One of the best things about this area is there are so many wineries and breweries that participate in great Groupon offerings.  I try to take advantage of as many as I can. I don’t often do the breweries that I have already visited as the Groupons almost always include a flight but sometimes the offer is just too good to pass up.

This was the case with Beardslee Public House.  I have only been there once but fondly remember the place– not because of the beer but because of the awesome mushroom soup. This mushroom soup is absolutely fantastic with cream floating on top. You just know by how great it tastes that it is loaded with calories and fat.  However, you have to make the sacrifice. It sounds like I am a great lover of mushroom soup but the truth is, I actually generally hate mushroom soup. Don’t pass up the mushroom soup if you visit!

The beers here are actually quite good too.  I wasn’t impressed the first time I visited  (read the blog here) but they did seem to gain in complexity and flavor profile.  I think my first visit was just a few days after they opened so that does make sense.  The flagship beers are still all there so I am just concentrating this blog on the seasonal and special brews. Even though our Groupon technically meant we should have gotten two of the regular flights, our great bartender Paul, who obviously thoroughly enjoyed his job, offered us one of the seasonals. This was a great bonus so I thought this should be the focus of this blog.

I started with the Widow Maker Wit.  I am not sure if I am redeveloping a taste for Belgian style beers but I am again finding them quite tasty overall. It could be that they are coming more into their own or they are just a welcome change from the Pacific Northwest’s love of IPAs. This beer had a very mild herbal flavor with just a hint of citrus. It was very well balanced and the most beautiful bright yellow color.

The Citra Pale was a very solid pale ale with a nice nose of citra. It was a tad bit on the bitter side but overall the hops were quite balanced.

The Greenleaf IPA on cask was quite a surprise for me. Generally I am a strong advocate of NOT putting IPAs on cask. In general, it kills the hop flavors in the IPA leaving you feeling like you are drinking some sort of tea.  However, this beer actually was better on cask. The lack of carbonation really brought out some of the more subtle grassy and flowery flavors in the hops. Thus the beer goes from a very typical IPA to a much more complex beer on cask.

Four Ginger IPA is only for those who like ginger. The ginger hits you up front and doesn’t let go. There is still a bit of typical hop flavors at the end of each sip. Only order this beer if you like ginger!

The Triple Demon IPA was quite well balanced for a triple. It was a bit on the sweet side but you still got enough hops that it wasn’t unpalatable.

Finally there was the Knotted Porter. This was a great, typical porter with a well balanced coffee and sweet flavor profile..

Along with our flights, we also got a couple of pretzels apparently made from spent grain. Another great use for leftovers and another great reason to visit.  The pretzels came with three dipping sauces– homemade mustard, a sweet honey, and a smoked gouda. All of these were fantastic. Therefore, visit Beardslee for both the food and the beer!

 

 

If you read my previous blog, you know that I am off to get 50 stamps in order to complete my WABL (Washington Beer Lovers) Passport.  Unfortunately, life got in the way so I couldn’t keep you up to date on all my stops, so I started with 35.

My husband had to take a trip to Tacoma so I decided 35 would begin there at Harmon Brewery.  This one has been around a long time and has a really nice locaiton right downtown on Pacific.  If you haven’t been it has decent food and beer, but is often quite crowded. This was not the first time I had tried to make this a stop– plan accordingly and avoid Friday and Saturday evenings. I went this time on Sunday afternoon and it was still busy but seats were readily available.

Since this was a stop that I hadn’t made before, I did a flight.  I mixed some of the standards with the seasonals. I started with the Toasted Coconut Porter.  This didn’t have much coconut flavor when I first tasted it, it actually tasted more barrel aged. However, after sitting about 10 or 15 minutes the coconut really came out. There are also some good underlying chocolate flavors. If you like Mounds bars, this would be the beer for you.

The Pinnacle Peak Pale was a very solid pale ale. It was a bit on the hoppy side with grassy flavors that made it bordering on an IPA.

The Puget Sound Porter was also a very solid beer. All of your typical porter flavors but this one was a bit more heavy and chocolatey, bordering it on a stout.

The Point Defiance IPA was not a favorite. The primary hop was centennial which I have found is the one hop I really don’t like. To me, it tends to give beer an almost skunk like nose and flavor. This beer was also very bitter.

