On a Tuesday afternoon, at about 1:30, I stopped by The Beer Junction to talk with Morgan Herzog about a project we were working on together (The Beer Junction website). I figured this would be a good time for us to chat without pesky customers distracting him with questions about beer. When I arrived, there were two people browsing with shopping baskets and a third chatting with Morgan in front one of the coolers. As those customers left, more shoppers arrived. By the time we completed our project some weeks later, I learned that there is no good time to stop by The Beer Junction without pesky customers distracting Morgan.

Today I want to introduce one of our blog sponsors: The Beer Junction. Looking back, it is hard to imagine West Seattle without a bottleshop. Morgan Herzog opened the doors at The Beer Junction in June of last year. Partly because of the buzz generated by the West Seattle Blog and partly because West Seattle was starving for a bottleshop, The Beer Junction opened to a cascade of community support.

The Beer Junction offers a vast selection of beers from near and far. The current count is around 1,000 different labels. They also allow customers to special order kegs-to-go and rent all the gear needed for a successful event (taps, jockey boxes, ice tubs, etc). Kegerator kits, glassware, t-shirts, and other beery swag round out the shopping experience. A popular and unique item at The Beer Junction is the West Seattle Pint of View t-shirt, which features a graphic design of a pint glass with the city view as a backdrop.

A week before they opened last June. Boxes of beer everywhere.

Every Thursday from 5:00 – 8:00 The Beer Junction hosts a tasting event. Usually, the tasting features beers from one particular brewery. The events are well-attended, to say the least. The Epic Ales tasting a few months ago, which featured beers paired with artisanal cheeses, was… well, it was epic. You should follow The Beer Junction on Facebook or check out the events calendar on the website to find out what is on the schedule.

Totally packed for the Epic Ales beer and cheese tasting.

The Beer Junction is located at 4707 42nd Ave. SW in the heart of downtown West Seattle. For those who know the neighborhood, it is one block east of Elliott Bay Brewery and Pub—around the corner from the Rocksport Bar and Grill, directly across the street from Jefferson Square. Free parking is available on the street and in the lot adjacent to the building (behind the Rocksport Bar and Grill).

A resident of West Seattle, Morgan hatched the idea of opening a bottleshop while sampling beers at West Seattle’s Porterhouse Pub. While Full Throttle Bottles in nearby Georgetown is a great shop, Morgan thought that there needed to be a place to buy great beer “on the rock.” West Seattleites agree. Back in March 2010, when the West Seattle Blog announced that a bottleshop was coming to town, the story received more than 60 comments. Morgan is a native of the Seattle area and his father graduated from West Seattle High School—a fact that helps endear him with West Seattle’s old-school, highly provincial homers.

I should note that Morgan does not consider his customers to be pesky. That’s an opinion reserved for me. He knows a lot about beer and is learning all the time. For you beer geeks, you’ll find that Morgan speaks your language. I’ve witnessed people asking him some pretty ridiculous questions about beer. Morgan answers them politely. Some people come into the shop looking for advice and education; however, others come into the shop because, indeed, they do know absolutely everything about beer and they think it is important to share some of their vast knowledge with Morgan. He handles them with deference and patience. It would drive me crazy.

I have no idea why it took so long for someone to open a bottleshop in West Seattle. Less than one year into the experiment it seems pretty obvious that we needed one all along. The Beer Junction is open Tuesday through Sunday. Check the website for hours. Tell ‘em the Beer Blog sent you.

The Washington Beer Blog is very glad The Beer Junction opened in our neighborhood and is sincerely thankful that they sponsor the blog. Cheers to that!

Today I am happy to introduce a new sponsor: the Red Hot in Tacoma

How Good Can a Hot Dog Be?

I don’t even like doughnuts, but I vividly remember when Krispy Kreme opened its first Washington location in Issaquah back in 2001. Radio and television media delighted at the opportunity to tell stories about people waiting up to three hours just to buy a box of these presumably life-changing doughnuts. I didn’t understand it.

I remember thinking, “How good can a doughnut be?” I concluded that the doughnut was meaningless. It was just silly sheep-like human behavior: frenzied consumerism herded by media hype. We all want to believe something so simple as a doughnut really can be that good.

