Georgetown Lisa's Chocolate Stout - Make it a regular!
Good times, good times.
Friday night found me heading out to the WA Brewers Festival for the opening 21+ session, and many good beers were to be had. While the night started out with no rain, several downpours were not far behind after the doors opened. I don’t think it drove too many people away, though, and everyone still seemed to be enjoying themselves huddled under tents and just standing out in the rain. My favorite of the fest was hands-down the Big Al Belgian IPA. I had this a couple of weeks ago up at Naked City and really enjoyed it, and I was happy to have a couple more samples here. I highly suggest heading down to their brewery to fill a growler before they run out (it is a seasonal release). Other highlights included the Georgetown Lisa’s Chocolate Stout (I love when Georgetown does beers outside their usual lineup), Black Raven Malt & Vine 2nd Anniversary Ale, and the RAM Coffee & Chocolate Porter (LOTS of clean, coffee flavor).
After a couple of hours at the fest, we decided to hit up the Hudson Public House (new restaurant from Collins Pub owner Seth Howard) while up in that area. It turns out that Friday was the day a good review of the Hudson printed in the Seattle Times, and the place was hopping to be sure; we were lucky to snag two spots at the bar. This was my third visit to the Hudson, and I have yet to be disappointed. I feasted on possibly the best under-$20 steak ($19 Ribeye) that I’ve ever had in my life, and I sipped on a glass of New Belgium La Folie while watching Ken Griffey Jr. actually come through for the Mariners. It’s hard to top off a night much better than that.
I managed to make it by Naked City for their Lagerfest on Saturday afternoon. I enjoyed a sampler consisting of Schlenkerla Helles, Chuckanut Rauchbier (hey, I like smoked beers…ok?), Snipes Mountain Los Borrachos, and the Hale’s Logger (which would win for best tap handle award). It sounded like the fest was well received for the most part,
Lagerfest taps at Naked City
but that some customers still longed for their beloved IPAs, which resulted in quite a few bottled IPA sales at the bar. Those crazy northwesterners and their IPAs…
Rather than going back to the brewers fest on Sunday, as I had thought about, we ended up heading out for a hike (Little Mt. Si) followed up by a pint of Diamond Knot IPA with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Dahlia Lounge. Nothing like a good hike to make me feel like I’ve earned a piece of Tom Douglas’ Triple Coconut Cream Pie…which, seriously, if you are at all a fan of coconut and pie, you need to try this dessert. It is the most amazing dessert on earth (yes, that is fact). I’ve already proposed to Jeanne that we substitute our wedding cake with a huge Coconut Cream Pie from Tom Douglas instead. It’s under consideration.
I’m curious to hear how the rest of the weekend went at the WA Brewers Fest. Good times? Any logistical struggles? Rain? Favorites?
The thought of going out last night never entered my mind, so I didn’t make it over to Big Time for the release of Old Sol like I’d hoped to. I’ll definitely find time to hit that up this week to grab a snifter and a bottle of that wonderful concoction.
Tom Douglas' Triple Coconut Cream Pie. Thanks to j0mamma on Flickr
Oh hey, sounds like you had a great weekend. I skipped all that to go camping….
I’ll have to stop by Big Al’s after work. There’s a bunch of stuff I wanna try that they didn’t have around the last time I was there.
Cheers,
Russ
I got married July 30, 2006. We had Dahlia Lounge CoCo pie instead of cake. they did one big one for us for the display and then regular size ones in reserve. Visually, the large white pie is spectacular and the pieces of the larger pie had a higher custard ratio (which I loved). Do it man.
Standouts to me were:
-Cask single-hop Simcoe IPA from Port Townsend- probably my Best Of. I’m a sucker for Simcoes.
-Pinetop Red brewed with Western Hemlock from Elliott Bay- from what I could tell, this one was love it or hate it. I thought it worked pretty well, kind of a rosemary taste.
-Lisa’s- also hoping for more of this in the future.
-Both Cashmere beers were good. I hadn’t had anything from them before.
-Diamond Knot’s Coconut Porter stood out in a bad way. Took the Pepsi Challenge with it and the Coconut Porter from Ram. Ram’s was good, Diamond Knot’s tasted like suntan lotion.
Coconut cake – yes.
Coconut beer – hmmm, i dunno.
Sounds like you had a great weekend!
the Washington Beer Fest is always excellent, and this year was no exception. There were tons of great beers there.
I can cite Boundary Bay Amarillo Pale, Chuckanut Pilsner, Georgetown Superchopp, Port Townsend, and Dry Hopped Hop Diggity as my favorites.
I wanted to let you and others know about a scam by the company that ran the cruise drawing at the door. They have called me, my brother, and my girlfriend to tell us we “won a cruise at the beer fest” then after a long spiel, to ask for our credit cards to secure this trip we “won”.
The WBC told me they were aware of this and are pursing it though the Attorney General’s office. But…if you signed up for this drawing, beware of scam artists seeking your credit card number. It was hard not to miss the signup as they had an aggressive rep asking people to enter the drawing as soon as they entered the gate.
Drew – thanks for the heads up on the cruise drawing…I remember seeing the woman pushing it and deciding it just looked too shady. I saw quite a few people filling out entries, so I hope no one gets burned by it.
I tried that Boundary Bay Aramillo Pale down at Collins Pub tonight and I really enjoyed it!
I passed by them as well, as I figured they would get my e-mail and spam me like a mo-fo.
This same thing goes for all those “free gym membership” contest boxes you see on the counters at Subways, etc.