This week at Elliott Bay Brewery and Pub in West Seattle, they’ll be celebrating all things hoppy. Starting tonight (now) you can get a sampling of the hoppiest creations from Elliott Bay’s two breweries – West Seattle and Burien. For $7.50, you’ll get a tray of five samples – 5 oz each. Beers will rotate each night (explained below). Whichever night this week you make it down to the pub, you are sure to get your hop jones fixed up right.
We plan to visit the pub on Tuesday night, which will also be a “meet the brewers” night. From 8:00 – 9:30 you can meet and greet all three of the Elliott Bay brewers – Doug Hindman, John Garretsen and Dan Ashley. They will also be serving a special gravity-fed cask of Riot Strong Pale Ale dry-hopped with fresh hops from Head Brewer Doug’s recent trip to Gamache farms in Yakima. Tuesday is also “Top it off Tuesdays” at the pub – $9 pitchers.
And that’s just Tuesday!
Each day, two of the five beers will be the same. That is, each day the sample tray will include the Elliott Bay IPA and the Elliott Bay Dry Hopped IPA (my favorite beer in the world). Each day the tray will also include a cask offering of one of their hoppilicious concoctions. Casks will be rotated as they empty.
In addition to the beers mentioned above, each day will feature the following:
Monday – Demolition Imperial Pale Ale and Riot Strong Pale Ale. Demolition weighs in at 7.25% abv and 103 IBUs, and is dry hopped with Cascade and Chinook hops. Riot Ale has an abv of 7.6%, 71 IBUs, and is dry hopped with Saphir, Cascade, and Chinook hops.
Tuesday – Highline IPA and a special dry-hopped keg of Hellmouth Imperial IPA. Hellmouth is a 7.1% ABV and 100 IBU brew, dry hopped with Chinook, Amarillo and Simcoe hops. Highline IPA is the house IPA of the Burien pub, and comes in at 5.8% abv and 80 IBUs.
Wednesday – Elliott Bay’s Belgian-style IPAs: Hop Von Boorien and Imperial Von Boorien. These are IPAs brewed with a Belgian Ale Yeast. Imperial Von Boorian is 7.1% abv and 100 IBUs, and is dry hopped with Chinook, Amarillo and Simcoe hops. Hop Von Boorien is 5.8% abv and 70 IBUs. Both have distinctive Belgian yeast characteristics and a moderately higher level of fruity esters from a warmer fermentation. Think trippel with a load of hops.
Thursday – Two recipes from Brewer Dan Ashley of the West Seattle brewery: RyePa and Hopus Callosum Imperial IPA. RyePa is an IPA with 5.0% abv and around 70 IBUs, but also 20% of the grain bill is Rye. Rye adds a spicy and grainy quality to the brew to balance out the hoppy bitterness. Hopus Callosum is a heavyweight, weighing in over 8% abv with 71 IBUs. Focusing the hopping on late additions and a substantial dry hopping makes this a very aromatic example of the power of hops.
Friday – They will be pouring two beers featuring the use of fresh hops from Gamache Farms: Hop Harvest Ale and Fresh Hopped Elliott Bay IPA. For the fresh-hopped IPA, we stuffed as much fresh Amarillo hops into the keg as was feasible, then filled the keg with our house Elliott Bay IPA. Tasting next to the regular and dry-hopped versions will make for an interesting opportunity for comparison.
We had the “Chef’s Paring” tonight with beer tasting, mmmmmm good.