About six years later, with the Krispy Kreme memory indelibly etched into the fiber of my sensibilities, I was skeptical when I heard about a new place opening in Tacoma called the Red Hot—a craft beer bar with a singular culinary focus on hot dogs. Not just hot dogs, but really good hot dogs. Why was I skeptical? “How good can a hot dog be?”

When I visited the Red Hot for the first time, I discovered that something so simple as a hot dog really can be that good.

Craft Beer, Hot Dogs, No Jerks

The Red Hot Tacoma quickly gained a reputation as one of Tacoma’s best beer destinations. You will find the Red Hot along Central Tacoma’s 6^th Avenue, a hip and revitalized part of the city. Shamelessly dedicated to craft beer, the Red Hot’s rotating tap selection impresses even the most finicky beer geeks. You may find pubs with a larger draft selection, but you are hard-pressed to find a pub with a tap selection as thoughtfully considered. What’s more, you simply will not find a better hot dog this side of Chicago.

The Grandpappy of all Chili Dogs - The Tideflats.

Hot dogs are a visceral thing for me—something I typically equate with a feeling conjured by the memory of a particular moment in time and/or a certain place. I remember eating a hot dog on the loading dock at Mac’s Smoke House on Occidental Avenue, across the street from the Kingdome, just before a certain baseball game: the Mariners’ historic victory over the Yankees in game five of the 1995 playoffs. I remember a trip to Chicago when I was a young man, capable of staying up until 3:00 a.m. to enjoy a hot dog at the corner of Rush and Division. That’s how hot dogs typically fit into my life−usually as part of something bigger than the hot dog itself.

I remember my first visit to the Red Hot Tacoma and washing down my Tideflats dog with an Elysian Dragonstooth Stout.

Chris Miller, owner of the Red Hot, is an ardent fan of craft beer. In fact, Chris is one of the people responsible for creating the Tacoma Craft Beer Festival. A native of the east coast, he also knows a thing or two about hot dogs. The tube steaks he serves up at his pub are the real deal—only the finest wieners, sourced from across the country. No Costco dogs or Ball Park Franks here. Deservedly, the Red Hot has gained considerable notoriety for its hot dog prowess. In fact, it was featured on the Food Network’s “Chef vs City.” We’ve included the video below.

The hot dog preparations are creative and delicious, ranging from basic dogs like the Red Hot (yellow mustard, chopped onions, relish) and the 6^th Avenue Strut (cream cheese, onions and tomatoes), to the absolutely absurd. The Tideflats dog that I mentioned earlier includes two all-beef dogs served open-faced, with yellow mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, tomatoes, sport peppers, jalapeno peppers, sauerkraut, all meat chili, coleslaw, nacho cheese, pickle spear and celery salt. That’s a big, complex flavor profile—a dog deserving a big, equally complex beer as an accompaniment.

Although hot dogs may be a major theme, at the Red Hot it’s really all about the beer. This is simply one of the best places in the City of Destiny to find a great selection of craft beer. The Red Hot always features a dozen carefully selected draft choices and usually a cask, as well.  At this moment, you will find Pike Brewing Double IPA, Victory Brewing Prima Pils, Anderson Valley Brewing Brother David’s Double, and Delirium Tremens among others.

Because of the Red Hot I now understand why the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts thing never made sense to me. Hot dogs go so much better with beer.

The Red Hot
2914 6^th Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98406
253-779-0229
redhottacoma.com
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Once again, we invite you to see the world through a fresh set of eyes. Our own North Seattle Sarah talks about managing the impact of the higher gravity beers that we craft beer aficionados have come to consider normal. If you are a craft beer newbie, this is some valuable advice.

Now that I think of it, Sarah’s advice is good for any of us. In case you haven’t noticed, there is an ABV arms race happening. Recently I was drinking beer somewhere. Imagine that. I remember being astonished to discover that the pint I’d just ordered contained a beer that weighed in at close to 10 percent ABV. Not a snifter, not a half-pint, and not a 12-ounce tulip: an entire pint of too-easily-quaffed, 9.7 percent ABV goodness. That’s pretty much the last thing I remember. Oy vey.

Time to learn your ABV’s

– by North Seattle Sarah

I realize that most people reading this blog are probably beer nerds. And please don’t take offense to the term “nerd.” I say it with love, from a real nerd that grew up watching Star Trek and finishing her homework long before it was due. But the writers of this blog give me space here because I speak not from the perspective of the beer nerd, but from the perspective of the average Joe (or, more aptly, the average Jane) who does not necessarily know everything there is to know about beer.

