Visiting Seattle (2021)

NOTE: Washington State still has a mask mandate and is following continued Covid restrictions. King County is currently in Phase 3 which means indoor and outdoor dining is limited to 50% capacity. Some places are sticking with take-out only. Please be considerate and thoughtful when visiting.

Many of us agree that this forum could use an easily searchable/bump-able "I'm visiting Seattle, where should I go?" thread. Here, I'll attempt to cull the consensus "must-hits," along with other highly recommended Seattle breweries, brewpubs, bottle shops & beer bars that appear in this type of BA thread. Locations that offer crowler fills are included. Recommendations & suggestions are encouraged.

Unlike some other states, Washington has incredibly lenient growler laws. There are some exceptions, but if it's a clean sealable container you can probably have it filled with beer.

I made some changes from the 2020 thread: Removed Brave Horse Tavern, Burgundian and Toronado. RIP Centaur. Ridgewood Bottle and Tap was added to the bottle shop list. Added Lowercase to the "Other Recommended" list. I added Breakthru Brewing and Fast Fashion to the "Newish" list and didn't remove any existing breweries from this list since 2020 was a weird year. I created a section for out of area taprooms that are starting to become a thing here, like Aslan, Great Notion and Bale Breaker.


Highly Recommended "Must-Hit" Breweries (None have food but you can bring in food or purchase from food trucks outside)
Fremont Brewing (kid friendly)
Reuben's Brews (kid friendly)
Holy Mountain Brewing (21+)
Stoup Brewing (kid friendly)
Cloudburst Brewing

• Downtown (21+)
• Ballard (21+ until Covid is over)

Seapine Brewing (kid friendly)
Georgetown Brewing (kid friendly)
Urban Family Brewing (kid friendly)
Machine House Brewing (kid friendly and mostly just cask beer available)

Non-Seattle Breweries with Seattle locations:
Great Notion

• Ballard (21+ until Covid is over)
• Georgetown (21+)

Bale Breaker (Coming this Summer. Kid friendly)
Aslan Taproom (21+)

Other Recommended Breweries & Brewpubs
Ravenna Brewing (kid friendly)
Standard Brewing (21+)
Rooftop Brewing (kid friendly)
Lucky Envelope Brewing (kid friendly)
Old Stove Brewing (kid friendly)
Big Time Brewery (kid friendly)
Ghostfish Brewing (all gluten-free) (kid friendly)
Lowercase Brewing (kid friendly)

Newish Seattle Breweries (rotating list of new breweries that might not have existed the last time you visited)
Mirage Beer (No taproom. draft, cans and bottles available around town. Rumored Ballard taproom in the future)
Floodland Brewing (No taproom. Super limited draft around town. Bottles available to members and some limited public sales)
Dirty Couch Brewing (Kid friendly. Package/draft available around town)
Obec Brewing (21+)
Burke Gilman Brewing (Kid friendly)
Future Primitive (Kid friendly)
Best of Hands Barrel House (21+)
The Good Society (Kid friendly)
Pint Size Brewing (no taproom. Weekly can sales and draft randomly available around town)
Fair Isle (21+)
Fast Fashion (Brewery owned by The Masonry. Cans and draft available around town)
Break Thru Brewing (no taproom. Cans and draft available around town)

Other, Non-Seattle, Washington Breweries To Look For
Airways (package/draft)
Bale Breaker (package/draft)
Black Raven (package/draft)
Chuckanut (package/draft)
E9 Brewing/Engine House No. 9 (package/draft)
SIG Brewing (package/draft)
Garden Path (package/draft)
Matchless (package/draft)
Propolis (package/draft)
Skookum (package/draft)
Structures (package/draft)
Three Magnets (package/draft)
Wander (package/draft)
Single Hill (package/draft)
Otherlands (package/draft)
Varietal (package/draft)
No Boat Brewing (package/draft)
Metier Brewing (package/draft)

Highly Recommended Beer Bars
Beveridge Place Pub (21+)
Brouwer's Cafe (21+)
Collin's Pub (kid friendly)
Cooper's Ale House (21+)
The Dray (21+)
Latona Pub (21+)
The Noble Fir (21+)
The Pine Box (21+)
The Park Public House (kid friendly)
Seattle Beer Company (21+)
Slow Boat Tavern (21+)
No Anchor (21+)
The Stumbling Monk (21+)
Teku Tavern (21+)
Beer Star (kid friendly)
Uber Tavern (21+)
Ounces Taproom & Beer Garden (kid-friendly)
Hill City Taphouse (kid friendly)
Columbia City Alehouse (21+)
Fiddler's Inn (21+)
Broadview Tap House (kid friendly)

Highly Recommended Bottle Shops
The Beer Authority (21+)
The Beer Junction (21+)
Full Throttle Bottles (21+)
Bottleworks (21+)
Ridgewood Bottle and Tap (kid friendly)
Chuck's Hop Shop Central District (kid friendly)
Chuck's Hop Shop Greenwood (kid friendly)
Growler Guys (kid friendly)
The Last Drop Bottle Shop (21+)
Super Deli Mart (kid friendly)
Downtown Spirits
Vine Street Market
De Laurenti Speciality Food and Wine (kid friendly)
Draft Punk
A1 Hop Shop 104th
A1 Hop Shop 144th
Ross Park Convenience Store

PCC Community Markets and Whole Foods have good selections, and PCC has a rotating variety of new release single 16 oz cans (Matchless, Fremont, Reubens, Standard, Urban Family, etc.) for sale.

