Visiting Seattle - local beer suggestions?

Fremont. Reuben's. Those would be my first recommendations.

 

Yep. And if you have access to transportation, hit up Black Raven over in Redmond.

 

Yea, what they said. Probably the 3 best breweries in town.

Reuben's is kind of small and boring to look at but they have some amazing brews. Super nice people.

Fremont is a bit bigger, bare bones and also has some outstainding stuff.

Black Raven is the nicest in terms of the actually building but also top notch. But, a bit of a drive (25 to 30mins?)

If you're somewhat time limited, Hit Reuben's and Fremont. They are pretty close to each other and there are a "few" small and larger breweries in the same area. You could spend all weekend in these small neighboring areas known as Ballard and Fremont. Lots of breweries, lots of ourstanding beer bars, great food. Brouwers is a great place in the area that always has a ton of local and west coast beer on tap.

Just do a search for Ballard Breweries and enjoy!

 

Naked City and Big Time as well. If you've ever read any of the "Best Beer City" threads, you're about to experience the gist of the arguments in person. Philly gets great distribution, but produces little beer. We have tons of breweries (over 200 in the state, and something like 50-60 just in Seattle). I suggest not getting locked into going to the "best", but trying as many you can squeeze in. But, seriously, Naked City is a must.

 

Though not what you asked about, the Burgundian's "Imperial Fest" / 2nd anniversary is this weekend as well. Preliminary draft list from their facebook page copy/pasted below:

The moment you have all been waiting for.... Our Imperial Fest Draft List!
Allagash PNC Broken Elevator Portland Maine (8.1%)
Brewdog Hardcore IPA Ellon, Aderdeenshire, Scotland (9.2%)
De Proof/HOTD Fred Flanders Lochristi, Belgium (7.5%)
Deschutes Abyss Imperial Stout Bend, OR (11%)
Evil Twin Molotov Cocktail Imperial IPA Copenhagen / Brooklyn, Denmark (13%)
Firestone Walker Double DBA Barleywine Paso Robles, CA (12%)
Firestone Walker PNC Buckwheat Imperial Stout Paso Robles, CA (13.6%)
Flyers Brouwer’s Café 8th Strong Scotch on Laphroaig Oak Harbor (10.9%)
Fort George Eleventh Sour Astoria, OR (7.7%)
Fremont Hazelnut Dark Star Nitro Seattle, WA (8%)
Green Flash 11th Anniversary Double Dry Hopped West Coast IPA San Diego, CA (7.3%)
Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws ’11 Portland, OR (11.5%)
Hillard’s Grand Inquisitor Sherry aged Doppelbock Seattle, WA (8%)
HUB Brouwer’s 6th Imperial Stout ’12 Portland, OR (10.5%)
Laughing Dog 8th Anniversary De Achtste Hond Ponderay, ID (7.2%)
New Belgium La Terroir Fort Collins, CO (7.5%)
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Whiskey Barrel Longmont, CO (9.4%)
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale ’11 Watou, Belgium (10%)
Silver City Imperial Stout Bremerton, WA (9.2%)
Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Maple Stout w/coffee Chico, CA (12.9%)
Stone Bottleworks 13th Anniversary American Strong Ale (11%)
The Bruery Bottleworks 12th Imperial Sour Wit Placentia, CA (8%)

 

Bottleworks 12 and both PNC's here i come...