St. Helens Anniversary IPA, on the other hand, was quite good.  This still had those underlying centennial hop flavors but they were much better balanced. The flavors were of grass and citrus. Apparently, this beer is brewed with some sort of hop that is only available a short time out of the year. The bartender didn’t know the name so if anyone does, let me know.

The Sleep and Deep Winter Ale was very typical for a winter ale. There was a hit of bitterness at the end but the predominant flavors were from the malt. I find winter ales generally tasteless and bland.

After that sampler, it was off to Odd Otter which is just at the other end of the street.  I have to say I love the name of this brewery. I also find the mascot (an otter with glasses) very cute. I have had a few of their beers at festivals and events so was looking forward to giving them a try.  Again, since I hadn’t been before, a flight seemed the way to go.

I started wtih the Otzel Quatzel Pale. I found this beer very bitter and that bitterness really lingered. I wasn’t impressed with this one. The second beer, Nottersense IPA, was also very bitter and I didn’t find it radically differnt than the pale ale.

Muggles SMASH was a bit better balanced. Although still quite bitter, it was much betteer balanced with a hint of sweetness from the malt

The Kentucky River Otter was something very different.  It was a barrel aged sour.  I didn’t think I would like it. However, I found that it was quite tasty. I expected the bourbon flavors to overrun the sour but they didn’t. The sour and bourbon both can through for a unique flavor experience.

The Odd Udder Milk Stout was a good stout with chocolate and coffee flavors and an underlying milky sweeetness.  The Comrade Otters Imperial Chocolate Stout was even more chocolately and very sweet.

Last stop was pretty much right next door at Pacific Brewing. I had met one of their reps locally and had been meaning to make it down there for quite some time.  Since I was right next door, I didn’t really have an excuse.

I did another flight since I’d only had about two of their beers.  The Dirty Skoog IIPA had a very nice nose but tasted way too bitter there was a real need for more sweetness to balance. The Potomac Citra Pale was very grapefruit on the nose and tongue. The citra hops really gave good flavor but again there needed to be just a hint more sweetness to provide balance. The Ruston Way IPA had that skunky flavor I don’t find appealing in an IPA and also needed some balance.

The Coco Porter was another great coconut porter. This one was a Mounds bar in a glass from the very beginning! Exactly what I expect and want from a coconut porter.  I ended with another really unusual beer, the Chocolate Blonde.  This beer from all appearances was a typical blonde but all you had to do was smell to take in the chocolate.  The chocolate  dominated the flavor profile but it you tasted really hard you could still get some of those underlying herbal flavors in a blonde.

Well next blog coming soon– as we continue on the countdown to 50!

 

 

 

 

 

So it’s been almost a year since I managed to have time to get back to the blog.  I took a full time job that requires a lot of nights and, frankly, makes me feel like i don’t want to do anything that resembles work on the weekends. However, I really miss the blog and putting my thoughts out there for the world.

So in June, I joined the Washington Association of Beer Lovers (WABL).  I went to the big beer festival at Marymoor Park in Bellevue sponsored by the group and it seemed to make sense. I think membership was about $30. I got a free t-shirt, which I never wear, and a passport to get stamped at breweries around the state.  So far, I am at 35 stamps.

Although I have pictures and notes from all 35 breweries, I am not sure it would be productive to try to put all that out there now. At this point, there are a few places that I don’t remember well.

Thirty five breweries in about 6 months is quite a feat, if I do say so myself. You might wonder how I was able to do that as that is pretty much a brewery a week. Well some things helped– I had relatives in town and we took them to Bainbridge (so there’s Bainbridge Brewery) and I had a couple of business trips to Spokane which got me NoLi, Iron Goat, Black Label, and River City. I am hoping to go back and hit a few more. I need to get back down to Olympia and hit Fish again. I also haven’t been back to the Ballard or Freemont areas of Seattle since I got the passport. I think with those areas alone, I will hit my 50 mark.

So now you wonder, why do I want to get 50 stamps? Well, if I get 50 stamps, I get a new membership for free with another t-shirt. This means I get to start all over again!

I promise to get back into blogging and keep you much more in the loop about my adventures get those last 15 stamps.