Standard Brewing

Standard Brewing 20Aug2017

I picked Standard Brewing because the bus rides involved a minimum of walking. After a bout of resting my eyes and studying the back of my eyelids I jumped off the D-Line bus in the Denny Regrade area and caught a 14 Mt Baker at the same stop.

Standard Brewing on the corner of 25th S and S Jackson

Standard Brewing is on South Jackson Street in the Leschi area just east of the International District and Little Saigon. From the corner of 25^th Ave South and South Jackson the brewery presents its bamboo shaded outdoor seating area. The newly opened taproom has its entrance on South Jackson. 

The new bar area

As you step through the front door the taproom opens before you with tables both for standing and sitting and the bar to your right.

The beer list.

The beer list is above the bar and gives ABV but no bitterness information. Serving sizes include 5, 10, and 16 ounces. Growler fills of 32 and 64 ounces are available.

I ordered 5 ounce tasters – one of each.

Back row l to r: Bob's Your Uncle, Citra Pale, Edith (saison), and Gold Teeth (Berliner weisse). Front row l to r: West Coast IPA, Wolfgang (schwarz bier), Body Massage (stout), and Flavor Country IPA.

Tasting Notes:

Bob’s Your Uncle (4.8%): Clear red-brown. Roast malt aroma. Sweet malt body followed by drying, spicy low bitterness. Dry finish. A nice brown ale.

Citra Pale (5.3%): Pale yellow with a slight haze. Very citrus aroma. Sweet malt with hop bitterness in balance. Citrus, hop flavor. Dry bitter finish.

Edith (6.2%): Pale gold with a slight haze. Lactic aroma with underlying phenols. Mild sourness and some citrus. Hints of phenols with some Band-Aid and rubber.

Gold Teeth (4.0%): Pale, clear gold. Lactic and spice aroma. Very mild sourness and a savory note. Umami? Sour finish. Very nice Berliner weisse.

West Coast IPA (7.2%): Gold with a slight haze. Tropical, piney, and sweaty hops. Dry (but good malt body) bitterness with hop aroma and taste assault. Lingering bitterness and malt.

Wolfgang (5.8%): Opaque black with red highlights. Roast malt aroma. Sweet roast malt followed by very low noble hop bitterness. It’s a very smooth schwarz bier. Bitter finish.

Body Massage (4.0%): Opaque black with red highlights. Roast malt aroma. Sweet roast malt with coffee notes followed by low bitterness. Full body. Bitter finish. Pleasant stout.

Flavor Country IPA (6.6%): Hazy yellow gold. Tropical, piney, and sweaty hops. The taste is sweet, then bitter with piney and tropical hop flavors. Another beer with a savory note. Bitter sweet finish.

Sunday afternoon is a good time to visit a brewery taproom because it is usually sparsely populated. The lack of a crowd allows me to take my time deciding and tasting. Standard Brewing is very much a neighborhood brewery with mostly locals visiting on a lightly attended afternoon. The bartender was friendly, knowledgeable, and answered my questions when he wasn’t busy with customers. A couple of patrons engaged me in conversation, which added to my sense of the taproom as a local.

In my Seattle beer travels I have heard people speak well of Standard and the beer certainly met my expectations. Most of the beers were dry with good malt body lending an air of sweetness. The pale and IPAs were all appropriately hoppy both in aroma and bitterness with the bitterness not overdone. My favorite beer was all of them except Edith, which had some slight phenolic flavors that put me off.

I picked up a bottle of Skid Road, a Bourbon barrel aged strong ale, to take home and age for later drinking. My new policy, still in development, is to not stand in line for beer. If I stumble upon a bottle of something special at a brewery I am visiting, well then, I am on it. I am starting to acquire a nice little collection of beers that no one in the rest of the country has ever heard of.

My reversal of the bus ride home on the 14 and the D-Line was very quiet and I got a bit of reading done.