Monday, Sept. 13th
Tap Night Tacoma numero uno, dos, tres, CUATRO, cinco, cinco, seis. Okay, just #4. I have no control when Sublime songs start taking over my brain & mouth hole. Did TNT a solid this time w/ MGD and TPG3 in tow. Made it out to 3/5 of the participating pubs. Three way fist bump of local participatory goodness!!
Potion 9, Imperial Red, Seamstress Union in da Sun. So purdiful!
E9 ~ came for the Dry-Hop Imperial Red but stayed for an out of nowhere Seamstress Union tap & tried E9's new release: Potion 9. Enjoyed the Red, but loved the citrus flavor & wheaty goodness of the Potion 9. This tasty ale has more body than Marilyn Monroe. Yummy. However, I did gain some new info on E9's growler policies because really folks, what's accessible Seamstress Union if you can't take some home? Not a regular E9er so I don't have a huge adoration for the place, them being elitist bastards doesn't help their cause much after this evening in gaining a bigger place in my heart of hearts. Growler fills available only for their own brews and they will only fill their own growlers. What. the. fuck. ever. MGD did nab some stellar pics of pints though. Onto the next pub. Peace.
Red Hot ~ Serving up
Everybodys Brewing Dry Hop Country Boy IPA all special like. Shared a full pint while aimlessly looking for a place to sit & watch Monday night football. Bar stools were vacated & we bellied up. Due to spending all of our $ at Brouwer's Hopfest, we were on a strict ale budget for the night. See Example A(le):
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| How destitute ale lovers drink when debit cards go missing and payday is a few days away. |
Trying to keep it a low key night and enjoy the event, we discovered teeny tiny (KEWT ALERT!!!!) tasters were only $1.50 each. Perfection. Sipped on some baby pints of Dogfish Head Burton Baton, Hale's Obrien's Harvest (cask), Airways Brewing Jet City ESB, Maui BC Coconut Porter & Boulevard Brewing Tank 7 Saison. As I continue to torture myself with visits to RedHot, I would like to mention the following noteworthy tidbits that continue to mold and shape my opinion of this establishment:
1. The smell of their food is stomach churning for me. It's well loved by many, but as soon as I notice that tube steak smell, I have to bounce soon after. Can't eat it & apparently can't be around it for long periods of time without my face trying to divorce my nose.
7. Found out that Schooner Exact just obtained a new harvest of raspberries so we may not have seen the last of Seamstress Union. Just when I was ready to say goodbye...
3.8. The RedHot is a place that I WANT to like, but don't all that much. They did score a few points this evening though. I am trying to be open minded in light of some upcoming events they are hosting which sound fun, so as of now they are off probation. Will report back near the end of September...
Showed up for the beer, stayed for the giveaways. Anytime I'm handed a red ticket stating "Keep this Coupon" with a randomly generated 6 digit number on the bottom... I'll be chillin' for a bit to see what my winnings might be. With that being said, here is our batch of non winners: 747310, 747268, 747312, 747269. Really thought that last one would be something special. Meh.
Parkway Tavern ~ Event ale being served was Georgetown Brewing Lucille IPA & we also grabbed a final pint of Great Divide Titan on zee Randall. Washed it all down with 2/3 of a artichoke and spinach slathered garden burger. Nobody does a good slathering in my general direction like Parkway can, lemme tell ya.
Hump Day, Sept. 15th
AmPro Homebrew Contest Winner's ale on tap @ Parkway Tavern. Here is the 411 on the contest, from what I could decipher above the bar noise anyways. 53 entries taken in over over two months, most of them submitted within the first 2 weeks. Due to rating regulations on some site or another, many brewers entered themselves into the wrong categories for their beer type and were therefore declined.This statement was met by a resounding "boo" amongst the bar crowd until a snarky Parkway ale wench declared "Learn how to follow directions!" to be met with many a laugh and game show style clapping. An announcement of an Aphrodisiac Oyster Stout winning something or other was met with many a "woot woot" & catcalls all around. Mob mentality should never be overlooked, especially when it comes to sex. Yay sexy time.
