Hi all, Hope this isn't a stupid question, but I don't know much about the area and don't have a lot of free time to go researching answers. Hoping you guys can help! I just found out that I'll have a day or two off in Seattle later this month, and some colleagues and I were thinking about visiting some breweries while we're there. Are there any sort of "beer tours" - i.e. setups where a company actually provides transportation around to a pre-determined list of places? We're not looking to go out and get sloppy and raise hell, but we'd like to avoid having to be super, super cautious about how much we drink before getting behind the wheel. Any recommendations? If there aren't any tours like that, I'd love to know what places would be at the top of your list to visit. Thanks!
While Seattle's public transportation isn't as good as PDX's, it's still effective enough. Here's a stroll I do sometimes: Start at Fremont Brewing in the Fremont neighborhood. Leave there and a few blocks down is Brouwers Cafe. Leave there and start towards Ballard. You'll go past lots of bars, Hales Brewing, and Maritime Pacific Brewing. From Maritime, it's a short walk to Ballard Ave, with a whole strip of bars, including The Noble Fir. Ballard is now home to several breweries as well. http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9NDguNzYwOTQxfi0xMjIuNDgyMTQ3Jmx2bD00JnN0eT1yJnJ0cD1wb3MuNDcuNjQ4OTI3Xy0xMjIuMzQ0MDcxXzM0MDklMjBXb29kbGFuZCUyMFBhcmslMjBBdmUlMjBOJTJDJTIwU2VhdHRsZSUyQyUyMFdBJTIwOTgxMDNfX19lX35wb3MuNDcuNjY2NzAyXy0xMjIuMzgzNTYzXzUzMTYlMjBCYWxsYXJkJTIwQXZlJTIwTlclMkMlMjBTZWF0dGxlJTJDJTIwV0ElMjA5ODEwN19fX2VfJm1vZGU9RCZydG9wPTB MH4wfg== You should be able to catch Metro to close to each end of this crawl. Total distance is only a couple miles, so it makes for a nice little breather between stops.
If you're staying downtown, you can catch the #5 bus and it will, among its many stops, take you to within easy walking distance of Fremont Brewing, Brouwer's Cafe, Sixgill, 74th Street Ale House, Uber Tavern, and Naked City.
BTW, pitweasel, the one place I always put in as a "must hit" on the visiting Seattle threads is Big Time, in the U-District. I am officially adding a second Must Hit: Naked City. Always a bunch of their own beers on tap, always a nice selection of guest taps, they just opened an outdoor beer garden, and they brew a wide variety of beers. They've got a nice selection of regular brews and are always doing a new beer or a one-off. If you're lucky, The Big Lebrewski will be when you visit. It sounds like the #5 is Seattle's
Yeah taking the bus around is a better option, unless you don't mind paying $80 to visit breweries like Hale's and Pyramid.
They would only get my business if they listed a calender that said where they went. Black Raven/ Fremont/ etc. are worth going to, Pyramid and Hales aren't worth $80 for me to see.
I agree. To pay $80 and not knowing where you will go isn't worth it. Reading the Yelp reviews it sounds like Hale's and Hilliard's are pretty likely 2 of the 3 stops. Hale's sounds like a guaranteed stop. I'll pass.
Hey I just provided what he asked for! With that said they do have a list of around 25 breweries to choose from. If you call in advance they will try to cater to your requests according to the website. I've never done it personally, but I do follow them on facebook and see their updates. I know they took some homebrewers on tour and stuck to smaller nano style places at their request. They seem to be pretty flexible on places they visit.
I have a follow up question. I will be going on the Road Dogs tour for a bachelor party (everyone coming in from out of town). We have a private tour so we can choose the three breweries. I was thinking of requesting Naked City, Reuben's brews, and maybe Fremont. Seemed like a decent mix of brewery sizes and styles. Any thoughts or recommendations?
Might as well just go to triple horn instead of Black Raven, if you want to make Road Dogs "earn" your money, right? Plus at least at triple horn you won't get the stuck up entitled crowd you run into at black raven (staff, and patrons alike)
He then should also replace Naked City with Bellevue Brewing. That way he can check out the wonderful people of Bellevue.
Thanks guys. I appreciate the recommendations. I think they have a time limit on the tour so I will have to talk with them and see what is reasonable (plus I'd prefer to be drinking beer then being driven around). I'll let people know what they say. Last point to add, for private tours I think it is something like $575 for up to 14 people so the cost can come out a bit lower then if you do the individual tours.
Late to reply, but thank you everyone for the suggestions! Yes, $80 a head is too steep for what my colleague and I were looking for, so we'll probably be pouncing on some of the individual spots mentioned here. Looking forward to my first visit to the northwest!
