Naked City & Elysian Fields: Two Worthwhile Stops in Seattle
In a quick trip to Seattle last week, I was able to stop by two brewpubs I had never been to before: Naked City and Elysian Fields. I had a great experience at both and would consider them to be worthwhile stops when in Seattle.
Naked City Brewery and Taphouse
Naked City is located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle, just northwest of Green Lake. While it's a few miles north of downtown Seattle, it's worth the trip. I was impressed by the number and variety of beers on tap: 24 total beers on tap - four of which were brewed by Naked City; the remaining 20 made up a pretty impressive list of guest taps.
Schooner Exact 5 Grid & Naked City Spark in the Dark
Bear Republic HopFest at Bailey’s Taproom
After spending the weekend showing some out-of-town family members around Portland (and being somewhat out of the loop for a few days), it was great to check out Tuesday night's Bear Republic HopFest at Bailey's Taproom. I had become a fan of Bear Republic a few years ago after finding Racer 5 pretty consistently on tap at The Map Room in Chicago, and I was looking forward to trying some of the brewery's other hoppy brews.
I ended up finding Ezra from The New School at Bailey's, and we tried the four Bear Rebpulic beers on tap as part of HopFest (from left to right in the photo above):
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Suzanne Goldsmith talks about Captured by Porches and Miskatonic Dark Rye Ale
On Thursday we had the opportunity to hang out with Suzanne and Dylan Goldsmith from Captured by Porches Brewing Company at the brewery in St. Helens, OR. The couple hosted a great party in the brewery's Beer Parlor, where we ate good food and met a bunch of cool people over a few of the brewery's signature Invasive Species IPAs. I learned that Captured by Porches will be releasing its Miskatonic Dark Rye Ale this week, and followed-up with Suzanne to share more about the brewery, the beer, and Peckers the starling.
Suzanne pours Invasive Species IPA
Here's what Suzanne had to say:
Beer Brawl III at Concordia Ale House
Earlier this week, we met some friends at Concordia Ale House to participate in Beer Brawl III, a blind tasting of beers in different styles from Washington, Oregon and California, where participants submit votes for their favorites in each category. The categories included: Pale Ale, IPA, Stout, and Brewer's Choice; three beers were offered in each category.
The best part about blind tastings is drinking a beer without knowing anything about it, other than its category in this case. While I might be surprised when the beers are revealed next week, I was generally underwhelmed by the beers included in this year's contest. At times, I felt like we were trying to pick the best of the worst in a category; or, choosing a winner through process of elimination.
While we didn't like all the beers, we had a great time trying the beers and talking about them. My favorite beer of the twelve was beer #7, one of the stouts. My other votes went to: #10 for Brewer's Choice; #1 for Pale Ale, and #6 for IPA.
Zwickelmania 2010 Recap: Our tour of Portland
As breweries across the entire State of Oregon opened their doors for tours and tastings on Saturday for Zwickelmania, we decided to stay close to home and check out some of what Portland's breweries had to offer. With more than twenty breweries to choose from in the Portland area, charting our course proved to be a pretty difficult task. And while we didn't get to see everything we would have liked to, we did check out some great breweries, drink some good beer and talk with some cool people along the way. Our day looked something like this:
Lompoc 5th Quadrant
Cascadian: Emerging Styles Beyond Dark Ale
If you've been paying attention to beer in the Pacific Northwest over the past few months, you've likely tried or at least heard about Cascadian Dark Ales. As the debate continues about whether the beer style should be recognized as Black IPA or Cascadian Dark Ale, it's obvious that this issue has become a hot topic of conversation among beer drinkers. Personally, I'd like to see the style recognized as Cascadian Dark Ale. But with some breweries moving forward with Black IPA, it's difficult to tell if CDA will become a widely recognized and adopted style (check out some good CDA background info from Brewpublic here and here).
While some are quick to dismiss the style as a fad and others talk about it as an emerging style, I'd be willing to bet that the style is here to stay - regardless of what a brewery decides to call it. I'm actually hoping that some of my favorites in the style become more widely available year-round offerings.
As I think about this debate, and the discussion about Deschutes Brewery's use of Northwest to describe its Red Chair Pale Ale, the Cascadian Dark Ale discussion raises an interesting question: will the word Cascadian be used to describe new hoppy regional styles from the Pacific Northwest?
Beer Review: New Belgium Ranger IPA
Late last year, we caught wind that New Belgium was going to change the labels of some of its beers and simultaneously release a new beer called Ranger IPA. Ranger rounds out the new Explore Series of beers from New Belgium, which also includes old favorites: Mothership Wit, Abbey, and Trippel. All four beers have been branded with new, simple, two-tone labels that are a pretty dramatic departure from the artistically painted labels that have helped make New Belgium beer bottles so easily recognizable.
While I do like the new labels, I don't like them for New Belgium. It somehow feels like New Belgium is abandoning a part of the brand that everyone knows, that everyone appreciates, and that no other brewery can easily replicate. In looking at the labels here, it's easy to see that these new labels stand out. But admittedly, it's the new look that caught my eye when I was shopping this weekend - and lead me to pick up a six pack of Ranger IPA.
I like the story behind the beer: Ranger IPA is a tribute to New Belgium's regional representatives, or Beer Rangers as they're called. From the brewery:
Beyond the Pacific Northwest: Out of Market Beers Worth Checking Out
While I tend to lean towards beers that are brewed locally, over the past few weeks I've had a few beers brewed outside the Pacific Northwest that stood out for me. Each of these are pretty readily available, and I think each are worth checking out:
New Belgium Le Fleur Misseur
Le Fleur Misseur is part of New Belgium's Lips of Faith series of beers. We were looking for something different when we picked up a bottle of this beer; we hadn't tried this one from New Belgium, the name was intriguing, and the attractive packaging sealed the deal. We weren't disappointed.
Fort George Brewery – Astoria, OR
While we were in Astoria last weekend, we also hit up Fort George Brewery and Public House. I thought this place was great. Located a couple blocks south of the river, it's pretty obvious that the prominent building (which looks just like the building used in the logo) was some kind of factory building in the past. The interior is a great balance between industrial factory and neighborhood pub.
We knew we were in the right place when, in addition to the beers brewed by Fort George Brewery, we saw some pretty awesome guest beers on tap - and oddly enough, all the guest beers were IPAs. And these weren't your run of the mill IPAs either: Russian River Pliny the Elder, Bear Republic Racer X DIPA, Green Flash West Coast IPA, and Avery's Maharaja. We thought we'd have to book a hotel room for the night right then! Come to find out, Fort George had hosted an Indian dinner with IPA pairing earlier that week.
