When I first moved to Seattle in 2005, I was excited to find out that I was living just a few blocks away from one of the best bottleshops in the country, let alone the PNW. It was love at first sight when I walked into Bottleworks for the 1st time and was able to get a full case of a special beer that LaConner Brewing (which used to actually make good beer) made for them that came with an actual hop cone in every bottle. They haven’t had that particular beer for a long time, but it is those types of special releases that set Bottleworks apart from the other great bottle shops around town. That, along with a great selection, gems from the cellar and interesting beers on draft. I don’t make it up to Bottleworks as often as I’d like these days, but it is certainly still one of my favorite spots in town.
Plenty of people in Seattle must feel the same way about Bottleworks, because they are celebrating their 15th anniversary this Tuesday with a special release from The Lost Abbey, located in San Marcos, CA. Tomme Arthur, Co-Founder and Directory of Brewery Operations at Lost Abbey/Port Brewing, will be on hand for the occasion. If I remember correctly, the 12.6% ABV beer they are releasing is some sort of variant of Judgement Day at least partially aged in Tequila barrels.
The beer will be on draft and available in 22oz bottles when Bottleworks opens tomorrow at 11am. They made over 200 cases of this, so it should stick around for at least a couple of days, unless people really go crazy. It will be $20/bottle on the release day, but the price will then go up after that.
Cheers to the crew at Bottleoworks for keeping a good thing going for so long.
Here is the full update from Bottleworks:
Our annual Anniversary beer sale and party this year will be held on Tuesday, March 4th. Tomme Arthur from Lost Abbey/Pizza Port Brewing was kind enough to help us make our beer this year and will be here to celebrate us making it fifteen years in the fine beer business.
We expect this to be like the past few releases with a big rush when we open at 11 in the morning, a steady but quieter midday, and another afternoon/evening rush. Using drink tickets has worked well for us in the past so we will use them again. We can take exact change at the bar so bring some $5s and $1s or purchase drink tickets at the front register to be exchanged for beers at the bar. We will refund unused drink tickets. Bottles will be available as soon as we open. The first day price will be $20, with a limit of 12 bottles per person.
Please know your limit. Our anniversary beer and some others we will have on draft will be strong, so be your own voice of reason so we don’t have to (it would be a shame if you had to be asked to leave and didn’t get a chance to buy bottles to go). Things will likely be too busy for our small shop so be patient, there is plenty of beer to go around. We do ask that you buy bottles as you leave, we will not allow people to bring boxes or bags back into the store once purchased. Lastly, we do not ship, nor do we sell beer over the phone to hold for future pickup. We are thrilled to celebrate 15 years in this great business and can’t wait to share this token of our hard work with you. Cheers.
dermaus // Mar 3, 2014 at 1:50 pm
I’m just curious, how does Lost Abbey get chosen (or choose) to be the participating brewery for something like this? Anyone know?
Scott // Mar 4, 2014 at 9:18 am
What happened to LaConner Brewing? Anyone know?
Kaiser // Mar 4, 2014 at 4:37 pm
Dermaus – I’m pretty sure the owner and team at Bottleworks just chooses a brewery they’d like to do it and then approaches them about the idea. I remember a list of upcoming breweries for future years, but not sure where I saw that….
Scott – Not sure what happened to LaConner, but they seem to have given up on quality beer. Last time I was in there (October?), the beer was embarrassingly bad and infected. The IPA was the only drinkable beer we tried, and barely. I remember some vague explanations from others of what happened there, but I don’t remember well enough to say.