Top Rung Brewing Company

Stopped in a few weeks ago with my wife for a couple beers. Not very busy, cool decor and theme, staff was very friendly, selection was pretty normal for the PNW (12-15 taps of various styles). Solid local place, not a special destination. Wouldn't hesitate to go back, wouldn't go out of my way to go back.

 

I visited Top Rung when passing through the Olympia area a few weeks back. It's an interesting location - a great big warehouse in an industrial district. The taproom build out is likewise industrial, but with big wood picnic tables and a few attractive live-edge wooden two-tops; additionally, it's all firefighter themed in both logo and décor. On the Saturday afternoon I was there, the place is pretty full, with families present as well as a full bar top.

On my visit, they had 7 beers on tap plus a seltzer and a guest cider. Styles were pretty straightforward, with 3 IPAs, amber, lager, stout, and the one wildcard, a watermelon sour. I had a taster tray, the standout of which was the My Dog Scout stout. Other than that one, the beers were mostly fine; nothing offensive, but not really worth going out of your way for.

i never really give enough credit to these fire or police or america themed breweries, like in my mind i write them off ahead of time as making red ales and being overly patriotic or right wing, but often i am wrong, as i was about this place, perhaps the best brewery i have ever been to with a fire logo. the space is a little tricky to find, tucked back around the side of the building, but they have a nice space, a small outside area that looks like it was done for the season when we were in, but an expansive inside, with high ceilings and long beer hall style picnic tables around, a long bar with a pretty good selection of stuff. its mellow, not overly decorated on the fire theme, and the service was amazing, dude was knowledgeable and friendly and let us hang and finish our beers awhile after they had closed the doors for the night. the selection was pretty impressive, not a ton of beers, but a ton of variety and character in the ones they did have on. we had time for a spiced fall brew that was malty and delicious, and then also a strong saison that was aged in oak wine barrels, both were excellent and honestly far more interesting than i thought we would find in here, perhaps i need to get over that bias. really enjoyable experience and i would recommend checking them out when you are in the area! a great place to have a couple of beers!