This Thursday we are hosting a Beer Church fundraiser at the Feedback Lounge. Right next door at the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor), they will be hosting a Black Raven Mini Brewers Night. That gives you two good reason to come out to West Seattle on Thursday night. The event at the Beveridge Place starts at 6:00. The event at the Feedback starts at 7:00.

On Thursday, January 26th, the remaining two kegs of Beer Church Midnight Mass will be tapped at a very special event at the Feedback Lounge in West Seattle: Two Beers (or more), a benefit for the CCFA. All proceeds from the event benefit the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). Join us for an evening of Pearl Jam music, Pearl Jam videos, and Pearl Jam memorabilia. There will be a silent auction as well as a raffle. We will be auctioning-off and raffling-off cool Pearl Jam memorabilia all night. In fact, some of the items will even be autographed by the band.

Located right next door to the Beveridge Place Pub, the Feedback Lounge is unknown to most beer geeks who walk right by without hardly noticing its there. I understand. I know that the lure of the Beveridge Place is irresistible for hardcore beer nerds.

If you like rock and roll then you’ll love the Feedback Lounge. Televisions that play nothing but rock, walls plastered with rock memorabilia, and always great music. Thursday night, it will be all about Pearl Jam. And beer, of course.

On the same night that our event takes place at the Feedback, the Beveridge Place Pub will host a Black Raven Mini Brewers Night. You have two reasons to come to West Seattle. The Black Raven event starts at 6:00 and our event starts right next door at 7:00. Perfect.

Why Pearl Jam?

You might be asking, what’s with the Pearl Jam theme? Mike McCready, guitarist for Pearl Jam, is a huge supporter of the CCFA. His fundraising efforts are admirable but perhaps his biggest contribution to the cause is increased awareness. For many people, he is the only reason they have ever heard of Crohn’s disease. McCready makes his fellow patients feel like they are not alone. He puts a recognizable face on an otherwise unknown disease. He is a rock star in more ways than one. This event honors his continuing contribution.

For more information about Crohn’s Disease and the CCFA please visit www.ccfa.org.

Two Beers (or more), a benefit for the CCFA
Thursday, January 26th, 7:00 p.m.
Feedback Lounge, 6451 California Ave. SW, Seattle, WA [map]
http://www.feedbacklounge.net/

The Washington Beer Blog would like to extend our congratulations to Schooner EXACT Brewing. The once-diminutive brewery is about to celebrate its 5th anniversary. A party to mark the occasion takes place tomorrow night (Friday, January 20, 7:00 p.m.) at the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor). The official gift for any 5th anniversary is wood. For a brewery, the “wood anniversary” is appropriately marked with barrel-aged beers. And that is exactly what Schooner EXACT has in store for you. We provide details below.

From Humble Beginnings

More than five years ago my friend Erin told me that she knew someone opening a brewery in West Seattle. I quizzed her further and eventually discovered that the brewery would be located in an ActiveSpace studio on Harbor Avenue, near Alki Beach. Back then, it was hard to imagine such a thing.

Schooner EXACT started out brewing one keg at a time in a brewery the size of a very small garage. More like a large closet, actually. In January of 2007 the Beveridge Place Pub hosted the Schooner EXACT debut party. That was the first night that I, or pretty much anyone else, ever tasted Schooner EXACT beer. The place was packed beyond belief, the beer went quickly and the atmosphere was electric. It was an auspicious occasion.

Not long after that, West 5 Lounge in West Seattle dubbed Schooner Exact 3 Grid IPA it’s house IPA. West 5 was the first regular account for Schooner Exact. In those days it was all brewer Matt McClung could do to maintain that one account and occasionally get a keg out to someone else. By the way, 3 Grid IPA is still the house IPA at West 5.

The term had yet to be invented, but Schooner EXACT was a nano-brewery. Owners Matt and Heather McClung maintained their day jobs and operated the brewery part-time along with their friend Marcus Connery. They delivered beer out of the back of a Subaru.

Last spring we brewed Beer Church Pale Ale v2.0 at Schooner Exact. That is not a nano mash tun.

Today Schooner EXACT is one of Seattle’s rising stars. The SODO brewery is now anything but nano, having undergone several rounds of expansion. There is no longer anything small or part-time about Schooner EXACT.

