Have you seen Brew Dogs yet? Tune in tomorrow night for the Seattle episode. Details below.
Here’s the story as told by one of our budding correspondents.
Tuesday night’s episode of Brew Dogs, featuring Elysian Brewing, will get you buzzing
– by Lynn Sherk, Washington Beer Blog Budding Correspondent –
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What do you get when you take three quintessentially Seattle things (Victrola coffee, Elysian beer and Theo chocolate), add two Scottish brewers and one Washington State Ferry?
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The most caffeinated chocolate-coffee imperial stout ever. Where does the ferry fit in? We’ll get to that in a minute.
Scottish brewers James Watt and Martin Dickie made their first trip to Seattle last July to film an episode of their new series Brew Dogs, which airs tomorrow night at 10 p.m local time on the Esquire Network. (Double check your guide for the time. Comcast Seattle channel 183, HD channel 650.)
These guys are no strangers to making outrageous beer. They founded Scotland’s BrewDog brewery, which created beers with some of the highest alcohol content in the world. Their “The End of History” boasts an astonishing 55% ABV. They’ve also brewed beer at the bottom of the ocean, and dispensed a 28% ABV beer from a modified deer head.
To make this special Seattle beer, James and Martin used highly caffeinated coffee from Victrola Coffee Roasters, Theo chocolate, and some specially extracted caffeine for good measure. Still not extreme enough? The two worked with Elysian Brewing and brewed the beer in a rather unusual place—on the top deck of the ferry to Bainbridge Island.
Yep, on the ferry. That’s definitely a first. How did they get the folks at the Washington State Ferries to agree? Well…
“We find it much easier to get forgiveness than permission,” James said in an email interview. “We also had a team of safety baristas on standby 24/7.”
And it apparently turned out well. The beer, named The Fix – Choco Coffee Imperial Stout, earned Elysian Brewing a silver medal at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival.
Being beer guys, James and Martin checked out a bunch of the local brews while they were in town.
“We tried loads of good beer in Seattle,” said James. “We love Pike Brewing, Black Raven, Fremont, Elliott Bay, and Big Time. A standout beer for us (and the crew) was definitely Manny’s Pale Ale.”
They also toured Pike Place Market and made a stop at Utilikilts, where they bought the kilts they wore in the episode.
But one of their favorite parts about Seattle comes back to why there were here in the first place.
“We made the most caffeinated beer on the planet,” said James. “Forget mochas, lattes and cappuccinos — this beer was like a pint of espresso on acid.”
No word on whether either of them has managed to sleep since filming it.
Want to try The Fix – Choco Coffee Imperial Stout for yourself? Come by Elysian Capitol Hill Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. for a pint and stay to watch the premier of the Seattle episode of Brew Dogs.
