Seattle Beer

Five friends and I flew out to Seattle recently to catch an NFL game between our beloved Tennessee Titans taking on the Seattle Seahawks.  We made a mini-vacation out of the long weekend which included not only going to the game (in a rented yacht no less), renting a cool house out on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound near Seattle, and a float plane trip up to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands and back including a pick-up at the house.  There was even some beer consumed along the way...imagine that....

Our sweet rental house on Vashon Island slept the six of us easily.

Our seaplane ride up to the San Juan Islands included a pick-up and drop-off at our rental house.

A nice view of Bainbridge  Island from the seaplane on the ride north.

Downtown Seattle came into view far in the distance on our flight back.

Enemy territory!  The new Seahawks stadium is pretty awesome and our seats were great.  Too bad the outcome wasn't a win but Seattle's having a great season and very hard to beat at home.  It was a competitive game at least.  And we had a great time while we were there and the Seahawk fans couldn't have been nicer. (Editors' note:  Seattle was Super Bowl champs this year!).

Our awesome ride to and from the game was the Mary Adda, a 1928 fully-restored wooden yacht.  Our captain, Kevin, picked us up at our house on Vashon Island and returned us back after the game.  Not a bad way to SEA the game!!  Those are my friends Danny (rockin' the McNair jersey - RIP) and Wayne (with the awesome blue Afro).

Mt. Rainier  was even "out" a bit on our way back from the game.

We took a great hike out at Mt. Pilchuk in the Cascades the day after the game.

And as my UNTAPPD app on my IPhone indicates in the screen-shot here, yes, there was some drinking.

Not a bad little trip. and did I mention the beer was outstanding!!   Well it was.  Seattle has a ton of microbreweries and we planned on visiting a few until we got to the rather remote Vashon Island and went in local Thriftway Grocery Store.  We were hoping for the best that the place would at least a little decent beer for the house and maybe some Kokannee, a BC-made mass produced pilsner that isn't half bad.  What we got was one of the most amazing beer aisles I have ever seen!!  And I have seen a lot of good beer aisles, but was never expecting this at a place with "Thrift" in the name.  I am kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of the beer aisle because it was so good that we never made to to a microbrewery and didn't need to with this vast selection of quality beer here.

Here's a little run-down of what I had over the four-day stint:

Hoppy Bitch IPA (love that name!) - Northwest Brewing Company (Pacific, WA) - in bottles

Kokanee Lager (made by Labatt Brewing) - in bottles

Pike Brewing (Seattle) IPA - bottles - outstanding IPA!

Lucille's California Pale Ale (Bayhawk Ales in Irvine, CA) - bottles

Blackcat Porter - Mac and Jack's Brewing (Redmond, WA) - bottles

The Mens Room Original Red (Ale) - yes, we got it for the hilarious name, but it wasn't half-bad and didn't "taste like piss" or "smell like shit" as the name might imply!! - bottles - Elysian Brewing (Seattle)

Evolutionary IPA - Two Beers Brewing (Seattle) - cans

Apocalypse IPA - (10 Barrel Brewing - Bend, Oregon) - on tap at the local pizza parlor - this island is awesome!!

Oatis Oatmeal Stout (Ninkasi Brewing - Eugene, Oregon) - on tap at a pizza parlor north of Seattle.

And finally....Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate,Peanut Butter and Banana Ale (Rogue Brewing - Oregon) - bought this bomber and drank most of it myself.  It was strangely sweet, but enjoyable.

I had to go to the Great Northwest to get the southern tradition of catfish for breakfast for the first time at a cool little restaurant aptly named The Southern Kitchen over in Tacoma, Washington on our last day there.

A great (and true) poster at the restaurant we had lunch at in Friday Harbor.

The mountain was really OUT on my flight home not to mention the one behind it and the left much farther away. We were fortunate to have great weather four days we were in Seattle which is kind of rare.