Here is more information about the anniversary party, from Schooner Exact:

Schooner EXACT is celebrating its 5th anniversary this Friday January, 20th. We held our inauguration at the Beveridge Place Pub, so what better location to commemorate 5 crazy years; going from a little nanobrewery in West Seattle into a full-fledged microbrewery in SODO (with a short layover in South Park along the way). The gift for a 5th Anniversary is wood, so the brewers have come up with 6 wood-inspired beers and we’ll bring along some good ole’ favorites as well.

To warm everyone up, there will be a firkin of 3-Grid IPA, dry hopped with Cascades being tapped on Thursday the 19th.

Come brave the snow and celebrate with us. Thanks for supporting Washington beer and small business.

Heather McClung

Schooner EXACT Brewing Company

Tomorrow night (Thursday, Jan. 5th) is a big night in West Seattle as the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor) officially inaugurates the new house IPA for 2012. Each October the Beveridge Place hosts the Hoptoberfest tournament and permits its patrons to select the house IPA: the IPA that will always be on tap at the pub. The people have spoken and the winner for 2012 is Lucille IPA by Georgetown Brewing.

Join the Beveridge Place Pub at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, along with a whole bunch of representatives from Georgetown Brewing, as they ring in the new year by tapping the complete lineup of Georgetown beers, including a cask of Lucy. Likely, you can expect some other hoopla as well. Georgetown Brewing and the Beveridge Place Pub have always enjoyed a very special relationship, so you can expect this to be a rip-roaring good time.

We hear that the entire Georgetown Brewing staff will be at the event. I have a problem with that. What if a giant piece of space junk hits the Beveridge Place Pub tomorrow night? Oh the humanity! We will just have to pray that nothing catastrophic befalls the Bev tomorrow night.

Maybe Roger and Manny should never be allowed to be in the same place at once? Just sayin’.

From Georgetown Brewing:

November brought some of the year’s best news for us:  Lucille won the people’s vote to become the House IPA at Beveridge Place Pub for 2012. Well, even if you missed that announcement, your chance to make up for it is here as we officially kick off the Year of Lucille.  That’s right… that shiny little green and yellow tap handle will be up every day you walk into BPP this calendar year, but it’s not everyday that our whole staff will be there to share one with you.  Or that there will be a full line-up of our brews plus a Lucy cask.  Of course, there’s a good chance Reid will be there everyday, so there’s no rush on tomorrow for you if he’s really the only one you’re wanting to see.  Hopefully you want to see the rest of us, too.  No offense to Reid.

Welcome to Black Wednesday. This is the most prolific party day of the year. Unless you work for Walmart, tomorrow is a holiday and most of us have nothing to do except to eat and watch football. Sure, we have families to manage and meals to cook, but for most of us the duty roster is very light on Thanksgiving Day.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest nights of the year at your local bar or pub. Most years, Black Wednesday finds us at the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor). By 7:00 p.m. the regular crowd fills the pub and by 8:00 the beer line is usually eight or ten people deep. By 9:00 the sea of humanity is almost unbearable. We endure, happily.

The Beveridge Place is our Black Wednesday ritual. We  so deeply enjoy sitting at the bar to witness newly legal drinkers, home from college and awash in cheap cologne, visiting the Beveridge Place Pub for the first time, trying to order a PBR or a Vodka Rockstar from Jen. (We miss you, Jen!)

The Beveridge Place Pub is just one example. It is an unmistakable phenomenon: this is the biggest drinking day of the year. So welcome to Black Wednesday. What do you have planned?

Down in Tacoma, the Parkway Tavern celebrates rare and delicious beers on Black Wednesday. It’s an event they call Honey, the Parkway Tavern ruined Thanksgiving again.  This year the lineup includes some amazing stuff (listed below).

So what else is happening tonight? Where will you celebrate Black Wednesday? Be safe.

The Parkway Tavern’s lineup for this evening:

• 21st Amendment Hop Crisis
• Avery The Beast
• Avery duganA
• Bear Republic Racer X
• Boneyard Femme Fatale
• Elysian Dark O’ the Moon
• Firestone Walker XV
• He’Brew Genesis 15:15
• Maritime Pacific Jolly Roger 2010
• Lost Abbey Angel’s Share
• Russian River Temptation
• Russian River Pliny the Elder
• Schooner Exact Hoppy the Woodsman 2008 and 2009
• Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head Life and Limb 2
• Southern Tier Crème Brûlée
• Southern Tier Pumking (Bottles)
• Stone Double Bastard

Tonight is your last chance to vote in the Elite Eight round of Hoptoberfest at the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor). The annual month-long event features the best Washington IPAs in tournamentp-style showdown to determine which beer will be the house IPA for the upcoming year.

