Since my trip to Redhook was cut short by a power outage, the only thing to do was head back into town and try to find another brewery that offered food and good beer. I don’t know how or why but both my husband and I had heard of Bushnell Craft Brewery in Redmond. It was right on the way home so it seemed a no-brainer to stop there for lunch and to try their beers.

What a surprising little place that was sitting in the middle of a strip mall! The food here was very reasonably priced and the sandwiches are huge and stuffed with fresh ingredients. I recommend this place for the food. The beer here is average but it is still craft and local so it is worth giving it a try. If you don’t like their beers, they offer a few guest taps from good, well-established craft breweries.

On our visit, they only offered four of their beers. We filled out the sampler with some of the guest taps. Not being from the area, we generally haven’t tried most of the other available craft beers. One craft was Victory Summer Love which is quite common but overall a good beer.

We started with the Crack Back IPA which did not have much nose and was very bitter on the finish. This was a disappointing beer, as it has potential, but isn’t well balanced.

The Bofuss Amber Ale was the opposite– nicely balanced. This amber had a nice nose with a hint of caramel and flavors of good, toasted malt.

Dunkadelic had a good stout nose. The flavor was, however, a bit heavy on the coffee. Even for this flaw, the beer was good.

The Crack Back Session IPA had a slight hop nose and was much more balanced than the regular Crack Back. This had a good finish of grass in the hops without being so bitter.

This is another place on my list to revisit since I only got to try four of their beers.

Redhook Brewery– An Odd Experience in Woodinville

My main goal of going to Woodinville was to go to Chateau Ste. Michelle winery, as they make my favorite Dry Riesling. However, located almost directly across the street is Redhook Brewery and that seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. Well, I kind of did miss it as there was a big windstorm and a tree fell on the power line. The lights went out and weren’t coming back anytime soon, so I go to taste a few beers but didn’t get to experience the place. I was given two passes for free tours so I guess I will have to go back (not during a windstorm) to give the place another go. It is just about 40 minutes from my house so not a big deal.

I did get a chance to do a flight which contained all of their standard beers plus a couple of in-brewery only releases.

The flight, of course, started with Redhook ESB. I know that many people only know this ESB but I find it a bit lacking in flavor and not quite true to style. It doesn’t have much nose and the taste is very weak to me.

The Pumpkin Porter was the second beer in the flight and a good representative of a porter that was not overwhelmed by the pumpkin flavors. It had slight pumpkin spice on the nose and good tastes of coffee with just undertones of nutmeg and cinnamon. I will probably stick to Warlock, if I can find it around here, but this is still a good seasonal beer.

Long Hammer IPA is always a good go to IPA. It has very solid flavors that are not overwhelmingly bitter.

Wisecracker Wit did not have much nose and was very mildly herbal. The flavor was mostly of malt with a slight taste of grass at the end. I didn’t find this beer true to style or very well-balanced.

The Black Hook Porter on nitro was a good porter with a nose of coffee and a very good light coffee flavor. Along with the silky mouth feel from the nitro, this was an easy drinking porter.

The Raspberry Kolsch was another one of those fruit beers that was fruit with beer. It is very raspberry on the nose, letting you know that it is bound to have strong fruit flavors. It was raspberry in flavor but not as sweet as I expected. It was drinkable but still too fruity for my tastes.

Since I couldn’t stay and try anything else, I guess it is another trip to Redhook for me in the near future.

Big E Ales– A Trip to a Lynwood Brewery

I had to make my way over to Lynnwood so I thought I would check out any breweries in that area. Again, I had to eat lunch so I figured a brew pub was just as good of a place to grab a bit as anywhere else.

I found Big E Ales located in an industrial area next to an auto repair place and near the interstate. The location could definitely be better but the beers were decent and the place was very reasonably priced– a rarity I am finding in Seattle.

I did a sampler with six beers and tried to vary styles. I wasn’t overall impressed, but I didn’t leave disappointed either.

The first beer I tried was the Blackberry Ale. As everyone probably knows, I am always on the lookout for a great fruit beer, as they are so far and few. Generally, there is either too much fruit, making the beer syrupy and unrecognizable as beer, or too little, leaving the question of why add the fruit at all. This beer was a little on the too much side but was not as bad as many out there. There was not a huge amount of blackberry on the nose. This was unusual considering the amount of blackberry on the flavor– dial it down a little and you would have a good mix of beer and fruit.

The Hoppy Redhead was the best beer here. The Red IPA is really growing on me as a style. I am beginning to really like the toasty malt upfront with the stronger bitter end. This beer had a good nose of grapefruit and grass. It started with good toasted malt up front and finishes with a good grassy hop taste. This was well done and well balanced.

The 12 1/2 Man IPA (this has something to do with football and I am still trying to figure out this 12th man thing) is sweet on the nose with an almost vanilla aroma. It is very bitter with mint undertones and not well balanced.

The 2 Pint IPA has the opposite problem of the 12 1/2 Man. This has a lot of toasted malty flavors and not much bitterness. Overall, the flavor is more toasty than anything else although there is a lingering hint of bitter.

The Pau Hana Porter is a nice style porter with coffee undertones and good chocolate flavors up front. However, it is a bit too sweet drinking more like a chocolate milk than a coffee.

I would recommend if you are in the area stopping by, if for nothing else, to try the Hoppy Redhead. If I find myself in the area, I will definitely give a try to the beers I didn’t get on this round and maybe I can find another winner.

My First Seattle Brewery– The Pike Brewing Company

I didn’t go downtown with the intention of going to a brewery, but there it was and I was hungry. It seemed like a good idea to check out The Pike Brewing Company. I had a bowl of crab chowder, which was excellent, and a salad with an amazing tomato vinaigrette. I recommend the food here probably more so than the beers. It is a bit pricey– probably because of location– they are located just up the street from the famous Pike Market.

I did the sampler of their regular year-round beers. I figure I will be back and can try some of the more unusual ones then. A friend told me that some of their beers were occasionally available in Florida, but I had never had any of them so I also wanted to get a feel for their overall style. The beers here were good but nothing stood out as exceptional.

The first beer was Naught Nellie, a golden ale. This beer didn’t have much nose and was very malty in taste with an underlying bitter flavor. Although light, it had a bit more flavor than many other golden ales.

The Pike Pale was another weak beer with not much nose and not much flavor. Although touted as an amber, I didn’t get much toasted malt flavor.

The Pike IPA had a nose with a hint of citrus and grass but was way too bitter in taste. The beer was not well-balanced, giving it almost a sour flavor.

The Pike Kilt Lifter was probably the best of their beers. It had a nice, sweet, malty flavor with just a hint of smoke. It was well-balanced and overall very good, even for someone who generally doesn’t like a Scotch Ale. I have to wonder if Four Peaks knows they are using the same name for this Scotch Ale though. Someone should have points deducted for lack of originality.

The Pike XXXXX had a good coffee nose and nice stout flavors with a bit of stale coffee that lingered at the end. This beer was overall a well done stout.

PIke Monk’s Uncle was a great Belgian style beer with herbal nose and flavors. A very good tripel that is very true to style.

I will definitely find myself back at Pike, as I will be working right up the street and the beers are good. The food is, however, exceptional and a reason to visit this brewery.