John's Brewery Adventures

Sorry folks, but its been a while since I've posted. Its becoming the busy season at work and it won't die down until November, but rest assured I've been sampling the craft brew, with a focus on Washington Breweries in particular as they are the best. In no particular order these are the breweries I've been to since my last post followed by a few comments.

Kona Brewing
Big Aloha Brewing
Laurelwood (Both the original and Battle Ground locations)
McMenamins (Olympic Club and Columbia River locations)
Fanno Creek Brewpub (Tigard, OR)

I'm not much of a porter person, but I did thoroughly enjoy the Pipeline Porter from Kona, as well as the Coconut Porter from Maui Brewing (which I found on tap, but sadly did not get a chance to visit the brewery) I'm not sure what it was about Hawaii, but it must be a porter place.  Nothing stood out to at Big Aloha, but the burger was decent. Especially since Hawaii has a law that burgers must be cooked to hockey puck consistency.

I also enjoyed the Raspberry Stout at Fanno Creek. It was very drinkable, with good flavor and non of the over roasted malt taste I often pick up from Stouts.

At Laurelwood I enjoyed the Golden Ale, wasn't a huge fan of the IPA and thoroughly enjoyed the food.

The McMenamins were nothing spectacular, better than my last spar experience and the Columbia one has a spectacular view.  Plus who can argue with free wi-fi?

I'll try and get back to the standards soon, but there was a backlog. And I know you all care so much about my beer drinking adventures.

Redhook

I had a bunch of family in town for my grad school graduation this past weekend, so I decided it would be a great opportunity to head over to Redhook & the two nearby wineries (Columbia & Chateau Ste Michelle). I'd been to Redhook many times before and am generally a fan of their tour, which includes 5 tastes for $1. Usually they give you a tasting glass to take home, but because they were getting new ones soon, we got full fancy pint glasses to take home instead. Despite all that praise going in, though, I had a mediocre experience at Redhook this time around, primarily because of their shift toward boring beers.

Every other time that I've been there, we've had one or two lighter beers, the IPA, the ESB, and Blackhook, their porter. Now, I never thought their porter was incredible or anything to begin with, but at least it was something more reminiscent of a "good beer," and I always enjoyed ending the tour with it. Now, though, they've stopped distributing Blackhook, so they don't include it on the tour - I was incredibly disappointed. They did still sell it in the pub downstairs, but I really just wanted it to finish off the tour with.

In addition to getting rid of Blackhook, they've also changed their summer seasonal (which I think I had heard about before, but didn't really hit me until I was actually at the brewery). Previously, they'd had a summer seasonal called Sunrye, which was a light beer that I always thought still had a really good flavor. Now, they've replaced Sunrye with Rope Swing, a pilsner, which I think pales in comparison to Sunrye, but might be better for mass-production. It seems like Redhook is going down a path to boring beer, which is disappointing given that they try to emphasize in the tour that Anheuser-Busch, which owns part of the company, supposedly doesn't own enough to control the quality of the beer.

I'd give a rundown of the beer, but three of them tasted almost identical and boring (Rope Swing, Copper Hook, and the Blonde), with the IPa having very little hoppiness for an IPA and the ESB being, really, the only somewhat decent beer they have left. Unfortunately, I'm sure that their shift to more light beers will help them broaden their audience and ultimately help them sell more beer, which is really too bad, in my opinion.

Big Time Brewery

Patrick and I hit up Big Time Brewing on Memorial Day. When they told me they were out of chips for nachos, I was a little worried about what I was getting myself into with Big Time, but I really didn't need to worry at all. I ordered a baked potato with broccoli and cheese, which definitely hit the spot, and the beer was delicious. I definitely plan to go back again sometime, especially because they have a reward card (buy 10 pints, the 11th is free)!

Coal Creek Porter: this was super roasty and delicious. It was a little bit bitter, but not overwhelmingly so.

Matt's Red Eye IPA: this is sort of a mix between an IPA and a red ale. I liked it quite a bit (partly because it wasn't overly hoppy).

Maritime Pacific

This past weekend, Patrick and I decided to hit up Maritime Pacific Brewery in Ballard (aka: The Jolly Roger Tap Room). We got there at about 5:30 or so, and were told we would have to wait a few minutes for a table, which was fine. However, that few minutes ended up being many more than a few (more like 20-30), so we were already a little bit annoyed by the time we sat down. While we were waiting, we'd decided we might as well get dinner there too (instead of just beer), but after looking at the prices and selection on the menu, we decided to just get beer (a sampler for me and an IPA for Patrick) with chips & salsa. Here's a quick rundown of the beers:

Lager: tastes like a lager; absolutely nothing special about it

Hefe: drinkable, but fairly low on the hefe scale

Pale Ale: floral smell, hoppy taste. Definitely not my favorite beer ever, and Patrick referred to it as just the lager with double hops.