As I have begun drinking top-notch local brews, and as a 125-pound female beer drinker, I have discovered something: this ain’t Busch Light.

If you’re like me, your first drink of beer was probably something really generic that you thought was amazing. For most men, I’m guessing it was a Bud Light, or Corona, or PBR–whatever you could get your hands on. For the girls, well, we were always given the incredibly sugary Smirnoff Ice or Mike’s Hard Lemonade (yes, even back then, at that tender age, the fellas knew to pay for the ladies’ drinks).

How I stomached that sugary stuff, I’ll never know, but I do know this: when playing a good college drinking game we could certainly get through a lot of cans and bottles in one night. And by the time you’re out of college, you’ve got your limits all figured out—you know just how much you can have to drink when you are out with friends and still keep your cool.

A New Perspective

Joining the local craft beer scene as I recently have, everything has changed. Where I used to have several drinks in one evening, now I can have one or maybe two. Part of it is getting older, I suppose, but I attribute this difference mostly to a need to learn my ABV’s.

ABV (Alcohol by Volume) is, by its simplest definition, a measurement of a drink’s alcoholic strenth. Here’s how I’m going to put this in perspective for those new to the world of “good” beer. A bottle of Bud Light is 4.2 percent ABV, and a bottle of Budweiser is 5 percent. This is about typical for the most nationally recognized big-brand beers that you find at the grocery store or see advertised during big football games.

Now when you’re drinking local craft beer, the numbers range. A glass of Manny’s Pale Ale from Georgetown Brewing, for instance, is a quaffable 5.5 percent, which is not too much stronger than what a non-craft drinker expects. This is probably one of the reasons it is so popular—that and the fact that it’s darn tasty beer. But take a trip to Naked City Taphouse these days and try the Naked City Gilda and you’ll recognize a huge difference. Gilda is a big girl. She weighs in at 8.5 percent ABV. That’s about double the ABV of Bud Light. You’re already two beers into the night when you finish your first beer. The ABV of some local brews go even higher than that. At better beer bars these days it is not uncommon to find an 11 percent ABV beer. Or higher. For some of us lightweights, you can end up stumbling out of a bar after just one drink.  And no one wants to see that.

Pay attention. Ask questions

So, how do you manage your ABV’s? Know what you’re drinking. Many bars and breweries put the ABV right there on the menu. If they don’t, ask. You can usually be fairly certain that pale ale will be on the lighter side, and an IPA will be a little stronger.

If you want to enjoy a strong ale without the strong effects, ask for a smaller glass—a half pint or a snifter. Most good beer bars are happy to accommodate you. Of course, best of all, you need to know your limits.

Time for me to admit one of my guilty pleasures: a show of shame, if you will. Well, not really shame. It’s a great show, actually, but one you might not expect a self-proclaimed “dude’s dude” like me to watch.

It’s all Kim’s fault. You see, she’s a bit of a foodie in addition to being a certified beer nerd. That being said, she likes to watch the Food Network a lot. And I must admit, so do I. One of our favorite shows is a fairly recent addition to the Food Network lineup: a show called Aarti Party, hosted by Aarti Sequeira.

Simply put, Aarti Party introduces Indian flair into the American kitchen, enhancing American favorites with Indian flavors. It’s really quite awesome.

So what does this have to do with beer?

The other night Mrs. Beerblog and I were catching up on some old shows—making space on the DVR. We fired up a recent episode of Aarti Party and, low and behold, it was titled Beer Snacks.

By now, Kim and I feel like we know Aarti Sequeira and the unique style she brings to party food. We knew this was going to be good.

There are a lot of things to like about Aarti Party. The host is warm and funny, with plenty of smiles and giggles that all seem genuine and sincere. Her motto is “Eat, giggle, repeat.” What’s more, Aarti’s passion for combining her Indian cooking roots with modern American cooking sensibilities permeates out of her so effortlessly, like warm chocolate oozing out of a molten lava chocolate cake.

Aarti is a blogger at heart. Check out her blog, Artii Paarti. At least that’s where she comes from. She’s a blogger turned Food Network star. Can I be next, please?

And she loves beer!

Food Network Star - Aartii Sequeira.

