NW WA Updates: winter '18

News and updates from the North sound area. Mostly Bellingham/Whatcom County, but Skagit and other spots as it fits.

Starting on a sad note, Last night (NYE 12/17) was the last night night The Green Frog was open. Many of you know I had a close relationship with the place, and it's going to be missed. At least Don and Janet Webb came up Saturday Night, which was kind of the goodbye party, and many stories, laughs, tears, and beers were shared. The Frog was the first bar in town to pour beers from a lot of breweries, and, IIRC, was the first account Fremont had outside Seattle.

Stones Throw recently released their first bottles, a Winter Warmer called Apres Snow Day. They had a version on tap that featured spices and vanilla that I enjoyed, although the bottles are the regular version.

Whispers have abounded about a new brewery in the Sunnyland neighborhood for a fair while now, and we now at least have a name: Twin Sisters Brewing. They're doing concrete work now, hopefully things will start moving quicker. They're located just a couple blocks from Kulshan's original location. More info as I get it.

The old Copper Hog space is being worked on, for a "Craft Beer Bar". Other than that, I got nothing.

Aslan had hoped to have their new spot by open by now, but, the old "construction delays" are bogging things down. Hopefully soon though.

Structures has obtained the neighboring space in their building, and will soon be working on enlarging both the brewery and taproom.

Boundary Bay will be canning their Spring Seasonal, Irish Red, in a couple weeks, and has plans in place to start canning the Scotch Ale.

Both Gruff and Strucrures have expanded their hours; Gruff is now closed Mondays, Tu-Thu 4-11, Fri-Sun 11a-11p. Structures is closed Tuesday, open 4- Mon & Wed, 4-10 Thu-Fri, 1-9 Sat, and 1-7 on Sunday.

 

Seattle area BA, @kemoarps , made a visit to The 'Ham today, and I got to have a couple beers with him and a couple of his friends. At the risk of embarrassing him, his reason for visiting was that he gave a presentation to his friends nursing class. The topic? Pediatric Oncology. We have quite the varied and interesting bunch here in the NW forum. Cheers y'all!

 

A couple notes, the Boundary bay Irish Red is canned, and should be in the usual distro channels. BB's popular Scotch Ale will be canned early next week, and should be in the pipeline by the end of the week. IIRC, this beer is a longtime fave of @sanford_and_son , and, as well as it sells, a lot of other folks.

In a bit of pleasant news, a new lease is scheduled to be signed today for the old Green Frog space. Plans are to keep it a venue, but, knowing at least 1 of the new partners, I have no doubt great beer will still be on tap. No word on name yet, but, soon.

 

The beer wasn't quite ready, and will be canned tomorrow, it should be available where other BB products are next week.

 

So, Aslan had a soft open at the new space a few days ago, and has been open to the public the last couple. Swung by for the first time tonight. Will go back before I do an "official" place review, but: Space is awesome, taplist is awesome and reasonably priced, bottle list is awesome and reasonably priced. Staff was mixed (a couple folks finding their way, a couple who knew what's up). First impression? Top of the "Must Hit" list in Hamstertown. Congrats to everyone involved.

 

Apparently. "The Copper Hog" has reopened, under new ownership. The reason for the quotes is that I've been hearing folks refer to it as CH, but I'm not certain that that is the name. will swing by the next few days and double check.

 

Popped in for a quick pint last night, and it is still being called the Copper Hog. Pretty similar menu as before, some remodeling, some new paint, only 6 taps for now, small but decent bottle list.

 

Tomorrow (2/24) is Washington Brewers Open House, and Wander is dropping cans of a new IPA, The Glass is Half Full?, which is double dry-hopped with Amarillo and Mosaic. Cans release at Noon. @NWer , you might want to swing by and grab some on your way into town.

EDIT: OOOpsie, that FB post was from yesterday, and those cans dropped today (2/23). Sorry about that.

 

And here's a new FB post:

THE GLASS IS HALF FULL? IPA release today!

Packaged fresh this morning. Released today at noon (NOW)! $14/4pack. 128 cases produced.

Juicy and fruity with a touch of honey sweetness, Half Full begins with a grist heavy on flaked oats and pale wheat malt before a heavy dosing of Mosaic cryo in the whirlpool in addition to a voluminous double dry-hopping of Mosaic and Amarillo. Tangerine citrus nose with hints of danky pine and a palate full of soft, peachy stone fruit with a slight edge of citrus peel hop bitterness.

 

Not strictly beer related, but, beery enough; Allegiant Air today announced a seasonal non-stop to Denver. What makes this extra interesting is that they also announced a new Denver-Asheville flight today. Without making this an airlines tangent, Allegiant will likely never be my first choice for an airline, but it does add some options to more beery destinations.

 

From the local paper today:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article204380294.html


Kinda buried at the bottom of the article however, is a veiled reference to an incident a few months ago. The incident was much more serious than is being shown in this article. In the middle of the " #metoo " frenzy the complete lack of awareness shown by Melvin's upper management, is representative of their attitudes and approach.

@Bitterbill , this is in reference to that comment on the other thread a few weeks ago.