North Carolina: a stop in Raleigh

    I took a day away from the Philadelphia visit last month to pop down to Raleigh, NC and hang out with a couple I've known since the late Paleocene era.  We had dinner at the Boylan Bridge Brewpub, with a nice view of downtown Raleigh for a backdrop.

Paul and Linda were kind enough to share a meal of pub fare with me, rather than dining off their splendid backyard garden.  We sampled the Trainspotter Scottish Ale, the Southbound Stout, and the Rail Pale.  (Note: the Amtrak station is just down the hill, hidden by the wall in this shot).  They do make a Pullman Porter here as well, though it was not available the day we stopped by.
     Raleigh is the state capital, the home of N.C. State U., and one corner of the Research Triangle, with Durham and Chapel Hill.  I was told it robustly supports four craft breweries; time only allowed this one visit this time.
(Visited 5/23/12)

Palouse Falls (also in Pullman)

    Up the creek a bit from the old post office, seek out Palouse Falls Brewing Co., a production brewery with a tasting room, pleasant in the afternoon sunshine.

 They were pouring their four year-around brews (an IPA, a golden, a stout, and a ruby ale named for the Crimson of WSU up the hill.  A seasonal was another golden ale, Spring Thaw, with more kick at 7.0% and 45 IBUs than the regular golden, Idaho AU, at 4.75% and 17 IBUs.  Pullman sits almost on the Idaho state line, and Moscow, home of the U. of Idaho, is just seven miles away.  A second seasonal, Whitman Wheat, does not appear on the website but was being tapped on the day I stopped by.  If you can't get a wheat ale here in the Palouse, one of the best wheat producing areas in the world, something would be out of whack!
(Visited 6/01/12)

Paradise Creek:going postal near WSU

   While the brewery in a metal building in the back of a business park is the type most often seen, every now and then someone adapts a building once used for a quite different purpose into a place for making beer, while still honoring that older use.  I think of the Powerhouse in Puyullap, with its electrical switches on the walls, and Engine House No. 9 in Tacoma, festooned with firefighting gear.  And now Paradise Creek in Pullman, formerly the town post office.

The interior preserves the old fashioned barred windows from which postal clerks sold stamps, money orders, mailed packages, etc.  All that is lacking is the chained ball point pens that don't write.   A spacious restaurant space opens up behind the windows, where the mail used to be sorted.  I dined on barbecued beef brisket with their Dirty Blonde Ale, a tasty pairing.
     The only beer name that reflects on the USPS is called Postal Porter.  Now how is it neither these guys, nor their neighbors at the Palouse Falls brewery, could call their porter Pullman Porter?  I didn't ask; I would hate to hear another sad story about trademark law and beer names.
(Visited 6/01/12)
    

Stoudt's Brewing Co. in PA Dutch country

   Watch for Amish horse-drawn buggies on the roads around Adamstown, Pennsylvania.  They may not be heading to Stoudt's Brewing Co. for a pint, but lots of other beer fans are.  Stopped off there a  couple of weeks ago in the course of checking out the site of the wedding this fall of daughter Tennyson and Gregg.  The Stoudt family started out with a restaurant here fifty years ago, an antique sales center forty years ago, and a brewery twenty-five years ago, in 1987.  Ed Stoudt got the first two going, but it was wife Carol who got the brewmaster's license and started cooking the mash--one of the very first women to do so.

  We enjoyed a good meal in the restaurant, then one of the next generation of Stoudts, Elizabeth, took us through the whole operation, starting with the brewery.

Elizabeth Stoudt is the cheesemaker for the business now. Behind the brewery section, one walks through a huge space (70,000 square feet) just devoted to antique sales by some 300 dealers every Sunday.  Past the antiques mall is her bakery and cheesemaking section, and an organic and good food market.  Elizabeth explained that she buys from local dairies that don't use pesticides, the process of getting certified as an organic producer is too time-consuming for a lot of these small dairies and they don't bother with it.  Back to the beer:  they focus on German styles, Kolsch, Pilsener, Helles, Gold Lager (much like Chuckanut at home, so my orange Chuckanut cap was suitable attire), along with IPAs and Pales.  Their stout does not play on the family name; it is called Fat Dog Stout to honor Ferdie, the family pooch.

(Visited 5/21/12)

Northern Lights: Spokane's coolest mini-mall

Stopped off in Spokane on the way east to check out Northern Lights Brewing. Situated between the Spokane River and the Gonzaga campus, these folks have made the most of their location.

The brewery and pub share space with a fly-fishing tackle shop, a Thai restaurant, a chocolatier, and a new distillery.  The website emphasizes the three signature beers here: the Born & Raised IPA, the Crystal ESB, and the Silent Treatment Pale.  They do play with other styles as well; I sampled the Chocolate Dunkel and the Bulldog Cream Ale during a short stop.  The three main beers show up on the t-shirts and other swag they sell, but the Bulldog (Gonzaga's mascot) does not.  He just growls on a window in front of some of the fermenter tanks.

A very enjoyable stop, enhanced by the ardent embrace of their community these brewers show.

(Visited 5/14/12)

Philadelphia.city of brewerly love: Pt. I (PBC)

  While hanging out in Philly with T.J. and Gregg and discussing their October wedding near here, we got a couple of brewery visits in.  First, the Philadelphia Brewing Co., working out of a good looking old brick building in the Fishtown neighborhood.

They make a nice lager, Kenzinger, a tasty porter, and my fave, a wheat beer called Walt Wit, with a pic of the Leaves of Grass guy on the label--yes, I had to pop for the t-shirt.  They gave us a notice tour of the plant, where I got a shot of the bright daughter by the brite tank.

And she took one of me hamming it up in a cutout.

More east coast brewstops will be posted soon, but I just can't help but talk about this afternoon's visit to Monk's Cafe on S. 16th in Philly, the beating heart of Belgian beer enthusiasm in the USA.
Monk's has an incredible bottled beer list, around 300 labels and half of them from Belgium, where the greatest trippels, wits, saisons, and all that good stuff can be sampled.  Another quarter of the list is many of the best American beers, like Russian River, Dogfish Head, Firestone Walker, and Ommegang.  Got no pix but my taste buds will long remember Monk's.
(Phila. Brewing Co. visited 5/19/12)

Whatcom breweries: gain one, lose one

Bellingham is now a three-brewery town, with the opening of Kulshan Brewing April 2.  It's located up on N. James Street, with good commercial neighbors like Hardware Sales, Vis Seafoods, Youngstock's produce stand, and Trader Joe's all within a block or two.

Photo dates from two weeks ago.  Kulshan has been putting out kegs in local taverns since mid-March; I tried their Good Ol' Boy Pale Ale in the Copper Hog recently.  It's a quality pale, in the Sierra Nevada tradition, clear although the bartender says it's unfiltered.  Now that the pub premises are open, I shall stop by soon and sample their other offerings.  The interior is split between a must-be-21 space and a family area.

While Bellingham adds a brewery, Ferndale loses one.  Frank-n-Stein on Main Street is now just a pub, not a brewpub, as Lloyd Zimmerman has sold the business and the new owner, Maggie, will just be operating it as a pub.  For memory lane, here's a pic of the WWII airplane prints that used to cover the back wall here.

Posted 04/04/12