She’s one of us

Aarti started out the Beer Snacks episode by explaining that she loves beer (something that made us love her more) and that she loves having friends over for beer tasting parties (like I said, love her more). This episode would introduce us to three delicious dishes designed to satisfy guests at just such a sudsy soiree.

The dishes were amazing, I’ll describe those later, but the beer pairings were equally well-conceived. Aarti explained that she relied on one of her good friends for the beer-food pairing suggestions. That friend, she explained, is Christina Perozzi from beerforchicks.com. Aha! Hell yes!

This just keeps getting better! Christina is an effing rock star in my book. Christina, pictured below in a photo shamelessly lifted from her blog, has also blogged about her beer tasting party with Aarti. You can read that here. Her blog is awesome and I’m a huge fan, obviously.

Beerforchicks' Christina Perozzi (left) with Aarti Sequeira.

No wonder I like Aarti. No wonder I like her show. She is one of us!

Chewda

The first dish she introduces was an Americanized version of a classic Indian snack mixed called Chewda. Of the three dishes, for me the Chewda was the most drool-inducing. The traditional version of Chewda includes chickpea flour noodles, flattened flakes of dried rice, peanuts and seasonings. Aarti’s westernized version uses Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, golden raisins, and plantain chips. The seasonings include peanut oil,  mustard seeds, curry leaves, serrano chile, and turmeric.

This was like good old-fashioned Chex mix on steroids. Very serious steroids. Instead of baking it in the oven, Aarti tossed the peanut oil and the seasonings in a wok to let the flavors meld and then simple added the other ingredients. A few quick tosses and the American Chewda was good to go.

Christina Perozzi paired Aarti’s American Chewda with an imported Kolsch – Reissdorf Kolsch. I imagined it with a Kolsch from Hale’s Ales or Chuckanut Brewery. I figure that the spiciness of this snack would hold up to just about any beer, but a nice refreshing Kolsch seems like a good call to tame the flaming palate.

Here is the link to the complete Chewda recipe.

Arayes

Next, Aarti introduce a Lebanese dish – meat-stuffed pitas known as Arayes. In a food processor she combined parsley, onion, garlic, garam masala and other seasonings. She mixed that with ground beef and then stuffed little pita pockets with the mixture. A bit of oil and into the oven they go until they are brown and crisp.

This dish was paired with Deschutes Black Butte Porter. Any beer that has a slightly smokey, nutty finish would pair well with Arayes. You’ll want something to stand up against, and help amplify, the character imparted by the turmeric and the garam masala. I wouldn’t go off the deep end and pair this with a smoked porter or a rauchbier, but how about a Pacemaker Porter from Flyer’s Brewery or maybe a Steam Train Porter from Snoqualmie Falls Brewing.

Here is the link to the complete Arayes recipe.

Fish Tacos

The final dish was Aarti’s version of a simple fish taco. Nothing too crazy about the way she prepared the fish, but the mayo she made sounds amazing. To a cup of regular mayonnaise she added garlic, mint, cumin and fresh lime juice. To me, that sounds like the mayo of the gods.

She paired the fish tacos with Allagash White. Locally, I’d reach for a Crooked Wit from Two Beers Brewing or a Pearl White Ale from Odin Brewing. The thought here, according to Aarti, was to enhance the citrus notes in the food with the citrus notes in the beer.

Here is the link to the complete Fish Taco recipe.

This is perhaps one of the least beery posts we’ve done. It is part of our plan to introduce more food-beer pairing articles. People have told us that’s what they want. And we love doing it.

Check out Aarti Party on the Food Network. Aarti Sequeira proves that people who appreciate good beer most often appreciate good food as well.


“Craft beer is the perfect metaphor for the American dream.”

That’s just one of the quotes from the trailer for the upcoming documentary film Beer Culture. The film explores the increasingly popular world of craft beer through the eyes of a group of Colorado craft breweries. The film is currently going into final production and the filmmakers hope to release it this summer.

The filmmakers invite us to, “Watch firsthand interviews with brew masters, home brewer enthusiasts, and company owners as they tell their stories of turning a craft into commerce. Men and women who have turned their passion for beer into a successful, modern view of the American Dream.”

“Beer is more than just a drink to drink, it is a beverage that has evolved over thousands of years to be the rich delicacy that it is today made buy people who love what they do, and love sharing what they create.”