(A Few) Beer-centric Restaurants
Just about any decent restaurant in Seattle has an acceptable beer list. Many are more-than-acceptable.
Barking Dog Alehouse (kid friendly)
Bitterroot BBQ (kid friendly)
Blue Star Cafe & Pub (kid friendly)
Giddy Up Burgers (kid friendly)
The Masonry Queen Anne (21+)
The Masonry Fremont (kid friendly)
Magnuson Cafe & Brewery (kid friendly)
Quinn's Pub (kid friendly)
The Yard Cafe (kid friendly)
The Shambles (21+)
Salare (kid friendly)
June Baby (kid friendly)
Delancey (kid friendly)
Lucinda Grain bar (21+)
Eight Row (kid friendly)

Curious what's on tap around the city? Not sure where you want to have a beer? Brew Notice is a, web-based, iOS and Android app that tells you when new beers are tapped at many Seattle area bars and breweries.


I have a Layover at SeaTac Airport. Where can I get a Beer?
Unlike Portland, the beer options at SeaTac are slim. You should be able to find standard offerings from Bale Breaker, Black Raven, Airways and Fremont alongside Pyramid, Red Hook, Mac and Jacks and the regular airport fare like Sam Adams and Bud Light. There is nowhere that sells bottles or cans to go in the airport and no one offers growler fills. Seriously, PDX is way better when it comes to beer. These are your best options for a pint before your flight.

Africa Lounge – Main Terminal (A gates)
Sports Page Pub – Main Terminal (D gates)
Ballard Beer Hall - D Gates
Anthony’s – Main Terminal
Dungeness Bay Seafood House – South Satellite (S Gates)
Floret by Cafe Flora -- Main Terminal (A Gates)
Tap & Pour -- A Gates and S Gates
Mountain Room Bar
Skillet - N Gates
Alaska Lounge -- Probably has the best beer selection at the airport, but you have to pay to get in or be a member.

SeaTac International Airport isn't in the city, and there really isn't much directly around the airport. These are your best bets if you want to get out.
13 Coins - Across the street from the airport and open 24 hours a day.
Sharps Roasthouse - Two blocks from the airport.

You could hop on light rail and do a quick hit of Georgetown (Full Throttle Bottles, Great Notion, Lowercase, Machine House). If you have a car there is a Total Wine in Tukwila as well as a PCC Community Market in Burien. Or Super Deli Mart in West Seattle. HOWEVER! Your absolute best bet for beer near the airport is Burien Press Coffee. Seriously. This little coffee shop has a killer selection of draft, cans and bottles that you're not expecting them to carry. I cannot recommended Burien Press highly enough. There's also a new brewery in Burien, called Logan.

 

That sounds great, and John can update it as needed. I haven't flown in over a year now and not sure how drinking at the airport has even worked. I remember hearing Ballard Beer Hall sucked when it finally opened.

 

The Seattle Taproom was solid for year round beers always available which was good enough for me. It would be nice if the Port of Seattle looked at what PDX does with beer and would consider following suit. Pretty cool seeing fancy large format bottles in the shops and growler fills available throughout the airport.

Oh, the Starbucks in the main terminal does offer beer. They had some local sour bottles when I last flew (November and December 2019).

 

They were there last year, I saw no reason to exclude them. I think their draft offerings are really solid and they're one of the only AAPI breweries in the state. They often get overlooked being in Ballard with all the big guys.

You could also make the same argument about Rooftop. I haven't been there in years, but other people asked to have them included in the past.

And like I said, 2020 was weird. I only removed places if they went out of business.

 

Gotta use your feet and do some walking from SoDo station, I've done it before walking to Seapine then to Georgetown with some friends. Maybe take an Uber.

 

I also like Old Schoolhouse and one of these days I'll get over to Winthrop. I can't edit the list so it's up to John.

 

Yeah, Machine House's MO is traditional English cask ale, but their bottled offerings are not. It's frankly too much effort to compile a list of places that might have a cask option because it's definitely not consistent, but I always make a point of noting it for Machine House because that's all you'll get if you go down there for a beer.

No worries. When my family travels, we use public transit but also walk a ton. Last time we were in Japan in the Fall of 2018, we easily did 12-15 miles on foot a day without our daughter even noticing.

 

I had a can of their Lunar New Year IPA with Lychee tea this year and thought it was great.

 

Mask up if you want to ever be able to buy Floodland again, just a heads up!

Hikes within the city aren't super long, but Cowen/Ravenna Park has some nice short trails (which lead to Ravenna Brewing), as does Discovery Park in Magnolia and Schmitz Preserve Park near Alki Beach. Anything of length and substance is North or East of Seattle. My family loves camping at Bedal and Marblemount.

 

Elysian’s Tangletown Pub was within walking distance from my house and was a great family friendly spot to take my daughter. Sadly once they sold to InBev I was done with them, much like their head brewer Dick Cantwell, who was also the only of the three principal owners who opposed the sale.

I can’t support Elysian when there are better Seattle breweries who truly keep it local. Also, next time you’re in Seattle stop by Cloudburst and have a Cosmic Lust, which is the original Space Dust recipe made by the dude who originally came up with it for Elysian.

 

Agreed. With all of that said I cannot in good conscience include Elysian in the list. If you’re down in Georgetown I’d rather tell people to support Machine House, Jellyfish, Georgetown, Lower Case and Great Notion.