Visiting Seattle (Spring 2015 Update)

Big Time is among my favorite places in Seattle, and certainly on my personal "Must Hit" list. We're only a few weeks from the release of one of my personal favorites, Old Sol Wheatwine.

 

This is exactly my recommendation. The wound is still fresh with Elysian. My take: I still have Superfuzz and Space Dust in rotation and if they keep the quality up, it will stay that way.

The neighborhood recommendation is solid. And I don't even live in Seattle. Every neighborhood has their own vibe, their own hang outs, sometimes a brewery or two sprinkled in to make it interesting. Most everyone works well together, guest taps and all that.

There are many, many, good choices around you. I'm too lazy to link the 'under the radar' thread we had a while back but even us locals are still exploring and finding new treats to share.

 

Here's the thread referenced by @chinochino : http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/under-the-radar-nw-breweries.290461/

 

Thanks! I now recall reading about ABInbev's acquisition of Elysian. I can see how that would be a sore spot for locals.

Would you skip everything downtown altogether, or is there anywhere worth stopping, bar or brewery? Seems like the general consensus is Fremont + Reuben's + Black Raven are the 3 must stops.

 

The neighborhoods hold the true character of the city, imo.

Fremont + Reuben's + Holy Mountain are the 3 must stop breweries. If you can get over to Redmond, then hit up Black Raven.

 

when it comes time to update this post, i might make a case to remove Black Raven from the must-hit list. outside trickster and wisdom seeker, i haven't been very impressed with their offerings. to each their own, but for someone to spend so much time making it out to black raven and skip over places like standard, machine house, georgetown, stoup, etc, it doesn't really make much sense to me.

 

I certainly think Black Raven is a much better brewery than all those listed above, but if I were visiting Seattle, i sure as shit wouldn't spend 30 (if you're lucky) minutes driving out to the suburbs to drink there. If you're coming out of the cascades and the detour is reasonable, that's a different story.

Even living in Seattle, I can count my cumulative Elysian visits (all locations) on two hands. Personally, i think the capitol hill location is pretty awful. There are dozens of places I'd rather grab a drink in that area. The Tangletown location was always my favorite, but even still, 99 out 100 times I'd just go to the Burgundian

 

I had a blast while in Seattle. I was sad to leave of course and didn't get a chance to visit every place I wanted to. Favorite stop: Holy Mountain. Lots of funky offerings from them with a damned good DIPA and solid bourbon barrel double brown. Can't wait to go back and mark the other places from my list. Thanks for this thread, it was wonderfully helpful!

 

Careful boy you're getting into fighting words there!

 

So?

 

SO?? So you might suffer absolutely no actual consequences whatsoever while continuing to enjoy a community of internettles who share a common passion!

 

Appreciate the great visitor info in this thread everyone, we are visiting for the first time mid next week and staying through the weekend. I feel like most of our beer-centric itenerary is ready, we are staying a few miles from Holy Mountain, and have planned visits to Freemont Brewing and the Ballard area for some walkable stops. I've made note of the bars (Yardhouse #1 stop!) and bottle shops as well.

Obviously I will be trying as much local draft stuff everywhere we go, but does anyone have any specific suggestions on some bottles to stuff my suitcase with to bring back to VA? We have very different distro and I didnt know if anyone had a few ideas (since space is limited) of seasonal/new/etc things to look out for to bring back. Thanks.

 

Weird how The Yardhouse has suddenly become a destination for everyone but folks who actually live here.

 

Guess I whiffed on that joke then.
Rest assured I wont be visiting any Yardhouses soon - the one here or any when I visit Seattle. I'm not really a chain guy.

 

I suspect @montman was being facetious, but why would that be weird? They also come here looking mostly for beer that was made hundreds or thousands of miles away.

 

I don't know, the fact it completely went over my head makes me like your joke more than if I had gotten it the first time. Well done sir.

 

Yes you nailed why I took his quip at face value.

 

I got the joke but I've been up working since 5 and most likely have more coffee in me. It tells me the OP has done a bit of research. It's kinda like the running Fathead rec for Portland.

Back on topic, the horror,not knowing the distro in VA makes this hard to make recommendations. I'll go for some low hanging fruit here and recommend bottles from Anchorage/Midnight Sun. Personally, I always get excited when they hit the shelves here. Locally, anything Bale Breaker, Fremont, Holy Mountain, Black Raven, E9 if he travels South. And Manny's Pale Ale. He needs to fill a growler or two.

Edit: for pub crawling the neighborhoods are where it's at. Not for bottles, mind you, but the vibe

 

hey, they have hop venom on tap...i stop by on occasion if i am in that part of downtown.