Holy Mountain Brewing Company Update/Status

Covenant was an interesting taste for me last night for the first time. Very well made. I like what these guys are doing.

 

Holy Mountain bottles are always so well bottle conditioned. Always a nice treat opening one up. It's nice to see they are humbly expanding the oak aging program making it somewhat more readily available for those who live in the area.

I must say I am very lucky to be able to go there regularly and drink their oak aged mixed culture beers at a very reasonable price.

 

Totally worth waiting in the rain.

Hearing people around me talking about hating sour beer and shipping their entire allotments out in trades made me sad, though.

 

I picked up 2 of the Guava Tables and 1 Dark Retreat. I would put Holy Mountain's sours on the level of De Garde at least, maybe even better. I got there 20 minutes before the release, and there must have been a line of 100+ people in front of me!

 

I got there around 1240, had to wait maybe 20 minutes. Tried Dark Retreat and Guava Table. DR was good but glad I didn't buy any. Guava Table was amazing.

 

If anything it will increase Holy Mountain's reputation in other parts of the country, but who's to say if that's a good or bad thing.

 

Their reputation is already crazy strong within trading groups, hence me overhearing guys buying full allotments and shipping it all out in trades. This release doesn't solidify that at all. Talking with friends who got there super early, this line was lax compared to some in the past that I waited in.

 

I went in and had tastes first, then went out and got my bottle limit. That guava was something else.

 

How good was it? I tried to have a taste, but it was out.

 

Smells like guava juice. Tastes similar. I'm a sucker for all things guava, so I'm definitely biased.

 

As good as De Garde/potentially better? Sounds like I need to stop sleeping on them and buy into the hype.

 

They're different from de Garde as they're not relying on naturally occurring yeasts AND they do clean beers which are amazing.

 

Yeah, as a former frequent visitor of de Garde, HM definitely fills that void for me. Anareta, and most recently Dark Retreat, are seriously fantastic brews.

Today was my first time visiting on the day of an actual bottle release, and holy shit is it a different experience. I typically visit on Sundays or week days to avoid the crazy crowds, and I think I may maintain that schedule. Ridiculous amount of people, all buying full allotments and talking about trading them for X or Y. It's nuts. I think I was the only person to pick up a single bottle of each.

They kicked the keg of the Guava by the time I arrived, but Dark Retreat was something special. Waiting for my bottle of the Guava to chill as we speak.

 

I normally stop by around 3-4 during the week and just chill at the bar talking with the staff. At least three or four times a month. It's nice.

I've been to multiple releases and it never stops being jarring in comparison.

For reference, I bought one bottle of Guava Table.

 

The crowd at Holy Mountain was a bit startling for me, as I'm not used to seeing a huge crowd lined up for a beer release. When Silver City had special releases, there was usually a small line (>10 people usually) and I could easily get the release in 5 minutes. Then again, that was on the Kitsap Peninsula where less people live.

 

I personally like the offerings I have had from HM better, but I am limited in what I have had from DG.

 

I have only had two beers from De Garde, but I thought they were pretty good. It's not easy to get them here in WA. The only times I've been able to get them was by randomly wandering into Pint Defiance at the right time.

 

Nicely done. Arguably the Gold Standard for such releases, especially in our present era. You did well for the local community (and yourself).

 

I picked up 2 Guava table, one of which is for my brother, and one Dark Retreat. So I technically got one of each, just no Grapefruit Table (I don't like grapefruit, it's too bitter). There is also this thing called "saving money".

 

I have had most of their offerings that have come to Seattle, and I loved their grand rouge. Still have two bottles of it and a bottle of anian. But I have also had some stuff from them that was awful. I have yet to have anything from HM that was awful. Admittedly De Garde is probably more adventurous and swinging for the fences.

 

Missed the release yesterday since I was at Pumpkin Fest instead. By 5pm the lines at every booth were so long I was wishing I stood in line at Holy Mountain instead.

Any chance bottles are still around? You guys are selling me on the Guava.

 

Funnily enough, both the De Gardes I have had were the Grand Rogue and the Anain. The Anain was amazing. Holy Mountain's Dark Retreat kind of reminded me of the Grand Rogue.

 

The only de Garde beers I haven't liked are the dark sours/Oude bruins. Too brown sugar/malt vinegary for me.

Still, I have a hard time comparing de Garde to Holy Mountain. Sure they both do sour beers, but HM also does great clean hoppy beers.

 

Dropped by this afternoon, apparently Guava was gone before 4PM yesterday. Only thing left was Grapefruit.

 

girlfriend will be in seattle this weekend and convinced her to stop by holy mountain. any chance there will be bottles to go that she can bring back (with little to no line waiting; i've already pissed her off enough with beer lines in the past).
thanks!

 

Witchfinder bottles are available. No lines.

 

We are all better for the dedication and quality that is resonant with HM's beer. It's not an easy task to translate a vision to a business and not treat that idea as a 'project' or a 'program', but a passion...especially these days when 'craft' is cool.

If we nurture our community, the PNW will be a strong voice for terroir and a leader in advocating for our farmers to be featured in our beers and that's a win for all of us.

In the meantime, more Guava, please.

 

Just opened up a bottle of Guava Table and I think its possibly better than what was on tap which was already incredible. Thanks for consistently putting out great beers.

 

Bit of a rando thought but I was looking at bottles today at DeLaurenti and it struck how quickly the Seattle/greater Washington beer market adjusted to the presence and rapid ascent of Holy Mountain. Three Magnets just put out a whole series of saisons/fruit beers. Wander Brewing just put out a foudre aged beer. Did any other brewery of note do foudre beers before HM and I'm guessing E9? I know Urban Family have been focused on their sours for quite a while so I won't lump them in with the newer ones.

Anyways, just kinda wild to see the market shift ever so slightly away from putting out 6 different IPAs per brewery to offering a handful more of weird beer styles in about a year and a half's worth of time.

 

elysian has had two foeders since 2014.

 

The foudre were in Wanders mind since the beginning, but it was the type of thing that had to wait until they were established a bit.

 

One thing to note is that Holy Mountain and E9 are aging hops in a similar fashion to Lambic makers in Belgium. That's cool.

 

Funny you mention that. A brewery I'm familiar with here in Bellingham just bought some aged hops from one of the hop processors, perhaps to go into a wild or sour thing.

 

Bumping this thread to see if anyone is at the clarette / corpse reviver release today. I'm hoping to drop by to get bottles this evening, not sure if they will last until then

 

out of bottles and draft of clarette

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

If Corpse Reviver is still on tap, you should go. That beer is phenomenal.

 

Good looking out on the corpse reviver. I'm having a pour now and it's great. Still available in bottles and on draft.

 

Mmhm, here now and it's great. Still plenty of bottles, should last through until tomorrow.