Seattle Breweries and Bottle Shop recommendation ?

If you're driving all the way out to Redmond for Black Raven, you should also hit Malt & Vine on the trip to or from, as it's only a few minutes drive from the brewery. (Hi-Fi Brewing is in the same office park as Black Raven too, I believe.)

 

Again, to make your Eastside visit more worthwhile, the Whole Foods in Redmond has a pretty good selection and may have a few beers Malt & Vine doesn't.

 

Many threads on this forum to give you some insight but a few off the top of my head are:

Breweries:
- Black Raven
- Fremont
- Reuben's Brews
- Elysian

Bottle Shops:
- Beer Junction
- Bottleworks
- Chuck's

Pubs:
- Pine Box
- Brouwers
- Naked City
- Uber
- Collins Pub

There are many others but this is a start. You can't walk more than 100 feet in any direction in Seattle without hitting a brewery or great beer bar. All of these are either downtown or pretty close to downtown with the Black Raven being the exception. Black Raven is worth the drive in my opinion and if your lady or you like wine, Woodinville in about 15 north of Black Raven with about a "Gazillion" wine shops, Winery store fronts from the wineries out in the valley, and full on Wineries. Plus a couple more small breweries.

Pike Brewing, while not one of the better ones, is next to Pike Market and worth a stop if your down there anyway.

 

As usual, my "must hit" suggestions are Naked City and Big Time. As far as bars, Collins Pub, Beveridge Place Pub, and (with the usual caveat about potential crappy service) Brouwers are all worthy.

 

A Fremont / Ballard beer trek could easily take in the following (working roughly east to west):

Odin Brewing's Asgard Tasting Room - Solid, but not spectacular. A nice spot though.
Fremont Brewing - walking distance from Odin. A must stop.
The Sixgill - owned by the same folks that own Noble Fir in Ballard. A great tap list and some of the best food in beer bars around Seattle.
Brouwers - a classic.
Hales - it's skippable IMHO, but it's the next stop west.
Populuxe - very erratic ... I've had some good stuff and some horrible stuff. Very DIY and low key though, which has it's appeal.
Reuben's - Excellent. And if you like rye, it may be paradise.
Peddler Brewing - Never been. Another DIY spot.
NW Peaks - Another low key spot.
Urban Family - A nice beer bar. Not a huge tap list, but always interesting. And they're now the Shelton brothers outlet ...
Noble Fir - Excellent tap list, all kinds of great food in the vicinity.

As for bottle shops, one reason to like Bottleworks as a place to stop is they almost always have some vintage stuff on the shelves. 5 year old bottles of Bigfoot, 8 year old bottles of Alaskan Barleywine, maybe some 2010 Abyss or Matt, etc. They're selection of new stuff is sometimes spotty, but the serendipity can make up for it.

 

I've done Kurmaraja's trek multiple times. I always hit Maritime too, but opinions vary. With all the breweries opening up in Ballard, it's getting tough to hit them all in one stroll though.

 

Here's an old school trek similar to the one above and close in proximity (moving east then north):

Big Time Brewery - one of the oldest brewpubs in the city if not the oldest
Blue Moon Tavern - mix of grumpy old hippies, bikers, college kids, and good ol' beer drinkers - used to be a hot spot for artists, writers, poets, etc. in the 60's and 70's
Dick's Drive In - no beer but cheap burgers - Seattle classic
Bottleworks - in addition to the bottle selection, they have 16 taps of great beer
Elysian Tangletown - one of the three Elysian brewpubs in town and the most laid-back of the three
Burgundian - same owners as Bottleworks and Brouwers - in addition to beer, specializes in tequila
Latona Pub - one of the oldest ale houses in the city (and a great last stop since their food a very, very good)

 

Good call on Blue Moon, a spot that doesn't get mentioned here much. I haven't been there in almost two decades myself. They should really work out a deal to connect the Blue Moon to Dick's, with a revolving door between the two establishments. You'd never have to leave, at least until the undertaker wheels you out.