Here is the lineup from L to R (& my random ass notes):
Goldmine Kolsch by Mark Guth (ABV 4.45%) Pissed LiBEERian randomly generated score: 2.6 out of 5
Have not experienced much kolsch style ale but this one had a nice body to it. Bitter finish & my notebook tells me that it was "Meh, only okay."
Dave's Pale Ale by David Greenwood (ABV 5.5%) PL Score: 3.4 out of 5
Was warned by the staff that this pale ale was very reminiscent of an IPA. So when the tasting sheet list did not match the way the beers were lined up in front of me, I thought for a bit that it was the Blood Fingers IPA. Very hoppy for a pale ale. Strong aroma (have learned that 'skunky' is a bad descriptive term) but with a sweet floral nose. Hazy caramel color, which seemed dark/unusual for a pale ale but lent to a crisp taste and finish.
Bloody Fingers IPA (such a sucker for a cool name) by Brian Tetrault & Ben Satterwaith (ABV 5.5%) PL gives it 3.6 out of 5
Very good IPA, in the book of this LiBEERian. Sweet hoppy smell that was not over powering with a light finish.
Dark Divide CDA by Michael Hunt (ABV 7.1%) 2.4 out of 5
As I sat down and ordered my flight of ales, Michael's wife felt the need to introduce herself and shamelessly promote her husbands beer. Love it, yay wifey!
Sadly no notes were taken on this one, my friends must have all shown up by this time & I get distracted very easily. I didn't dislike it but it also did not leave a strong impression. For how dark this CDA was, it was very light bodied. Then again, I'm not sure that those two things are even related.
Nicely done guys. Can't wait for the next competition!
Truly a thing of beauty @ the low low price of $7.00, no?
As some friends departed for the Woody Brewer's night @ Red Hot, I stayed on at Parkway to enjoy some good conversation and tastes of the Ninkasi, 2 Beers (which my notes tell me I found thin, but with a floral nose and somewhat soapy taste) Fresh Hop, & Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout. There isn't much that gets me more excited than beer & literature coming together. It has to be said, I lurved the Rogue Shakespeare just be-fucking-cause.
Headed over to Red Hot to meet up with peeps and had a grand time riding (okay okay, just sitting next to) the big woody Deschutes barrel. I feel sorry for anyone within earshot of our conversation. There was a lot of TMI, even for THIS girl. Missed the prize giveaways but enjoyed a pint of the Abyss 2009. They might as well list it under the "malt" category of beers (if there is one, if not I just made it up...), the Abyss was SO thick. Makes sense that it was so black... do the math. Hahaha. Strong coffee taste, it took me awhile to get through this one. Had some of my friends pint of the Deschutes Miss Spelt Hefeweizen (so appropriate, now where did I leave that red pen?) which was scrumptious. Just for sitting around and having a ton of laughs, the swag guy gave me & my fwends a pair of Black Butte pint glass each. So for some of us, the night was not an entire loss.
Thursday Sept. 16th
Had many a house errand to do this evening, decided a libation was a must to get me through. Busted out my
Southern Tier Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale, hailed to be brewed with pagan spirit. (which one, I wonder?)
I think the following text messaging pretty much sums up my experience:
Me: Okay, whoa! Pumking is like drinking liquefied pumpkin pie with a very tart and "arghhhhhhh!" aftertaste.
MGD: Is that a good pirate "arghh!" or a bad mouthtaste "arghh!"?
(I promptly turned around to TPG3 and ask if she would like to share it with me. mauhahaha.)
My thoughts are that this pumpkin ale isn't bad, it's just a LOT to take. Goes in smooth, goes down all crazy like. Just like a... nevermind. Maybe better as a taste just to experience the Pumking, not 22oz worth. Being that this ale carried a taste that I won't soon forget (and couldn't if I tried) it has me very excited for Elysian Brewing Company's Pumpkin Beer Fest in October. I have not tried that many pumpkin ales (so maybe I'm totally off on my assessment on the Pumking and will change my tune soon?) and would love the chance to try (small amounts of) many at the same time to compare and contrast, before they hook me up with some pumpkin carving action & costume contests.
