Best Washington Beers

Fremont for sure. Not a long way to get there either.

 

Have him go to Gravity Beer Market in Olympia and have him just ask them. The owners are total beer nerds and could answer this question the same as any of us.

 

Whatever he sends, DO NOT let him send you any Bale Breaker. Especially avoid the Field 41. Total crap. Worst beer made in the state.

 

Mac & jacks african Amber

 

Beware of the trolls. Get dat fremont

 

I like Georgetown's Lucille.

 

Yes, sometimes we go a bit far in our snarky little inside jokes up here. What I'm actually telling you is, you want Field 41, at least a couple 6-packs. Bale Breaker calls it a Pale, but I think it's the best IPA made in the state. Lots of great breweries up here, just have him send you a nice mix box of whatever the staff at whatever beer store he goes to suggests.

And, 2 sixers of Field 41.

 

Not sure if that suggestion was meant to be snarky or not, but Mac & Jacks is normally the beer that visiting non-beer drinkers think is the greatest beer ever. My sister-in-law likes it, and when my brother mentioned this to me, he then said, "but she's not really that into flavor." If you like Fat Tire, this might actually be great for you, but otherwise I'd skip it.

 

One quirk of Washington is that a number of breweries here are smallish operations that don't bottle or can, many others's greatest beers are draft-only gems. Some great Washington breweries that bottle or can that should be at the top of your list are Fremont and Bale Breaker. Elysian makes some pretty quality brews as well and are quite easy to find, but they might be available in Ohio.

Now, if you widen your focus to the PNW in general, that bottle and can list could expand quite a bit. Many quality brews that should be available to your brother come from Oregon and even far-off Idaho in bottles and cans.

 

Old School House Brewery

 

I meant the suggestion to get Mac & Jacks might have been tongue-in-cheek/snarky, not your response to it.

Can you get Green Flash in Ohio? Another great west coast brewery and there's plenty to be found in Washington.

 

No one has mentioned Reuben's brews yet. So yeah ... Reuben's.

 

BTW, anyone actually been to Gravity and know what they have or don't have?
I was in Olympia over Halloween weekend, but my brother hadn't heard of it (he and his wife are ridiculously busy with jobs and child-rearing, and haven't been able to see much of Oly that isn't toddler-oriented) and the person who had told me about Gravity gave me crap directions, so I didn't see the place until I was leaving town and it was closed. I wound up loading up at 99 Bottles instead (not a bad thing).

 

Gravity often has boneyard on tap. Eastside club tavern is also a hysterically awesome bar with amazing bottle prices and typically a great tap list. Haven't been in a year though.
As far as best beer from WA, no one has suggested anything I disagree with yet.
Reuben's
Fremont
Holy mountain
Old schoolhouse
Black raven
Elysian
Bale breaker
Sound brewing
North sound
Chuckanut
Kulshan
Geaux

 

Holy Mountain growler fills are gonna be random at the moment. Chucks is your best bet, maybe Uber or Toronado.

Speaking of them, the only "meh" HM beer I've had so far was The Seer. King's Head and the Gose were amazing while everything else (lager, fresh hop, DIPA, etc.) was rock solid. Cannot wait for the grand opening.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Gravity still has bottles of Fremont's Kentucky Dark Star, Kentucky Dark Star Spice Wars, maaaaaybe Kentucky Dark Star Coffee, Bourbon Abominable ... and they may even get a few bottles of Cinnamon Bourbon Abominable. Get all those. Cans of abominable and The Brother should be around too. Both awesome.

Bale Breaker also, as said above.

I love Reuben's but don't know if any of the current bottles are gonna be mind blowing. They're all very, very good representations of style, but they're things like a Robust Porter and a Rye IPA.

Black Raven has an RIS out now called Grandfather Raven. Also bottles of their Trickster and Wisdom Seeker IPA / IIPAs.

If you like farmhouse beers, Commons Urban Farmhouse and Flemish Kiss are great (Oregon beers, but .... still great).

Some other random stuff that may be around: Silver City Bourbon Old Scrooge (or regular Old Scrooge), Trumpeter Whiskey Barrel Stout, Pike Entire, and Pike Oak Aged Kilt Lifter. The reviews on the Pike beers might not look so good but IMHO they're either upped their barrel game or gotten lucky because the batches of Entire and Oak Aged Kilt Lifter I tried were excellent.

Mother of All Storms is probably still on shelves too.

I think Sound Brewing is also solid. Monk's Indiscretion and Ursus Speaelus?

Not WA beer, but Selkirk Abbey does really great Belgian Style / Belgian influenced beers in Idaho and now sees distro in WA.