Hoppy Holiday Food Drive celebration and award presentation takes place at 6 p.m. tonight inside Peaks & Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District. The Douville Home Group launched the Hoppy Holiday Food Drive in early November asking 10 local breweries and cideries, and Peaks & Pints, to gather collect non-perishable food and hygiene items to support the Emergency Food Network. Indeed, 7 Seas Brewing, Cockrell Hard Cider, E9 Brewing, Fierce County Cider, Incline Cider, Narrows Brewing, North 47 Brewing, Odd Otter Brewing, Sig Brewing, and Wet Coast Brewing collected canned goods and monetary donations through today. Tonight’s celebration will include raffles for swag, guest taps from most of the breweries and cideries, and a last chance to give donations. The brewery or cidery that raises the most donations will be awarded the Hoppy Holiday Food Drive tap handle trophy at the event. Again, all donations benefit EFN, whose mission is “to provide Pierce County with a consistent, diverse and nutritious food supply so that no person goes hungry.” EFN distributed more than 13 million pounds of food all over Pierce County in 2022 alone. More than 5,000 pounds of that food came from last year’s Hoppy Holiday Food Drive. In celebration of the Hoppy Holiday Food Drive party, Peaks & Pints presents an all-day, in-house flight of several participating breweries and ciders — a flight we’re calling Peaks and Pints Craft Flight: Hoppy Holiday Food Drive.
Peaks and Pints Craft Flight: Hoppy Holiday Food Drive
Cockrell Cranberry
6.2% ABV, draft
Brothers Richard and John Cockrell have been making cider and beer in their Puyallup homes for more than 27 years, sharing their craft with family and friends, as well as grabbing many local, state, and national awards and accolades. As the brothers began planning for their retirement their fans begged them to go pro. Their hobby became Cockrell Hard Cider. The holiday season is in full swing with the release of Cockrell’s Cranberry. Made with real cranberry juice to provide the perfect level of tartness while finishing dry.
Incline Imperial The Tropics
8.4% ABV, draft
Since 2015, the Zehner family has made delicious, crushable cider, many from a dry-hopped apple base to pull out citrus aromas at their Incline Cider Company. The Auburn-based cidery with a popular Tacoma taproom uses 100 percent fresh pressed apples, no added sugar, no carbonated water, and the result are ciders that are balanced, not too sweet and super flavorful. In 2019, they opened the Incline Cider House in Tacoma’s Historic Brewery District. POG is a drink made up of passionfruit, orange, and guava juices (hence POG). The story goes it was created in 1971 by the now-defunct Haleakalā Dairy on Maui. Passionfruit, known in Hawaii as lilikoi, hails from South America, and yellow passion fruit is thought to have been introduced in the 1920s. Guava likewise comes from Central and South America but thrives in the Hawaiian islands’ temperate climate, and one variety, strawberry guava, is now recognized as one of the biggest invasive tree species. Native to Asia, oranges were introduced to the islands in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver. Incline’s Imperial The Tropics, ITT, recreates the classic combination of passionfruit, orange, and guava, packing a punch at 8.4 percent.
E9 Mumme’s the Word
5.3% ABV, can
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. Two years ago, they separated the brewery from the restaurant and opened E9 Brewing in Tacoma’s Historic Brewery District. Schwarzbier is one of the oldest known European beer styles, with origins in Kulmbach, Germany, circa 800 BC. Pronounced sh-vahts bee-uh, this lager style is named after its appearance — in German, schwarzbier means “black beer.” E9 Brewing’s version, Mumme’s the Word, is a classic schwarzbier dark lager brewed with German pilsner malt, Munich 1 malt and German chocolate malted wheat. Hopped in the kettle with newer generation Mandarina Bavaria and Hallertau Blanc, it’s full-bodied, yet crispy and light on the palate. Expect notes of toasted pumpernickel, stone fruit, and coffee.
Narrows Griswold Hazy IPA
6.8% ABV, draft and can in the cooler
Founded in July 2013 by a group of friends and now run by owner and head brewer Parker Rush, Narrows Brewing Co. is a 15-barrel brewhouse built on wood pilings next to Narrows Marina above the Narrows waterway with a glorious view of the Narrow Bridge and active waterfront. Peaks and Pints asks you to skip the view for one day and drink Narrows’ holiday beer, Griswold Hazy IPA, brewed with 2-Row and malted wheat. The Tacoma brewery double dry hopped it with Citra and a touch of Strata at six pounds per barrel resulting in an aroma of orange, strawberry, melon, and a little coconut for the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny f—ing Kaye.
7 Seas Edward Resin Hands
8.2% ABV, draft with can in the cooler
In 2016, 7 Seas Brewing opened a new location spanning two city blocks in Tacoma’s historic Brewery District adjacent to the University of Washington campus. Housed in the Heidelberg Brewery’s former distribution warehouse, the new facility was a 10-fold increasing in brewing capacity compared to their previous Gig Harbor location (7 Seas has since opened a new taproom along Gig Harbor’s waterfront.) Their Edward Resin Hands follows the same plot as the obvious film reference — boy is created by a mad-but-loving inventor, has only scissors for hands and enters suburbia as a lost boy in a man’s body — but 7 Seas heightens the otherworldly nature of the tale by removing all the dialogue and telling the story purely through hops. Brewed with Cryo Azacca, Simcoe, Idaho Gem, and Experimental HBC-586, this ultra-dank and resinous hazy imperial IPA is smooth bodied, and mildly malty.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