Cheers to that. The Washington Beer Blog will track the progress of this project. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer.

The movie is being produced on a shoestring budget and we are all invited to contribute to the cause. Click here for more information about that.

Beer Culture Trailer 1 from FM Productions on Vimeo.

In Seattle we’re proud of our beer culture. Seattleites love great beer and we have great places to drink it, but sometimes this blog fails to give proper respect to the city to the south that also embraces fabulous beer. It is a beautiful city, one of the jewels of the northwest, with a serious passion for superior suds. I am talking about Tacoma, of course.

You might have thought I was talking about Portland, but this blog is not one of the many, many online forums dedicated to Oregon beer worship. We are, after all, the Washington Beer Blog. We have already showed Hood River some love, naming that lovely town and the surrounding area one of our favorite things, so now we are keeping it north of the border. We hereby declare that Tacoma is one of our favorite things.

Admit it Tacoma, You are Beautiful

Tacoma, you were once pretty ugly. You smelled awful. Your smelter belched toxic death-clouds into the sky and your rampant gang violence stained your hilltop with blood. Your downtown looked more like a deserted ghost town.

That is all behind you now. As the new century unfolds, you are reinventing yourself. Your air is clean and your neighborhoods are cute and inviting. Your historic downtown is enjoying a rebirth. Your streets are safe. Your beer is delicious.

Admit it Tacoma, you are beautiful. You are one of our favorite things.

Our Favorite Places

Whenever we are heading home on northbound I-5 from some beer adventure, it is hard for us not to make a detour to the Parkway Tavern, the Red Hot, Harmon Brewing, the Engine House No. 9, or one of the other fine establishments serving good beer in The City of Destiny. Other times, when a weekend afternoon presents itself with no obligations, we head south to the city of my birth to enjoy a visit to the Spar, the Swiss, or maybe even Katie Downs Waterfront Tavern. So many choices.

The Spar as she sits today. Built in 1916 on the site of the Old Tacoma Saloon.

But if we had to choose two favorites it would probably be the Red Hot and the Parkway.

The Red Hot – To begin with, we love the Red Hot motto of “cold beer, hot dogs, no jerks.” The beer list is unquestionably impressive, featuring a delicious, thoughtful, rotating selection of craft beers from near and far. The hot dogs are sourced with the same passion, brought in from across the country. Seriously, the hot dogs will blow your mind. These are gourmet dogs dressed to perfection. My favorite is the Tideflats, which features two beef dogs on an open bun smothered in mustard, ketchup, sour kraut, chili, nacho cheese, and what-all-else I do not recall. (They have more conventional offerings for the faint of heart.)

The Parkway Tavern – This is the ultimate neighborhood pub. The Parkway is committed to serving great beer. Lots and lots of great beer. The Parkway doesn’t have a website because it doesn’t need one. Everyone who needs to know about the Parkway already does. You are always welcome, but you are an outsider. Respect that. The memorabilia hanging on the walls always fascinates me. It is like a history lesson or a walk through a museum. Most important, the beer list will not disappoint even the most finicky drinker. It amazes me how many Seattle-area beer lovers have never heard about the Parkway. Actually, no it doesn’t.

We happened by the Parkway IPA festival. Who even knew they had an IPA festival?

Hit the Ground Running

The Tacoma Craft Beer Festival is only two years old and it is already one of our favorite festivals. They came out of the gates swinging and didn’t pull any punches. We love the location for the event, in a historic building on the Foss Waterway. The addition of Friday Night Firkins was awesome.

On the waterfront in Tacoma at TCBF.

The TCBF is a testament to the rising beer tide in Tacoma. We look forward to what the future holds for this young festival.

Roots

Likely, some hot-blooded Tacoman will take issue with the fact that I even mentioned the odor of Tacoma or any of the other elements of the city’s past. I know how touchy current Tacomans are about that kind of stuff. They are irrationally defensive about certain subjects – a testament to the love they have for their great city. Although I do not currently live in Tacoma, my family’s roots run deep under the Ruston soil. I’m entitled to my opinion. You are entitled to yours.

Tacoma, you are feisty and you don’t take no crap from nobody, goddammit. We love that about you. Tacoma, you are one of our favorite things.

It’s a trend we can sink our teeth into—food and beer pairing events. The rise in popularity of beer dinners and other beer/food pairing events is definitely one of our favorite things.

