Visiting Seattle (Summer 2016 Update)

nailed it

 

I'd throw Urban Family in the "Must-Hit" category. If people disagree with them being "Must-Hit" I would at least suggest a placement in the "Highly Recommended" section, which I doubt anyone could have an issue with - I'm going there LONG before visiting many of those places.

And if we're going out as far as Black Raven I think we should put Geaux and Postdoc on there, especially since it would be easy to hit all three and both are pretty great. Geaux is in my personal top-10 in and around Seattle.

 

UF has been making good beer for a while now. Still surprised at the lack of local love.

 

Yeah, the stuff I've had from them here in Portland has been real good. Definitely deserve to be on the highly recommended list.

 

The only issue I have had with Urban Family is lack of much variety. I've been there many times where the only offerings are saisons and ipa's/hoppy pale ales. I love those kinds of beers, but a touch more variety would make the place even better. Also, it can feel sorta weird to be there and have the place be absolutely dead. Based on the beer alone it definitely deserves to be on the list somewhere.

 

You're right that there's never a Kolsch or Lager type on tap. But I'm there fairly regularly (since it's only a 5-10 minute walk) and I feel like Death to Cereal, a breakfast stout, is a mainstay on their list. UF knows what they do best and seemingly have a limited number of tap handles / capacity to do it - why put on something marginal when you can stick within your wheelhouse and put on something much better? I would posit that more variety might lead to diminished quality.

A typical draft list of saisons, sours, IPAs/hoppy pales, plus one or two beers of a different style really isn't wholly dissimilar from what you'll generally see at Holy Mountain. I've been to Holy Mountain plenty of times where my only options were saisons and IPAs/hoppy pales. HM's most recent published taplist included a Pilsner and a Dark Mild amidst saisons and IPAs/pales, before that was a Mild and a Wit. I'm curious if you have the same issue with Holy Mountain? Not poking at you, but I've heard a number of people make those same kind of comments in the past with regards to UF but adulate Holy Mountain - not that you've done that here. It seems contradictory.

I have the same issue with the empty taproom, it's odd to be the only customer at times. It baffles me as to why it's not busier.

 

No, I think Holy Mountain does a much better job at variety. Aside from the saisons and hoppy beers, Holy Mountain often has stuff like King's Head (double brown ale), Three Fates Pils, oaked lager, wit, English mild ... all sorts of different stuff. Sure, it helps that they are ridiculously proficient at brewing a wide range of styles, but what's more they actually put some thought into seasonality. There may have been a visit or two where the draft list seemed a bit one sided, but that hasn't happened with the regularity that it did at Urban Family.
There was a long stretch of winter where everything Urban Family had on tap was stuff better suited to summer or spring, really light easy drinking stuff. As much as I enjoyed their beer during those visits, I was pining for a stout, porter, or even a schwarzbier. In the end, I still walked outta UF pretty happy.

 

Urban Family is seriously supply constrained. I was there with my wife and daughter once and all they had was Lady of the Night and Death to Cereal. On a 90 degree day. Bikers who came in left without buying anything. So that sucked.

Recently they seem to have five to six beers consistently on tap. I wonder if they're shipping too much all over the country at the expense of the taproom?

 

I had a similar experience this spring. It made me wish I had gone somewhere else that day.

 

I don't think I've seen less than 5 taps any time I've been there in the past 6 months so hopefully that's the new standard. Could be that they're shipping too much out. But there also seems to be a theme in people's comments on here that the taproom is typically empty, so why wouldn't they?

 

Fremont opens at 11am, it's definitely worth a stop especially if the weather is nice.

 

Definitely agree that urban family should be in 2nd tier of that list. Otherwise, pretty fair

 

@BuckeyeOne - any chance we can get you to throw Urban Family on that Highly Recommended list?

 

UF makes fine beer (and i miss their old location on ballard ave), but why would we need to add them to the visiting seattle thread? aren't there dozens of other breweries that make similar quality beer that could be thrown in as well? just off the top of my head... standard, two beers, rooftop, hellbent, lucky envelope, populuxe are unquestionably good breweries (and most have nicer tap rooms or more convenient locations than UF). i don't see much value in adding more names to an already enormous list for visitors.

 

I guess it's because, for me at least, from a quality standpoint I tend to have UF in my top 5 in Seattle. It's also a brewery that distributes to different parts of the nation and it may interest some visitors who have had their bottles to check them out. Can't argue with the "nicer taproom" comment, Urban Family is certainly lacking there. But their location does put you within short walking distance of the Ballard Locks.

 

Urban Family is doing something more akin to Holy Mountain than the other breweries you listed. Sours, NE IPAs, saisons, etc.

They can be left off, that's fine, but I think people have a good point to bring them up. We ignore them for the most part.

 

Ideally, people will make a concerted effort to visit in the coming months and we can rethink them in the fall. I also feel maybe we should pay a visit to some of those "highly recommended." I see at least one on there I'd rather not have people visiting if we want to put our best (beer)foot forward.