Seapine Brewing

Seapine Brewing 23Sep2016

Seapine is a short walk from Schooner Exact and is located one block west of 1^st Ave South on Utah Street. Seapine used to be on 4th Ave South across from Seattle City Light, and the move has been a serious upgrade.

The inviting entrance to Seapine

 The new Seapine space is less warehouse than barn. They have plenty of space for brewing capacity and have seemingly stepped up their brewing equipment to increase the brew length.

The view from inside the door demonstrating the barn like building and the large brewing capacity

The beer board demonstrated the greater capacity with an increased selection from what used to be three beers at the old place to over ten selections here.

Selections including the beer list

Seapine does not do flights of tasters, although you can have a sip of any beer to see if you like it. I picked two half pours (8 oz.) because I already had 20 oz. of beer in me from Schooner Exact and I had a long bus ride home ahead. I picked Ur-Pils, because lagers are difficult to execute, and Seapine IPA, because it is one of my favorites.

Ur-Pils on the left and Seapine IPA on the right

Tasting Notes:

Ur-Pils (5.5%, 35 IBU): Clear gold with a beery aroma. Dry (smidge residual sweetness), slight sulfur (entirely appropriate), bitter finish and a malty smoothness. This beer is a Czech style pils.

Seapine IPA (6.5%): Cloudy gold, hop and malt aroma. Sweet malty bitter hop flavor (Amarillo?). Fruity and juicy hop flavor dominates. The bitterness was definitely IPA level. Still one of my favorites.

Seapine has become more prosperous and has changed somewhat. When it was smaller, the welcome was friendly and intimate with only a handful of patrons at opening time on a Friday. Now the capacity has increased and more people were visiting early on a Friday afternoon. The bar tender was friendly and the public area vibe was good, so I was pleased for the change; especially because the beer selection has increased and the brewer has had a chance to exercise his creativity.

On the way home I caught the Light Rail into the bus tunnel and from there hopped the 15 Express back home. Joe Metro made the trip in less than an hour. I was home in plenty of time to prepare dinner.

Schooner Exact

Schooner Exact 23Sep2016

I hopped on the D-Line bus headed for the bus tunnel downtown. A bunch of buses go from the tunnel to the busway stop under Spokane Street. I jumped off the 150 at the busway stop and from there a quick half mile ride on shank’s mare delivered me to Schooner Exact.

Schooner Exact is another warehouse space establishment with a number of touches such as wood tables, nice wood work trim around doors, and a separate dining room to add some homeliness.

The bar is right inside the door and a few tables are scattered around. The beer selection looked good.

I ordered 4 oz. tastes of five of the beers on tap. The bar tender was very helpful, patiently answering all my questions with no visible eye rolls.

L to R 3Grid IPA, Orgasmic Lager, King Street Brown, Jawja Peach and Amarillo Fresh Hop Ale

Tasting Notes:

Jawja Peach (3.2% 15 IBU): Clear gold with a sweet sour aroma. The taste was lactic sour and fruity with not much peach flavor. Refreshing.

King Street Brown (5.5% 32 IBU): Clear, dark brown with a roast malt aroma. Hop bitterness and roasty chocolate malt flavors. This is a pretty standard American Brown ale.

Orgasmic Lager (5.5% 28 IBU): Clear gold, low woody (?) aroma. Light bitterness, sweet but not cloying. Bitter finish. Turns out that the woody aroma I noted initially is due to aging in white wine barrels. An interesting lager.

Amarillo Fresh Hop (5.9% ~57 IBU): Cloudy dark gold, big, sweaty hop aroma. Very bitter, sweet malt with a big Amarillo hop flavor. A bit of melon at the end. If you wondered what Amarillo hops impart to beer, this would tell you.

3Grid IPA (6.7% 62 IBU): Clear amber with a hoppy aroma. Classic sweet malt with hoppy bitterness and a bitter finish. One of my favorite IPAs.

Schooner Exact is a well-established brewery and their beers demonstrate skill and polish. We ate a meal there last year and the food tasted good to me, but I know little about fine or even nearly-fine dining. I just know that the place was busy on a Friday evening. I’ll be back again.

Ballard Octoberfest 2016

Ballard Octoberfest 2016 17Sep2016

I started at Reubens as per the published schedule but it was too crowded, so in spite of the Umpah band I moved on to Stoup.

A lot of people had the same idea or Stoup is just popular, whichever, I found a lineup at the bar.

I got a taster of the Marzen and the Simcoe fresh hop ale, and then settled in for some good beer. I was not disappointed.

Tasting Notes:

Marzen (5.5%, 25 IBU on the right above): Clear amber, peppery sweet aroma, rich and malty and dry, bitter finish. Sessionable.

Simcoe Fresh Hop (7.5%, Lots of IBU): Reddish gold and clear, simcoe aroma, malty with a bitter simcoe flavor.

I polished those two off in no time and moved on to Lucky Envelope.

I ordered up a schooner of the Octoberfest while I watched the OSU vs Idaho State football game. The Octoberfest could have been better.

Tasting Notes:

Octoberfest Vienna Lager (5.3%, 26 IBU): Hazy amber, rich and malty (diacetyl?), slightly cloying, sweet finish with little bitterness. I finished about half.

Ever optimistic I moved on to Populuxe.

Let’s try a pint of the Octoberfest (why break the chain?).

Tasting Notes (5.5%): Light amber, slightly hazy, medium body. Malty and dry with a slight bitterness. Slight diacetyl? It was OK but had some odd flavors. I stopped at the ice cream vendor for a dish and talked hops with the woman dispensing my chocolate-malt flavored treat.

I headed back to Reubens, which was still going great guns but the line was a bit shorter and moving well.

I ordered a schooner of the Marzen.

Tasting Notes:

Marzen: Clear amber, sweet malt aroma, dry and malty with a slight bitter edge. Sessionable.

The little serendipitous exercise of matching Marzen or Oktoberfest beers showed me why Reuben’s and Stoup are popular. They both executed the Marzen beer style well, while Lucky Envelope and Populuxe need to work on their lagering skills. After all that beer I staggered home to write up my notes.

Urban Family Brewing

Urban Family 09Sep2016

I walked a short distance from Figurehead Brewing through the warehouse area of lower Magnolia to Urban Family (http://www.urbanfamilybrewing.com/). Urban Family is near Fisherman’s Terminal and the Ballard Locks. The setup is a pretty standard brewery warehouse layout with some tables outside in front and the taproom inside the spacious warehouse area with more tables. The welcome was friendly and accommodating. Because I arrived at opening time I didn't see many people inside.

Urban Family is a well established brewery at its current location having moved from a more hipster Ballard Avenue location. I didn’t snap a picture, but they have recently added a foudre (a large oak tun) for brewing wood aged beers.

I bought tasters of 2, 4, and 6 – check out the descriptions in the picture above.

Tasting Notes:

Delicious Ambiguity (5% left above): Pale pink, cloudy, raspberry and subtle sourness, light body, no bitterness. I wasn’t able to pick out the basil.

Blackberry Harvest (5% middle above): Snowcone blackberry pop aroma, sweet berry and sour, light body. Thirst quenching Berliner Weisse style beer. Delightful beer from the foudre.

Hoppy Magnolia (6.6% right above): Big hop aroma, farmhouse ale with complex, hoppy taste. Taste is more lactobacillus than brettanomyces.

I lost concentration and forgot to snap a picture of the beers before I consumed the Delicious Ambiguity. The picture above captures the remaining beers and the charm of a table that looks right into the restroom. The warehouse space is large without much character. It looks right into the brewery where you can see the crew working its magic on malt, hops, and sundries. A food truck sits right outside the brewery entrance; this day a guy was cooking hot dogs. Urban Family is tucked away out of sight and can take some work to find. You will be glad you sought it.

Figurehead Brewing

Figurehead 09Sep2016

I was on public transportation, as usual taking the D Line to get to Figurehead Brewing (http://www.figureheadbrewingcompany.com/). Figurehead is near Fisherman’s Terminal within sight of the docks and located in a general retail or warehouse space. The setup is a pretty standard brewery warehouse layout with some tables outside in front under a canopy and tables inside in front of the bar, where taps sit on the wall of the walk-in cooler, which contains the tapped kegs. The welcome was friendly and accommodating.

Figurehead is new, just open for the second weekend when I went in. The beer list was limited and featured Belgian style and English style ales.

Tasting Notes:

Bigger Than Big Brown (6.7%): Dark brown, smoky (?) fruity aroma, sweet, tangy, some roast, bitter finish

ESB (5.4%): Reddish brown, sweet, mild bitterness, full bodied tasting of candy

Belgian Dubbel (8.2%): Amber, floral aroma, estery and phenolic (peppery), bitter finish

Belgian Paterbier (5.1%): Gold, clear, light body, low bitterness, low esters and phenolics, sessionable

Legless Rabbit IPA (5.5%): Red color, clear, nice big hop aroma, balanced bitterness, bitter finish. The hop profile is achieved with just first wort and end of boil hopping

Belgian Pale (5.3%): Ester and phenolic aroma, cloudy orange color, good body, balanced bitterness, sweet.

I lost concentration and forgot to snap a picture of the beers before I consumed them. The small remaining amount of copper colored beer to the left was the Legless Rabbit IPA, which is produced with only first wort and end-of-boil hopping to produce an initial sweetness with a bitter finish. The wood tables help make the warehouse space more homey.

Figurehead is well worth a visit.