The big news today in the brewing world is that northwest staple Pyramid Brewing will be bought by a Burlington, VT brewery. The deal should not have much of an effect on the consumer here in Seattle, but we will hopefully start getting Magic Hat brews sometime soon. Magic Hat #9 has been a popular pale ale in the Northeast for quite a few years, and it would be a welcome addition to the......

This Seattlest had some family visiting this weekend and felt it was his duty to show them some of his favorite beer spots in town, even if they could probably care less. There were quite a few beers of note that were on tap and should still be around. We also found a few bottles of Lost Abbey Judgement Day at Esquin Wine this weekend. We didn't realize the Seattle market was getting this......

Before we moved our worldly possessions across Elliott Bay to West Seattle, we'd never visited that neighborhood's Beveridge Place Pub. And we'd never tasted 3-Grid IPA, an excellently hoppy product of that neighborhood's Schooner Exact Brewing Co. Now that we pose as West Seattle regulars, we recognize both pub and brewer as priceless neighborhood gems; there's no better place to kill a few (happy) hours, and no finer micro-local IPA. So it's with great......

This time of year we start seeing fewer and fewer IPAs coming out. But, there are still quite a few interesting ones showing up around town. If you're someone who loves to bitch about how out of control American brewers are getting with their IPAs, just move on to another article. Lagunitas Hop Stoopid - With 100+ IBUs of pure citrus hops, this one is definitely for us hopheads. It is considered an Imperial......

This upcoming Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the annual Phinney Neighborhood Association Winter Beer Taste. 26 different breweries will be there to pour some of their outstanding Winter beers to get us ready for the upcoming season. Admission includes 10 samples and are $27 for the public in advance, and tickets at the door are $30. We've been told that this event usually sells out in advance, so it sounds like a good......

KING 5 did a great job with a story about the growing demand for organic beer. One of the best points of the story is this comment, "While many beer snobs belch at the idea of an organic Budweiser, local brewers are hoping the marketing muscle behind the macro-brewers will further bring organics to the masses." While we will not touch any organic beer made by Budweiser, becuase it will be just as bad......

Do you just absolutely hate beer? Have you ever been amazed that people would actually prefer to drink beer with their nice dinner, rather than the typical bottle of expensive red wine? If you are set in your beer-hating ways, try these libations. They may change your mind. Manny’s Pale Ale: This is a very easy drinking and moderately hopped beer; very balanced and not thick at all. If you don’t like the taste of......

We had the pleasure of attending our second “Brewmasters Dinner” at Ray’s Boathouse Café this past Thursday. Executive Chef Peter Birk of Ray’s selected 5 local brews and then built a 5-course dinner around them. Everyone has heard of wine dinners, but Chef Birk does a great job of putting together these beer dinners about twice a year. We only wish that more local places would do the same. Beer dinners are a great way......

We’re not the only ones who noticed Redhook’s recent India Pale Ale facelift. They changed the brew’s name to "Long Hammer" and removed the reference to "Ballard Bitter." And as far as we can taste, didn’t change the beer’s recipe. Pyramid did the same thing last year with their IPA, appending “ThunderHead” to the acronym. Finally—someone’s applied the porn name game to beer! Seriously, since when did macro-microbrews need makeovers? Sierra Nevada keeps it classic,......