Washington State Beer Help

Looks like I will have a Sunday and Tuesday afternoon/evening in Seattle (4/28-30), and a Monday evening in Bellingham.
Alternatively I might drive up to Vancouver BC on Sunday, and just have Tuesday in Seattle.

Any of you Wash. beer drinkers have some recommendations? I’ll be needing to eat some lunches and dinners as well.

I’ll be staying at The Sound in Belltown in Seattle, will have a car if needed Can I get some great beer in Pike Place Market - that seems like a place I should go to.

Never been to Washington so looking forward to some good beers.

I am also hoping to grab some Heater Allen bottles to brig back with me, so if you know any shops that will have it let me know.

Thanks!

There are others that know this scene better, but Chuckanut in Bellingham makes one of the best german style pilsners in the state, and has some other good beers. In Seattle you should visit Holy Mountain (wild yeast, brett, barrel beers) and Fremont (lots of styles, but excels at ipa IMO) off the top of my head. There are many others as well. One of my favorite lunches is going to pick up a #1 at Un Bien (or other orders as well) and taking it to the beer garden at Fremont to eat.

There are plenty of recent restaurant theads if you do a quick search for seattle resataurants.

Visit holy mountain and Fremont. They are close to each other.
Then stop by Masonry for pizza and more beer.
(It’s next door basically to Fremont brewing)

Seattle -I don’t think there are any excellent breweries here, but definitely a few very good ones. Cloudburst Brewing and Holy Mountain Brewing are the only two I think are very good and both are in walking distance/short Lyft ride from your hotel.

Others that are thought highly of by locals, but I’m not personally a fan of, include Fremont Brewing, Reuben’s Brews, and Stoup. You could spend an entire day going to Fremont and the breweries in the Ballard neighborhood (Reuben’s, Stoup, etc). I’d argue you’re better off going to one of the better beer bars in town. Brouwer’s and The Masonry, both in Fremont neighborhood, have excellent beer selections and food. Teku Tavern is within walking distance of your hotel - the draft list is solid. But the bottle selection, which you can drink onsite, is bonkers. You can procure your Heater Allen bottles there.

Bellingham - Structures and Chuckanut (has solid food) are must stops. Not personally a fan, but others like Kulshan, Aslan (pretty good food), Wander, and Melvin.

On the drive up, definitely stop at Garden Path Fermentation, which is near the airport in Burlington, about 20 miles south of Bellingham. The new Chuckanut pub is a two minute drive from Garden Path, so you could try that one instead of the OG in Bellingham. Then you should drive to Bellingham via Chuckanut Drive and stop at the Taylor Shellfish Farm location there and eat oysters right on the water.

You guys are awesome. Thanks a lot.
I’ll actually be heading to Bellingham Monday late afternoon after meetings in Vancouver, so I may not be able to stop in Burlington, but thanks for suggestion. But maybe I will spend Sunday night in Bellingham instead of Seattle - that will make my Monday drive to Vancouver more manageable.

Masonry & Brouwer’s both look great to me in Seattle.

IIRC, Masonry will sometimes have Monkish on tap, which, if true, blows my mind.

Not always on tap, but often enough. Definitely some bottles.

The owner is well connected in the beer world, which is why he regularly has stuff not normally distributed here (Monkish, Oxbow, Tired Hands, etc). But you pay for the privilege.

Mark, one place I neglected to mention is No Anchor downtown. A gastropub that focuses on food paired with beer. Usually a solid tap list, so worth visiting even if not eating there.

Thanks, No Anchor looks good and walkable from hotel

Chuck’s Hop Shop is a local institution.

I expect that we will be making a delivery to the Puget Sound area before you are up there. Pretty much all the places mentioned buy beer from us. Garden Path is usually a big purchaser, and is the Masonry. Bottleworks usually buys quite a bit of bottle/cans as well.

Thanks Rick, good to hear my first experience will likely be fresh :slight_smile:

If you make it to Pikes place pop into DeLaurenti. They have a reasonable craft beer selection all things considered.

Mark, this article about Bellingham (mostly beer-related, but food and coffee recs too) may be of use during your short visit.

As someone who drinks a lot of coffee, mostly all espresso, I second the article’s recommendation of Primer, although I’d add Camber is as good, if not better.

Following up on this …
Some really great weather last Sunday-Tuesday!

My visit started with lunch at Brouwer’s … great mussels and had the holy mountain Citra Pale Ale.
Stopped at Bottleworks and picked up their last bottle of Heater Allen.
Drove up to Garden Path and picked up a couple more bottles of Heater Allen (brought home dunkel, schwarz, and one Sandy Paws).
Stopped at Taylor’s and had some tasty oysters - what a great place for oysters right on the water
Side note … wish I had time to hike some of the trails around here.
Checked into Chrysalis Inn Bellingham. This place was really nice.
Had a TIPA at Structure that was really good.
At Chuckanut had their Maibock (great) and new world German lager (ok).

Monday had a tasty breakfast at Old Town Cafe, then drove up to Vancouver for meetings at two customers. Got finished sorta early.
Had dinner at the Lighthouse and enjoyed Chuckanut Pils, Wander Shoe Toss Rye IPA, and a stout from Wander.

Tuesday morning had coffee from Primer, then a meeting in Mt Vernon, and drove down to Seattle and checked into the Sound Hotel. Walked around for a couple hours and ended up at Teku Tavern for a Heater Allen Pils (excellent!). I could spend a lot of time in Teku if I wasn’t trying to hit multiple places.
Was debating an uber to Masonry or walking to No Anchor. Ended up walking.
At No Anchor, they were out of oysters (: so had pickled mussels that I didn’t love and the wagyu steak which was good.
Had Cloudburst A Million Universes IPA, Holy Mountain Remnant Saison, and '17 Dieu du Ciel Grand Noirceur Russian Imp Stout.

Flew home early Wednesday AM.

Great short business trip with some awesome personal time that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun without the great recommendations. Thanks again! Bummed I didn’t get to Masonry either Sunday or Tuesday.

I’m glad you were able to find a little bit of our beer. Unfortunately we didn’t make a delivery until last Friday, and then we took another load on Saturday…

Glad you had a good trip, Mark. Hope you got the Sandy Paws bottle with my awesome dog on the label. [wow.gif]

Ironic you went for the Oregon Heater Allen. It’s been a while since I’ve been beer drinking in Seattle but Hales in Ballard had great beer many moons ago.

Hales has not made great beer in many moons. Or at least the 12+ years I’ve lived in Seattle.

Does Mr. Hales post on WB? neener
I would have looked for it if I had known about it, but I did not even get to try all the recs in this thread in such a short visit.