Bay Street Ale House

I love walking into a place that feels like home. A buddy and I went to play a little golf down in the Seattle area and decided to play in Bremerton at gold mountain. So after a ferry ride and a few more miles of driving we ended up at our hotel in Port Orchard on the other side of the bay from Bremerton. Once checked in we asked what's open as it was after 10pm and they were the only choice. So we headed on over, as we walked in we were the only people in and they looked like they were going to close. We asked if we could get some food, and were told the kitchen was just closed but they would make us a pizza if we ordered quickly. Then we ordered a round of beers. This place has a tap handle from every beer they have ever poured attached tom the roof, it was well into the high hundreds. They only pour Pacific Northwest produced beers & Guinesss on a roatating basis of what's new and cool. I startEd with a pikes kilt lifter quite nice a good start. I then had a spring reign from Ninkasi brewing a very nice beer that is perfect for a cool evening or a warm afternoon. Followed by a great IPA from diamond knot that was as good of an west coast IPA as I've had lately. They didn't have any when we were there but if your beer doesn't have enough hops in it they will give you some hop buds to dry hop your beer while you drink it. I don't see how this will add muck more flavor but it's worth a try.


What the Bay St Ale House lacked in outward appearance it made up for in personable service, really good pizza and an amazing beer selection. I would put this on my list anytime I head over into the west side of Seattle again.

P.s.
If you take the ferry from Bremerton back to Seattle they serve Red Hook ESB on board, great for the drinking and driving laws, but good for the beer drinkers.

Philly Day Three

Pat's Cheese Steak

Where to start. Got up fairly early and took a hefty walk from my hotel off to check out the Rocky steps. Pretty cool, not just outside. As I get closer a couple of tour buses pull up and 75 school kids all go running up the stairs and doing their impersonation of Rocky at the top. I next grab a cab to go and get the Philly experience of a cheese steak at both Pat's & Geno's I personally liked Pat's the best but it was close. I now head on a search through the Italian market. Wow this place is great, I went into a cheese shop operated by De Bruno Bros, that every Friday night does a beer & cheese tasting with a local microbrewery. Wish I would have been in town because this was the coolest cheese shop I have ever seen.

one isle at Bella Vista Beer Distributors

Next I'm off to find the subway and see if i cold find a beer to help digest the cheese steaks i just ate, I see this sign saying cold beer. So I venture over and stumble upon Bella Vista Beer Distributors the biggest beer store you will ever see. if you could take a small grocery store and fill it with cases of beer. At least ten rows with each row consisting of 50 - 60 different beers segregated by region, or country. They even had a nice Belgium room with tons of Belgians. This place would be my go to place if I lived there. I was now really beer so I ask the shop manager and he sends me off to my next estimation.

the first tasting platter

The Devils Den a really cool beer bar about five blocks away. I tried a couple of there tasting platters both were really good with a nice selection, could have been served in different orders but i should know better. From what I have read this is the place to go in south Philly. Next I'm off to take in some pre game fun at McFaddens at Citizens Bank Park a short walk from the hockey game. Unfortunately their thoughts of a micro brewed beer was the local Yuengling the Penn version of Canadian or in other words shit. So I was stuck drinking Sierra Nevada Pale not bad but with the options. The rest of the night goes down hill from there with some Guinness, Long Hammer, Bud & Miller lite ( I know I wasn't paying). I don't remember much past that I just know I made my flight at 9:30 the next morning but was a hurting puppy. I saw a couple of nice looking beers at the Newark airport but was in no shape to give them a try. As I was walking back to get my luggage at Seatac I stumbled upon the Seattle Tap house near terminal B that looked great and will be on my list for my next trip through.

That's all for my Philly trip. Philly gets a bad rap as a rough and tumble city. It turns out it's a great city filled with tons of super friendly people, with great food and really good beer. A must see place for the foodie or beer geek.

