Welcome to Tacoma. Nice, isn’t it? We here at Peaks & Pints understand that the first day at the University of Puget Sound can be a little overwhelming for first timers — watch out, here comes another cyclist — but at least Mount Rainier is lovely to look at while you try to figure out what in the world your kid has been doing with all that tuition money you forked over. Yes, there is plenty they’re not telling you. No, it’s not nearly as bad as you think it is. Why not take a break from that silent enigma you call your child and enjoy a little me time at one of Tacoma’s many fine craft beer establishments. May we suggest Peaks & Pints craft beer and cider bar, bottle shop and restaurant in Tacoma’s nearby Proctor District? Your student begins college tomorrow so leave that kid to their own devices and indulge yourself at Peaks & Pints. And if the silent treatment has driven you to your wit’s end, ask our beertenders all the questions you want. They’ll be happy to give you a straight answer. And offer you today’s in-house beer flight, Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: University of Puget Sound Prefunc.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: University of Puget Sound Prefunc
Shades Tropic Like It’s Hot
10% ABV
In 2010, Alexandra Ortiz started Shades of Pale Brewing with her husband Trent Fargher, a homebrewer for 15 years. He was looking to change careers, and to Alex, it seemed obvious. He loved to brew, and people loved his beer; he was open to the idea, but he didn’t want to do it alone. After a rebrand in 2018, which included shortening the name to Shades Brewing, Alexandra and Trent focused their energy on producing unique, flavorful, and Kveik yeast sours alongside their already robust portfolio. Their Tropic Like It’s Hot imperial sour is an adult fruit punch brewed with pineapple, passionfruit, strawberry, guava, mango, coconut, and lactose. It’s juicy, tart, slightly sweet and boozy.
YaYa Riverbend
6.3% ABV
Christmas Day 2016, Spokane brothers Jason and Chris Gass traded stories about their sister, Lara, including her community contributions and her sudden passing two months shy of graduating from law school. Her tragic car accident in March 2014 left a huge hole in their hearts. On that fateful Christmas Day, the brothers decided to help fill that hole with craft beer. Their initial plan was to open in Portland, Maine, but their hometown of Spokane felt better — more opportunities and certainly cheaper. Named after their sister’s nickname, they opened the Spokane Valley YaYa Brewing in October 2019. Their Riverbend is a vanilla coffee porter brewed with chocolate, caramel, and 2-row malts and supplemented with flaked barley and Willamette hops. Conditioned on vanilla and Sumatran coffee from 4 Seasons Coffee Roasters in Spokane, this medium-bodied porter has robust vanilla and coffee profiles throughout.
Reuben’s Brews Mosaic Crush
6% ABV
Englishman Adam Robbings’ beer recipes killed at homebrew competitions, including winning the silver medal at the National Homebrewing Competition in 2012, and his talent, along with a Kickstarter campaign that raised close to $11,000, eventually earned him, and his wife, Grace, their own brewery — Reuben’s Brews officially opened in Seattle’s Ballard district in August 2012, which they named after their son, Reuben. Reuben’s has been experimenting with and developing hazy IPAs for several years as part of the small batch Reuben’s Crush series. Their Mosaic Crush is brewed with — wait for it — Mosaic hops, which offers notes of peach, grapefruit, berry, and tropical fruit.
Brothers Cascadia Out Of The Weeds
7.6% ABV
Sherman Gore, Richard Tiffany and Jason Bos had big eyes when their bosses of Portland-based Laurelwood Public House & Brewery sold their popular Battle Ground location to Eric and Paula Starr, who transformed the space into Northwood Public House & Brewery. The trio convinced the new owners to dust off the cobwebs on 2-barrel brewing system so they could brew beer for the neighborhood. Three years later, Gore, Bos and Tiffany opened Brothers Cascadia Brewing in Hazel Dell on April 10, 2017. Their Out Of The Weeds IPA offers bold pine and citrus aromas, a moderate body filled with classic hop character, and finishes with a firm bitterness.
Ladd & Lass Fractal Sunset
8.25% ABV
In December 2021, after 300 batches of homebrew, and countless building egress drawings, Nick Ladd and Jessie Quan, husband and wife, opened Ladd & Lass Brewing in Seattle’s U-District. Housed in the former Floating Bridge Brewery spot on 45th Street near Interstate 5, which was also the former Rainbow Tavern where the Ramones and Soundgarden rocked the kids, the former architects opened with a pile of beer recipes and design chops. With T-shirts, albums, and newspaper articles from the glory days of Rainbow Tavern donning the walls, Ladd & Lass brew the full spectrum of beer styles including double IPAs such as Fractal Sunset, which demonstrates exactly why Citra and Mosaic have become the banger hops. This big double IPA was hit hard with Cryo Citra and Cryo Mosaic leaving an aftermath of overripe mango, pineapple, and tropical fruit flavors in its wake.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
University of Puget Sound photo courtesy of Joe Mabel
