Beer Blotter

Great scott! Its Great Pumpkin.

No doubt – this is a Top 5 Seattle beer event. Each of us, over here at Beer Blotter, agree that Elysian Brewing‘s Great Pumpkin Beer Festival is one of the can’t miss events we have here in Seattle, each year.

Elysian Brewing puts on this years celebration of all things pumpkin from October 16-17, 2010. The event begins each day at 12:00 PM and goes on through the evening.

What should you expect from this event? How about 40+ pumpkin-styled beers!

Elysian will roll out 3 or 4 beer trucks and set them up in the back lot. Each truck will pour several beers, from brewers all around the country. Here is the preliminary lineup, but remember that Elysian always holds a few names back as a surprise:

From Elysian: Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, The Great Pumpkin, Dark o’ the Moon Pumpkin Stout, Hansel & Gretel Ginger Pumpkin Pilsner, Kaiser Kurbis Pumpkin Hefeweizen, PK-47 Pumpkin Malt Liquor, Mr. Yuck Sour Pumpkin Ale, and a few surprises including a new brew and treats from the Elysian Cellar.

Guest Beers From: Big Time, Silver City, Snipes Mountain, Naked City, Elliott Bay, Schooner Exact, Rock Bottom, Fremont, Diamond Knot, Anacortes, Ram-Puyallup, Rogue-Issaquah, Allagash, Russian River, Iron Hill, Cambridge, Nodding Head, Jolly Pumpkin, Dogfish Head, Stewart’s, Beer Valley & Laurelwood!

We hope that you caught some of these names and did a double take – we did. Jolly Pumpkin!? Russian River?! Iron Hill!! These are some of the greatest brewers around. You can expect to see some other surprises, throughout the festival.

One other thing. Did you see that gigantic pumpkin on the Elysian webpage? Dick and the guys over at Elysian brew a beer in one of these massive gourds each year. I am hopeful that this trend continues on this year.

Don’t miss this event – It’s one of a kind!

Wings!!!! Belltown Pub's tasting photos gave me a glimpse of these diamond dandies.

Back in June, I did a short article about the return of the Belltown Pub. Back at that time, there was some hope that the Pub would be up and running by July.

Well, that didn’t happen, but each and every day I noticed people working on it. From painting the outside, to replacing furniture, to installing 6 or 7 large LCD TVs, to completing the bar and its 8 or so taps, to finally this week – putting up the new brass-styled “Belltown Pub” sign.

I walked by the new Pub yesterday afternoon to notice a locked door and an “OPEN” sign in the off position. But, inside was a full staff setting tables, TVs blazing and 8 beautiful tap handles ready to pour. It appears that the Belltown Pub has finally arrived.

I still cannot locate a website for the new Pub, but they do sport a fine Facebook page. The pages describes the bar as follows:

Welcome to the Belltown Pub, A Northwest inspired restaurant and bar situated in the heart of Belltown! Come check us out for our great food, signature cocktails and local craft beer selection!

Open for Lunch and Dinner 7 Days a week!

Then they posted this little nugget:

Its here. Hope you have a ticket already.

After a daring 3 post day yesterday, I am a bit spent. I really enjoyed the 52 Weeks on the Pub at Third Place, put together by Timperial Stout. That place looks awesome.

We followed that up with two afternoon posts, discussing our love for Tour de Fat and our shocked response to BrewDog’s latest grog. It took a lot out of me.

So, for today you get a little perspective on what the hell is happening in Seattle and where you need to be on this beautiful Friday evening:

Capitol Hill Block Party

First and foremost, this is on top of the list. This Capitol Hill music festival takes over the hill for the entire weekend. Those of you who were lucky to score $60 weekend passes probably noticed that they are going for over $300 now on Craigslist. Who would have thought that live music was an investment?

Anyways, If you are headed to the hill tonight, you will get to see the likes of Yeasayer, MGMT, Bear in Heaven, Holy Fuck and Jaguar Love. The lineup is pretty damn good.

The problem with CHBP is the lack of enjoyable ales. Typically, you are restrained to a few bars in the Pike & Pine Street area, between 10th and 12th Avenues. There are a few bars here, most notably Quinns, which has an amazing bottle list and typically a few good taps. Last year, they had most of their taps shut down to fill them with PBR and Mannys. Hopefully that is not the case again this year.

My memory was that I took off the bad sets and headed over to Odd Fellows Cafe to grab a Firestone Walker Union Jack. You can also head up to 12th and grab one of the amazing craft beers at Elysian Brewing.

