Peaks and Pints celebrates Tacoma Beer Week 2023
The eight annual Tacoma Beer Week 2023 runs Aug. 11-20, and this year’s festivities will tantalize the local beer lover. From large-scale events such as Tacoma Arts Live’s Brew Five Three Beer & Music Festival to the Parkway Tavern’s Hoppywood Squares — craft breweries, taprooms, beer bars and restaurants are celebrating grain, hops, water, and yeast in the form of tap takeovers, educational programs, beer and food tastings, films, and unique beer launches. Peaks & Pints craft beer bar, bottle shop and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District will host four official events and participate in many other Tacoma Beer Week events.
Peaks & Pints will officially launch the 2023 Tacoma Beer Week Tuesday, Aug. 15, with The Fernseed plant shop pop-up sale fueled by Bale Breaker Brewing. Thursday, Aug. 17, we celebrate our house cider and beer hosting Yonder Cider and Fort Gorge Brewery with legendary DJ dAb spinning. Friday, Aug. 18, we reprise our Top Hat Party with Bombastic Brewing — this time bringing in the South Sound Strings Trio to class up the joint. Sunday, Aug. 20, Peaks and Pints will have the nerve to tap 20 or so ciders as a finale.
The following are the 2023 Tacoma Beer Week events hosted by Peaks and Pints. …
Peaks & Pints Tacoma Beer Week 2023 events
Tuesday, Aug. 15, 5-7 p.m.
The Fernseed Pop-Up Shop with Bale Breaker Brewing
The Peaks and Pints Plant Pop-up with The Fernseed and Bale Breaker Brewing marks the first Tacoma Beer Week event for the Proctor District’s craft beer and cider bar, bottle shop and restaurant. Plant and beer enthusiasts will stroll through Fernseed’s pop-up shop inside Peaks & Pints while sipping on Bale Breaker’s latest beers and, at least, talk to the plants to help them grow faster.
The Fernseed is a plant and flower shop with two retail locations in Tacoma, including their flagship store in the Proctor District. As a member of the Slow Flowers movement, they are committed to sourcing 60 to 90 percent of their stems from local flower farmers throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Bale Breaker Brewing’s owners brew handcrafted ales surrounded by their great-grandparents hop fields, just down the road from where they were born and raised. They opened the estate brewery in April 2013, which now includes barley fields. Their 27,000 square foot facility, 30-barrel brewhouse features an onsite taproom with a beautiful outdoor patio and lawn area.
Thursday, Aug. 17, 5-8 p.m.
House Party with DJ dAb, Yonder Cider & Fort George Brewery
Two women sidle up to the bar inside Peaks & Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District. They pick the house cider, Yonder Cider’s House of Yonder, and the house beer, Fort George Brewery’s Blue Mouse IPA, then knock the bottoms of the glassware together and loudly toast each other for surviving another monotonous workweek. Behind them, a cascade of Thursday night beer and cider drinkers wash past the bar and into the small, makeshift dance area, where the concussive toom-toom-toom of local DJ dAb pulsates inside like the frantic heartbeat of a barleywine junkie. The two women discuss deviation line charts, school lunches, and hop varietals on their bar stools to the rapid tempo, cautiously lifting their glassware to take an unsteady sip of cider and beer. Welcome to Peaks & Pints House Party! Tacoman and longtime DJ, Sean Ober, aka DJ dAb, will spin while everyone enjoys the house cider and house beer plus multiple ciders and beer from Yonder and Fort George.
The story of Peaks & Pints’ house cider, House of Yonder, lies fully with Yonder Cider and the apples grown in Wenatchee and the surrounding rugged, sun-drenched, windblown valley. Yonder Cider Queen Caitlin Braam held court with her Hand of the Queen, Monique Tribble, Lord David Alton of Sales, and Pappi Swarner of Peaks & Pints, which sits over the Cascade Mountains in the northern region of the City of Destiny. Tribble dribbled possible House of Yonder blends into chalices. Vilberie, Maria Mendre, and tiny red fleshed apples became the Holy Grail with the addition of Yonder’s proprietary culinary blend. The court sipped non-carbonated variations of the dry cider for sugar point perfection. “We sweeten with added fruit, juice or inverted cane sugar,” added Tribble. “We ferment everything totally dry without adding water back,” added Queen Caitlin. Peaks & Pints bends the knee before Queen Caitlin and her Hand, Monique Tribble, for creating a house dry cider that will rule Tacoma until Nov. 1, 2023.