Because it is Micro Monday, the pints will only cost $3.00. Stop by the pub to cast your ballot. I suggest doing the blind taste test to determine which one you actually favor. Sometimes it’s hard to overcome your own preconceived notions and the elite eight are all great IPAs.

Beginning tomorrow the field will be narrowed down to the final three IPAs. Voting will continue (one ballot per customer per day) until November 1st. The winner of the Hoptoberfest tournament will be named the house IPA for 2012. The Beveridge Place Pub can go through as many as 5 or 6 kegs of IPA per week.

We have it on good authority that representatives from all eight breweries will be at the Beveridge Place tonight attempting to win your vote. Actually, they’ll just be glad to see you. When this happened last year it was pretty crazy. We’ve been told that there won’t be any monkey business this year, just a bunch of brewery folk thanking you for your support, but you never know. (The video from last year is below.)

See all of our previous posts about Hoptoberfest at the Beveridge Place Pub.

This year’s elite eight, in no particular order:

Two Beers Evo IPA
Boundary Bay IPA (reigning champion)
Harmon Point Defiance IPA
Georgetown Lucile IPA
American Brewing Company’s Breakaway IPA
Black Raven Trickster IPA
Sound Brewing Reluctant IPA
Fremont Interurban IPA

Hoptoberfest continues at the Beveridge Place Pub. As we reported the other day (read it), this is more than a month-long festival of IPA, it is a competition of sorts to determine what will be the house IPA for 2012.

Patrons are invited to vote for their favorite Washington IPA in an elimination-style tournament. For 11 days patrons voted for any IPA regardless of whether it was on tap or not. Hundreds of ballots were cast. In the end, an impressive 33 different breweries received votes–a fact that speaks really well for the quality of the IPAs brewed here in Washington.

The list has now been narrowed down to the final eight competitors. Stop by the pub and vote for your favorite. You can fill out one ballot per day.

The elite eight, in no particular order:

• Two Beers Evo IPA
• Boundary Bay IPA (reigning champion)
• Harmon Point Defiance IPA
• Georgetown Lucile IPA
• American Brewing Company’s Breakaway IPA
• Black Raven Trickster IPA
• Sound Brewing Reluctant IPA
• Fremont Interurban IPA

It is Hoptoberfest at the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor). What exactly does that mean? Well, in short, it means that all month long the Beveridge Place is dedicating a whopping 12 taps to a rotating selection of mostly local IPAs. It also means that the Beveridge Place is in the process of choosing a new house IPA for 2012 — the house IPA is the always-on-tap IPA at the Bev. Not only is it an honor for the winning brewery, but it also represents a lot of guaranteed keg sales.

Hoptoberfest culminates with the 6th Annual IPA Cask-O-Rama. On November 3rd through November 5th, up to 24 casks of IPA will line the bar at the Beveridge Place. It is a beautiful thing. On the first day of IPA Cask-O-Rama the new house IPA is announced, though you shouldn’t expect the beer to show up as a regular pour at the Bev until the first of the year.

When casting your ballot, you are welcome to vote for beers not on tap at the time of your visit. The only real rules for determining what will be the house IPA are that the brewery be up to the task (able to provide enough beer on a consistent basis) and that it be a Washington-brewed IPA.

Here is how the Hoptoberfest balloting works:

• Go to the Beveridge Place Pub and order a liter of IPA (Okay, a pint is acceptable, too)
• Get a ballot (one vote per person per day)
• Repeat as necessary
• From Oct. 4 – 14, you can nominate any Washington-brewed IPA, even if it’s not currently on tap (no “Imperials”)
• From Oct 15 – 24, vote using “a primary ballot” with the top eight nominees
• From Oct 25 – Nov 1, the Bev holds its general election – a ballot with the top three from the primary
• Winner announced at IPA Cask-o-Rama on Thursday, November 3rd.

Yesterday the Beveridge Place Pub (blog sponsor) hosted the Iron Brewer Triple Header, an event challenging six local breweries to put their skills to the test. Personally, this was one of the most anticipated events of Seattle Beer Week. Not just because Iron Brewer is such a great concept, but because of the players involved. Black Raven faced off against Big Al Brewing in the championship match, Fremont Brewing clashed with Two Beers Brewing in the second match, and Elliott Bay Brewing battled Georgetown Brewing in the final match.

I knew that things would get kind of stupid at this event. And I mean that in the best possible way. When you have a championship matchup between Black Raven Brewing (defending champ) and Big Al Brewing, it is not not going to be quiet. In fact, things are sure to get silly. If breweries won medals for personality and general funmanship, both Black Raven and Big Al would be clad in platinum.

