Finally Brouwer's, & New Brew Reviews!

Beer Luvvas,

Greetings from Seattle! SQHub and I started what looks to be a glorious Memorial Day Weekend with a trip to Brouwer's last night. It was wicked good! Brouwer's is a no-muss-no-fuss pub, focusing on Belgian's - with over 20 on tap. Luckily for ASG (who's not a big fan of Belgians), their tap list is much larger, than 20 with a smattering of both local Seattle brews, and good craft beers from around the country.

SQHub started with Mad River's Steelhead Extra Stout: a smooth, dry stout that starts out coffee but finishes up chocolate. Very smooth, and easy drinking.

I opted for the Bear Republic Big Bear Imperial Stout: A much stronger stout than Mad River's Steelhead, this brew let you know that there is Bear Republic's signature strong hop character behind the caramel-ly, roasted malt flavors one expects from an Imperial Stout. This was a great quaff.

SQHub had opted to drive so he sat out round two: what magnanimous host! My second brew of the evening was Maritime's Salmon Bay ESB - also known as Jane's Bitter - on CASK! I do love the cask conditioned ale! Salmon Bay is a traditional ESB, and was quite smooth on cask. However, I was a bit disappointed that the hop notes did not thrive from the cask. The flavors could have been much more complex and inviting.

Round three was a return to stouts for both SQHub and myself. I was unable to ignore the Old Rasputin, while SQHub opted for Big Time's Dry Irish Stout. We discovered that both brews were on nitro when the pints arrived with the customary creamy head. As expected, Old Rasputin did not disappoint, and neither did Big Time's brew. We believe Big Time's Buck Mulligan's Dublin Stout (from Big Time's taplist) is the same beer we sampled at Brouwer's because we described it as a less sweet version of the Guinness/Murphy's recipe, and the description of the brew listed Mulligan's "a drinkable stout on the order of Guinness." In the end, it was another worthy quaff.

The best part of this post is that there were many other taps to sample, and I haven't even mentioned their double-digit page bottle list! Also, the food is solid! So, I can finally say that I've been to Brouwer's, and that I'm still rating it the #1 place to get beer in Seattle!

Prost to Brouwer's!