I blame my real job and looking at wedding reception sites for keeping me from posting this past week. Or, you could say I’m just lazy. By the way, any suggestions on wedding reception venues? Preferably a place that will let us source our own beer/wine. We’ve got lots of ideas and have started looking, but any suggestions are always helpful!

• When you are in the core of downtown Seattle, there aren’t a ton of shops that sell good beer. Well, I wandered into the underground Kress IGA Supermarket on 3rd between Union & Pike yesterday, and they have a very solid selection of six packs, 22oz bottles and 750s. As far as grocery store selections go, it’s probably a step below the Thriftway in West Seattle or the QFC on North Broadway, but IGA does a lot with its limited space. The biggest find on their shelves is 220z bottles of the highly coveted Full Sail Black Gold Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Most places sold out of this beer long ago, but they had a full row priced at a low $9.49 (cheapest I saw it anywhere in Seattle).  Other standouts included beers from Southern Tier, Stone 080808 Vertical Epic and a couple 750s of Grand Teton 20th Anniversary Cellar Reserve Au Naturale Double Red Ale. I hadn’t seen that one (or anything else from that brewery) anywhere else in Seattle, so I’m not sure where it came from. Anyways, if you’re in need of good beer to-go while downtown this is a very safe bet.
• The Washington Beer Blog pulled one over on us for April Fools Day…I’d already told a few friends about this post saying Rainier Brewing was coming back to Seattle and didn’t realize it was a joke until this AM. Nice one!
• Chris Devlin over at the Beer Retard had the honor of watching the Seattle Beer Collective join in brewing the inaugural Seattle Beer Week Double IPA down at Pike Brewing with head brewer Drew Cluley.

I’m off to go dominate in a fantasy baseball draft and then enjoy what will hopefully be a couple of great Final Four games. Enjoy the sun today!