by North Seattle Sarah, North Seattle Bureau Chief

Although the PNA Beer Taste has been going for 24 years, I haven’t. Let’s face it – I’ve only been of legal drinking age for the past 7. So I didn’t have a lot of expectations for the event or know what I was getting into.

Knowing it was at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, I suppose I expected something small and low key. What I got might as well have been the biggest thing in Washington – two stories consisting of five rooms of beers and one room for a sizeable silent auction.
I was told at the front that the taste did sell out, and I wasn’t surprised as it was packed with hundreds of people. I suppose before I even go into the details, I should say a big thank you to all the volunteers who made it happen – not just at the event, but those who spent the day making food, setting up, and tearing down. They did a fabulous job (and my personal thank-you to whoever made the meatballs).

The crew from Big Al Brewing.

Now, onto the good stuff. I made a beeline straight to Big Al’s table this year on the top floor, knowing that the infamous Peanut Butter Stout would be on tap again. I had tried to get it during last year’s Winter Beer Fest at Hale’s Palladium, but it had run out before I could even make it across the room. This time they had a good supply, and I was able to get my hands on one early in the evening. Other beers I sampled: Elysian Bi-Frost, Lazy Boy Mistletoe Bliss, and Silver City’s Old Scrooge Christmas Ale. Don’t ask me to pick a favorite, as I thoroughly enjoyed each one.

Don Spencer and Kurt Larsen of Silver City Brewing.

The Taste had a few new faces this year besides my own: new Ballard brewery Hilliard’s Beer was there, as was Phinney’s own Lantern Brewing. Another PNA Beer Taste newbie was Tieton Cider Works, which I was really pleased to see at an event dominated by heavy, darker beers. In all, 33 breweries participated last night. This year, you could also vote for your favorite beer through the placement of a QR code at every station, to be scanned with your Smartphone.

A big crowd warms the room on a chilly November evening.

Tons of items were donated from the breweries for the silent auction, and bids shot through the roof on most. Although the items were well worth the prices they fetched, you could also sense a community spirit amongst the crowd knowing that this was all to support a good cause – their neighborhood association. It’s events like this that are a constant reminder of how much I love my neighborhood!

It’s another sure sign that season’s have changed. It’s time to get tickets for the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Winter Beer Taste. This event sells out every year. Get your tickets now, before it’s too late. The event takes place on Saturday, November 12th at the Phinney Neighborhood Center in North Seattle. Thirty-one of the area’s best breweries will pour samples of their new winter ales and other favorite beers.

Two important tips. First, get tickets now. This is a great event and it will sell out. Second, dress appropriately and wear layers. While it may be cold outside, it will quickly heat up inside. 

Here’s the official press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

24th Annual PNA Beer Taste

The Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) will host its 24th annual beer taste on Saturday, November 12, at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave N, Seattle, WA. Preview Tasting for Patron tickets opens at 6:15 pm and regular admission opens at 7 pm.

Thirty one Northwest microbreweries will offer samples of their new winter ales and other favorite beers. Tickets cost $25 for PNA members, $30 for the general public and $10 for designated drivers.

Patron tickets cost $55 for PNA members, $65 got the general public and $30 for designated drivers. Admission includes a selection of ten tastes of microbrews, pub snacks and a silent auction of unique and not so unique beer paraphernalia. Patron tickets include a $30 donation to the PNA elevator fund, commemorative tasting glass and 6:15 pm admission to the event. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/beer.shtml or at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.

Participating breweries include American, Anacortes, Baron, Big Al, Boundary Bay, Chuckanut, Diamond Knot, Elysian, Epic, Fremont, Georgetown, Golden Hills, Hale’s, Harmon, Hilliard’s, Iron Horse, Lantern, Lazy Boy, Maritime Pacific, Naked City, North Sound, NW Peaks, Oakshire, Odin, Pike, Schooner Exact, Sierra Nevada, Silver City, Snoqualmie, Two Beers and Tieton Cider Works

Go to www.phinneycenter.org for a complete list of participating breweries and event details.

For additional information, call Chardell Paine at 206.783.2244 or email chardell@phinneycenter.org.

Event page:  http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/beer.shtml

According to the calendar winter does not officially start until December 21st, but we know better. Look outside. Dark and gray. It won’t change until April. Yep, that season I refer to as the long wet nap has already begun. If you pay really close attention, you might hear a faint noise in the distance—a dull thud as your vitamin D level drops to the floor.

But alas, there is some good news to save you from those dangerously dark feelings of dreary despair! It is time for the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s 23rd Annual Winter Beer Taste. The event takes place Saturday at the Phinney Neighborhood Center in Seattle. Music will be provided by the Shed Boys. Pub-style snacks will be available. There will also be a silent auction of unique (and not-so-unique) beer paraphernalia.

Perhaps the single most astounding thing about the PNA Winter Beer Taste is that I have never been. Regular readers of this blog know that I get out quite a lot, and I’ve rarely run into a beer festival that I didn’t like, but over the years something has always popped up and prevented me from attending this one.

Let’s see, for at least a couple of years WABL planned its anniversary party on the same day as “the PNA.” I think my band had a gig in Carnation one year. My aging brain struggles to remember anything beyond that, but rest assured that something has always prevented me from attending this one. I know this much: most years it has been an unfortunately plain and boring reason that prevented me from attending the PNA Winter Beer Taste. This year it’s going to be different.

It is with great joy and fanfare, and no doubt very little interest on your part, that I hereby declare that I will be attending the PNA Winter Beer Taste this year. Yep, it’s actually going to happen. I’m pretty excited. So excited, in fact, that it will not even bother me to know that while I sample finely crafted beers in Seattle my wife will be doing the same in Chicago without me. You know, Chicago… “Hog butcher for the world, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler; stormy, husky, brawling, city of the big shoulders.” Chicago is where I will not be this weekend.

PNA 23rd Annual Winter Beer Taste
Saturday, , November 13th
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/beer.shtml

Tickets
$25 for PNA members
$30 for the General Public
$10 Designated Driver Ticket
Buy Tickets Online

Here is the list of breweries and beers that will be pouring at the event.

• Anacortes Brewing – Vienna & Darkside IPA
• Baron Brewing – Three Skulls Winter Poison
• Bayern Brewing – Doppelbock & Dragon’s Breath Dark Heff
• Big Al Brewing – Tangerine Dream & Winter Warmer
• Boundary Bay Brewing – Cabin Fever
• Chuckanut Brewery – Chuckanut Pilsner
• Deschutes Brewing – Jubelale & Green Lakes Organic Amber Ale
• Diamond Knot Brewing – Industrial Ho! Ho!
• Elysian Brewing – Bi-Frost
• Epic Ales – Terra-Saurus
• Fish Brewing – Winterfish, Leavenworth Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen & Spire Mountain Dark & Dry Apple Cider
• Fremont Brewing – Universale Pale Ale & Bourbon Abominable Winter Ale (aka BBomb)
• Georgetown Brewing – Tomtoberfest & Cask Porter
• Golden Hills Brewing – Clem’s Gold & Ben’s Brown
• Hale’s Ale Brewery – Supergoose IPA & Wee Heavy
• Harmon Brewing – Big Woodrow & Oak-aged Pt Defiance IPA
• Maritime Pacific Brewing – Rum-aged Jolly Roger & Triple Dry Hopped Islander Pale Ale
• Naked City Brewery – Broken Bicycle Fresh Hop Saison & The Big Lebrewski
• Ninkasi Brewing – Total Domination IPA & Oatis Oatmeal Stout
• Odin Brewing – Odin’s Gift & Smoky Bacon Ale
• Pike Brewery – Pike Auld Acquaintance
• Port Townsend Brewing – Hop Diggidy
• Schooner Exact Brewing – Hoppy Holidays & Puget Soundian Dark Ale
• Scuttlebutt Brewing – Mateo Loco
• Sierra Nevada Brewing – Brewers Reserve Gran Cru & Celebration Fresh Hop Ale
• Silver City Brewing – Imperial Stout, Fat Scotch Ale
• Two Beers Brewing – Jive Espresso Stout

Homebrewers:

• Populuxe – “Smoke Means Progress!” Smoked Porter
• Reuben’s Brews – Reuben’s Roasted Rye PA

This weekend, there’s a plethora of events to choose from including three charity events and one bluegrass festival. It’s nice to fill these cold November weekends with warm beer…. wait. That didn’t come out right. Anyway:

PNA Beer Taste - it’s the 22nd annual (wow!) PNA winter beer taste. Saturday, November 14th, 7 to 10 p.m. Benefits the Phinney Neighborhood Association, $25 for PNA members, $30 for non-members gets you ten tastes from 28 northwest microbreweries. There’s also an auction, raffle, pub snacks and live music.

One of the committee members sent us some highlights:
Bayern Brewing bringing a wooden barrel of their Dark Doppel Bock Lager
Maritime Pacific – Their Jolly Roger Christmas Ale which for the PNA Beer Taste is specially aged on rum-soaked oak
Big Al – Phinney Berry Sour Beer
New Belgium – Lips of Faith – Fall Wild Ale
Elysian – Trip 4
Harmon – PorterPorter aged in a rum-soaked oak cask
Georgetown – Lisa’s Chocolate Stout
Pike – Pike Wood Aged Entire
Rogue will be bringing tastes of their Dead Guy whiskey
(The full list of participating breweries and their offerings for the evening is on the event Web site.)

Brewgrass - a microbrew and bluegrass festival happening this Friday and Saturday nights in Anacortes. $8 cover, five clubs, live music from 9 to midnight both nights. Clubs are all within a couple blocks of each other in surprisingly-charming downtown Anacortes: the Anacortes Rockfish Grill, the Brown Lantern Ale House, the Star Bar, Adrift and the Watertown Pub and Grill.

Winter Pineapple Classic - Ok, this isn’t really a beer event but we are listing it for two reasons: Georgetown Brewing is a founding sponsor, and it benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a charity that’s near and dear to our hearts. Plus it sounds like a wacky-ass event that would be really fun, a 5K run with obstacles, followed by a luau and Georgetown Beer garden. Online registrations are closed, but if you get a team psyched about it, it sounds like you can show up this Saturday morning at Magnuson Park. Get more deets on their web site.

Catsino - at the Beveridge Place Pub, Saturday, November 14th, 2 to 6 p.m., benefitting Furry Faces Foundation. Casino games  + helping animals + great Beveridge Place beer lineup. Ok you caught us, this also isn’t technically a beer event. But it sure sounds like the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. (As a matter of fact, we’ll be there.)