Philly day 2

The Liberty Bell

What a day it's amazing what 8 hours of sleep will do for your body. It was freaking miserable day today. I flew this far to get a Vancouver January day cold and misty. Had to even buy a toque. Started out by heading to the Reading Terminal Market for some breakfast nice, this market makes Granville Island look like kindergarten and tiny in comparison. It was breakfast time so I didn't stop for a beer but they do have the option available in the beer garden. Next off to see the Liberty Bell and some historic sites. Pretty impressive to see buildings that were built in the 1700's.

my 1/4 rack of ribs

Now for the good stuff. I ventured off to check out some of Olde City Philly and was getting tired of the rain and cold when I smelled this amazing wood smoke coming from this restaurant. So I ventured in to have a beer or too. The place is called Q. It's where the old Philadelphia Fish Company was. The place was fairly empty but smelled amazing. I sat at the bar and ordered a beer Long Trail IPA from Vermont, not bad I get a feeling that the East coast brewers like more malty, less hoppy beers. I would have this beer again as it wasn't too heavy had a fairly low abv probably around 5% for an IPA. Next up was another Yards Pale. They must have a couple different versions of this as the one on tap is different from the bottle one, that could be me just not having enough sleep when I had the first one. I really didn't want to eat as I was going to be meeting someone for a late lunch but the Bartender ( can't remember his name but a great guy) kept trying to get me to order some food. So I gave in and ordered a 1/4 rack of ribs I will put a picture up when I get back but you will die at what a 1/4 rack looks like, I've seen a full rack that seemed smaller. There went lunch but it was worth every bite.

Triumph Brewing Tasting Platter

I set off to explore more of Olde City when 1/2 a block further I stumbled on Triumph Brewing. The place was dead only a couple of people at the bar it was 2:30 and still shit out so I ordered up there tasting platter with 8 was supposed to be 10 but two were out but 8 was enough even though I was offered two more samples. Of the beers tried the Jewish Rye had a hint of caraway in it and the Belgian double stood out. They were all good beers this place is a definite for the beer lover on any trip to Philly.

The Beer Board @ Triumph

Now it's off to lunch to meet my wife's coworker. Lunch was great it was reply nice to meet Tony and hear his stories about the city and region. The beer I had was nothing special a local lager that was ok but much better than the Yuengling ( I'll review that one later)

After walking all day probably close to 15 km I was tired and needed a break so i went back to the room and had small nap. Feeling refreshed I headed over to a place that the bartender at triumph tod me about called Village Whisky can't just drink beer right. Well the place was packed at 8:30 and had a line for even the bar seats, too bad the food looked great. So I started walking back towards my hotel to see what jumped out at me and I stumbled upon the Devils Ally, I went upstairs to the bar for a bite and a few beers. I started off with the happy hour special Flying Dog Saison. It was ok but a little watery for my taste. I then ordered up their tasting platter which consisted of four beers, none of them were particularly good or bad just average. A couple sat down beside me and ordered a beer I never even saw on the list from Duck Rabbit it was there brown ale, it was new for them so he opened one up to try and gave me a taste. It was great almost like the old Okanagan Springs Nut Brown (the best beer they ever made by the way) a nice malty beer with a little hop kick, defiantly something you could make a regular every day beer.

A bit of a surprise when I was leaving the bartender was restocking his cooler when he brought up some six packs of Red Racer IPA and Pale Ale, come all the way across the continent to see a beer from 15 minutes from my house, told the bartender he has a good one with an easy sell on the IPA as it continually wins awards back in B.C.

That's it for day two I will be posting some pics of some things when I get back


S

Yards Pale Ale

Just finished a marathon 27hr traveling spree that involved a round of golf @ Chambers Bay in Seattle future home of the US Open golf. Now sitting at 10 arts by Eric Ripert having a great super hoppy Pale could almost be a IPA but it's not. Not a bad first choice for my first Philly beer. Need sleep bad!

Pyramid Outburst Imperial IPA

Sitting here at Seatac having a fine malty beverage. Not bad for a spring IPA. Tried to upload a photo but can't figure it out. 8.5% abv with a fairly sweet malt note. Tastes like some cascade and a couple other hoops but cant tell by taste. Not as hoppy as I like but it will do, wouldn't find this on too many menus at home. Gotta love the Northwest.

Test

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Pretty Things KK

A dark IPA with a latte colored head that hangs out for awhile. Not as hoppy as I expected, has a super dark color with a sweet berry like finish. Love it as this is the first product I've tried from these guys. This is a recreation of a beer from 1901. Here’s the label description: “Once upon a time, on Friday, November 15th, 1901, an Edwardian brewer stepped into a London brewhouse and brewed a beer that confounds expectations many years later. An ale darker than most Porters that uses more hops than a IPA. This might be where the cascadian dark ale started. I really enjoyed this beer and look forward to trying a few more of them.