Elliott Bay Brewery West Seattle

Elliott Bay Brewery West Seattle  27Feb2018

A well-worn path leads from our house in Ballard to the Junction in West Seattle. It used to be called the 15 but lately the route has been broken into the D-Line and the C-Line. I’ve been riding the bus to the Junction and visiting Elliott Bay Brewing in West Seattle since it opened in 1997. That route even played a role in an Annual Pub Crawl.

The C-Line dropped me at SW Alaska Street and California Ave SW from which point the walk was half a block to the Brewery. 

The brewery sits mid-block near a pedestrian cross-walk

As you enter the front doors you see the bar to your left and seating to the right and straight ahead. A stairwell leads up to a second level seating area as well. 

The view as you step inside the front entrance including a suspicious member of the wait-staff

The tap list is high above the bar as well as distributed on menus at every seating spot. I studied the beer list and picked 5 for a flight of 4 ounce tasters. Pints and growler fills are available. I sat at a high table, ordered some food, and enjoyed the beer and food.

l to r: Red Von Boorian, Alembic Pale Ale, Elliott Bay Brewing Dry Hopped IPA, Chocolate Porter, and Opacity Black IPA.

Tasting Notes:

Red Von Boorian (5.3%, 19 IBU): Hazy orange-red. Ester and peppery phenol aromas. Candy sweet, esters, and phenols in the flavor. Sweet and slightly bitter finish.

Alembic Pale (5.3%, 41 IBU): Slightly hazy red-gold. Malt and piney hop aroma. Sweet malt drying to bitterness with piney hop flavor. Bitter dry finish.

Elliott Bay Brewing Dry Hopped IPA (6.0%, 95 IBU): Clear dark gold. Fruity and piney hop aroma. Malt (dry), spicy hops, and bracing bitterness. Bitter finish. An old school IPA

Chocolate Porter (6.8%, 33 IBU): Deep clear brown with red highlights. Roast malt and chocolate aroma. Chocolate, roast malt, ashes, late bitterness. Bitter sweet finish. I paired it with the cup o’ chocolate cake I had for desert.

Opacity Black IPA (5.2%, 30 IBU): Clear brown-black with red highlights; not opaque. Spicy hop aroma. Spicy hop bitterness, dry malt, some roast. Bitter finish.

Elliott Bay Brewing West Seattle has a saloon atmosphere similar to Big Time or The Bergschrund. The wood and brick interior has an old time feel of the Seattle of the mid-20^th century. The greeting from behind the bar is friendly and polite. The service was prompt but it was not tested by any large number of patrons. Attendance was thin but steady. When I asked about one of the beers, the bartender dug out a massive ring binder to look up the information. The food was not fancy but good and filling.

As I was eating a group of Seattle Police came in and I thought maybe some trouble was going down. But nope, they came in for lunch and were sitting peaceably in the back. I didn’t look to see if they were drinking beer and I assumed that they weren’t. I was reminded of a time Renee and I vacationed in Northern California. The forest was burning and masses of fire fighters were in the area to deal with the fires. We stopped at Eel River Brewing to eat when twenty or thirty fire fighters came in for dinner, all sitting at one table. They did not drink any beer because I noted that they were all drinking soda. I think what the two groups, the police and the fire fighters, had in common was a need for non-fussy food that is tasty, filling, and served in large quantities.

Everything I said about the Lake City Elliott Bay Brewing applies to the mother ship in West Seattle. The service is good, the food is tasty, the beer is well made, and the prices are reasonable. I polished off the beer and food and headed out to catch the bus back to town. I just missed the C-Line and so I walked down a few blocks to West Seattle brewing to stop in for a pint. The C-Line also stops near there, so I was able to catch a bus about a block away, ride into downtown, and catch the D-Line back home.

Elysian Taproom

Elysian Taproom 11Feb2018

Elysian has a production scale brewery in Georgetown to which they have added a taproom. I took the D-Line downtown and caught the 124 to get to the Lucile bus stop just across Airport Way from the joint.

Elysian Taproom inhabits a part of huge building that is in two parts. The anonymous looking street front is pedestrian unfriendly and the taproom entrance is tucked behind the bridge to Georgetown where Airport way crosses the railroad tracks.

The nearly hidden taproom

The production brewery is at one end and walled off from the warehouse part. The warehouse holds barrels and fouders, ingredients, and the taproom. As you enter the front door you see barrels and seating,

The view as you step through the front entrance

and to your left is a continuation of the seating plus the bar.

Plenty of seating, more barrels, and the bar

Above the bar are banners proclaiming the beers on offer and representative samples of merch.

Beers available to drink

A list of beers offered along with brewing details and tasting notes is available at the bar as well. Tasters, pints, growler fills, and some bottles-to-go are available. Sunday is happy hour prices all day, so my flight of 5 tasters was $10. I chose 5 and retired to a tall table to sip and write.

l to r: Zephyrus Pilsner, Prometheus IPA, Oak Aged Ambrosia, Barrel Aged Avatar, and Perseus Porter.

Tasting Notes:

Zephyrus Pilsner (4.7%, 38 IBU): Hazy gold. Combined noble hop and pils malt aroma. Sweet malt, bitterness, and noble hop flavor. Bitter sweet finish. The beer list gives a Starting Gravity 1.050, which with a stated ABV of 4.7% back-calculates to a finishing gravity of 1.016. No wonder the beer is sweet.

Prometheus IPA (7.8%, 71 IBU): Slightly hazy amber. Perfumey fruit-pine hop aroma with some dank. Piney fruity hops, bitter, malt presence in the flavors. Bitterness is restrained. Bitter-sweet finish.

