PNW Part VI: Seattle, WA

Our final stop was the wonderful city of Seattle. We had no clue that Seattle was as hilly of a city as it is. Having never been before, we had to do all the touristy things. Luckily our good friends Corey and Jackie housed us and drove us around to practically everything you'd possibly want to see there. In order to not piss off our gracious hosts, I tried not to steer us toward beer THAT much despite being surrounded by some great places. Once we hit the top of the space needle, I was surprised to see they actually offered some craft beer at their bar (more like stand). The beer I had was a Scuttlebutt Amber Ale, which doesn't seem to be well-reviewed. I remembered enjoying it quite a bit but I supposed you could chalk that up to the overall enjoyment of the environment.



As we traveled around Seattle, we decided to stop at a well-reviewed little coffee shop called Fuel in the Wallingford neighborhood. In my beeresearch before getting to Seattle I remember reading on BeerAdvocate that the top rated place in all of town is a place called Bottleworks. When we sat down to drink our coffee, I was quite surprised to look up and see that Bottleworks was directly across the street. It was as if my brain is a craft beer magnet. Or something.



So of course, we went in. As you can see above they have 5 fresh craft selections on tap. I had the Fremont Brewing UniversAle Pale (only $4!) and it was pretty decent. Yet again I was faced with a Russian River draft and forced to pick something else that I'd never had before. They also had a MASSIVE bottle selection. Among the best I've ever seen. I had to buy something to send home, so I picked up a '09 Lost Abbey Angel's Share and a '02 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. We also had dinner at the Tap House Grill which has 160 beers on tap. Granted a ton of them are BMC owned, but they did have a few fo'real craft selections. Something was just a bit off about this place.



We've come to the end of our 6 part journey. But above you'll see the beers I collected for shipment back to the East Coast. 12 bottles, 1 can. I ended up getting WAY too big of a box (24"x24"x24") and had to use 3 full newspapers to pack it tightly. And it wasn't cheap. Thankfully they all showed up safe and sound the following week. I've only had a few of them so far.

PNW Trip Part V: Portland, OR

Our biggest beer destination on this trip was definitely Portland, Oregon. Neither of us had been there before but we knew it'd be chock full of great craft beer. We got there late in the day and had to immediately ready ourselves to see Jónsi at the Roseland Theater. We made it with just enough time to stop somewhere for a pre-show beer. As we were walking to the theater we stumbled upon Bailey's Taproom (rated A on BeerAdvocate). Of course, a beer geek's perception of a beer bar is always relative to the geek's home selection, but immediately my face lit up upon seeing Russian River Pliny the Elder on tap.



Of course, having already been to Russian River AND seeing so many other breweries beers on tap that I had not even heard of, I had to try something different. But luckily, the girlfriend picked up the slack and ordered a Pliny so I could at least have a few sips. I got a Walking Man Imperial Porter (which I can't even find a record of online anywhere) and it was very good.


Russian River Pliny the Elder

Walking Man Imperial Porter


Bailey's had a good selection of bottles too and I could easily have spent a few hours there, but we had to be on our way to the show. The tap selection at the Roseland Theater was pretty decent too and I was excited to find Deschutes Black Butte (which I didn't know what actually pronounced "beaut" as in "beauty" instead of "butt" which is what I asked for) and Mirror Pond. Deschutes is a great brewery and we'll visit its Portland location in a little bit.



The next day we explored The Pearl District of Portland and this is when we realized that you basically can't throw a stone without hitting a brewery or brewpub. Just walking around we passed a bunch. We decided to stop in at Bridgeport Brewing Company for lunch. The interior had a very cool old factory feel and it was pretty gigantic.



I had their IPA and it was a strong example of the style. I wanted to try their barleywine but they were out of it that day.





Just a few blocks away is the Rogue Distillery & Public House. Having just come from Bridgeport, we just took a brief look inside. Seems like a good place and I wish I could have sampled one of their spirits, but we had plenty more to see.



