Day trips from Seattle

Hit Bellingham. Structures in particular. I'm sure there are others.

Maybe 3 Magnets would fit the bill, in the opposite direction.

Dru Bru doesn't get much cred, but everything they make is rock solid. Not as far, but it's east. So there's three different directions for you!

Obviously, you could also go all the way down to Portland and back in a day, too.

 

If you go to Structures (which I would agree with) hit Garden Path on your way up! Cool little place with a surprisingly great bottle shop in the brewery. For example, they got in JK Atrial Rubicite recently.

 

Hit Mt.Vernon/Skagit county. MV has District, 192, and Temperate Habits, all walkable downtown. Farmstrong and North Sound are just outside of town. Head West on highway 20, and Garden Path and Chuckanuts South Nut are by the airport. Keep heading towards Anacortes, Bastion is just outside of Atown, and Anacortes brewing is downtown. Flyers is a few minute drive south in Oak Harbor.

Bellingham is another option, we've got 14 breweries, covering all the styles. Structures is noted for their Murkbombs (they're only open for pick up after you order online, right now though), Chuckanut is one of the best Lager breweries in the country, Boundary Bay makes a wide variety of beer and has great food, Otherlands makes great saisons and lagers, Gruff and Stones Throw are both funky, fun places. Let me know, and I'd be happy to show you around town.

 

Now that I'm on a machine and not my phone: https://www.beeradvocate.com/place/list/?city=Mount+Vernon&c_id=US&s_id=WA
https://www.beeradvocate.com/place/list/?city=Anacortes&c_id=US&s_id=WA
https://www.beeradvocate.com/place/list/?city=Bellingham&c_id=US&s_id=WA

Mount Vernon/Skagit is probably better as a day trip, a little closer to Seattle, so about a half-hour less driving time each way. Bham would be better served as an overnight visit: drive up Saturday morning, hit the farmers market downtown, do shopping if that's appealing, and hit some of the downtown breweries (Wander (IMHO, the best brewery in town), Boundary Bay, Structures, Chuckanut, and Gruff), get a room. Sunday morning do brunch, and hit a few of the neighborhood breweries; Otherlands, Twin Sisters, both Kulshan spots, and Stemma are all in the Sunnyland neighborhood, and are a walkable distance apart. Then you can hit Stones Throw in the Fair Haven neighborhood on your way out of town.

Things are very fluid these days (we're still in Stage 1 covid restrictions), so double check before heading up. Again, I'd be happy to answer more specific questions for you.

 

Yakima.




Seriously. Yakima, especially when it comes to hop harvest season, but even without the fields full of that sticky icky green it is definitely worth your time. Bale Breaker, Single Hill, Cowiche Creek, Bron Y'aur, Wandering Hop, Hop Nation plus great food (and experimental Haas beers found nowhere else) at Cowiche Canyon Kitchen. Then drive slightly further east and hit up Varietal over in Sunnyside.

 

Also, a day trip out I-90 to Cle Elum and Roslyn is a fun day. There's a brewery in each town, and Roslyn has The Brick, of Northern Exposure fame. There's a couple small breweries out in the Snoqualmie area.

A closer in day trip could be Everett/Lake Stevens/Snohomish.

 

Yup, was gonna post this myself. It's too soon to tell, but if the Fresh Hop Festival is on this year, you should book a room and go. Sadly, The Sports Center recently closed.

https://freshhopalefestival.com/

 

I can't imagine they'll be doing Fresh Hop Festival this year. The Yakima Valley has been hit with pretty terrible Covid rates, which sadly isn't surprising due to the large agricultural economy over there. Hopefully they do another fresh hop pack and ship it around the state this time.

Massive bummer about Sports Center, was definitely an under appreciated gem if you didn't know about it.

 

Welcome to the west coast, from a fellow east coast transplant! Like you, I cut my teeth on weekend interstate beer runs ( to the Philadelphia burbs from the DC area , in my case). I'm going to take a different tack here and recommend you explore your local Seattle scene, and pardon me if you've already done your reaearch. We PNW BAs do a deliberately terrible job of hyping our gems, thanks to which, there will be lots of local options whose output will exceed your expectations. I've lived in Portland 8 years, and there still are well regarded local breweries I haven't checked out sufficiently, if at all.

 

Depending on how far "up river" ya wanna go, Birdsview, in Concrete (yes, there's a town called Concrete) is a stop. Great spot right on Hwy20, great folks, really good burgers (fresh beef from just down the road, cooked on a George Forman grill), and an awesome setting.

The beer though. Too bad ya can't take your own.

 

I remember hearing about them something like a decade ago. Kinda surprised they're still around.

 

Zero competition, a great location, nice folks. Not the best brewery in the state.

 

My favorite PNW brewery experience (apart from the incredible offerings in and around Seattle) was an impromptu stop at Bale Breaker. Sitting in the middle of a hop farm enjoying fresh hoppy beer canned that same day was a real treat.

Also notable was a trip to Hood River to visit pFriem and Full Sail.

 

I miss taking day trips to Seattle, could prolly get there in an hour without the traffic these days lol.

 

Traffic has picked up the last few months. Kinda blows me away, to be honest.

Last night, my wife and I mentioned how much we miss our trips to Vancouver. Some day. Some year.