In 2021, Matt Rhodes — formerly with Stone Distributing and King Harbor Brewing out of Redondo Beach, California — left his head brewing job at Narrows Brewing in Tacoma to become the research and development brewer at Fort George Brewery. Oct. 4, 2022, Rhodes and fellow brewer Colin Rosenberger welcomed the Peaks & Pints staff to their “Sweet Virginia” 8.5-barrel brewhouse to brew Peaks’ 2022-23 house beer, appropriately named Blue Mouse IPA. In the early 1900s, John Hamrick opened the Blue Mouse Theatre for vaudeville and movies screenings in several Pacific Northwest cities, including Astoria in 1922, downtown Tacoma on Broadway in 1922, and Proctor District Tacoma in 1923, which is the only Blue Mouse still operating. Since Peaks & Pints could throw a blue mouse cat toy from our front door to the Blue Mouse Theatre in the Proctor District, we named the Simcoe, Cascade, Amarillo, and Centennial hopped IPA, Blue Mouse.
Friday, Aug. 19, 5-7 p.m.
Top Hat Party with Bombastic and South Sound Strings
There are two reasons why a person might wear a top hat in the middle of summer. The first reason, perhaps he or she is a circus ringmaster under the big top in the middle of a field in Enumclaw. The second reason, and probably more likely, he or she is attending the Peaks and Pints Bombastic Top Hat Party 2023 during Tacoma Beer Week.
Bombastic Brewing, a craft brewery based in Hayden, Idaho, will load up the Bombastic Mobile with top hat craft beer and head toward Peaks while streaming classical strings music. Founded in 2016, Bombastic Brewing is known for its adventuresome and nontraditional craft brews, especially big ass imperial stouts, which will be the focus during the Top Hat Party.
The South Sound Strings Trio will be in the house to set the mood. Those who don top hats at the Peaks and Pints Bombastic Top Hat Party will receive a discount off draft beer that Friday night.
Sunday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
2023 Pacific Northwest Cider Invitational
Call us a Winesap, but Peaks & Pints is ready for the Bittersharp. We’re down with the Pink Lady. And, we have our eye on the Northern Spy. Yes, indeed, you guessed it. Peaks & Pints is bringing back our cider invitational to anchor this year’s Tacoma Beer Week. Peaks and Pints 2023 Pacific Northwest Cider Invitational will consume our Western red cedar tap log Sunday, Aug. 20, with more than 20 craft ciders whose flavor profiles extend from barnyard funk to pleasantly fruity. Representing Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the Pacific Northwest Cider Invitational showcases regional variations and plucky endeavors.
Ultimately, cider is a regional product, and not every part of the country has access to the best varieties of apples to make it. Even if a grower planted an orchard today, it would be at least seven years before those trees produced their first fruit. Not only are Washington and Oregon two of the country’s biggest states for beer and wine, but the Pacific Northwest is leading the way with craft ciders, too. It makes sense, especially as Washington is the leading producer of apples, representing 65 percent of all U.S. fresh apple production. Additionally, the anything-goes, have-fun-and-get-creative attitude of the Pacific Northwest lends itself well to the creation of craft products.
Tacoma Beer Week kicks off on Friday, August 11 and continues with 10 days of festive events at local pubs, taprooms, restaurants, and breweries, celebrating Pierce County’s craft beer community. You may find a comprehensive list a tacomabeerweek.com, but more will turn up if you consult your favorite brewing, dining, and drinking establishments. Also, keep an eye on the Peaks & Pints Instagram for updates, additions, and changes.