Next up we stopped in at the Whole Foods right down the street and man did my jaw hit the floor when I saw the beer aisle. It was pretty overwhelming seeing SO many beers that I've been dying to try but don't have access to in NYC. I grabbed as many as I could and we brought them back to the hotel to later ship back home.



Our final Portland beer stop was my most anticipated, Deschutes Public House. We came in for a late dinner and a few of the best beers I had on the entire trip. Now, the full production brewery is actually in Bend, OR but here in Portland they do brew small batch brews as well.





The bar here has windows into the small brewing area with copper brew tanks behind it.



Back by the restrooms you can peer into where they create some of this wonderful stuff. Looks a little tight back there.



Sacks of spent grain sit bagged up waiting to be picked up by local farmers to be used as feed. Hooray for sustainability!



Right before you walk into the restrooms you see a bunch of beer medals on the wall. You can't quite tell in this photo, but the medals go ALL THE WAY TO THE CEILING. Crazy.



Hop in the Dark and Mirror Mirror were among the beers had with our dinner. Both were outstanding.



I was even intrigued by the signs in the restroom.



Cheers. Next up is the final installment: Seattle.

PNW Trip Part IV: Eugene, OR

From Russian River in Santa Rosa, CA we continued on our way up the Pacific Coast Highway and crashed for the night at a hotel in Crescent City. In the morning we ventured on into Oregon where we had no planned brewery stop, but we were good and hungry as we cruised by Eugene. Again I used my Find Craft Beer iPhone app to discover that there was a Rogue Public House right nearby. We quickly found parking and discovered that this incarnation of Rogue was known as the "Eugene City Brewery".



Interesting how Rogue has all of these other breweries under their umbrella. I'm still not 100% sure how this works, but it seems as if Rogue took an interest in a bunch of smaller breweries and incorporated them into their "Public Houses" which serve both Rogue brews along with, in this case, Eugene City brews. Can anyone verify that that's how this works?



Anyways, it was between lunch and dinner so the place was practically empty, but that didn't stop us from ordering some delicious blue cheese sliders and a few beers.



I immediately went for the Rogue John John, a very interesting barrel-aged Maibock.


Beertographer enjoying his John John. Next up in Part V... the craft beer mecca known as Portland, OR.

PNW Trip Part III: Russian River Brewing Company

After spending a solid 3 days in San Francisco, we headed north on the 101 to Santa Rosa, CA, home of one of the most infamous breweries in the US, Russian River Brewing Company. The funny part about this place is that its located in what seems like a strip mall.



Unfortunately, this was to be a quick stop as it was already getting late and we still had a long drive ahead of us up the PCH. Its really overwhelming to finally arrive at a place you've wanted to go to for years and to only have about 45-60 minutes to take it all in. Just looking at the tap board had me quivering.



We got a plate of their Beer Bites to go along with the delicious sour, barrel-aged brews and I was in heaven. I believe I had the Perdition, Biere De Sonoma aged in wine barrels and Salvation, the strong dark ale.



The only downside to the visit was the slightly lackluster service. I guess we were there right at happy hour so it was quite busy. But its set up so you don't have a specific server, so there was a bit of confusion and double-ordering going on. But the beer more than made up for that minor faux pas.



As we were finishing up and realizing that our parking meter was about to run out, I ran around to inspect the other side of the brewpub and I was surprised to see just how many fermenters were crammed into the small space. I figure they must bottle off-site and perhaps even have a full production brewery somewhere? Of that I'm not sure.



And then there was: THE BARRELS! I had a really hard time resisting the urge to break into this room and sniff all of the barrels and the delicious goodness within.



I also walked away with a few take-home bottles of Supplication and Consecration that eventually got shipped back home. If you're heading out west, its only about an hour drive up to Santa Rosa from SF. It was a little bit of a weird feeling driving right by wine country and only stopping at a brewery BUT Russian River is SO good that it makes missing all of the vino just fine by me.

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace and Buzz Bomb Ale

The other night I was able to go to the Brooklyn Brewery release party for the brand new Brooklyn Sorachi Ace and Buzz Bomb Ale Check out my reviews over at SimplyBeer.com! Blog networking FTW!