What. A. Weekend. It's Wednesday and I still feel worn out but that may be for other reasons.
Got the grandiose idea to hit up Tap House Grill in Seattle this past weekend for their IPA week. Granted it was 2 weeks long and MGD & I were only able to hit up the last wknd of it due to 1/2 of our ale searching team being out of state. How many IPA's can YOU drink in a 48 hr period??!! We made a good show of it, I feel that we accomplished a lot actually. Both beer wise & other...
Hit up the following places in no particular order: Schooner Exact BC, Elysian BC, Tap House Grill, Collins Pub, Bottleworks Bottleshop, BROUWER'S (go ahead, get excited, new fave place in 206), Big Time Brewery... I think that's it ale wise. Also made stops at Olympic Sculpture Park to play in the water & the Red Lion Hotel for some mandatory "Tacoma is a long trek away after all that drinking" rest. Although locating a hotel downtown with vacancies was trek enough.
Things to note (or better known as "Best Recognize Biatch!"):
1. Schooner Exact is possibly as close to heaven, as this gurl is ever gonna get. We visited their tasting room not once, but twice. Made some new fwends, had a ton of laughs, made an attempt to get Schooner Exact ale distributed to the East Coast (non-cost effective, fail), drank way more non-Seamstress Union beer than I intended (thank you Gary!) & discussed the finer points of the Shocker. (the obvious awesomeness that it is in general, not to mention a special edition raspberry ale SE brewed) Also scored some awesome swag: Multiple pint glasses, a t-shirt, growlers full o' da gud shtuff, Shocker tap handle sticker plus iron on (The Shocker. Surprisingly Enjoyable!) and a host of good memories. Will be back soon! Start working on more SU for me guys.
2. Big Time Brewery & Alehouse kind of sucked Big Time, mostly service related complaints on my end and I didn't really dig the feel of the place. Interesting ales on tap, however. Enjoyed an IPA dubbed Mary Hoppins (an English Summer Ale that's practically perfect in every way, yo!) and Bhagwan's Best IPA on cask (mild n' tasty for an IPA); then I got to business delving into some (tasty) Old Sol Wheatwine Ale after being told my chauffeuring services were cut off and to enjoy my little beer drinking self. (score! it's good to be understood) Service sucked, just one Germanic looking ale wench for the whole place but we entertained ourselves with some local brewing newspapers & city magazines after we had acquired some deep dish leave the toppings on Delfinos Eetza.
3. Bottleworks Bottle Shop - pretty darn awesome shop with some nice selections and good prices. Creaky wood floors, beer stickers slapped on every surface and a cozy if not slightly grimy/well loved atmosphere. They also feature 4-5 beers on tap to enjoy in addition to what they sell in bottles. Still a 99 Bottles gurl in my heart tho. A stop @ Bottleworks led us to...
4.
BROUWER'S!! Sweet Cheese and Rice. Insert happy Tracinator sigh. Suuuuper cool place. IDK where to even begin. If you've been there, you just know. The way the place looks alone is frickin' cool, front door is a bit ominous. Long wood bar with high backed leather bar stools. 2nd floor balconies with a birds eye view of everything below and outdoor deck area. Small stage area with couches for either customers or I could see a sweet lil acoustic show happening for my personal enjoyment. The setup of this joint is great, comfortable and inviting. Friendly and helpful ale minions working. PHENOMENAL beer selection.
64 beers on tap, many of them unique/special/hard to find; over 300 bottled beers (a bit on the spendy side for some of my faves but an impressive collection nonetheless), lotsa scotch, & if the Mahi mahi sliders are any indication of the rest of their menu; the food is bomb diggity too. The piped in tunes didn't really 'go' with the atmosphere but it wasn't annoying by any means. Downed a DogFish Head Festina Peche to start, just for good measure. Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout. Just the smell of it tasted like creme brulee. Yes, you read that right. It was potent and delicious. Should have had a s'more with it. Sampled the Corsendonk Apple Wit and Double Mountain India Red Ale on cask.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure why we even left...? I had sleeping bags in the Jetta. We both couldn't stop ooh'ing and aah'ing over every aspect about this place. While MGD may currently feel that he can't tell me "no" when I really want something (a lie he tells himself); I highly doubt he would be that hard of a sell to revisit this place or the 206 in general.
5. Tap House Grill Seattle is, well... Tap House. Large selection as always, volcanic goat cheese appetizers (taking me back to SIB wknd) & 60 special IPA's on tap for the occasion. And I think some sort of sushi hit my mouth @ some point in the evening but at this point in our sojourn who can tell what went in there? Plus a winning pre-season Redskins game. Magic! Tasted the following ales:
-Green Flash Imperial IPA
-Midnight Sun XXX Double Black
-Oskar Blues Gubna Imperial IPA
-Southern Tier Oak Aged Unearthly
-Dirty Ho (Hoegaarden & Guinness black and tan... it was that kinda night) (yes i am one and yes i had one)
-This is all I wrote down/remember and deciphering my handwriting after so much hop ingestion was quite a feat my friends.
6. Collins Pub. Good downtown staple. Nice beer selection with a small but delectable menu including a Vegan Field Roast burger that was uh-maze-ing. Great place to wind down on the patio and watch the craziness that is Seattle street life.
7. Elysian BC. Night time stroll from Collins to this locale, wanted to try a few ales. Big place and very busy. Found 1 seat at the bar to share but was service was spot on and immediate. Enjoyed a red ale of sorts, can't recall name of it. But it was yummy so I mouthified it. Can ya tell the details are getting fuzzy?
All in all it was a very fun time to be had in Seattle. Found some new locations to patronize and had great, unplanned, sunshiny adventures with one of my fave people; matching wrist wear included. All three of the suns I planned on coming out for us, did just that.
To be topped off on Sunday by some time spent at my G'mas beach cabin on Camano Island with my whole fam-damily and a few hours catching up my best friend Bex b4 driving back to the 253.
Photo Credits - Camera Phonez by Myself and MGD.
Signing off while currently planning the next big adventure...
Pissed liBEERian.