Friday Sept. 17th
@ my best fwends house very late Friday night. Stayed up til 2a making tissue paper puff balls & drinking DFHead Festina Peche. Can't believe we created such awesomeness for the party while managing to keep her hubby out of my bag of beer I had to store in their fridge over the weekend. Craftiness... Level 10. Beer hoarding... Level Expert. Check out my awesome entry into our cupcake decorating contest! Go Team Schooner Exact, I heart you, I really really do. I won't bother posting the other pics I took with these cupcakes later (per request), that might get me into some REAL trouble. (however, thnx Bex!)
Saturday Sept. 18th
Made it home from baby shower extravaganza weekend to partake in a Ladies Choice Private Beerfest w/ MGD. Sucked down (finally!) our growler of Schooner Exact Hopvine 15th Anniversary (I only had one, that beer is too much for this girl), DFHead Punkin Ale & a dry hopped St. Rogue Red ale. Very yummy indeedy doodly.
Had some good times catching up til about 3a pass out time, slept in WAAAAAY late then decided with it being 3p & sunny... should probably do something with the day. Which brings us to:
Sunday Sept. 19th
Road trippin' it up to Black Raven Brewery for the first time. Very cool interior. Think big wooden barn doors to the brewing rooms, huge over sized tables and chairs and a relaxed atmosphere. Oh... and free nuts with a nearby pizza place that delivers. Score! I hate it when I have to BYON everywhere.
Enjoyed a pint of the Trickster IPA and got a taster of all they offer. My commitment phobic tendencies really love the idea of a taster. All the variety one could want, but none of the sacrifice or obligation to see a pint through to the end if it's not for you. Taster @ Black Raven included (from light to dark beers):
- Hoppy Lager Pilsner
- Sun Thief Kristalweizen (an unfiltered German style wheat)
- Hefeweizen
- Totem Pale Ale
- Trickster IPA
- Tamerlane Brown Porter
- 2nd Sight Strong Scotch Ale
- La Petite Mort 2010 (very tasty!! French for 'the little death' & a metaphor for an orgasm. It basically felt like one in my mouth but I opted to only enjoy a wee bit since I'm sure a 'little death' and driving don't always work out when you are a woman & I was the captain of this trip.)
Decided to acquire some Tap House Grill libations in Bellevue as we made our way home. Yay for 'build your own taster'!! Ordered up: Oskar Blues Gordon (tasted & smelled like strawberries without really being sweet), Boulder Hazed & Infused (didn't like it as much as I did out of the bottle on Virtual Beer Tasting night), Dogfish Head 90m IPA (mused that I could probably pick a DFH beer out of a blind tasting lineup), & a Boundary Bay Dry Hop Amber, which happened to feel like a shot of whiskey going down every time I swallowed.
Enjoyed pints of the Ninkasi Kraken, 2 Beers Summer Hop, Old Horizontal barleywine in addition to an Ahi Tuna sammy, Tipsy Corn & Salmon chowda and the She Devil sushi roll. All while watching the Giants bend over for the Colts & stupid ass Redskins highlights that I am still pretending don't exist. Lame day for football in my world. Good thing I got the news on the Skins loss in OT to the effing Texans while I had many a beer in front of me. There's always next week...
Tap House Grill is a great place to belly up to the bar and enjoy the creativity in tap handle making. I am uber in love with the steampunk Dogfish Head handle. Briefly considered running behind the bar to see if it's little gears of happiness actually rotate.
'Twas decided that for a Sunday, enough was enough, and started the the journey out to the car to head back home. However, being the ale lovers that we are we had to stop next door @ Rock Bottom to see what their beer action was all about. Had a good time people watching @ the bar while sipping on some Jasmine Wheat & 'some kind of hopped Pale Ale'. (The Rock Bottom site is a pain in my ass to look up their beers on, so I'm really effing over it, 'some kind of hopped pale ale' it is.)
A pretty eventful & fun week, as they all usually are. Looking forward to a few slow ones coming up, most of my plans are written down with very erasable pencil. ;)
pissed liBEERian
Photo credits - Pissed Libeerian & MGD.
