Peter Peter...Pumpkin Beer Drinker?

The 8th Annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival made it's way to Georgetown this past weekend.  Boasting over 60 unique pumpkin beers on tap, including beers that never make their way to this coast, three sessions of the fest were guaranteed to be chock-full of beer lovers.  In fact, all presale tickets were sold out.  With 13 beers just from Elysian alone, I was anxious to try beers from some of my other favorite breweries.  A list of new to me pumpkin beers from 10 Barrel, Naked City, and Georgetown Brewing made me anxious to start filling up my Jack o' Lantern tasting glass.  After hours of gourd filled brews, I found my top three pumpkin pleasers.

Pumpkin Pleaser #1:  Elysian's The Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale
Elysian hit it out of the park on this one.  Having many of their own beers at the fest, they provided a varied yet distinctive line up.  This Imperial actually won the silver medal at GABF in 2007.  It has pumpkin all throughout out the brewing process: mash, boil, and fermentation.  What I really enjoyed about this ale was the subtle yet not overpowering pumpkin spices.  There was just enough cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to accentuate the pumpkin but not feel like I was inhaling a spice rack.

Pumpkin Pleaser #2: Naked City's Boo Radley

Being a fan of Naked City for awhile, I waited in line to try their new to me pumpkin brew.  Boo Radley was brewed with 80 pounds of sugar pumpkins.  Spices were added three separate times throughout the brewing.  This resulted in a well balanced palate of spice and squash.  With a mild ABV weighing in at 6.8%, this pumpkin treat was quite drinkable.  If the line wasn't so long for this one, I probably would have gone back over and over again for more.

Pumpkin Pleaser #3:  Big TIme's Hop Goblin
Unbeknownest to me, Big Time has been making beers with our beloved pumpkin since the 1990s.  That being said, it is no surprise that they have honed in on what works and what tastes fantastic.  The Hop Goblin has  an 8 pound per barrel ratio of meat from organic pumpkins.  While the actual pumpkin gets added to both the mash and the brew kettle, the spices appear to have been sprinkled throughout the process.  If you haven't tried this one, defintely worth a trip out to the U District to have some of this "dessert in a glass."

The Great Pumpkin
(Yes, there was beer in there!)

While the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival has already come and gone, it isn't too late to try some "gourd"eous beers this fall.  Take a trip to your local speciality bottle shop (my favorites being World Beers and Pint Defiance) and grab a few pumpkin brews.  It is only fair that when the Trick or Treaters are making their way to your house this Halloween, you are enjoying your beer treats too.

Hoptoberfest at Beveridge Place Pub

Each October, Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle, dedicates 20 taps to IPAs from Washington State.  In a quest to identify BPP's house IPA for the year, beer drinkers are able to nominate any IPA from the state for it to be in contention.

I found myself at BPP Wednesday night to blind taste these hoppy treasures.  After studying the ballot, I was quite impressed with so many of my favorites in the running.  After grabbing a few willing friends with a common thirst for hops, we embarked on our blind tasting.  In a blind tasting, all of one's preconceived notations go right out the window.  One is forced to critique and judge each beer against the next. That night, I was preferring the crisp citrusy IPAs that had a more mild malt background.  My top three choices on our tasting tray were 1, 4, and 8.

1.  Georgetown Brewing: Lucille IPA
This IPA showcases Amarillo, Simcoe, and the "C" hops (Columbus, Centennial, and Cascade).  The hops in this IPA take center stage with their floral and citrusy flavors against the mild pale malt base.  I couldn't get enough of this taster.  In fact, I think I made sure to finish it off myself.

4.  American Brewing Company: Breakaway IPA
A completely unbiased choice, I was drawn to this taster.  It is true, I have helped brew this IPA with the boys at ABC.  But I promise you, that didn't factor into my choice.  What I enjoy about American's beers are their overall balance with hops and malt.  It is not a surprise that this easy drinking IPA became one of my choices for the top three.

8.  Boundary Bay IPA
Once upon a time, almost a decade and a half ago, I found myself exploring the world of craft beer when Redhook ESB reigned king.  I quickly acquired an affinity for hoppy "expensive" beers, compared to the yellow fizzy filled cans my cash strapped college friends drank.  BB's IPA has been one of my faves since then.  Rounding out my top three choices, this IPA in particular symbolizes my love for Washington brews.

While I chose these as my top three, there wasn't an IPA in the Elite Eight that I didn't like.  If you can't get to Beveridge Place before next Wednesday, be sure to get in there from Oct. 25 through Nov. 4 in order to taste and vote on your choice from their top three.  With many election decisions ahead of us, make sure that you do your part as a craft beer loving American!

Beer Review: Dark Side of the Cascades

 

On Wednesdays at American Brewing Company, the crew releases a new brew.  Whether it is bringing back an old favorite or putting a test batch on tap to gauge the public interest, making the trek up to the Edmonds tasting room is proving to be a necessary jaunt.

