Made a batch of homebrew Saison, last week. Its not quite ready but I'm going to give it a taste. Maybe move it to the secondary.
Weather is going to be excellent this weekend so
Probably: Fremont Summer ale;
Possibly: Some sort of wheat ale.
Little late, but Saturday night I had a Sam Adams Summer Ale along with my fish fry. Mmm mmmm!
I went to a tour of a gin distillery yesterday. It was awesome and their gin was fantastic.
Hah, snoodog are you out in Washington too?!
I just picked up some Fremont 77 Select. Almost bought the Interurban.
If you are going to throw out a comment like that you are going to have to elaborate. What exactly do you not like about Seattle beer? I've met a few of the local Brewers and lack of effort is not something I would ever accuse them of. The ones I've met really work hard to bring out the most possible flavor out of the grains and hops. There may be an issue with the typical Seattle consumer that seems to be interested in IBUs and hoppyness at the expense of balance.
What kind of beer do you like? What are you looking for. Maybe we can find you a local brewery that brews to that style.
As for distilleries I'm not all that surprised that they lack refinement. Many of them opened in the last 5 years and most spirits that I drink have to be aged at least that long to be decent.
So I take it you don't care for the IPA. Have you had the chuckunut lager? Phenomenal nw beer that they have on tap at the beer authority pretty often (they can't seem to produce enough to keep up w demand). In the Seattle area hilliards brews a good lager, it's not great but it's good. Fremont brews a lot of great beers even though many are in the high IBU they make a few that don't.
I think so; I went to WWU. The real problem is that "beer culture" is all about bullshit microbrews that are designed to be drunk instead of lunch and I'm over it. I paid for college mixing in clubs so I had virtually unlimited access to alcohol and I can honestly say that in four years of 50 hour weeks I voluntarily drank beer none times.
I'll drink a beer after I've done something involving lots of sweat. That's it. Otherwise there's almost always a rocks glass involved. Places that can provide you things you want to put in a rocks glass are never "beer" places.
For me good beer in the northwest is really accessible. I can go to most bars and get a decent glass of beer. The same is not true for wine for example. Many bars carry one or 2 types of shit wine and if you want anything better you will need to buy a bottle which is usually too much for me.
If I want a decent glass of scotch then not only do I need to go to a specialty bar I also should expect to pay 12-18$ a glass.
If I want a mixed drink... Well then I'm really gambling 10-12 bucks and I better hope the bartender knows what he/she is doing. Opportunities for fucking up are large and then there is a natural desire to over add alcohol which means I have no idea how much I drank or if I'm safe to drive after.
So I guess the question for you is what do you drink? And where do you do it? I have a feeling that you probably have the pickiest pallet on hubski so if there is a place that you like the rest of us will be quite satisfied.
- I have a feeling that you probably have the pickiest pallet on hubski so if there is a place that you like the rest of us will be quite satisfied.
That's just not fair. What I've made clear, again and again and again, is that I don't like IPA, and IPA is the only thing anybody drinks, which you yourself pointed out. So "really great beer selection" means 77 IPAs and when you ask the server if she has any lagers she goes "uhhhh" (stupidlook) and walks over to the bartender and tries to shape her mouth around the syllables "laaaah" and "grrrrr" because your basic tastes are so fucking alien to the "please put lemon in my beer" crowd that you might as well be asking for a fucking pisco sour. Meanwhile if you ask for what they have in bottles they'll offer you budweiser, bud light and if you're lucky, Heineken but they'll have to check.
I drink Jim Beam on the rocks, FFS. I've even been known to drink straight well bourbon because fuckin' Early Times kicks the shit out of Pyramid anything but everyone in the PNW is so busy orgasming over "craft beer" that nobody wants to go anywhere that actually has well bourbon because since the corner joint put in their tap room they don't have the money to afford a liquor license anymore. And it's not like this shit is hard, and it's not like this shit is expensive - I can get a tasting flight of 4 bourbons at my local pizza place for EIGHT BUCKS while the shitty irish pub I used to have to go to in Studio City hit me for $24 for a double of Bushmill's.
But people have stopped paying attention to it, because the market wants fucking IPAs, so now I can't even get goddamn Amstel Light at Fred Meyer anymore.
I drink bourbon, scotch, tequila, brandy, cognac, gin, pilsners and lagers. What's wrong with the Seattle bar scene is somehow that makes me "picky."
I guess I see your point about liquor. When I think of a place for a Meetup I usually consider atmosphere first quality of booze 2nd and availability of decent food 3rd. Unfortunately I don't think there have been many new bars opened north of Ballard that have a good atmosphere and a decent amount of space. There are a few places that I know in Ballard, Seattle and cap hill but all of them would be packed on a Friday/sat evening. There are plenty of neighborhood watering holes, but they tend to just be dirty grimy hole in the wall places around me. That's why I wanted you to suggest something because places that serve liquor are not that important to me so I don't go through the effort to seek them out and don't know what they are.
Muskoka Brewery's Detour IPA is real good - It's what I'm drinking. that and grapefruit soda.
You ever brewed a larger? Im going to take the plunge here in the next couple weeks. The https://www.reddit.com/r/lagerbrewing sub reddit has inspired me.