Oak Aged Ambrosia (5.9%): Clear bronze. Honey, malt, alcohol, and barrel aromas. Sweet malt, vanilla barrel, late bitterness. Slightly astringent sweet finish. The beer list gives a Starting Gravity 1.068, which with a stated ABV of 5.9% back-calculates to a finishing gravity of 1.024. The beer is very sweet.

Barrel Aged Avatar (9.9%): (Avatar Jasmine IPA aged in gin barrels) Hazy orange. Herbal, barrel, and phenolic aromas. Sweet malt, juniper, late bitterness, citrus. Sweet finish.

Perseus Porter (5.4%, 25 IBU): Opaque black with red-brown highlights. Burnt malt, almost coffee aroma. Flavors of sweet malt, roast malt, and bitterness. Bitter sweet finish.

If you look at my reviews of Elysian Tangletown and Elysian Fields (but why would you?), you can see that I have sampled Zephyrus Pilsner at all three spots. And, my tasting notes are pretty similar. I hope that means that the beer quality control leads to consistency and that my taster is reliable. There are alternative scenarios I care not to consider. The samples I tasted were all well made with no apparent flaws. Whether the reviewer liked the beers is purely subjective. In my subjective opinion I really liked the Oak Aged Ambrosia and the Prometheus IPA.

A handful of drinkers were in the taproom today but the crowd thinned during the time I finished my flight. The experience of drinking in a true warehouse space unmitigated by lowered ceilings or fake walls is a bit cold. On a summer day when the patio is accessible through the garage doors, drinking would be much more attractive.

The greeting from behind the bar was friendly and the bartender was knowledgeable and helpful. The crowd was typically Seattle in its insularity.

After I finished my flight I took a short walk to Machine House to have a half pint of real ale. Then I flagged down a 124 back to town and on to the D-Line home to dinner.

Urban Family Brewing Second Trip

Urban Family Brewing Second Trip 04Feb2018

Urban Family Brewing has new ownership as of early 2017. I wanted to try out the beers and see what has changed since my last trip in 2016. A short bus trip on the D-line and a mile walk in the semi industrial district around Fisherman’s Terminal led me to the brewery.

Outwardly not much has changed. The building is still the same warehouse space as before with an upgraded garage door to open during clement weather. 

The front entrance is still pretty nondescript

As you step through the front door you are confronted with the same seating area immediately before you and the bar area to the left. 

The view immediately after stepping in the front entrance

Near the front door looking toward the bar through the seating area

What has changed is the number of barrels stacked between the seating area and the brewing area. The tap list is now a big screen terminal but the taps and cold storage are in the same place.

Monitor screen with tap list. The low light setting on my camera does not capture this image well.

 I ordered a flight, sipped, noted and then ordered another flight.

 l to r: Island Crusher (pineapple), Duality (nectarine), Preservation (raspberry and blackberry), and Last Train Imperial Porter

Tasting Notes:

Island Crusher (6.2%): Hazy gold. Lactic aroma with some pepper. Sour, orange-juice like texture, light body. Sour slightly astringent finish. A thirst quencher.

Duality (8%): Slightly hazy gold. Ester and sour aroma with warmth, and nectarine. Medium body, sweet sour dried nectarine flavor. No ethyl acetate. Sweet sour finish.

Preservation (6.5%): Slightly hazy purplish red. Sweet berry perfume, esters, and lactic aromas. Sour, sweet, raspberry flavors with medium body and lactic acid. Slightly astringent sweet finish.

Last Train (11%): Opaque black. Burnt malt and a slight fund in the aroma. Burnt malt, sweet malt, dry, candy, bitterness and some funk – phenols(?). Bitter finish.

l to r: Saison Magnolia, Replicator (IPA), Fruit Snacks (IPA), and Karate Church (Pale). 

Saison Magnolia Batch #2 (7%): Slightly hazy gold. Slight aromas of esters, phenols, and lactic. Sweet, savory, medium body, slight phenols, low bitterness. Bitter sweet finish.

Replicator (8%): Very hazy yellow. Dank tropical fruity hop aroma. Sweet full body, fruity hop flavor. Very low bitterness. Bitter sweet finish.

Fruit Snacks (7%): Hazy light yellow. Esters and pine-sol hop aroma. Sweet, bitter (low), full body, esters, fuity-piney hops. Sweet bitter finish.

Karate Church (5.8%): Hazy yellow. Piney hops (turpentine). Full body, sweet, bitter, piney hop. Sweet finish.

I am not sure what the business model is for Urban Family. They attract a neighborhood clientele but they also bottle. Are they seeking a wider audience than lower Magnolia? The beers are still as good as they were before the ownership change, but most of the attempts I tasted fell short of outstanding. I enjoyed the beers I had, bought a couple of bottles of the fruited beers, but I was not wowed by anything. I hugely enjoyed the raspberry beer, but I am a sucker for raspberry beers. I love nectarines and the Duality was close enough that I felt I should buy a bottle to try at home, but the nectarine flavor was subtle at best.

Bottles of Duality and Preservation for off-premises consumption

Today was the NFL championship game, so the place was filling up with patrons to watch the big game. Would a normal Sunday attract the same crowd? I suspect so. The tap list had plenty of variety with something for just about anybody, which should keep a local drinker happy. I think Urban Family would do well to perfect one or two reliable recipes to have on hand all the time so that the experimentation skeptics would have a go-to beer. I guess that what is telling is that none of the beers I had today were replicates of the beers I tasted in 2016. Recipes need constant tweaking and perfecting before they become reliably drinkable and enjoyable refrigerator beers.

The display of barrels was impressive and I hope a long term aging program is in progress. None of the beers I had today shouted barrel aging and no designation appeared on the tap list. I didn’t ask. I guess I should have but that bank of barrels looks promising.

I cleared out as soon as I was done with my flights so I could get home to finish making dinner.