This week, assistant brewer Dan Payson debuted his version of a Cascadian Dark Ale (also known as a Black IPA or an India Black Ale) entitled "Dark Side of the Cascades."  Dan, who has been working with Skip Madsen at ABC for the last 16 months, described the beer as an ale that "epitomizes the northwest with it's coffee and hop flavors."  Many CDAs on the market have one of two issues: they either use too much malt and not enough hops, or they use too many hops, which ends up overpowering the malt. 

 Dark Side of the Cascades finds that perfect balance of malt and hops.  

While catching up with Dan, he mentioned that he had been working on finding that perfect balance for awhile.  After months of tweaking the recipe, Dan realized that he just needed to go back to basics.  By the buzz of excitement in the tap room, you could tell that everyone agreed.  CDAs appeal to not only IPA drinkers, but also Porter and Stout lovers.  A couple sitting at a nearby table couldn't stop raving about how much they enjoyed Dan's new brew.  "It's like I am expecting it to be heavy, but then I get this awesome hop flavor," noted one patron.  While this release was only a test batch, it seemed unanimous that Dark Side of the Cascades would be a hit as a regular tap handle.  "It is something you can enjoy during our 10 months of winter," joked Dan.  I couldn't agree more. 


Upcoming New Release Wednesday at American Brewing Company
October 31 @ 6pm: Pumpkin Ale.  Skip and Dan embark on their first pumpkin beer.  Rumor has it, they are aiming for some bacon flavors.  Yes, I said BACON.  Get dressed up and come hungry.  Big Mike will be making some of his famous sausages!

American Brewing Company  180 W. Dayton St #102  Edmonds, WA  98020

Trio of Colorado Brewery Towns

The last day of my Colorado Beerventure this year was focused on road tripping with the brewery boys. It was time to get out of the city, let the rubber hit the road, and see where the day took us.

Boulder: The Berkeley of the Rockies
A cute college town with a handful of distinctive breweries makes Boulder my choice destination to go back to school. Today my schooling was at Avery and Twisted Pine. Meeting the boys at Avery for our breakfast beers, we tried an assortment of IPAs, Ellie's Brown Ale, The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest, and their Bolder Weisse. Per my current hophead status, I thoroughly enjoyed their Cascade/Centennial IPA and Chinook Wet-hop Pale.
Convincing the crew to make one more stop prior to heading up to the mountains, we made our way to Twisted Pine Brewing Company. With fifteen taps, we opted to share a ten beer sampler between the five of us. Twisted Pine took home some hardware at GABF the day prior for their Westbound Braggot and Big Shot Espresso Stout. Besides those solid brews, we sampled eight others, notably their Ghost Face Killah and Raspberry Wheat Ale. GFK boasted to be the hottest beer this side of hell.  With my minuscule sized sip, I thought that I was going to breathe fire. Allegedly gas masks are worn when brewing this beer. With the name of a Wu Tang Clan member, you have to expect some crazy heat from this one. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, TP's Raspberry Wheat Ale had to be the best fruit beer I have ever tasted. Fresh raspberry and crisp wheat flavor flooded my taste buds in an attempt to put out the flames from GFK.

Nederland: Home of Frozen Dead Guy Days
The allure of a brewery at 8236 feet prompted us to caravan up to Nederland. This mountain town holds a festival each year based on the story of a body found in the shed of a resident's yard. This resident, originally from Norway, Trygve Bauge, transported his grandfather's body to the United States and up to Nederland with the hopes of opening up his own cryonics facility along with his mother, Aud. Deportations and evictions led the city to eventually find out about the frozen body. Thus a festival was born. Events including Coffin Racing, Costume Polar Plunging, Ice Turkey Bowling, and a Parade of Hearses litter this town the first full of weekend of March annually since 2002.

Ok, back to the beer. Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery's aroma captivated our hungry bellies. Instantly we became enticed with their pulled pork sliders and five different choices of BBQ sauce. A Redemption Oatmeal Stout, Hop Diggity IPA, and Mountain Mama Cherry Wheat helped wash all those tasty morsels down. Keeping an eye on the clock due to our impending 9pm flight, we decided it was time to descend off this mountain treasure and enjoy our final brewery of the day.

Longmont: The Armpit of Boulder
I can't disagree more with Longmont's nickname. Granted, living in Tacoma, Washington for the past 17 years has desensitized my sniffer to the infamous Tacoma Aroma. While enjoying Left Hand Brewing's sunny patio during the afternoon, I didn't get any hint of that supposed turkey processing plant that stinks up the town. That being said, I would like to rename Longmont to Colorado's Best Kept Secret.
I had been thirsting for Left Hand's Milk Stout on Nitro all weekend. Upon coming back into town from Nederland, we stopped off to a busy pub with plenty of seating both in and outside. That aforementioned sunny patio was a perfect locale to enjoy that Milk Stout on Nitro. Words can't thoroughly describe that delectable creaminess. While the brew boys tried the Polestar Pilsner, Oktoberfest, and the Wake Up Dead Stout, my favorite of the day, by far, was the stout. After finishing that coveted last sip, it was off to the airport to head back to Seattle.

Fellow beerventurers, take note. While Denver, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs feature a plethora of first class breweries, be sure to take the time to get out into the mountains and explore. Let the altitude affect your attitude and enjoy a pint for me.