There was time when the gastronomically elite looked down their noses at beer—a time when “food and beer pairing” referred to serving a frosted glass of fizzy yellow swill alongside a pizza or a hamburger. A more sophisticated pairing might involve fish-n-chips.

Let’s be clear, the Washington Beer Blog has nothing against pizza, hamburgers or fish-n-chips, but…

As the artisan beer revolution continues to gain momentum, more and more people are beginning to recognize the value of pairing beer with fine food. We are happy to report that beer dinners and other food-beer pairing events now bespeckle the calendar.

There were so many great food and beer events over the course of the last year that we could not possibly list them all, but here are just a few highlights.

Seattle Food Week

Remember last May’s Seattle Beer Week? It almost seemed to be about food as much as it was about beer. It seemed that there was an amazing beer dinner happening each night. Cheers to that. Next year, we’re going to make more of an effort to attend those events, especially if chef Sean Paxton is coming back to town. We missed the dinner he put together at Brouwer’s Cafe. What were we thinking?

Corson Building’s Belgian Beer Dinner

Last January, as the local beer community geared up for the first-ever Washington Belgianfest, the Corson Building hosted an amazing Belgian-themed beer dinner. Our own Sully Braytor attended the event and his description is sure to set your mouth watering. This was not a dinner for the faint of heart. It was an evening of carefully crafted, well thought-out deliciousness. Big, rich, coma-inducing deliciousness. Read the review of this amazing dinner.

Rockstar Chefs and World Class Beers

In May we reported that Holly Smith was trying to open a brewpub in Seattle. Holly Smith is the nationally recognized, award-winning chef/owner of Café Juanita. She has appeared on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters and the Food Network’s Next Iron Chef. She is a rockstar in the food world. Her initial plan failed to materialize, but we know she is still out there working on this project. The fact that a chef of Holly Smith’s stature wants to open a brewpub is a beautiful thing. Read about Chef Holly Smith’s plans to open a brewpub in Seattle.

From East to West

Last spring we had the pleasure of meeting Greg Hall, head brewer at Chicago’s Goose Island Brewing. Quinn’s Pub catered the event, serving a selection of appetizers designed specifically to go along with each of the Goose Island beers served.

Further conversations with Greg revealed that the food and beer movement is thriving in Chicago. Apparently foodie guru and master chef Rick Bayless is a big fan of Goose Island Beers and actually made a beer with Greg’s brewery team—a Belgian-style blond infused with tangerine zest and green coriander. That beer, available only at Bayless’ Frontera Grill, made a prestigious top 100 list: TimeOut Chicago’s Top 100 Things We Ate.

From what Greg told us, it seems clear that Chicago is a bit ahead of us on this one. Although I love living on the left coast, I am keenly aware that certain trends—food, fashion, and so on—invariably migrate from the east to the west.

Goose Island brewmaster Greg Hall talks to guests at a special tasting event at Sole Repair, catered by Quinn's Pub. (Thursday, June 17th).

Food and Beer – It’s Front Page News

Last summer, we decided to write a post about food and beer pairing for the Fourth of July. Whereas tradition might dictate a hot dog alongside a Budweiser, we took a more sophisticated approach. It turned out to be one of our most widely read posts to date. The Seattle P-I, which syndicates our blog, promoted our Food and Beer Pairing for the Fourth of July post to the front page. That’s kind of a big deal. Beer stories rarely make the front page.

New Gastropub in Ballard

We recently learned of the opening of yet another gastropub, the Five Corner Market Bar and Kitchen in Ballard. (Official opening date of December 13.) The beer list is clearly hand-picked, if a little light on Washington beers for a homer like me, and we can only assume that their beers are meant to pair with their dishes. The Seattle Beer News posted a story about the Five Corner Market Bar and Kitchen – click here to read it.

Like I said, there were too many great food and beer events for us to mention here. These were just a few highlights.

Observant followers of this blog might be noticing some changes to the site as they read this post. We’ve incorporated some new graphics into the header and made some other changes. Other than the new header graphic, these are pretty minor changes, but we think they combine to provide some pretty nice improvements to the overall look of the Washington Beer Blog.

We would like to thank Christopher Baldwin Design for the artwork. We’ve worked with him on many other projects and he never fails to exceed expectations.

