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

Tacoma: The Gritty City I heart and it's love of drink.

If you haven't already picked up your copy of the latest issue of Tacoma's Weekly Volcano (and hightailed it straight away to see what wittiness the new PSP ad has to offer then immediately started working up a word storm on the crossword puzzle like I do) then you need to get on it!

The featured article is all about the history of libations in the city of Tacoma and the impact that drink has had on our community image through the years. There is such a drink-centric history here that I was astounded to learn of. Here is an excerpt:

"Regardless of whether you work at a desk or in a labor job you want a beer after work," says Thoburn. "Beer tastes good. It makes you smile and if you're having a hard time smiling, chances are having a beer with your friends will help. I think it's good for Tacoma to stick with the working class image, because it's honest."

Ken Thoburn of Tacoma's current-day Wingman Brewing had the following to contribute in the article: "I started a brewery in the historical brewery district because I want to recharge this industry in Tacoma, beer is in our blood," Thoburn continues. "Regardless of whether you work at a desk or in a labor job you want a beer after work," says Thoburn. "Beer tastes good. It makes you smile and if you're having a hard time smiling, chances are having a beer with your friends will help. I think it's good for Tacoma to stick with the working class image, because it's honest."

Click here to read the article in its entirety, you'll be happy you did and hopefully be a smidge more educated as well. Cheers!

March Craft Beer Events

March

Saturday 3rd - American Brewing Company 1 year Anniversary Party @ ABC Brewery (Edmonds, 1-11p) Come celebrate the awesomeness and success that has befallen American Brewing Company. There will be live music, awesome snacks (the advert says awesome) and new merchandise. Oh, and beer. You can also participate in a raffle to help raise funds for the Edmonds Food Bank. Get some more info through their Facebook page or through their website.


Sunday 4th - Seattle Urban Beer Hunt (Downtown Seattle, kicks off at 12p) Teams of 2, 4 or 6 will set out on foot for a challenge involving completing specific tasks and recovering select items. Players stick together to decipher clues, solve puzzles and race to finish. It all ends with an awards ceremony at a local pub with food and drink specials available.Cash prizes and costumes! Check out the site for registration fees and more details.

Friday 9th - Tacoma's Weekly Volcano Street Team Pub Crawl (Olympia, 6p) Join the cool cats of the Volcano's Street Team as they do a pub crawl of Olympic proportions. Meet up at Charlie's Sports Bar and Grill (by 6p) for some imbibing or meet up with the team en route. They will be visiting 8 bars total and prepare your happy dance for drink specials and door prizes at each place. Hit up the Volcano online for more info on the Street Team as well as the itinerary.

Sat. 10th & Sun. 11th - Custom Growler and Spring Seasonal CDA Release @ 7 Seas Brewery (Gig Harbor, 12p) If you don't already own one of 7 Seas super awesome growlers then you need to get on it. This years model is an emerald green color and decorated in loving devotion to the almighty hop. Love it so much and am currently talking myself out of buying our 3rd one. Although we don't have a '253' numbered on yet... Bring your 2011 growler on Saturday to get a 2012 of the same number. On Sunday all the left over growlers are up for grabs to anyone. Find more information about this event and pictures of the new growler on the 7 Seas website.

Tuesday 13th - Science Cafe @ Swiss Pub (Tacoma, 6:30p) Drink beer and learn sumptin' at the Science Cafe. A monthly event that pairs beer drinking and knowledge. This month's topic will be: "What's New in Stroke Care: Cool Toys & Cool Treatments" Thanks to recent developments in technology, care for people who have suffered a stroke has advanced to new and exciting frontiers. At the March Tacoma Science Café, join Aaron Heide, M.D., Director of Stroke Services at Auburn Medical Center, to discover the latest in how to prevent, treat, and recover from a stroke. Find out more about March's Science Cafes going on around the South Sound, for those of you not residing in Tacoma.

Wednesday 14th - Beer Tasting @ Tacoma World Beers (Tacoma, 4-7p) Tacoma World Beers will be hosting their first beer tasting. For $2 (and photo id) you can enjoy some different styles of beer from Sound Brewing and Port Brewing to start. Hopefully this is the first of many events of this nature, love love love it! You should also check out their new website at TacomaWorldBeer.com, they'll be posting up to the minute tap lists as they blow through those kegs.

Wednesday 14th - Sierra Nevada Brewers Night @ Parkway Tavern (Tacoma, 6-9p) You know the drill. Get there early to drink amazing Sierra Nevada beer and win some schwag. Sure to be a full house, as always!

Friday 23rd - Guest Tap Take Over @ Engine House No. 9 (Tacoma) From E-9's Book of the Face page: "The E9 is happy to announce that our friends from Stone Brewing & New Belgian brewing will be taking over our guest taps! As added bonus, the E9 brewers will be tapping up some of their special barrel beers. So far the lineup is looking GREAT! Stone 15th Anniversary, Stone Old Guardian, New Belgian La Folie, Ne Belgian Farmhouse, E9 Love Childe, E9 Bourbon Barrel Saison and so many more." Check on their Facebook page in the coming weeks for the whole lineup as the date gets closer. The Engine House is doing such great things recently, I'm so excited for and about them. That means you should be too.