Master Al and his enthusiastic sidekick Micah.

Lead by Master Alejandro (Big Al), the Big Al Brewing team showed up in costume. About halfway through the event, Black Raven pulled out an ironing board and began “flattening the competition.” They ironed T-shirts from the breweries they defeated in previous Iron Brewer competitions.

Nigel ironing a Big Al shirt (flattening the competition), much to Micah's displeasure.

The Joint was Jumpin’

The event started at 5:00 p.m. when the Beveridge Place Pub started serving the Iron Brewer tasting trays. Quite literally, the line for taster trays stretched out the front door when the event kicked off. For most of the evening people stood at least 10-deep or 12-deep waiting to get to the bar. With usual deference and skill, the Beveridge Place staff effectively managed the crushing mass of humanity.

From the back of the beer line, the bar seemed miles away (it moved quickly).

In case you’re new to the concept, Iron Brewers works like this: The Beveridge Place picks two “special ingredients,” the brewers make beers that feature those ingredients, and then the crowd votes (blindly) for the beer that they think deserves the title. The only reward is the much-coveted title Iron Brewer itself and, ultimately, the title Iron Brewer Champion.

For this event, all of the ingredients reflected a Japanese theme. The Beveridge Place Pub donated proceeds from the event to Japanese tsunami relief.

And the Winner is…

The championship match featured sesame and plum, the second featured cedar and cucumber, and the third featured wasabi and Satsuma orange. The beers were all over the map. Some opted for a heavy-handed treatment of the secret ingredients, others were more subtle.

Big Al Brewing put up a fight, so to speak, but in the end Black Raven retained the title of Iron Brewer Champion. Other victors included Fremont Brewing and Elliott Bay Brewing, which will now face off in an upcoming battle. Eventually, the winner will challenge Black Raven for the championship.

No word  yet on when we can expect the next round of match ups. We’ll keep you posted.

It was also Reid Spencer's birthday (brewer at Georgetown Brewing). He brought his own crowd. He's in the white T-shirt.

Much discussion about the beers. Many new faces from far and wide at the Bev yesterday.

Nice cod piece.

Tonight there are three reasons to go to the Beveridge Place Pub (Washington Beer Blog sponsor).

First, it’s the third anniversary of the big move into the new space. While some of you think of the current Bev as the only Bev, many of us remember the old spot next door that offered a much more cozy drinking experience (especially the bathrooms, which were impossibly small). The old joint had it’s charm, but it was nothing compared to the Beveridge Place Pub that we all know and love today.

Second, Georgetown Brewing will be there to help the Beveridge Place celebrate. On the docket for this evening’s fun are a firkin cask of Donkey Deux, and Lucille IPA served from a clear keg. The firkin taps at 6:00, the Lucille at 7:00.

Third, this is your chance to bid a fond farewell to Jennifer. She’s been with the Beveridge Place since they opened more than nine years ago.  For some of us old-time regulars, it’s kind of a teary subject, but we are all very happy for her. Jen is opening her own place down in Tacoma called Rumrunners. You go girl! Friday is her official last day at the Bev.

Warrior Princess Jen -"I suffer no fool!" (photo shamelessly lifted from the Bev's Facebook page)

Tonight the Beveridge Place Pub hosts a very special brewers night celebration. More than a regular brewers night event, this will also be the inauguration of the Beveridge Place Pub’s house IPA for the year 2011. Stop by and congratulate Boundary Bay Brewery as they celebrate by serving Cabin Fever, Blonde and ESB. They will also have a cask of IPA. Of course you can expect swag giveaways as well. The fun gets started at 7:00.

Each October the Beveridge Place Pub’s Hoptober celebration includes a people’s choice competition. Patrons vote for their favorite Washington-brewed IPA, votes are counted weekly and winners advance. Losers go home. Eventually the winner is determined and named the house IPA for the upcoming year. It’s a coveted prize. Think about it, winning is not only an honor but it is also guaranteed sales for an entire year – usually about 5 kegs a week.

The competition was heated this year. After enjoying many years as the champion, Boundary Bay was ousted by Black Raven Brewing in 2009. While Boundary Bay reclaimed the championship in 2010′s competition, Black Raven did not go down without a fight. Below is a video from the “gorilla attack” they staged in response to Boundary Bay’s guerrilla brewers night. It’s a long story, but a funny video.