Initially, Kris Hay launched the Tacoma Aroma Flavor and Instagram as companions for her upcoming Tacoma food and beverage pairing cookbook, Tacoma Aroma. An expert in local cuisine with daily discoveries posting on her @tacoma.aroma.flavor Instagram, her experiences writing, editing, organizing complex projects, and promoting community-based resources secured her a spot on the Foster’s Creative “ten of us” 2023 roster. The regional Grit & Grain beer podcast will host Hay and her basket full of Tacoma icon foods — Frisko Freeze, Johnson Candy, Pao’s Donuts, Northwest Lumpia,  Zaya Café, and Tortas Locas — for a food and local beer pairing double episode at Peaks & Pints from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 14 as part of Tacoma Beer Week 2024. In celebration of the food and beer pairing podcast today, Peaks & Pints presents a flight of the beer from the pairing — a flight we’re calling Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Tacoma Aroma Flavor Savor.

Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Tacoma Aroma Flavor Savor

Narrows Fruit of the Lagoon

5.5% ABV

Tacoma Beer Week paired five Browns Point Homebrewers Club members’ recipes with Tacoma professional brewers to collaborate on five different beers for the first ever Tacoma Beer Week ProAm Competition. Emma Hibbs, Kelvin Keown, Scott Howell, Tristan McCoy, and Troy Wormsbecker and E9 Brewing, Narrows Brewing, Odd Otter Brewing, Sig Brewing, and North 47 Brewing converged on the Parkway Tavern Sunday, Aug. 11 to be tapped, tasted, and judged to crown the “Best in Show” and “Crowd Favorite” winners for the inaugural Tacoma Beer Week ProAm Competition. Keown and Narrows Brewing took second with their Fruit of the Lagoon traditional gose. Grit & Grain Podcast pairing: Northwest Lumpia Angel’s Original Beef Lumpia

Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne

6.2% ABV

Originally from Belgium’s Flanders region, Flanders red, also known as the Burgundies of Belgium, won’t destroy your cheeks like other sour beers from the country. This beer is brewed using large amounts of Munich and caramel malts with traditional brewing methods, aged hops and ambient yeast. The beer is then aged in large wooden barrels, vats, and foeders, followed by inoculation with wild yeast and lactic acid-producing bacteria. The most important is the tradition of aging the red ales in huge vats of unlined oak. The wood, which cannot be sterilized, is home to dozens of wild yeast and bacterial strains that consume the residual sugars in the beer. Brewed by Belgian brewery Verhaeghe, in West Flanders, Belgium, Duchesse de Bourgogne is a Flanders red ale, a blend of 8-month-old and 18-month-old ales, in this case. As with all red ales, the drink gets its characteristic sour and tart quality from lactic acid, while aging in oak barrels imparts a deeper body. The drink is named for Duchess Mary of Burgundy, a filthy-rich medieval heiress who suffered an unfortunate (and deadly) fall from her horse — it happens. This ruby-hued sipper boasts notes of tart plums, black cherries, toffee, and balsamic vinegar. It is medium bodied and smooth, with a dry finish that tickles the salvatory glands. Grit & Grain Podcast pairing: Pao’s Raised Donuts

Great Notion Feniks

3.2% ABV

Feniks is Great Notion Brewing‘s Grodziskie, a historical Polish smoked beer made with oak smoked wheat and Saaz hops. The 2022 Great American Beer Festival gold medalist has, per the style, lots of bacon and campfire on the nose, followed by a heavily smoked sip that finishes light and crisp. Grit & Grain Podcast pairing: Frisko Freeze Burger

Monkless Dubbel or Nothing

7.3% ABV

Organic chemist (Ph.D.) Todd Clement fell in love with traditional Belgian/Abbey-style ales during work trips to Antwerp. After spending 7 years in the pharmaceutical industry as a process chemist Clement moved to Bend, Oregon. When he couldn’t find his beloved Belgian-style ales, he began homebrewing them — his first batch a Belgian tripel. In 2014, he founded Monkless Belgian Ales with his friend Kirk Meckem who then left the business in 2016. Monkless is now owned and ran solely by Clement and his wife, Robin. The origin of the dubbel was a strong version of a brown beer brewed in Westmalle Abbey in 1856, which is known to have been on sale to the public by June 1861. Monkless’ version, the 2020 GABF gold medal winning Dubbel or Nothing, is traditional, rich and malty. Finished with candy syrup which gives rise to hints of cocoa, caramel and toast with a nice, dry and balanced finish. Grit & Grain Podcast pairing: Johnson Candy Co. Salted Caramel Chocolates

E9 Brewing/Tacoma Beer Week Harpua Stout

6.4% ABV

In the early ’90s, Dusty Trail converted the historic Engine House No. 9 bar into a brewpub at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pine Street, officially becoming the first microbrewery in Tacoma. Dick Dickens grabbed the Engine House reins in 2002, bringing in head brewer Doug Tiede. Heads turned and medals were hung. In 2011, The X Group added the Engine House to their local restaurant empire, with Shane Johns and Donovan Stewart running the kettles and hanging even more medals, mostly for their sours and saisons. Three years ago, they separated the brewery from the restaurant and opened E9 Brewing in Tacoma’s Historic Brewery District with Johns running a full team of seasoned brewers, Stewart leading the sales team, and former Parkway Tavern manager Sean Jackson running the taproom. E9’s Tacoma Beer Week collaboration Harpua Stout is a milk stout brewed with Emma Hibbs from the world-famous Browns Point Homebrew Club, as mentioned above. Hibbs and E9 won “Best on Show” and “Crows Favorite at the Tacoma Beer Week ProAm Competition at the Parkway Tavern Sunday. Grit & Grain Podcast pairing: Tortas Locas Pambazo

Editor’s note: Not included in the flight due to space, but par tof the Grit & Grain Podcast’s Tacoma iconic food and beer pairing today is Zaya Cafe Potato Perogies  paired with Saison DuPont.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory