Bluebird Ice Cream Microcreamery and Brewery

 Bluebird Ice Cream Microcreamery and Brewery  28Feb2017

Bluebird is a tiny place on Phinney Ridge, which is a medium long walk – 1.5 miles – from my house. This afternoon was partly sunny and cool, a good day for an uphill walk with beer and ice cream at the end.

Bluebird on the corner of 74th and Phinney. It's less visible if you are walking on the same side of the street.

Bluebird is right across the street from 74^th Street Ale House and is not primarily a beer producer. Still, they do brew their own beer and have guest beers on tap while most of their business is ice cream. As you walk through the front door you are smack on top of the bar and in the middle of the seating area. 

I stood with my back to the front door to capture this photo.

Tiny. In the summer they open the front to create sidewalk seating, but you can’t take your beer out there. The beer list and the ice cream list are both to the right above the bar. 

Ice cream, pop, and beer list. Ice cream dominates.

The beer list is not lengthy. I took a seat at the bar from which I could see the brewery. 

Bluebird brews here quite often as well as at other locations.

Of the three beers on the list one was a coffee porter, which cut down my tasting list to two beers. I had started out with the intention of getting a float if Theo Chocolate Milk Stout was on the list and I was in luck.

Tasting Notes:

Theo Chocolate Milk Stout (6.1% 20 IBU): I had difficulty separating the beer aroma from the ice cream aroma. I smelled roast grain and chocolate. The beer color was opaque black with some brown highlights. Sweet roasted malt with late low bitter flavor and chocolate. Sweet roast malt finish. The chocolate ice cream (Theo Chocolate Chunk) worked well with the beer and the whole thing went down quickly. So good.

Theo Chocolate Milk Stout with a scoop of Theo Chocolate Chunk ice cream.

Split Personality Stout (6.9% 32 IBU): Fruity bourbon aroma. Opaque black appearance with no highlights. First sip yields bourbon, roast malt, and bitterness. Banana? I detect esters, for sure. Roast bitter finish. Lingering sweetness. I had this beer at the Collaboration Fest in April of 2016; turns out this was the same batch. I don’t really remember how it tasted then, but the aging (cold storage) seems to have served the beer well. It is smooth and the flavors are integrated. The ingredients include vanilla extracted with bourbon then boiled down and banana. No barrel aging.

Split Personality Stout ordered straight up.

As I sat enjoying my beers a steady stream of Phinney neighborhood denizens, mostly teens and young families, stopped in for various ice cream treats. Most people didn’t linger, but in the summer the place tends to fill up and people hang out enjoying the open air warmth. I hung out conversing with the barkeep and trying to pick apart the flavors of my two beers. Bluebird only serves in pints - no schooners or tasting flights. That turned out not to be a problem for me.

The walk back home was downhill, and I welcomed the exercise even if walking fast downhill is cheating.