Big River:Beer&Bowl in B.C.

     A couple of days ago I motored over the border into Canada to check out another Lower Mainland brewery: Big River Brewpub in Richmond.  I had read that this was next to a bowling alley, but was not prepared for how cheek-by-jowl the two were.  Here is a view of the brite tanks room, imagine the sound of tenpins falling:

I met the brewmaster, Michael Stewart, a third-generation brewer who learned the craft from father and grandfather and started out at a brewery in Vancouver, about fifteen miles north of this spot. He showed me his copper clad brew kettle, heart of the 10-hectoliter (oops, metric up here, call that about seven of our beer barrels) system.

Besides kegs,, they fill 650-ml (our 22-oz) bottles.  They had not previously created their own growlers but Michael was happy to report that the first Big River growlers should be delivered next week.  The name of the business refers to the Fraser River just outside the door, the Fraser being B.C.'s equivalent of the Columbia. The company was also in the process of renaming their ales and lagers to reflect the river's history: Sidewheeler Blonde, Logger Lager, River Pilot ESB.  I had a pint of the pilsner, soon to be known as Dragon Dance Pilsner, together with a tasty burger.

Here was the best part:  a pint and a burger were only $10 Canadian (par with our dollar).  Was that every Thursday, I asked?  No, it's every day the Vancouver Canucks play an NHL game and they were playing the Coyotes down in Phoenix that night.
That wasn't the only deal.  Across the street is a big cineplex--IMAX screen, the whole works--and every Thursday evening they do a dinner and a movie package for $18.  You get a gift certificate good for the price of a regular film; pay extra if you choose a 3D or IMAX version.
Good beer, too.  Next time I'll try the taster tray.
(Visited 3/21/13)

Tacoma: Wingman Brewers

   Down in Tacoma, across the street from the Dome, Wingman Brewers is livening up the scene with evocations of WWII airplanes.  They tell their story on their Facebook page, about how Ken Thoburn and three friends started home-brewing in college and now, just a few years after graduation, went commercial and are going on two years as a brewery.  Ken's grandfather painted nose cone art on WW II bombers and inspired the names and logos of most of their brews.  Here are two that they put out in cans:

   Production is limited, with a one-barrel system and self-distributing, so the cans go no farther north than Federal Way, about twelve miles up the road.  But, a seven-barrel system and more fermenters are in the works, so sometime this year Wingman may be making ripples in bigger ponds.  For now, sales right here are the biggest revenue stream, and they make those sales just three afternoons and evenings a week.
    The cans are filled by a mobile canning service, but Wingman does some bottling itself.  I got to take a pic of the two bottled options, keeping in mind that these labels have not been approved by the feds and have been resubmitted with minor changes.

     White Betty sounded interesting.  Ken said he makes his basic Tripel recipe (on tap as Miss-B-Haven) and adds some Semillon grapes toward the end of the boil.  Tripels always give off fruity esters anyway, and I wondered what a wine grape would do to the overall effect.  One of my favorite Tripels is Pike's Monks Uncle and I wanted to run a comparison at home.  Tyler, the barman, sold me an unlabeled bottle of White Betty and I picked up the Pike on the way back to Bellingham.
     I put the contestants on the table and poured a bit of each into my two favorite tulip glasses.

Each ale weighs in at 9.0% alcohol by volume; Pike lists its bitterness as 34-38 IBUs while I didn't have those numbers for Wingman.  Aroma was the first check. Pike has a yeasty nose while Wingman sniffs with a   real tang, putting the grapes out in front.  Tip of the tongue: Wingman is sending reminders of apples here.  Pike is disclosing a blend of spices, not listed so I am guessing: coriander, clove, maybe mint.  Full mouth test:  a bit more bitterness for Wingman.  Ken said he used some bitter orange peel.  Pike: Rich, still spicy, reminding me of a raisin cake, which would bring nutmeg, maybe cinnamon into the mix. Some of this comes out in the long aftertaste.  Either one is a fine Tripel.  Cheers to Wingman, wishing them prosperity and a wider distribution in the future.
(Visited 2/28/13)

Fremont adds another: Outlander Brewing

     After giving the Belgianfest ales time to settle, I moseyed up to Seattle's  Fremont district, to get a stamp from Brouwer's Cafe in my WABL passport.  Wandering the neighborhood after that, past the Theo chocolate works (where Redhook began as a brewery), I caught the familiar scent of malting barley on a side street.  Yes! It was coming from a little blue building on 36th St.

Outlander (like the Diana Gabaldon novels) Brewing has been up and running since August.  Nigel Lassiter brews on a one-barrel system with a couple of fermenters and owns the business.

Here was the tap list on the Saturday night before the Super Bowl:

I tried a pint of his Astragalusk Schisandra, a wheat ale infused with a Chinese medicinal root and berry, at 7.4% abv.  I'm sure it cured whatever may have been on the verge of ailing me.   I recall a balanced taste, a bit darker than some other wheat ales.  Excellent aroma.
It looks like another adventurous brewery where the craft is paramount.
(Visited 2/02/13)

Belgianfest faves

     I took in the state Beer Commission's Belgian festival down in Seattle last weekend; glad I got my ticket in advance as it was a sellout.  The Belltown conference center at Pier 66 was pretty well packed.

Something like 30 breweries came, some who make one or more Belgian styles year-around and some who just made something for this bash.  About a dozen brought Tripel ales, which I decided to survey.  (These ran around 8-9% alcohol, so with foresight I had booked a room in the Moore Hotel, a couple blocks away.)
      Boundary Bay and Anacortes Brewing, up our way, brought some nice tripels, as did Dick's from Centralia and McMenamin's, from somewhere in their empire (Six Arms on Capitol Hill did their brewing, I understood). Elysian came in with ten different Belgians, including two tripels.  I had to go with their Bete Blanche (you have to imagine the little tent symbol over the first E in Bete, and give it your best French pronunciation shot).  Sound Brewing from Poulsbo had a nice Tripel Entendre, which of course came after their Dubbel Entendre.  I would have gone with Tripel Entente, but that's the history buff in me.
     A new brewery came all the way over from Spokane, Ramblin' Road, and their entries included Lavender Tripel.  I remembered not liking a lavender infused pale ale I encountered in Omaha, but I tasted this one with an open mind and liked it.  Told the brewer, Danielle Guthrie, she done good.  They weren't yet open during the last Octoberfest in Spokane but should be going strong ere the next one.
     And then there was Pike Brewing.  Their Monk's Uncle is one of the best tripels around that's available in bottles all year.  They made a batch of Uncle and threw in 60 lbs of Bing cherries to make it even sweeter and stronger. They called it Tripel Kriek, which of course put The Band's Up on Cripple Creek in my ear all weekend.
     I also had a chance to chat with Lazy Boy's Shawn Loring (recently featured at Archer Ale House here) and Snipes Mountain's Chad Roberts (who came all the way from Sunnyside to do a brewer's night at the Green Frog in November).  The Belgian Golden Shawn made in Everett was very fine.
(Visited 2/02/13)

Scuttlebutt: The new brewery

   The last time I posted anything about Scuttlebutt in Everett related to its brewing operation, they were in the old seafood building on Marine Drive.  When they moved the pub out by the marina, they put the brewing across town, in an industrial section between Everett Station and I-5.  Stopped by a few days ago and was impressed by the technology as well as the philosophy.
    As I walked toward the building, I saw Eric Noll, who had been one of my brewing mentors at Gallaghers-Where-You-Brew in Edmonds. Eric offered me a tour, an offer I of course could not refuse. First thing was the bottling line. Scuttlebutt does a lot of trade in 12-oz six-packs and 22-oz singles.  Their one machine can do both, switching back and forth.

Eric told me that Scuttlebutt is ramping up to ship to
some giganto distributor in New Jersey, who will put them in markets up and down the east coast.  They are looking at being registered in thirteen states in 2013.  These guys are running the bottling and labeling line full-tilt to fill those pallets.

All those Navy towns up and down the east coast: good marketing will give Scuttlebutt a niche, with its navy-themed labels like Homeport Blonde (one of my favorite blonde ales) and Gale Force IPA, and the fact that Everett has for years been the home port of at least one carrier, currently the Nimitz, and some smaller ships.

I wondered aloud if Scuttlebutt was going down the industrial-craft beer road.  This is not an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.  We think of industrial beer in America in terms of the insipid flavors of Bud and Coors, which we, as consumers, demanded for the last half of the twentieth century. Yet, as Shock Top and Blue Moon demonstrate, the big brewers can make beers that taste better and have some character.  Should these be called "craft" beers? Certainly not "microbrews", the old term that seems to have been supplanted by craft beer now.  Micro connoted a brewery in a garage, and clearly some of our brewers best known for flavorful beers are way beyond that scale:  Redhook, Widmer Bros, in Portland, the Anchor Brewing plant I touned in San Francisco last summer.  I think Lisa Morrison may be on the right track in her Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest when she contrasts the term with wine's terroir:  "But instead of being shaped by the soil's condition or mineral content, craft beer's terroir is influenced by the personalities of the brewers, the surrounding communities, and the particular culture that envelops each brewery."

The brewers at Scuttlebutt look as if they are ready to play around, experiment.  Eric. pictured here in front of a row of fermenters, pointed out a large whiskey cask to be used for aging some special brew.

The surrounding community, Everett, is solid blue-collar with the Navy and Boeing.  As to a particular culture at Scuttlebutt, I wish their public face, the pub, had more personality, but the sterile space on the marina has been crowded each time I have stopped by. The brewery projects an adventurous image, and I see Scuttlebutt as a craft brewer on the way up.
(Visited 12/21/12)

Fish sighted in Everett

Olympia's Fish Brewing Co. has a newish pub in Everett, across the street from the Comcast Arena with its ship masts making a landmark.

The pub opened about a year ago; there are plans to install brewing equipment here in the future. The bit of unique the Fish folk have come up with here is an international collection of empty 55-lb. malted barley bags hanging from the ceilings. Domestic malts are usually shipped by truck to brewers of all sizes, but the European malts cross the pond in these white canvas bags.  Fish uses them mostly in its Leavenworth series of German beers.

  Stopping by for just a short schooner, I passed on the Leavenworths and tried one of their seasonal brews in the Reel Ale series: the Monkfish Belgian Style Tripel Ale. I put in a link so others can see the label and admire what a singularly ugly fish this monkfish is.  The ale, though, is splendid--I would like to try it alongside Pike's Monk's Uncle Tripel, a personal favorite in that sweet&tart style.
(Visited 12/222/12)

The RAM moves north, to Marysville

    The RAM chain of breweries, with several locations in Pierce County and several others in W. Washington, and a handful in other states, has opened a new location in Marysville. The new spot looks like all the others I have seen, in a mall,  large restaurant area with huge screens for the sports bar trade, the same beers brewed in all locations.  The most distinctive feature in the new spot would be the Tulalip Casino across the asphalt.

The casino may be the first attempt at a new architectural style, "Las Vegas-Northwest,"  we can hope it doesn't start a trend.
I tried their Buttface Amber, a decent ale, and a bit of the 71 Pale (1971 being the year the firm opened its first restaurant.  Craft brewing would come along some years later.)
(Visited 12/1\5/12)