IPA: tastes like an IPA, but not an especially good one. By now, we'd noticed a theme: everything is sort of "eh, that's drinkable, I guess." For the IPA specifically, Patrick said that he liked it less every sip he took.

Red: the best of the bunch, but everything is very "replacement level." The red tastes like a very basic, weak red.

Dark Ale: yep, I guess this is what a dark ale tastes like.

Everything tasted like the very basic version of what it was supposed to be, as if they had just googled each type of beer and went off a generic recipe to make it. Nothing was special or interesting in any way.

Mac 'n Jack's

I'd been on the Mac 'n Jack's tour a few years ago (the only way you can taste their beers on site, and only available once per week on Sundays at 3), and remembered it as a much smaller facility than I'd expected for such a popular beer. Well, when we hit it up last Sunday, my thoughts that it seemed really small before were confirmed, as they'd definitely expanded since my last visit. However, still pretty small for such a popular beer, but they tour guide said that some of that is on purpose: they don't bottle or can so that they have more control over the quality of beer that people have, as (hopefully) bars and restaurants will take better care of their beer than someone might who just picked up a six pack at the store.

Interesting notes before going into the beers: they carbonate their beer with CO2. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as I've always heard that's sort of a cop-out, but at the same time, I love their beer (especially the African Amber). Also, they "barrel hop" their IPA and African Amber, meaning they have a little thing with hops that they stick in the kegs before they ship them out. Anyway, BEER!

Serengeti Wheat: their take on a hefeweizen, this beer is light and definitely wheaty. While it would be a good summer beer, it's a little light for me.

African Amber: I have this beer all the time when I go out, and think it's fantastic. Unfiltered with a nice, balanced bitterness.

IPA: floral smelling and much darker than most IPAs. Bitter, but not too bad. I could drink this. Unfortunately, they tour guide indicated that they're reworking their IPA to have a more similar profile to other IPAs, meaning I probably won't like the new one as much. Oh, well.

Black Cat Porter: this is a decent porter, but not stellar. It's pretty basic and not very roasty. While I might not order it if I had options of different porters, if I was looking for a porter and this was the only one avaiable, I wouldn't be disappointed, either.

Fremont Brewing Co

Last Saturday, I finally hit up Fremont Brewing Company with Patrick and a friend who was in from out of town, and have to say, I really like their set up. They brewery, like many, is in a warehouse-type building, but what makes it nice is that they've put a bunch of tables and whatnot around for people to come and hang out. It had a really friendly, community atmosphere, and really did feel like a great place to just go, grab a beer or two, and hang out with friends (or even meet new ones). They even have some random kids' toys so people can bring their kids along if they want. Now, on to the beer...

Proletariat Porter: roasty, goes down easy. Really dark, and not too bitter. They also had it available on nitro, but I just had the regular version. I got two pints of this while I was there, so clearly I think it's worth getting again.

Solstice Pale Ale: smells super hoppy, but didn't taste as hoppy as it smelled (or at least not in a scrunch up my face bitter kind of way). It had a VERY light color - good for summer?

Universal Pale Ale: darker than the solstice, and less hoppy. Reminded me of an ESB. It was pretty good, and probably something I'd order if I saw it somewhere.

Little Woody: smells citrusy, but tastes hoppier than its smells. This isn't something I'd order, but maybe someone who likes IPAs would dig it.

Hale's Ales

Last week, I hit up Hale's Ales for dinner with Patrick. I'd been to Hale's a few times before, but had forgotten a few things: like that they have brewing equipment right there when you walk inside. Another thing, is that they focus on using local ingredients - their motto is "Think Globally, Drink Locally," and they've expanded that to their food menu as well. While they still have pretty standard pub fare (burgers, potato wedges, etc), they feature products from local companies and use naturally raised beef and only wild salmon.

One of my favorite beers at Hale's is one that really doesn't fit my usual profile: Hale's Cream Ale. This beer feels like a stout, but is light and refreshing. I always think the head on this beer tastes like a milkshake - a smooth, creamy, beer milkshake :)

I also had a taste of Patrick's Mongoose IPA, which was actually pretty good. As Patrick said, "it's good, not that bitter, and has a real nice flavor to it." We both agreed that it was almost more reminiscent of an Amber or possibly an ESB than your typical IPA, which I, for one, consider a compliment to Hale's.