Pacific Brewing And Malting Company

This was an fascinating find. I trained from Seattle to Tacoma and, then, took its short light rail through its sketchily revitalizing downtown and, then, found Pacific Brewing next to the vacant Old City Hall (an attractive building, hence more fascination.) But importantly, the theory holds true: where a town is trying to improve itself, there is a micro.

So obviously, I like Pacific's Vibe. The flight I had was also a pleasant surprise. Of the five, none were really difficult styles; and three of the flight seemed above average. None were not good. Service was good... as often in this case when she seems like the brewmaster's girlfriend or, at least, acts like she is welcoming family. Selection was the only drawback. Even for a taproom, I like it when a micro offers other brews; but increasingly, I rarely get that pleasure. Pacific now has food, but we had no time for that as we had to take the train back.

As for the malting in Pacific's name... Historically the malting industry was big here with the wheat and barely coming in on the train, getting malted in Tacoma's port and then getting shipped out.

If you go to Tacoma, go to Pacific Brewing.

 

Very nice tap room with no food. Very clean. Glass rinser was a nice component. Wish the server knew a little bit more about each beer. Overall a nice place to grab a beer after work.

 

 

Went here on a rainy night to test another one of Tacoma's breweries. I got a flight of 5 beers. I got an IPA, belgian blonde, oatmeal stout, porter and an amber. The IPA was a standard IPA, and the belgian was decent but the stout and porter tasted like pure ash. I've been a little underwhelmed with most of the dark beers I've had in the PNW, and I'm wondering if it's not a water issue. This place kind of seems like it's more interested in cashing in on the craft beer craze, while sort of paying homage to the roots of the Pacific brewing company. They REALLY need to focus on getting the beer right, especially in this marketplace.