Yesterday the guys at Bottleworks asked me to vote in Northwest Brewing News' Best of Northwest Poll 2009, and so I did. Categories include Best Brewpub, Best Pub/Ale House, Best Beer Store, and Best Beer by Style. Note that the Northwest is here defined as including Northern California, so I believe that, oh, Old Rasputin qualifies for Best ( Read more... )

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I had a very nice day, which began once again with breakfast at Roxy's.

I managed to find time before the big game to watch Mothra (Mosura, 1961), which it turns out I had somehow never seen as a kid. What a sweet monster movie! Shades of Miyazaki in that Mothra is a kind of nature god protecting the noble ( Read more... )

Just before the end of the work day yesterday, I received e-mail from my unDasKapitalized co-editor asking if I'd like to join him at the Big Time brewpub for a Trombipulator Tripel. Ooh, ooh, twist my arm! The lovely Sarah (the bartender) was serving it to us, and only us, in pints rather than in the usual 12 oz. tulip glasses. Things spun ( Read more... )

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The Big Time had a little festival of beer and chocolate yesterday evening. Scott and I donned our beer aficionado hats for the event. There were eight dark beers and four Theo chocolates on offer. The owner of Theo Chocolate was on offer too. Well, I guess he was just there shaking hands with everyone. He asked us how we liked the chocolate. I ( Read more... )

As I've mentioned before, Bottleworks is a local beer store (they also carry fancy chocolate and a nice selection of cider) located in Wallingford. They have recently started a blog. For the most part they are using it to announce what's new at the shop, but I see they also have a story about Tex's recent birthday pubcrawl. "The sixth and final ( Read more... )

Nothing particularly mind-blowing in the aged beers brought up from the cellar at the Big Time last night. There was a 2006 Nemesis (Belgian Strong Ale) that was the favorite of some, although I liked the second half better than the first myself. There was a 2007 Trombipulator (Belgian Trippel) that was very nice and tasted almost like cinnamon at ( Read more... )

The Big Time Brewery and Alehouse is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week. It was the first brewpub that I ever encountered, at least in Seattle. Since it's just a half block from my place of employment, I've gone there many a time after work, although moreso in the past. These days I'm more likely to drop by on the weekend to watch a bit of ( Read more... )

Yesterday evening I went to jackwilliambell's house to bottle the mocha porter. Jack's grandson, Riley, was there this time, and he was interested in playing spelling and rhyming games. He had a pretty funny idea of what constituted a rhyme, I have to say. His sense of spelling wasn't much better. He'd reel off a series of random letters and ask what it spelled. ( Read more... )

So jackwilliambell and I brewed a batch of mocha porter this time, with real chocolate and real coffee added to the mix. Siphoning the wort was a real pain, and Jack had to keep jiggling the siphon in a regular, rhythmic manner to get it to flow. "That's the first time I've ever had to masturbate a beer," he grumbled afterward. The fluid was a remarkable cloudy ( Read more... )