty. Some flowers are subtle and add a nice, smooth quality to beer, while others pack a more powerful punch. And that’s not to mention the base beer to which they’re added, which can either empower the flower or complement it by balancing flavor characteristics. Stop by Peaks & Pints, grab Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Imagine Monet, and prep for the immersive experience at the Tacoma Armory, which launches in 10 days.

Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Imagine Monet

Anderson Valley Framboise Rose Gose

4.2% ABV

From 1913 and until his death, in 1926, Monet was busy mainly with the large decorative series of the Water Lilies. All the other works executed in those years are views of his garden. Developed as their take on a rosé in beer form, the brewers at Anderson Valley Brewing brought Framboise Rose Gose to life by adding rose hips to the boil and fresh raspberry puree at the end of fermentation.  These additions result in a light ruby hued kettle-soured beer highlighted by subtle raspberry fruit notes that greet the nose and fall soft on the palate; tangy, hibiscus-like flavors that mingle with the salty tartness of gose to create a uniquely complex, pink, and refreshing drinking experience.

Bruery Terreux Goses Are Red

5.3% ABV

Roses are red / Violets are blue / Craft beer costs less / Than dinner for two. This is a rosé — and a gose — by any other name. Goses are Red is a stylish match of a funky, crisp, and tart gose with the soft sweetness of a rosé wine. The refreshing wheat-based beer begins with some of the qualities you’d expect from a gose, including coriander spicing and a light saltiness to complement the tartness imparted by Bruery Terreux’s house cultures. But the story doesn’t end there — it builds in complexity, thanks to time spent in an oak foeder and the addition of grapes, which impart a refreshing rosé character and color. It’s a charming interpretation that says all the right things, and a nod to Monet’s garden.

Holy Mountain Eternal Recurrence

6% ABV

Eternal recurrence is a philosophical concept which states that time repeats itself in an infinite loop, and that the same events will continue to occur in the same way, repeatedly, for eternity. Here’s hoping Holy Mountain Brewing’s Eternal Recurrence returns repeatedly. This blonde bier de garde is inspired by one of the Seattle brewery’s favorite breweries in France. Brewed with 100-percent Pilsner malt and hopped with French Strisselspalt, an extended boil adds color and depth, before it was transferred into one of their oak foeders, where it’s fermented with a special strain of yeast originating from an incredible brewery on the border of France and Belgium. This beer is super drinkable, with familiar saison esters and a hint of their house character from our oak tank for light funk and floral notes.

Reuben’s Grand Rose

8% ABV

Let’s drink another rosé beer — this time, an IPA. Bright in the glass and dry on the palate, Reuben’s Brews’ Grand Rosé is fermented with Pinot Noir grape must and dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin. This rose-colored IPA offers a floral, fruity aroma with notes of berries and grapes, plus a touch of sweetness.

Structures Existential Crisis Averted

7.3% ABV

There is a particularly gutting scene in John Hughes’ 1986 coming-of-age classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in which Ferris’s best friend Cameron has an existential crisis in an art museum. In psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning or by confusion about one’s personal identity. Feelings of loneliness and insignificance in the face of nature are common in existential crises. Thankfully, Structures Brewing and Ruse Brewing averted an existential crisis with their hazy IPA double dry hopped with Citra, Strata, and Experimental HBC 630. A can covered with flower images, this beer is pure tranquility with floral and citrus notes. You can get lost in the flavors.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory