GABF - Pacific Northwest recommendations

Discussion in 'Mountain' started by Chin17, Sep 27, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,275) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Super Mod Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Well, if Boundary Bay would just stop making all those kick ass, hop driven IPA/DIPA's.... :-) Which oh by the way, I hope they NEVER do!!!
     
  2. barleywinefiend

    barleywinefiend Initiate (0) Nov 22, 2007 Washington
    Deactivated

    Chuckanut will always get love from this guy. They show at every event and its always the same nice lady with a big smile on her face. Nothing wrong with liking IPAs because I am a hop whore but people need to expand their palates and horizons. Having 6 GABF medals and flying under the radar is rather scary but us true beer advocates know Chuckanut is grand!

    Terry..keep an eye for that Old Bounder :wink:
     
  3. jgrgas

    jgrgas Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Oregon

    Since I work for The Commons I feel obligated to weigh in. Thanks so much everyone for recommending us.

    We're bringing the following beers:
    Urban Farmhouse Ale - simple, refreshing saison. CBC 2012 Bronze Medal.
    Flemish Kiss - Barrel aged Pale Ale with Brettanomyces
    Madrone - Amber farmhouse with west coast hops
    Blonde - Belgian Blonde Ale
    Berliner Weisse - traditional tart German wheat

    Of the others on the list I'd give hearty recommendations to:
    Chuckanut - fantastic German focused brewery.
    Breakside - extremely experimental brewery that executes almost everything they brew. Great fellas that we are very good friends with.
    Gigantic - Solid NW style beers. Very entertaining guys.
    Pelican - fantastic style driven American pub style beers.

    Wherever you end up come and say hi to me. I'll be the very tall bald guy wearing Commons apparel.
     
    John_M and msubulldog25 like this.
  4. aedeos

    aedeos Initiate (0) Dec 15, 2007 Washington

    Boundary Bay are awful brewers. They mash too hot, too fast. Everything is an unfermentable mess.

    I've stood by the fact that Bellingham isn't a true beer city like they think they are. They have for years forsaken quality for staples. I'm always amazed by what I can find just sitting on shelves up there. Don't take that as a complaint, though.
     
  5. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,275) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Super Mod Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    "Boundary Bay are awful brewers. They mash too hot, too fast. Everything is an unfermentable mess."

    Um, gee... I hope you won't be too taken aback by this, but um, well... I don't agree. At all!

    However, you're entitled to your opinion, even if your post doesn't exactly read like an opinion. :-)
     
  6. BBThunderbolt

    BBThunderbolt Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,282) Sep 24, 2007 Kiribati
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    But have you noticed what doesn't sit on the shelves up here? IPAs. If someone wants to sell IPAs, bring 'em to Bellingham. We sell a lot of craft beer, even in the diviest of dives (hello Ranch Room) and the sketchiest mini-marts. Sours don't hang out long either. But yeah, $12+ 22s of seasonal releases, those'll sit. We're a college town, and what jobs we have are generally not much above minimum wage, so $16 bottles of B-Bomb are here for a while. Abyss sells out almost instantly every though.
     
  7. MadCanadian

    MadCanadian Initiate (0) Aug 12, 2010 Washington

    Sorry it took me a few days. Barhop was brewing at the Harbinger Winery, with a tasting room on Laurel St., until last week. They are in the process of moving to 124 Railroad Ave in Port Angeles across from the Coho ferry dock. They're supposed to be opening towards the end of this month. Look for my beer on tap there in November sometime "Cutterman Kolsch". I won the Pro-Am home brew contest a while back with that.
     
    66jzmstr and BBThunderbolt like this.
  8. barleywinefiend

    barleywinefiend Initiate (0) Nov 22, 2007 Washington
    Deactivated

    Thanks!
     
  9. DimensionX

    DimensionX Initiate (0) Oct 1, 2010 Oregon

    Interesting to see that most of my favorite PNW breweries are not on the list this year, too much trouble or $ I suppose.

    my faves are

    Alaskan - all about the baltic and smoked porters
    Breakside - their barrel aged stuff is consistently rad
    Commons - my favorite new brewery, they seem to favor Belgian and farmhouse ales
    Gigantic - new but promising
     
  10. BBThunderbolt

    BBThunderbolt Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,282) Sep 24, 2007 Kiribati
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Well, what did ya try, and how did ya like 'em?
     
  11. Chin17

    Chin17 Initiate (0) Aug 1, 2009 Colorado

    Sorry for the delay. So I must say the PNW craft beer scene is pretty sweet. It was great to see a lot of the breweries supporting one another. So my first night (Thurs) my friend and I beelined to Breakside. Awesome group of guys and some tasty beer (especially the Aztec). Anyway about 45 minutes in found out that we were in the wrong section (PNW was section G & H) so we got moved over to Omission. They are gluten free and only had a lager and pale ale. It was a let down at first, but ended up being fine as we were able to sample many other beers. I will say though, my wife is gluten intolerant so I have tried my share of gluten free beer and O was by far the best and actually tasted like beer. Some other great beers we enjoyed:

    Commons Brewery: My favorite styles are sours, wild ales, etc. so I instantly gravitated to their Flemish Kiss. Awesome. Congrats on the Silver medal as well. Chatted with Josh and told him we were targeting poring for Commons on Sat night, but of course this was before we found out we were in the wrong section. Total bummer.

    Ninkasi: Tricerahops and Sleigh'r were great. Made several trips back to them.

    Chuckanut: I am not really into German styles, but they know what they are doing. Kolsch was tasty.

    Section G: There were many other great beers sampled, but cannot recall all of them. Next year will be taking photos of each booth to help me remember.

    On Saturday we poured for Sound Brewery. Score! Triple Entendre and Monk's Indescretion all night long. I was impressed that their Brewer (Mark) pured the entire night. That was not the norm on Sat.

    Looking forward to GABF 2013.
     
    Lordkrystic and BBThunderbolt like this.
  12. aedeos

    aedeos Initiate (0) Dec 15, 2007 Washington

    By all means, disagree. But the mash too hot, too fast ISN'T opinion. It's fact. I've talked with the brewers about this and they admit it because of their production schedule.
     
  13. jgrgas

    jgrgas Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Oregon

    Why would they mash too hot because of a production constraints? If they're shooting for shorter mashes a lower temp would create quicker conversion.
     
    hopsbreath and barleywinefiend like this.
  14. aedeos

    aedeos Initiate (0) Dec 15, 2007 Washington

    your guess is as good as mine. But it leaves behind a bunch of unfermentables.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.