Don’t forget that I will be on the radio tomorrow along with Drew Cluley (Pike Brewing) and Alejandro Brown (Big Al Brewing). Tune in to KUOW (94.9 FM) at 10:00. Also, don’t be afraid to contact KUOW and thank them for dedicating some of their air time to beer.

What we do not have on tap

Not long ago I walked into a fairly typical bar and grill in Seattle for a beer, a bite to eat, and a few innings of playoff baseball. This was not a great beer bar, but at least they offered some sort of craft beer selection. I asked the bartender what they had on tap and the first thing he said was, “Let me start by telling you that we do not have Manny’s.” Then he went on to explain what they did have on tap.

I am guessing that the bartender was getting a bit tired of people asking for Manny’s. One thing is for sure, that bartender probably never explains that they do not have Bud Light. No bar ever runs out of Bud Light. Why? Running short on one of their craft beers is probably a fairly common occurrence, but they always have plenty of silver bullet on hand. What’s up with that?

Survey says…

Here is a link to a survey that asks craft beer drinkers a few simple questions. The folks running this survey have asked for your input because they recognize you’re the right person to ask. The survey is part of an article about the beer supply chain and explains why bars are more likely to run out of craft beer and less likely to run out of Mega Swill. It even suggests a possible solution. It is a quick and interesting read.
Click here to take the survey and/or read the article.

So what do you order when you walk into a bar that is missing your favorite (or expected) craft beer? Do you go for another beer of the same style? Do you reach for an import? Do you leave?

If you are headed to the Blues and Brews festival in Des Moines on Saturday (Sept. 25) you’ll be in the neighborhood, so maybe you should stop by and pay a visit to Vino Bello in nearby Burien – one of our much-appreciated Washington Beer Blog sponsors. It is sponsors like them that help us bring you this blog.

What, you might ask, does a wine bar have to do with beer? Well, they’ve recently started pouring draft beer, with a focus on locally brewed craft beer. They also offer a nice selection of bottled beers, ranging from things like O.K. (Okacim) Lager from Poland, to Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA from California, to Baron King Porter from South Park. In Italian, vino bello means beautiful wine. In Burien, it also means beautiful beer.

The Truth About Cats and Dogs

It’s a fact that virtually everyone reading this blog right now is a beer lover. It’s also a fact that many craft beer aficionados find themselves joined at the hip to people who are less passionate about the brewing sciences. How convenient that there is a wine bar serving a fantastic selection of wines by the glass (and bottle) that also offers a selection of craft beer. They even have a great selection of wines to go. Everyone gets what they want.

Of these four ladies, two of them are drinking beer. Nice ratio.

Many wine drinkers think of wine as an exclusive beverage. Meaning, wine reserves room at the table for only those people who truly understand and appreciate a really expensive bottle of wine. Michele Smith, owner of Vino Bello, thinks that attitude is a bunch of hogwash. Having forgotten more about wine than most wine snobs will ever know, Smith laughs at self-proclaimed wine experts who judge wine first by the price or the pedigree and look down their noses at wines selling for less than $50 per bottle. It’s a refreshing attitude.

Mrs. Beer Blog occassionally fancies a nice Prosecco.

Unwind, Kick Back, and Chill Out

So next time you want to go out for a beer but your wine-loving wife doesn’t feel like placating you with another trip to the local beer bar, take her to Vino Bello where you will find friendly people, comfy seats, walls adorned with the work of local artists, music to soothe your soul, and drinks to enliven your spirit.

The Fabulous Po' Boys, jamming at Vino Bello.

My favorite day to hit Vino Bello is Saturday. Typically, they have tasting events going on. Be careful, my beer loving friends, you just might learn a thing or two about wine. These events provide an affordable way for you to experience a selection of wines from a particular region, from a particular winemaker, or that otherwise fit into a theme.

Another reason I like Saturdays at Vino Bello is the music. Frequently, a band or solo artist playing jazz, rock, roots or folk music provides live entertainment. Check with their website or their Facebook page to see what’s going on.

Currently on tap at Vino Bello you will find Schooner Exact 3 Grid IPA and Schooner Exact Gateway Golden. Not surprising to people who read this blog, Vino Bello seems to sell a lot of IPA.

Vino Bello
636 SW 152nd Street
Burien, WA 98166
206-244-VINO
MAP