In the words of “the goat”: “have good mosh-pitting.”

Superstars on at Brouwers Cafe

Well they never cease to amaze us with their incredible collection of beer on draft. Today they have two of my absolute favorite beers on earth: my favorite Imperial IPA and a Top 5 Sour Ale. From their Facebook:

Brouwer’s Cafe Just two of the many delicious beers on draft. We still have RR Supplication. We just tapped a keg of thus years batch of Boundary Bay’s Imperial Ipa.

The Beer Junction Hosts First Tasting

The Beer Junction is a quality bottle shop that just opened over in West Seattle. They are hosting their first-ever tasting event this evening. Guess who is the guest: Stone Brewing.  From their twitter:

@thebeerjunction 1st tasting [today] w/ Stone! 5-8pm- pale ale, cali-belgique IPA, 14th anniversary IPA, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Russian Stout $2 tasting fee.

Naked City Blows Me Away

I love this place. Let me say it again – I love it. No place in Seattle offers you the amazing bar dichotomy of a brewery and a tap house. Right now they are showcasing their tap house abilities, with an amazing list of micros.

Check out their ever-evolving tap list at their website. But here is a snapshot: Russian River Consecration (Amatuer Hour’s favorite beer), Double Mountain Bonne Idee (our favorite saison made in US), Walking Man Homo Erectus, and Russian River Pliny the Elder (for all you Pliny Watchers out there).

Regardless of where you end up – it looks to be a heck of a night! Anything else that we missed? Post in comments below.

The location for The Beer Junction (Photo: West Seattle Blog)

Seattle’s newest bottle shop has opened up in West Seattle – bringing great craft beer across the bridge! We are very happy to announce that The Beer Junction has finally opened up in West Seattle. The new shop officially opened its doors on Saturday, July 3, 2010.

We have yet to pay a visit to the Junction, but we saw an article from Washington Beer Blog‘s Kendall Jones about the opening. Kendall’s article highlights the fact that two of our area’s best beer bloggers each will have a shelf to showcase their beer picks. A shelf will feature the picks of Seattle Beer News‘ Geoff Kaiser and Washington Beer Blog’s Kendall Jones.

Of course, we are very delighted to see area beer writers get some input. We would highly recommend that you take a look at their shelf when you visit – these guys know their beer!

Read more about Kendall’s picks by visiting his article. Seattle Beer News has yet to publish a listing of its picks – but check the website for more in the coming days.

The Beer Junction is located at:
4707 42nd Ave. SW
Seattle, WA 98116
206-938-BEER

Check them out.

Will Water Street's epic Strange Brew Fest emerge from the dust? We hope so.

Last week, I poured my heart out for Water Street Brewing in Port Townsend, Washington. The article became, by far and away, our widest read post. It was also mentioned in a few other places, including the brewery’s own webpage.

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who gave us good comments on the article. I am so very happy to know that there are others out there that feel the same about that majestic place. The Port Townsend community surely held high regard for its favorite watering hole.

I wrote my eulogy to my favorite brewpub in a matter of about 15 minutes. I really wanted to have it go up the same day that they announced their closing. In doing so, I rambled about, refused a re-read and published. I now recognize that there are probably 1000 thoughts that I failed to mention, but I am fairly certain that I (or anyone for that matter) could write a novel about Water Street Brewing. The institution created 60 years worth of memories and nostalgia in about 6 years.

Water Street Brewing had their final night at the old Water Street address on Thursday, June 24, 2010. In closing my article, I held out hope for a resurrection of my favorite spot. It appears that the prayers of many, may be answered.

Water Street Brewing’s owners have published the following blurb on to their website, offering hope to us all:

We, here at Water Street Brewing are currently working hard to find a new location and would love to ask our loyal friends to give us a helping hand. If you would like to share your experiences and opinions, it would go a long way to show how very much our community would like to see us reopen in a new home. Please either email us, or the Pennisula Daily News, or post your contribution to ourFacebook Fan Page. Thank YOU!

Needless to say, I wrote to them immediately. My position is simple: find a place with the character and atmosphere that bred great experiences for your patrons. An old dusty shoe would probably work – as long as the same people are there with the same love they once had.

I implore you all to e-mail them if you have an opinion about what they do next. The best way to follow their re-launch is to check their Facebook page. Hold out hope folks. Good things happen.