Peaks & Pints brewed our eighth house IPA at Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver. Since the brewery is named after Mount St. Helens and its eruption silenced many trees, they called the beer Silent Trees IPA and have partnered with the Tacoma Tree Foundation, once again, to tell the stories of their favorite trees. As part of Tacoma Beer Week 2025, Peaks will host a fundraiser for Tacoma Tree Foundation with Loowit Brewing in the house at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 4. It will be a Tree-mendous night with tree education, tree games, and piney goodness to support community greening efforts in the Greater Tacoma area, Pierce County, and the watersheds of Puget Sound. Executive Director Lowell Wyse will briefly discuss their work while everyone drinks Loowit beer. Board President Luke Vannice will briefly talk about the challenges Tacoma is facing and what they’re doing about it. Loowit Head Brewer and co-owner Landon Smith will discuss his brewery and the beers on tap. In conjunction with tonight’s tree hug, Peaks & Pints offers an all-day Loowit Brewing beer flight called Peaks & Pints Beer Flight: Loowit Brewing.

Peaks & Pints Beer Flight: Loowit Brewing

Loowit Grimlock Rye Porter

5% ABV

Grimlock is a winner. The American porter grabbed silver for rye beer at the 2016 World Beer Cup, gold at the 2016 Washington Beer Awards, and bronze at the 2021` Great American Beer Festival, to name a few. The dark malts provide pleasant chocolate, toffee, coffee, and toast flavors. Adding rye malt builds the complexity of the malt profile by adding a touch of rye spiciness to the finish. Balanced by a touch of hop bitterness to round out the brew, Grimlock is a unique and refreshing porter.

Loowit Ole’s IPA

6.3% ABV

Ole Peterson was an eccentric pioneer from Clark County’s past. He arrived in Southwest Washington from Iowa in the 1890s and staked a homestead on the south side of Mt. St. Helens east of Cougar near the Swift Dam. He was known for his quick wit and the telling of tall tales. Loowit’s favorite story is when he claims to have rescued an injured three-legged cougar who lost its leg to a bear. He made the cougar a new wooden leg and released it into the wild. The cougar avenged the bear by beating it to death with its new wooden leg. Loowit named its second taproom, located in East Vancouver, Ole’s Outpost and its new IPA, Ole’s IPA, which is triple dry-hopped with El Dorado, Krush, and Nectaron hops for an aroma of citrus and tropical citrus zest.

Loowit Silent Trees IPA

6.6% ABV

Peaks & Pints has a new house beer, Loowit Brewing Silent Trees IPA. On the morning of May 18, 1980, after a century and a quarter of quiescence, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake triggered the explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens. The volcano’s northern face collapsed, burying Spirit Lake and the headwaters of the Toutle River beneath hundreds of feet of avalanche debris. The accompanying blast sent winds of 600 mph and 400 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit, sweeping across the landscape, leveling forests, vaporizing foliage, and searing soils. When the smoke and ash cleared, more than 240 square miles of forest north of the peak became silent. A fringe of standing, dead, ash-covered trees formed a “ghost forest” around the blowdown and the ground was blanketed with tephra and ash. Mount St. Helens is also known as “Loowit,” a Native American name for the mountain, specifically from the Klickitat tribe, and is often associated with a legend where Loowit was a beautiful maiden transformed into the mountain. In 2010, longtime friends Devon Bray and Thomas Poffenroth opened Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver, Washington, helping revive the city and quickly became a force in the Southwest Washington beer scene. Loowit Head Brewer Landon Smith joined the ownership team during the pandemic and continues his tradition of brewing excellence. Loowit Brewing collaborated with Peaks & Pines on the Tacoma craft beer lodge’s house beer, Silent Trees IPA. Paying homage to the trees around Mount St. Helens and the outdoor enthusiasts who join Peaks daily in Tacoma’s Proctor District, Silent Trees IPA is the perfect beer to toast the Loowit Trail. This challenging loop circumnavigates Mount Saint Helens through the trees. Silent Trees IPA continues Peaks & Pints’ love affair with old-school piney IPAs, this time brewed with Simcoe, Columbus, and Chinook for all the pine and citrus.

Loowit Quetzalcoatl Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout

6.4% ABV

This Mexican-style hot chocolate oatmeal cream stout is made with cocoa nibs, cinnamon, vanilla, lactose, and cayenne pepper.

Loowit War Tortoise BA 2023

9.4% ABV

War Tortoise Imperial Stout is Loowit’s longest-running barrel-aged series. Aged in first-run whiskey barrels for nine months, this tortoise packs a heavy vanilla, caramel, and oak punch with notes of smooth chocolate, bourbon, and a hint of coffee.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory