May Craft Beer Events

May Craft Beer Events & Going Ons

in and around Tacoma

(including related events outside of Tacoma that I think are rad and/or will be attending personally)

Thursday 3rd - Give Blood Get Beer @ Great American Casino (Lakewood) Cascade Regional Blood Services brings a bloodmobile to the sponsoring business for a Pint-for-Pint blood drive around lunch time or early afternoon. All registered donors receive a prepaid coupon for a pint of beer that can be redeemed beginning the day following the drive.

Tuesday 8th - Science Cafe @ The Swiss Pub (Tacoma, 6:30p) 'Preserving Asia's Wild Cats' is the topic of this month's Science Cafe, put on by the PacSci Center and KCTS9. Come to the Swiss Pub to participate in a discussion about the following: Clouded leopards, fishing cats, bay cats, and more: Southeast Asia's wild cats are beautiful and fascinating, yet poorly understood. At the May Tacoma Science Cafe, join Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium zoologist Karen Povey to explore the challenges of studying these elusive cats in the wild and learn how our actions can impact the survival of rare species half a world away. You can learn about more Science Cafes by checking out their schedule of talks also taking place in Kirkland and Seattle.

Thurs. 10th thru Sun. 20th - Seattle Beer Week 2012 (All over Seattle!) An insane amount of craft beer awesome events are happening for Seattle Beer Week this month, no one person can possibly do them all! Might be a challenge tho... so get out there and try your darndest.

Thurs. 5/10 Cask-O-Rama Pt.1 (BPP)
Fri. 5/11 Back in Black Stout Fest (Brouwer's Cafe) & Cask-O-Rama Pt.2 (BPP)
Sat. 5/12 Pine Box Can Derby (The Pine Box) & Brewers Mini-Golf Blowout (Interbay Golf Center)
Sun. 5/13 Iron Brewer Triple Header (BPP)
Mon. 5/14 This is Washington Dammit! (BPP) & Beer Bingo! (Pyramid) & Big Al's Brewery Night (Columbia City Alehouse) & Big Sky Ride the Bull Night (Brouwer's Cafe)
Tues. 5/15 Northwest Women in Beer (Pike Brewing Co.) & New Brewers' Night (Park Pub) & Bottleworks Cellar Tasting (Bottleworks)
Wed. 5/16 Score on Skip (American Brewing Co.) & All Beer Quiz Night (BPP) & New Belgium Sour Symposium (Stumbling Monk) & Snipes Mountain Sour Night (The Noble Fir)
Thurs. 5/17 Sour Fest (Brouwer's Cafe) & Wall of Casks (Latona Pub)
Fri. 5/18 Bodacious Brewfest (BPP)
Sat. 5/19 Beer Sensory Panel w/ Jamie Floyd (Bottleworks)

Saturday 12th -  
Gig Harbor Beer Festival (Gig Harbor, noon-7p) Check out the site for information on tickets and which brewers will be representin'. This is the first beer festival in Gig Harbor and I'm sure the sun will be a shining!!!
Pocket Aces Double IPA Release @ Wingman Brewery Tap Room (Tacoma, 2-11p) Head on down to the new Wingman Tap Room for a pint of their New Pocket Aces Double IPA. There's only one keg of it so show up early!

Wednesday 16th
-Wingman Brewers Night @ Dog & Pony (Renton, 6:30p) There should be a Wingman beer on tap for every kind the Wingman guys have available at that time. Go drink and enjoy some local 253 goodness!
-Silver City Tap Room Opening @ Silver City Brewery (Bremerton, 3p)

Silver City Brewery Taproom will open to the public on Wednesday May 16th. The Taproom will feature all of their annual offerings, seasonal brews, specialty releases, small & pilot batch & experimental beers on tap for guests to try & enjoy. All beers will be available in samples or pints to enjoy, with most available for growler fills, 22oz bottles & kegs to go. Silver City Taproom will also offer retail merchandise and daily brewery tours.

  

Thursday 17th - (SBWk Event) Sour Fest @ Brouwer's Cafe (Seattle, 11a) This might be a day worth getting off work early for... Russian River Supplication, Temptation, Several Cantillions, Cascade has something in the works, as does New Belgium, Double Mountain Devil's Kriek, and so many more. Oh my!

Friday 18th - Give Blood Get Beer @ The Spar (Tacoma) Cascade Regional Blood Services brings a bloodmobile to the sponsoring business for a Pint-for-Pint blood drive around lunch time or early afternoon. All registered donors receive a prepaid coupon for a pint of beer that can be redeemed beginning the day following the drive.

Wednesday 23rd - Wingman Brewers Can Release Party @ 99 Bottles (Federal Way, 4-7:30p) That's right! Wingman Brewers of Tacoma is now packaging some of their beers... in cans! Why cans? It keeps beer fresher, protecting it from light and oxygen better than the bottle. And you can take cans nearly anywhere: River rafting, golfing,... Meet head brewer Ken Thoburn and taste Wingman's canned beers for $1 and bring photo id. The first 48 tasters get a FREE Wingman pint glass!!                                         

Saturday 26th - Made in Tacoma @ Wingman Brewery (Tacoma, 6-11p) Madrona Coffee, 21Cellars Winery, Barrel 51 BBQ, and Backcountry Creamery will be joining Wingman Brewers in a celebration of products made in Tacoma. There will be beer, coffee, wine, cheese, and BBQ. Check out their event page to RSVP and get more information.

Reoccurring Events

Randall Wrecker Mondays @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma, 6p) - A new beer (and much more!) will be thrown into Parkway's Randall every Monday night for your mouthhole delight. They even have a Randall Wrecker punch card!

Beer Tasting Wednesdays @ Tacoma World Beers (Tacoma, 4-7p) Hit up your localest of local beer stores every Wednesday for a $2 beer tasting. You can always make your own tasting from the beers they have on tap but check out their Facebook page or sign up for the newsletter to see what special beers are being served every week.

Cask Thursdays @ Airways Brewing Tap Room (Kent, 4p) - A firkin will be tapped every Thursday at their Tap Room. You can find weekly updates on what cask ales are being served on their website.

Growler Fills @ Wingman Brewery (Tacoma) - New Taproom open!!! Newly located at 509 1/2 Puyallup Ave, Tacoma, 98421. Swing by for a growler fill or taste of their lovely beer on Thurs, Fri & Sat from 2-11p.


the pissed liBEERian 

Things are brewing in Puyallup!

It appears that things are really brewing (sorry, I couldn't help myself) in the Puyallup area lately. In addition to the oh so loverly Power House Brewery, the area now hails as the home of both DUO Brewing and Puyallup River Brewing. My experience with the guys and brews behind each of these breweries has been a pleasure in many ways (and by pleasurable I am referring to free bottles of beer and not being scolded in 'class' for talking too much) and I am stoked to see both places making a go of it.

I initially met Puyallup River Brewing's Eric Akeson through my blog (he was a long time reader, first time stalker) and we have become good, beery friends ever since. I was privileged to sample some of his ales early on and am excited to see what progressions have come of the movement to a larger system. Puyallup River is doing bottles only to start and you can currently grab a few at Tacoma Boys, H&L Produce and 99 Bottles. Thank goodness for our new beer fridge (which  has essentially converted a typical, everyday garage into what we lovingly call Beertopia; a heavily guarded and padlocked Beertopia that is...), we are now free of space issues when it comes to buying beer. First brews on my list to snag will be the Paradise Blonde Saison (adorable blond chickie on the label has my salivating, even if the beer style isn't one of my faves) and the Fryingpan Cascadian Red Ale (for obvious reasons).

See? Adorable!

On a random whim of mutual inspiration, my superb minion Basil and I signed up for a Beginners Homebrewing class at the King County Library. Dan O'Leary (of DUO Brewing) helped teach the class, which was not only informative but made the endeavor of homebrewing seem both easy and approachable. Which explains why I still haven't gotten around to doing it yet... The first thing I noticed about Dan was that he was sporting one of those bottle opener rings. Plus he and his co-teacher were willing to take cheesy pics with me for my blog, so my first impression was obviously a favorable one. I've gotten to know Dan a bit through the interwebs and have had his beer at a couple of festivals now. DUO Brewing been a long time dream for both Dan and his wife Heather, who have dealt with a fair share of hardships getting started up. You can find DUO's beer in a few places around Tacoma such as at Engine House No. 9 and The Red Hot, but check out their website for what brews are currently on tap elsewhere. They have hopes to distribute some 22oz bottles on the farmers market scene this summer so keep your eyes peeled!

Dan and I at Belgianfest '12, enjoying some beer and randomness

You can read about more wonderfulness on both breweries if you check out the recent write ups by Sue Kidd (of TNT Diner fame), on both DUO Brewing and Puyallup River Brewing.

I'm curious to hear what others have to say about these local brews so feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts!

Cheers!

the pissed liBEERian

Me and my trusty sidekick, BASIL!

April Craft Beer Events

April Craft Beer Events & Going Ons

in and around Tacoma

(including related events outside of Tacoma that I think are rad and/or will be attending personally)

Tuesday 10th - Science Cafe @ The Swiss Pub (Tacoma, 6:30p) Get your nerd on while enjoying a pint or two! This month's Science Cafe topic is all about climate change. "Climate Change and the Arctic Ocean"As global warming continues, we hear a lot about melting polar ice, warming oceans, and their potential consequences. At the April Tacoma Science Café, join Dr. Mike Steele from UW's Polar Science Center to discuss his experiences in the Arctic studying how our changing climate is affecting the Arctic Ocean. If this date/time/location isn't convenient for you, check out the other April Science Cafes in different areas.

Thursday 12th - PRO-AM Parkway Submissions Due @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma, by closing time) This is the last day to enter your beers in the Parkway Am-Pro. Bottles must be properly labeled and it is $5 per entry. MGD & I have been asked to guest judge again this year and I'm excited for another chance to do so, it was so fun and I learned a ton!

Saturday 14th - Snipes Mountain Brewers Dinner & Blending Panel @ Snipes Mountain Brewery (Sunnyside, 6p) All kinds of delicious, gourmet oddities (such as Prairie Oysters and Creole Bread Pudding) will be served up to us with Snipes beer pairings for their Brewers Dinner after we participate in a beer blending panel. And since MGD and myself are making the trek across the mountain on Friday night, we can commence the wine tasting at 10a on Saturday to get nice and lubed up for said blending and eating.

Sunday 15th - PRO-AM Parkway Beer Judging @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma, should probably find out what time they need us there since we have to drive back from Eastern, WA this same morning...) We had a blast being a part of the beer judging process for Parkway's PRO-AM homebrew competition, I'm sure this year won't let us down one bit either! Can't wait to try what's been concocted! Last year I rated a barleywine that a good friend had brewed (unknowingly a the time, as all the brews are anonymous) and he gave me some kudos for my review a few weeks later. He said my comments were constructive and helpful, so this year I feel marginally more confident in my abilities as a judger of beery goodness vs. beery badness.

Wednesday 18th 
- Wingman Brewers Night @ Diamond Knot Brewery & Alehouse (Mukilteo, 6-9p) I don't have any other info on this so just show up at Diamond Knot and enjoy some tasty Wingman brews, mmmmkay?
- Sidetrack Distillery Collaboration Beer Release @ Airways Bistro (Kent,  5:30p) For the 2nd beer released in Airways' collaboration series you can head on down to the Bistro and enjoy Airways Starliner Stout with Oak Chips soaked in Raspberry Liquer.
- Black Raven Night @ Red Hot (Tacoma, 6p)Your favorite tube steak place has the hook up on some gems by the oh so popular Black Raven Brewery. Swing in tonight for a taste of the Trickster IPA, Totem Northwest Pale, Wisdom Seeker Double IPA and Grandfather Raven Redmond Imperial Stout (only brewed once a year). It's sure to be packed with this kind of line up, so get there early!

Thursday 19th -  Double IPA Blind Tasting @ Beveridge Place Pub (West Seattle, All day long) Think you know what your favorite IPA is? Challenge your taste buds with 6 of the best and find out the truth...

 Saturday 21st - Wingman's New Brewery Opening!!!  (Tacoma, starts at 2p) The Wingman Brewery doors will finally be open on the new brewery and taproom, a much needed expansion. You can find their new digs at 509 1/2 Puyallup Ave, Tacoma, 98421. Come join the party!

Wednesday 25th
-PBR Night @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma) Something about there being a gigantic Connect Four game, IDK. Gets pretty kuh-razee up in the Parkway sometimes so bring your A-Game.
-DUO Brewing Brewers Night @ Dog & Pony (Renton, 6:30p) Go try a pint of DUO's Belgian Golden Ale, Coffee Porter, Cask Conditioned Vanilla Porter, or the Milk Stout.

Saturday 28th - April WABL Gathering @ H20 Bar (Anacortes, 3-6p) This new beer bar is owned and operated by the peeps of Anacortes Brewery. Go check out the new bar (maybe on your way to April Brew's Day in Bellingham) and enjoy 24 taps of lovely craft beer. WABL members can enjoy $3 pints (this means you should probably bring your passport) and there will be prize drawings!

Saturday 28th thru Monday 30th - Holy Crap, It's Barley Wine Fest! @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma, from 2p on Sat. until closing on Sun. (technically 2a Mon.) My liver is both excited and currently cramping in anticipatory happiness for the Parkway's BWF. I don't remember last year very well but that means I probably had a stellar time. Hit up their Facebook page for a complete list, it's guaranteed to make your mouth hole water. They usually coordinate a Barley Brunch for one of the mornings with special food (brunch, duh) and beers so keep an eye out for that as well!

Reoccurring Events

Randall Wrecker Mondays @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma, 6p) - A new beer (and much more!) will be thrown in the Randall every Monday night for your delight. They even have a punch card!

Beer Tasting Wednesdays @ Tacoma World Beers (Tacoma, 4-7p) Hit up your localest of local beer stores every Wednesday for a $2 beer tasting. You can always make your own tasting from the beers they have on tap but check out their Facebook page or sign up for the newsletter to see what special beers are being served every week.

Cask Thursdays @ Airways Brewing Tap Room (Kent, 4p) - A firkin will be tapped every Thursday at their Tap Room. You can find weekly updates on what cask ales are being served on their website.

Growler Fills @ Wingman Brewery (Tacoma) - New Taproom open now!!! Newly located at 509 1/2 Puyallup Ave, Tacoma, 98421. Swing by for a growler fill or taste of their lovely beer on Thurs, Fri & Sat from 2-11p.

 April showers bring me

special beer powers!

Why I love Eyeluvbeer & other out of this world musings

 You gotta check out my buddies blog post today over at Eyeluvbeer, it made me laugh out loud (sorry, I can't physically make myself type 'LOL'). I totally love them and their goofy weirdness, my kinda peeps through and through. You can check out his other posts and rad merchandise here, after you're done reading. Might as well read on and enjoy!

Meet 0101110, Our New Friend

Hi, I'm 0101110

Greetings Earthlings. I have been deployed from the planet Bräuzeer contained in the UDFj-39546284 Galaxy, which is approximately 13.2 billion light-years from Earth. We are fluent in 10,126 languages, including English. My planet Bräuzeer is interested in a liquid you create called beer. Where I'm from no such thing exists. We used our recently developed Hopdar Sensor Technology (HST) and have found the Pacific Northwest produces some of the best beer in the United States. After careful analysis we have chosen Oregon as our test site; Portland to be exact. Bräuzeer was amazed when they looked at their radar findings and saw 47+ breweries in the metropolitan area. Fascinated by this enormous number they have sent me, 0101110 to explore the love you humanoids have with beer. Oh, and don’t worry, we aren’t going to try to take over your planet like those Hollywood movies want you to believe.

Bräuzeer as seen from your crappy Hubble Space Telescope

My space craft was programmed to land at 45° 33' 7.2'', -122° 40' 32.2''. As it turns out, this was the exact coordinates of what I have become to know as Bridgetown Beerhouse. I made it, but was in bad shape from a very rough landing. Almost unconscious outside Bridgetown’s entrance, I was scooped up off the ground by a scruffy looking human who was headed out the door. I noticed one particular article of clothing the earthly being was wearing had some strange symbols on it; one I recognized was the state of Oregon. Below it, in tiny letters was some text. It read Eyeluvbeer. I would call this Earthling, Eyeluvbeer.

Eyeluvbeer, put me in his pocket and we traveled by foot to the place he calls home. So far, I have been on Earth for roughly two weeks. In that time, I have consumed a number of beers and have begun to see why you humans love it so much. It's certainly delicious, there seems to be a style for everyone’s liking and more importantly, it brings people together. I have met some really great beings in Portland while out sipping a pint. They think I look a little funny at first, but they figure I’m just keeping Portland weird.

Eyeluvbeer bought me a nice
HUB Galactic Imperial Red.  It was out of
this world!

Eyeluvbeer has promised to take me out more and more. He said he’d be happy to have me as a guest blogger or at least contribute somehow to the beer blog he maintains. Eventually I will have to return to Bräuzeer to report my discoveries. Until then, I hope we cross paths and can enjoy a pint together.

Happy St. Patricks Day,
0101110

You can check out Eyeluvbeer's other blog posts and rad merchandise here, they are definitely doing their part to keep Portland weird. Thank goodness for that!

Tacoma Drinks WA Beer Week - We did it!

I recently went on a fabulous trip through Washington. A trip solely experienced by my mouth hole that resulted in many a night spent ingesting Washington brewed beers. Tacoma Drinks Washington Beer Week is a collaborative event put on by the Red Hot and Parkway Tavern, 2012 will mark the 2nd year they've done this and I was stoked when I heard it would be going on again. Resulted in a big 'ol happy dance and a game plan, as a matter of fact.

The challenge is simple enough: Pick up a bingo-style beer sheet, get a stamp for every WA beer you drink during the designate time (both places dedicate all of their taps to this event so there were lots of options) and hopefully fill out the sheet to win a commemorative growler. Although I found absolutely nothing wrong with how this event played out in the Fall of 2010, some obvious improvements had been made. Only 20 pints (19 plus a free space) needed to be downed for completion, versus the 25 (24) of last year. Both places made sure to have multiple kegs of some of the harder to find beer, that way I didn't have to worry about making it out every single night just to ensure I don't miss a beer that might run out quickly.

Last year, if I remember correctly, a keg of Fish beer was only served the first day or two at Red Hot and if you didn't happen to get it at that time there were no other options during the event to do so. It left quite a few people (including both MGD and myself) with almost filled out beer sheets and no way to complete the task. Red Hot was great about getting another keg at the end of the event to sort everyone out and a couple days before this year's event ended, they did a shout out on Facebook to see what beers people still needed to drink for stamps. Brilliant.

The beer sheet also had special events listed for the duration (like Harmon brew on the Randall at Parkway and the release of the Wingman/Airways collaboration brew at Red Hot) which I found immensely helpful in our overall game plan. From previous experience, we knew to drink the 'hard' beers first and then drink whatever from there.

While there was oodles of WA beer to try during the event, here are some of the ones that MGD & I drank:

-Wingman Stratofortress
-Fish Mudshark Porter
-ABC Blonde on Randall
-ABC Scotch Ale (It was American Brewing Company brewers night at Parkway and this was my fave of the night. The Scotch Ale is terribly delicious!)
-ABC Oatmeal Caboose Stout on Nitro
-Elysian Heather Ale 
-E9 Pilsner
-Harmon Old Stock Ale
-Boundary Bay Inside Passage Ale (I think this is the full pint I spilled all over MGD while gesturing wildly during some excited story telling. The story was good so I think his dry pants were a worthy sacrifice, MGD may feel differently.)

Before I dumped the Boundary Bay IPA (pictured on the right) all over MGD...

After said beer dumpage. This was my cheesy "You still have to love me even though you're a victim of my clutsyness!"look. We were long overdue for a beer spilling anyways.

-7 Seas Port Royal Stout
-Snoqualmie Black Frog Stout on Nitro
-Black Raven Trickster IPA
-Big Al Poppa Charlie's Pale Ale
-Schooner Zythos

Big Al Poppa Charlie's Pale Ale & Schooner Exact Zythos

 (We spent the Saturday evening at Hops and Props in Seattle. Had a blast and on the drive home our conversation went something like this: MGD: "Parkway for the win?" Me: "Cha, you know it dude.")
-Silver City Wine Barrel Black Kolsch
-Diamond Knot IPA
-Pike Old Bawdy Barleywine (It was bloody brilliant to make our winning beer a barleywine at the end of an already long night of drinking. All I remember after imbibing the Old Bawdy was proving to MGD that I can throw popcorn and catch in my mouth with a 99% success rate and a hilarious comparison of our house to the Galapagos Islands. So in other words, we had a fab time.)

If you did the math and realized that 17 beers doesn't equal a full sheet then you get a sweet little head pat. In reminiscing about Tacoma Drinks WA Beer Week last year, I decided that MGD and I would only work on one beer sheet this time. We already have 24 growlers at home and 3 in my trunk (I just flitted downstairs to do a head count), winning only one would do us and our space issues just fine. Plus the lovely stomach issues I've been having lately don't make drinking (or eating for the matter) especially fun, and definitely not drinking every night for a week. So I put the limit to one growler and informed MGD that he was going to be doing most of the hard yards.

We started with 2 beers sheets, just in case, but focused our energy on completing one. So there are quite a few beers that we each had a pint of, hence the less than 20(19) beers. Plus we had friends 'donate' pints to our sheets, which I'm morally torn over. I won't go into my neurosis as to why but just know that MGD & I could have easily each completed our own sheets if we wanted to, we did 2 full ones last year.

So my whole 'one growler & you do the drinking' song and dance changed as soon as I saw that the commemorative prize growlers were the small medicine bottle style ones. I absolutely adore those little guys and if you want some explanatory logic, it would take roughly 3 of them to equal the space that one full sized growler would take up. Plus, while at the American Brewing night at Parkway, we had a fabulous time hanging with friends and our buddies from both Airways Brewing and ABC. I should have known, I get really excited about themed contests. Next year I will keep my trap shut and just go drink my little Washington heart out.

Winning combination at Parkway (and also the last we saw of Sheet #2)

MGD photographing me photographing the winning combination

This is one of those 'I hate this picture because I look like I have down syndrome but MGD likes it so that's the only reason you are seeing it.' pictures.

MGD hops behind the bar at Parkway for a photo op of our winningness with Sean Jackson

After party celebrations took place behind the beer sheet

While we 253ers are already pretty big cheerleaders for local beer in and around these parts, I think this event is a great one. Not just for the obvious reasons but it also gives people an opportunity to try some beers they haven't had before from breweries they already know well. I hope that the Parkway and Red Hot work to make this an annual event, it's one of my favorites of EVER.

Tacoma drinks Washington.
Washington loves Tacoma.
Well done guys, well done.

Photography by MGD