WEDNESDAY, DEC. 21 2016: South Sound events + craft beer …
The Grand Cinema + Peaks and Pints = Christmas tale and Christmas Ale
Washington State History Museum + The Red Hot = going small and going big
Polar Plaza + Two Town Pub and Cafe = Jump sequence and Jubelale
Fantasy Lights + Delia’s Oakland Lounge = drive-thru and Dick’s brew
Tacoma Musical Playhouse + Rainier Growlers = Charlie Brown and Eric Akeson
THE REAL THING
You have the tree picked out, every box of yard decorations categorized, and the yuletide music at full blast. Now all you need are some choice movies to fully embrace the reason for the season. At this time of year, more than any other (with Halloween as a possible exception), we use films as a way of connecting to that elusive holiday spirit. And The Grand Cinema in Tacoma continues this tradition today with screenings of the 1947 holiday classic, Miracle on 34th Street at 1:45 and 6:45 p.m. If this film doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit we don’t know what will.
PREFUNK: Since 1896, Anchor Brewing has been producing beer (decades before modern bottling started in the 1970s). Steam (or California Common) is a type of lager that is made with lager yeast (which usually ferments at lower temperatures), at a higher fermentation temperature or without ice. Since breweries in the 1890s had no ice to chill the boiling hot wort, the beer was pumped to the roof of the brewery and chilled with the cool breeze coming off the Pacific Ocean. At 4.9 percent, Anchor Steam (which comes in a distinctive bottle) is full-bodied, full-flavored, slightly bitter and toasty in the malt backbone. Anchor’s Our Special Ale (Christmas Ale) really created the entire Christmas Beer category. Anchor’s Christmas Ale is both an awesome seasonal treat and a bit of a collector’s item. Each year, the label features a different type of tree. The beer itself is a beautifully balanced winter warmer with the classic winter spices and a velvety, rich malt backbone. Anchor Steam and Anchor Christmas Ale are ready for you in Peaks and Pints’ cooler.
MODEL TRAIN FESTIVAL
Just so you know, you might miss the train today — seeing as how it’s scaled down to one and a half inches. Get it? At the 21st Annual Model Train Festival, every floor of the Washington State History Museum features model trains of all sizes and eras, landscapes, train experts plus the museum’s permanent HO-scale model railroad layout that portrays Tacoma and surroundings in the 1950s. You’ll go nuts over the Model Train Festival. Gnaw on a couple candy canes along the way and your head will practically explode.
PREFUNK: Throughout history, cultures around the globe have celebrated the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, as a time to reflect on the past year and look with hope to the coming year. Long ago, the winter solstice was a time communities came together in the uncertainty of living through the winter and enjoyed wine and beer that was ready to drink, but its significance was diminished after the spread of Christianity. These days, after ’60s counterculture helped revive its memory, people are more aware of the solstice tradition from centuries ago. The Red Hot is very aware of this tradition, hosting a tradition of its own beginning at 11 a.m. The Red Hot’s fifth annual Darkest Day offers delicious darkness all day and all long night: Evil Twin Even More Jesus imperial Stout 12%, 2015 Evil Twin Doughnut Break imperial porter 11.5%, 2016 Evil Twin Doughnut Break imperial porter 11.5%, Alesmith/Mikkeller Hammerhead Speedway Espresso Imperial -Stout 12%, Alesmith Mokasida Speedway Ethiopian Coffee Imperial Stout 12%, Alesmith Speedway Coffee Imperial Stout 12%, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 15%-20%, 2015 Prairie Artisan Ales BOMB! Imperial Stout 13%, Prairie Artisan Ales Birthday BOMB! Imperial Stout 13%, 2014 Epic Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout #34 12.7%, 2015 Epic Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout #51 12.7%, 2016 Big Bad Baptist imperial stout #62 11.9%, 2015 Holy Mountain Bourbon Barrel aged King’s Head Brown 9.2%, 2015 Crux [BANISHED] Tough Love Barrel Aged Imperial Stout 11.5%, 2015 Fremont Kentucky Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout 14.5%, Fremont Kentucky Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout 11%, Fremont Coffee Kentucky Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout 11% and Fremont Spice Wars Kentucky Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout 11%. All these beers will be 6-ounce pours only, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
OUTDOOR ICE SKATING
Think you can find something better to do than busting out some ice skates? Yeah, good luck with that. Polar Plaza is on its sixth year of setting up an ice-skating rink decked out in wintery goodness at Tollefson Plaza just across from the Tacoma Art Museum in downtown Tacoma. With five fabulous years behind them, the Plaza folks put their heads together and found a few key ways to make this ritzy rink even better for 2016. Skate from noon to 10 p.m.
PREFUNK: Two Town Pub and Café along Ruston Way will host local musicians cranking out holiday tunes and Deschutes Brewery from 6-8 p.m. The Bend, Oregon brewery has a Santa sack full of craft beer goodies, including Jubelale.
GOING BIG
Spanaway has some similarities with Texas. For one, Spanaway likes to go big — in the drive-thru line, and when it comes to holiday light displays. In its wattage-chowing 21st year, Fantasy Lights offers oohers and ahhers a night of blinking and glowing bliss from 5:30-9 p.m. at Spanaway Park. The two and a quarter mile long parade of lit-up scenery has its own peculiar sense of majesty, and it goes without saying that it’s the perfect treat for a family to soak up the holiday spirit.
PREFUNK: Dick’s Brewing Company is dropping a bunch of Dick’s on Delia’s Oakland Lounge from 7-10 p.m. Yes, the Centralia brewery will be pouring its Cream Stout and Danger Ale, but handcrafted “Dicktails” sounds awesome. Expect stockings full of Dick’s and several raffles.
GOOD GRIEF
See the ultimate sad sack Charlie Brown and his sad sack little Christmas tree find the holiday spirit in the Christmas classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, at a dreamy locally renowned theater. Break out the “peanuts” to take in this charming Tacoma Musical Playhouse production, and watch young and aspiring local actors from the theater’s innovative and premiere education program show their stuff in this quaint and heartfelt little show, which begins at 7 p.m.
PREFUNK: Rainier Growlers hosts Puyallup River Brewing’s 5th Anniversary party featuring 15 of the Puyallup brewery’s delicious creations: We Are The Champions IPA, Cream Ale (Gold Medal 2016, Silver Medal 2015 at Washington Beer Awards), Imperial Eggnog Mud Mountain Milk Stout, Electron IPA, 2015 Gourdy Wow! Spiced Pumpkin Saison Regal, Jack O’Lahar Pumpkin Ale (Gold Medal at 2012 Hoppy Trails Beer News Great Punk-Off), Lahar Imperial IPA, Mud Mountain Milk Stout (Bronze Medal 2016, Silver Medal 2015 at Washington Beer Awards), Paradise Blonde Farmhouse Ale (Silver Medal at 2015 Washington Beer Awards), Pineapple Paradise Cream Ale, Pineapple Ghost Pepper Cream Ale, Raspberry Farmhouse Ale, South Hill Pale, Valley Farmhouse IPA and Imperial Christmas Cream Ale. Santa Eric will be in the house handing out presents, as if the beers weren’t enough, beginning at 6 p.m.
