It is probably a good time to start recapping our most recent trip to the Seattle area before I forget any of the details of our time there. Today makes perfect sense as a FAT (Food and Travel for those of you not in the know) Monday post, but there will be a handful of others from the trip peppered around in the next few weeks as well. Looking back, there was at least one occasion of beer enjoyment on each day of our time there (maybe save for one) so the whole trip relates well to the site.
Why not start with the first day of the trip? I think it was also the most beer intensive (and sleep deprived) by far.
Getting up incredibly early for the first flight out of town to the west coast makes for a long day for us east coasters. So we were sure to grab a snack and some (local) coffee during our layover time in Salt Lake City.
Love me a good cup of coffee!
I will go ahead and skip over the details of our incredibly long wait at a rental car counter that we had no patience for once arriving at SeaTac. Besides being sick of airports and traveling, we had a schedule to keep. We needed to meet Seattle Jeff for a little of this . . .
Just a fantastic sight after a long day of travel.
Actually our intent was to pick Seattle Jeff up so he would not have to walk the two miles or so from work to the brewery, but he beat us there on foot after our rental car delay. However, after tasting the beers (and sampling the cheese paired with them) I don’t think he minded the walk that much. I will save further mention of our time with Cody at Epic Ales for future posts since I have much more of the day to get to and the post will be quite long enough without that content. That and I liked the beer (and the person) enough to dedicate entire posts to them sometime relatively soon.
After Maureen (Seattle Jeff’s wife and currently without nickname) met us at Epic Ales and after having a few more beer samples, we decided to head up to the Seattle International Beerfest. That was not before buying a case (or whatever you want to call 12-22oz bottles) of beer and a few souvenirs (which you will likely see some other time) from Cody on our way out the door.
Some of our friends for the afternoon.
Having so many beers to choose from was a bit overwhelming as we tried to decide where to start (or technically continue) our sampling at the festival. Having a few before arriving probably worked to our advantage as the rain that started to fall did not seem to affect our focus at all. Though I will let the pictures do most of the story telling for me, I should mention some of the beers that we tried during our time there.
Deep in thought or possibly staring at the Space Needle.
We split our efforts by enjoying some beers from breweries that we (or I) never see much of and also some new beers (at least to us) from some of our favorite breweries. That meant jumping around (in no exact order) from Firestone Walker (Velvet Merkin) to Nøgne Ø (#100) to Ninkasi (Maiden the Shade & Kraken) to Deschutes (Mirror Mirror) to New Belgium (La Folie) to Stone (Sublimely Self Righteous & Cali Belgique) to Great Divide (Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti & 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA) to, well you get the idea. There are some that I surely forgot, but that is a pretty good rundown of our draft heavy (very few from bottles for us) sampling for the day.
One way to remember what was sampled.
Decisions, decsions.
We did not do much in the way of reviewing what we drank, but there are a few check marks next to the Great Divide and Stone and New Belgium offerings indicating our particular enjoyment of them. That and we actually remembered to make a mark about them as we sampled!
By that time The Wife and I realized that we had not really eaten a decent meal all day. Fortunately we were all due for something good to help settle our stomachs, so there was no resistance to finding some dinner.
Making sure we were good to walk to the car.
So instead of settling our stomachs, we went for some good burn by going to one of our favorite spots in town. Actually this was the first visit for The Wife (after a failed attempt at going years ago), but it is now one of her favorites as well. If I ever remember to do so, I have video from one of my previous visits that shows the crazy speed at which the chef works to keep the constant line at the door moving along. Someday I will get to that.
The line speaks volumes.
Burns so good!
After leaving dinner we headed to Seattle Jeff’s place to finally settle into a seated position for the remainder of the evening. The only appropriate way to deal with our still burning mouths (from dinner) and to also continue abusing our bodies for the day was to enjoy a few brews from Deschutes and Full Sail that were waiting in the fridge. That is just what we did and after being our designated driver for the day, The Wife was even able to join us for those.
Our after dinner snack
I would say that was a great first day in Seattle for us and an appropriate end to the work week for our hosts. Though probably the most beer intense day of the trip (it would have taken a lot to top it), there was more fun with beer to come.
Until day two . . .
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