Propolis Brewing

I was on the peninsula a few weeks back, and made a special side-trip to Port Angeles just to visit Propolis. It's located in town in the warehouse waterfront district, but despite the industrial exterior, the environment in the taproom is lovely - it’s basically a really cool living room / lounge with sofas and wood and plant accents. The brewhouse is basically contiguous to the taproom which is neat. They have outdoor seating as well, but it’s not much utilized on this 40° day.

When I visited, they had 11 of their beers on tap plus a guest cider. They are almost exclusively a saison/farmhouse brewery, and the beers are really good indeed - they employ a lot of creativity and use a lot of atypical ingredients (a lot of honey, as you might expect, but also botanicals). If you like interesting saisons, this place is absolutely worth making your own side trip to visit.

Purchased several bottles, one of which was Red Huckleberry (wild ale aged in a Sangiovese barrel w/red huckleberries & Brettanomyces). I'm going to add my suspicions to the "aged in a Sang barrel w/red huck & Brettan": oxygen or malolactic fermentation--the kind we don't want to taste. I say this due to the off-taste which crosses in taste like the smell of dirty socks or soggy cardboard. I really wanted to like the product. I will probably go back to buy other products. I like the vibe. The server was pleasant and knowledgable (if not pretentious, but it was kindly taken). And the Propolice tap house had a comprehensive selection (don't like the red, buy the blue). I worked in the beverage industry for over a decade. I can say with authority that the off taste in this particular ale is unintentional and should never be in a beverage. I hope it's just this one bottle. Nothing but love.

I've enjoyed the brews from here for several years now, and recently made my first visit. Cozy tap room with comfy seating and games, as well as an outside seating area with more outdoorsy type games.

The beers use locally sourced and foraged ingredients, and are not the typical brews found most places. For example, I had a beer with nettles that was interesting and tasty, and a Quad aged on Juniper berries that was amazing.

The service was excellent, with the owners behind the bar. They even took my mocking of them for trying to talk me into a taster tray (I hate 'em) in great stride. BTW, they love to pour taster trays, so don't be shy about asking for, if that's how you roll.

The selection was great, with a wide variety of styles, a cider or two, and some NA options. The taproom is family friendly as well.

I say Propolis is a must hit when in the area, and worthy of a detour if you had no plans to hit PT.

 

 

2017-10-07
Visited after day of of the Port Townsend Kinetic Skulpture Race, with my wife, father in law, and two kids. We brought in lunch.

Vibe is snooty beer joint. Not bad -- but definitely not a working class kind of place. Moderately small area, nice decor, barrels right next to seating. Kid friendly, which is really nice for me.

Quality of the beer -- we only tried two, both were good, but not great. Interesting for sure. Service was fine -- bar service, server was definitely interested in the beer, but seemed subdued about his excitement.

Selection was pretty good -- don't expect IPAs or anything, mostly saisons with a couple flanders styles and a couple odd quad/dubbel type Belgians (if you figure in the available bottles). Not a cheap place. I'd go back, but with the prices and the "specialty" feel of the place, I wouldn't be back regularly.

If you do find your way to Propolis, you probably already know what you'll be getting: highly unusual herbal saisons, in many different forms. The beer is high quality, but whether you love this place will depend on your taste for saisons and similar beers.

They have 11 taps, all their own beers, and all served in 4, 6 or 12 ounce servings. A flight of all their beers (4 ounce) will run you $30, and will get you an education in subtlety.

In short, this is a place for connoisseurs. If you're looking for IPAs, stouts, or other conventional beers, look elsewhere. But if you want to taste a whole lot of beers like you've never had before, this is the place.

The service from Piper, co-owner with the brewer, is just fine.

I have had over 20 beers from Propolis, and they hold a special place in my heart. In fact, there is only one brewery where I have been amazed by everything THIS is it! I think they may be the best kept secret for craft brewers in the United States. However, be warned. You don't come here looking for your classic West Coast IPA. Propolis specializes in Belgian style ales and saisons. That means that the ingredients they serve cover a broad palate of colors and flavors, from light colored ales easy on body with refreshing citrus notes, to dark and malty ales that will please any fan of porters and stouts. And true to Belgian tradition, they do things seasonally using mostly locally harvested ingredients. They even go so far as to cull together wild herbs such as stinging nettle, huckleberries, burdock, and wild bergamot. That may unsettle some who are not comfortable straying from more common path, but it shouldn't. The only thing that surpasses brewer Robert Horner's originality is his ability to structure every ale with an incredible degree of balance. Multiple notes will hit on the front, middle, and back of everything they pour, and they will linger to make you anxious for more! They vibe here is casual, but refined. Their tap room is in a port warehouse that has been renovated to accommodate a bar, and co-owner Piper Corbett knows how to make everyone feel at home. The sound system typically flows 90's downtempo and Trip-Hop, while the massive windows and high ceilings lend an air of spaciousness. Do I sound like a fanatic, yet? Yes, I am, and unabashedly so!

Propolis' new taproom's "soft opening" happened the weekend of Port Townsend's 12th annual Strange Brewfest. The occasion goes hand-in-hand with Propolis' offbeat brew themes. Nothing here is what you would consider a "normal" beer or ale. These are all very old-world inspired dry/vinous/mead-like herbal brews. Some are even brewed with birch sap, for example. Propolis also offers a very high proportion of sour, Brettanomyces yeast fermented brews that are all extremely well-crafted, balanced, and technically flawless.

The taproom has a mellow ambiance. Has a cool, retrofitted warehouse vibe. The decor, pricing, and craftsmanship of offerings all shout, "upscale!" The owners come across as friendly, down-to-earth, and sincere.

No guest taps. My only criticism is that there are no offerings for those of us who do not particularly like our ales sour and/or dry, but at the same time, this is arguably this brewhouse's greatest strength. I'm guessing that, if we are to get technical, most of their "ales" are actually braggots (that is most fermentables in brewing come from a mixture of barley and honey). Whatever they are doing at Propolis, they are doing what they specialize and excel at, and that is laudable.