Best of Hands Brewery and Barrelhouse

Best of Hands Brewery and Barrelhouse 28Dec2019


The D-Line took me down to 3^rd and Bell where I picked up the 21 to Westwood Village. I jumped off the bus at 35^th Avenue SW and SW Webster Street where Best of Hands is in the building formerly housing John’s Corner Deli.


As I stepped off the bus, I could see the brewery, diagonally across the intersection,

The view from the corner of 35th SW and Webster

A better view of the steer

The view of the brewery from across the street featuring the outdoor seating area

made conspicuous by the steer statue on the roof. As you enter the front door from the street corner you see the seating area to your right 

The view to the right as you enter the door

and the bar immediately in front of you.

The bar. Note the beer list to the upper left

The interior is inviting with low lighting, wood on the table tops, plenty of windows, and art on the wall. The beer list is chalked up on a reader board behind the bar and is available on lists at the bar.

The front page of the beer list

The second page of the beer list

They had plenty of their own beers on tap plus a guest beer and guest ciders. Flights of 4 or 6 by 5 oz samples, various size pours (10 to 16 oz), and growlers are available. One beer was available in 16-ounce cans. With some guidance form the bar tender I picked out a flight of 6 beers

L to R: Mild Animals, Additional Crispy, and Ghost in the Shell

L to R: Family Influence, Doomsday Song, and Gin BBL Aged Satellite Years.

and sat at the bar sipping and chomping on the sandwich I brought from home. No food is available in the taproom except some Tim’s Cascade and no eateries are close by.

Later I went back for a 5-ounce taste of a seventh beer and a 10-ounce pour of the mild.

Mild Animals and a taster of Citra Spruce

Tasting Notes:


Mild Animals (4%): Clear red-brown appearance with red highlights. Roast and fruity aroma. The taste is medium silky body with roast, subtle hops, and some esters. The finish is dry and roasty. Outstanding. After I made these notes the bartender told me they use some flaked oats in the grist which would explain some of the silkiness.


Additional Crispy (4.5%): Clear yellow. Fruity, tropical hop aroma with some lactic. The flavor starts with a thin to medium body, a slight sourness, peppery phenol giving way to tropical hop flavors and a noticeable dryness. Finishes dry and bitter. A very complex beer in spite of the low ABV.


Ghost in the Shell (6%): Opaque black with red highlights at the bottom of the glass. Roast, fruit and coconut aroma. Roast, medium body with malt sweetness and a solid bitterness. For me coconut is an elusive flavor and in this beer I didn’t notice an overwhelming coconut presence. Bitter-sweet finish.


Family Influence (6.7%): Hazy yellow but not quite opaque. Phenolic yeast and tropical hop aromas. Rich malt, sweet medium body with firm hop bitterness, fruity (pineapple) hop flavor, and yeast phenols (pepper and hint of rubber). Finishes dry and bitter.


Doomsday Song 8%): Opaque black with slight red highlights struggling to escape the bottom of the glass. Roast and fruit aroma. Roast malt, dry body, with firm hop bitter flavor followed by sweet malt. Finishes bitter sweet and slightly smokey.


Gin BBL Aged Satellite Years (6.5%): Slightly hazy red-gold. Piney hops and phenols. Tastes of dry malt, bitter hops, fruity hops, and piney hops. Full body and wood present. Finishes bitter, medium dry and pine.


Citra Spruce (6.3%): Full haze yellow. Piney and meaty aroma. Full body, umami, pine and balanced bitterness with citrus overtones. Finishes dry and bitter.


Each beer I tried was well made – complex and nuanced and the mild would vie for one of the best in Seattle. If I lived in the neighborhood, I would come back often and try all the beers. Seemingly, many of the people in the taproom were from the neighborhood with some travelers from remote parts like myself. Some people came in because they knew one of the owners (who was behind the bar this Saturday) from his bartending days at a previous West Seattle location, The Beer Junction.


The greeting from behind the bar was friendly and knowledgeable. The place was sparsely occupied when I arrived near opening time but gradually filled with an energetic and friendly crowd. While the owners have thoroughly remodeled the building from its previous life as a meat market, they retained and restored the Hereford bull statue – a smart move as it is a well-known landmark. The owners may not have felt so smart when the bull was kidnapped as a senior prank. Restoring the damage and getting it back on the roof was probably no small expense. As you can see from the pictures the statue looks good atop its perch on the roof.


I finished up, popped across Webster, and caught the 21. I picked up the D-line in downtown and realized I had consumed too much liquid. I made a quick stop at Chez Richard (Dicks) on lower Queen Anne for a gut bomb and a pit stop, and then skedaddled to Ballard.