From Kennewick back to Bellingham

     At the Untapped Blues and Brews Festival in Kennewick May 9, always a great time for rockin' blues bands, often with national reputation, smoky barbecue, and breweries of southeast Wash that we don't get to taste a lot, over on the wet side.  Chatted with Mike Sutherland of White Bluffs Brewing in Richland about his focus on the French farmhouse styles, Biere de Garde,Biere de Mars--mars being the month of March in france), Rocky Coulee from Odessa, promoting their fine Deutschefest in September, Bale Breaker and Yakima Craft from Yakima, the two Prosser breweries (Whitstran and Horse Heaven) upholding the worship of Ninkasi and Gambrinius in the temple of Bacchus, Ice Harbor from right there in Kennewick and Laht Neppur from Waitsburg. Richalnd is now up to five or six craft breweries, Atomic the most senior and Paper Street being the newest.
     On the way home the next day, I came via Wenatchee and stopped for lunch in Cashmere, at Milepost 111.  They have acquired some bigger brewing equipment since my last stop, a couple of fermenters
(3 bbl?) showing through the back bar glass, and a couple of their own brews on tap along with 20-odd well curated guest taps.  Then a brief stop in Leavenworth, for a passport stamp at Icicle and a look at how the town does "Mutters Tag" (Mother's Day) Bavarian style.  Over Stevens Pass and down the other side where I noted the sign for a new craft brewery in Index, but saved it for a future stop.  I did want to pause once more, in Monroe, where Adam's NW Bistro has now restored the old name of Twin Rivers Brewing to its beer-making side.  Chatted with brewer Dan over a pint of his good malty brown ale; he showed me a pair of barrels which had held bourbon once and then rum twice. I learned that spirits law limits whiskey makers to a single use of a barrel, but after that the barrel may be used for other spirits. This stout should be ready in December; I'm posting a reminder to myself.
#White Bluffs Brewing #Rocky Coulee Brewing #Milepost 111#Twin Rivers Brewing
(Visits 05/09-10-15)