Update: Closed!

Last and, unfortunately, least was the San Juan Brewing Company and Front Street Ale House.  After five days of biking, I was really looking forward to this brewpub. Instead, what I found was forgettable beer and mediocre food. Two bad tastes that go worse together. You gotta be leery of a place that touts their Bacon Beer as their most famous (“as mentioned in the New York Times!”). They had an insert in their menus saying they were out of the Bacon Beer at the moment, which was some welcome news to me, but when the taster tray showed up, there it was. Wayne generously offered to drink that one.

San Juan Brewing taster tray — Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA

Rob’s Pick
• Blockhouse Red – decent amber, but only 4.0%

The Rest
• Raging Main Ale (limited edition) – stale, papery taste. Their strongest beer at 6.6%.
• Royal Marine IPA – kinda hoppy, but kinda big for an IPA, which masks the hoppiness. A little too well-rounded for my tastes. 4.3%
• Eichenberger Hefeweizen – kind of watery. Meh. 4.0%
• Haro Strait Pale Ale – slightly floral, mostly meh. One of my least favorite Pale Ales, actually. A mere 3.5%.
• Ale Diablo Pepper Beer – peppery! Gives you something else to think about as you drink this otherwise mediocre beer.
• Starboard Porter – a Zen koan of a beer. From the beer menu: “Molasses” – yup. “Version of a straight-forward stout” – yup. “But without the stoutiness” – odd. What is a stout when it’s not a stout?
• Bacon Beer – Wayne sez, “inoffensive”

The next day we took the ferry to Lopez Island, where we met up with Wayne’s wife, who had driven up from Seattle.  We loaded the bikes onto the car, then spent the day motoring all around the island, and capping it off with a great dinner.  In some ways I felt guilty about the bike-less last day of the bike tour, but in other ways I didn’t…  All in all, I have to say it a fine trek.