Tuesday 27th - Ninkasi Pint Night @ Crown Bar (5p (from opening), Tacoma) Crown Bar will have the Spring Seasonal: Spring Reign, Total Domination IPA and the always delicious Oatmeal Stout on tap for your enjoyment. Great prizes and giveaways from the brewery and the fried oysters are always a fave of ours.

Friday 30th - Give Blood Get Beer @ The Swiss & The Rock: Wood Fired Pizza & Spirits (Tacoma, usually lunch time/early afternoon) Stop by the Cascade Regional Blood Services bloodmobile at either of these locations to donate some of your blood. You'll receive a coupon for a free pint of beer that can be redeemed the day following the blood drive. There is one about every month, check out the other times and places!

Saturday 31st
- Cask Beer Festival (Seattle Center Fisher Pavillion, 12-4p & 5:30-9:30p, $35-40) This festival is just full of deliciousness. Join the fun in Seattle where they will be featuring over 70 one-of-a-kind handcrafted cask beers from the state’s most innovative breweries. It's gonna be a good one, check out the site for more details. We had a jolly good time last year, I can't wait for a repeat. And this year we won't have to be jealous of all the people leaving early to attend Hops and Props. Yay!
- Elliott Bay Pizza Anniversary Party @ Elliott Bay Pizza (Mill Creek, not to be confused with Elliott Bay Brewing) I was turned on to this happy little pizzeria and craft beer joint a couple of weeks ago by a friend. After some empirical research I am now completely stoked to attend their anniversary party that said friend forced me to buy tix to. It's already sold out so I'm sad for anyone reading this who doesn't have tickets (but still, yay me!) but if you are ever in the area, definitely stop by for a slice and a pint. Hit them up on Twitter for up to the minute tap list.

April 1st - Parkway Tavern AM-PRO Submission Deadline (Bottles can be dropped off at the Parkway or Beer Essentials) Beer submissions for Parkway Tavern's annual AM-PRO brewing are due on April 1st, no joke dudes. Beers will be judged on April 8th and you can find all the detaily things you need at the Washington Homebrewers Association site.

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 ate 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) - On the off chance that you can't find a pint of Wingman brew on draft in the area, you can now swing by the brewery for a growler fill of the good stuff. Their current growler fillin' hours are on Thursdays (2-6p) and Saturdays (12p-5p). Cash only at this time.

Check this post often for updates on events the fall into my knowledge bubble as March marches on!

the pissed liBEERian 

This is my 'pour faster' face from the last Cask Festival.

Tacoma Drinks Washington Beer! Wed. 2/22 through Wed. 2/29

Get your drinking arm ready, it's time for one of my most favorite events of ever: 

 The Parkway Tavern & The Red Hot present...

Tacoma Drinks Washington Beer Week 2012!

See why it's my favorite? Look how happy I was for the first rendition of this event, with my growler and Eye Luv WA Beer shirt and beer sheet!

I do. I really, really do.

What's not to love about a giant bingo-y punch card-y thing, spending oodles of time at both the Red Hot and Parkway Tavern, special beer related events and the opportunity to win a special made growler for completing the arduous task that has been set forth?

Here's the dealio: 

 (Hopefully you already knew this event was happening and in preparation let your liver rest for a few days or maybe pumped some iron to prep your drinking arm.)

1. Pick up your super special beer sheet (pictured above) at either the Parkway Tavern or The Red Hot.

2. Drink WA beer at the Parkway Tavern or The Red Hot.

3. Get beer sheet stamped for specific breweries or random WA beer.

4. Try your bestest to attend the listed events from the Red Hot blog. I have an inkling that most likely, not every brewery will be available on tap the entire week. Drink the hard to find stuff ASAP.

5. Complete beer sheet by Wednesday, February 229th.

6. Get a 32oz commemorative growler (pictured below) for completing.

7. Pat self on back.

8. Give speech to adoring fans.

9. DO NOT add up how much $$ you spent drinking beer just to get a nifty growler.

10. Possibly finish early and work on completing a 2nd beer sheet like MGD and I did last year. This year we have decided that we will feel fulfilled enough by just finishing uno sheeto. I of course say this now, as it is only the first day of the challenge. I'll let ya know how that's working out later this week. Basically, at what point do we by default finish enough beer and look at the 2nd sheet and state "Damn, we got this! Let's keep drinkin'!"

For all the official info (as if I'm not official) you can check out the Red Hot's blog post: Tacoma Drinks Washington Beer Week 2012. There are links to tap lists etc. that you may want to hang on to, as well as a list of beer related events you don't want to miss. 

As of my being chauffeured into work at 8:30a this morning and going over our MGP (Master Game Plan), MGD & I are planning on hitting every event that's listed. The fun starts tonight with the Tacoma debut of the Wingman/Airways collaboration Chocolate Rye beer (had it in Kent at the Airways Beer & Bistro awhile ago, twas delicious!) at the Red Hot and the Parkway Tavern will be hosting a brewers night with American Brewing Company (6-9p) for the release of their Scotch Ale and much more.

drink local

during this week if no other