WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15 2016: South Sound events + craft beer …
Open mic + 3-Way IPA = four ways
Jazz guitar + Hop Valley Brewing = Double-D Blonde
Blues guitar + Ale House = Yay and Haye!
NPCC OPEN MIC
Unlike certain franchise joints that dot our landscape with little green faces like Martian pimples, Northern Pacific Coffee Company’s aspiration is not java hegemony. No, Northern Pacific is content with its corner on Garfield, a block east of Pacific Lutheran University, and its reputation as a great place to procrastinate. Sandwiches and coffee, cornerstones of all serious collegiate malingering, are here in force, but the real treat is the book-lined walls, craft beer and Wednesday night open mic. Grab a beer, select a sci-fi romance and enjoy the local musical talent at 8 p.m.
PREFUNK: Astoria’s Fort George Brewery has brewed 3-Way IPA since 2013, featuring two different craft brewery collaborators every year. This year, Jeremy Tofte of Melvin Brewing (Jackson Hole, Wyoming) and Tyler Brown of Barley Brown’s Beer (Baker City, Oregon) shared ideas and techniques with Chris Nemlowill of Fort George Brewery, and after four batches, presto, the 2016 Fort George 3-Way IPA. The result is an unfiltered brew, pale in appearance, combining a balanced juicy body, superb lacing, and every citrus fruit aroma you can imagine. Pint Defiance hosts the brewery and the beer from 5-7 p.m. In addition, the specialty beer store will have brews from all three breweries for pints and growler fills: Barley Brown’s Coffee Stout, Barley Brown’s Hand Truck Pale, Fort George Quick Wit, Melvin IPA and Melvin Hop Shocker Double IPA.
JAZZ GUITAR
Vince Brown is no stranger to string swing fans in the Northwest. He plays western swing style take-off guitar with Red Brown & the Tune Stranglers; strums guitar and tenor banjo with the gypsy swing band Hot Club Sandwich; he’s half of Red and Ruby — a swing duo project with vocalist LaVon Hardison; performs mandolin and tenor banjoist with the old timey outfit Deaf Lester; and the guitarist with the modern jazz/lounge group The Greta Jane Quartet. Brown’s nimble fingers have delighted audiences for more than 37 years. Catch his solo jazz guitarist downstairs at Swing Wing Bar & Cafe, the converted bungalow overlooking Capitol Lake in Olympia, at 6 p.m.
PREFUNK: Hop Valley Brewing Co. opened their doors on Friday, Feb. 13th, 2009 in Springfield, Oregon. Their brewery is placed on the same grounds that used to be the hot-bed for hop production before prohibition, and is a marker to those that drink their beers, that they are proud to still be using the same local hops that once supplied the industry. Today, Hop Valley sports a 60-barrel brewing system producing more than 12,000 barrels a year, including flagships 541 American Lager, Alpha Centauri Imperial India Pale Ale, Alphadelic IPA, Citrus Mistress India Pale Ale brewed with Grapefruit Peel (World Beer Cup medalist), Czech Your Head Czech Style Pilsner, Double-D Blonde Ale (World Beer Cup medalist), Proxima India Pale Ale, Stepchild Red Ale and VIP Vanilla Infused Porter. Hop Valley takes over many of the Growler Garage’s taps from 6-8 p.m. with Hop Valley Rob Brunsman handing out swag.
WINE AND BLUES
It’s been a long week already, and the weekend seems so far away. You need to wash away your Hump Day woes with some fine wines. Hell, bring the whole work crew to G. Donnalson’s for some tasty wine and blues. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., James Haye will deliver an evening of smooth and sultry blues guitar and vocals performing songs from his latest album, Hot Cat on a Tin Roof.
PREFUNK: One year ago Jon Ecklund and his fellow Wilson High School grad Peter Delyanis re-opened The Ale House Pub and Eatery, which had been closed after a kitchen fire shut it down in July 2013. The Ale House had been an institution for two decades, a spot for 64 draft beers, a hangout for people coming off work or to watch the game. Thankfully, Ale House is still all that and more. Beginning at 5 p.m., Georgetown, Elysian, Deschutes, Hop Valley, 10 Barrel and other breweries will be in the house hosting a raffle and swag giveaways in honor one the one-year anniversary of the new Ale House Pub.
