Snoqualmie foam by the falls

   Driving up the pass toward Yakima, I took the turnoff marked for Snoqualimie and soon was in a brand new town atop a hill.  This was new Snoqualmie and I soon got directions to old Snoqualmie down the hill east. Passing a spur with a lot of rusting old rail cars, apparently works in progress for the Northwest Railway Museum, one follows the tracks and soon reaches the brewery.  It's a cozy looking place from the street:

Inside, the decor consists mostly of paintings and photographs of the falls.  There is one old drawing, showing the Snoqualmie Hop Ranch, a spread of some 420 acres in Wash. Terr. (pre-1889) and captioned as the largest hops growing operation in the U.S. at the time.
   With the railroading introduction, I had to taste their Steam Train Porter, 5.0 abv and sweet but with a dry finish.  It went great with a bowl of butternut squash soup.  They were pouring ten taps, eight of their own regular brews and one seasonal, the Harvest Moon Festbier, and what appears to be a permanent guest tap for Chimay.  A copy of the latest Northwest Brewing News was on the bar, opened to the profile of  Rande Reed, who has been brewing here since 1998.  The interview nicely depicts his previous experiences at Pyramid Brewing as it was in the process of becoming corporate.
   Snoqulamie has become big enough to run their own bottling line and is found throughout the state and in parts of Oregon and Idaho now.
   (Visited 10/2/10)