A friend and I visited the Diamond Knot Brewery and Alehouse in scenic Mukilteo after an 88 mile bike ride from Bellingham to Everett. Ended up liking a lot of their beers, but after such a long ride anything would taste good, I suppose, so this little review may be a bit skewed.

Anyway, their Front Street location was the only thing happening in Mukilteo the Sunday night we showed up. Pretty crowded and loud, with lots of peanut baskets and shells on the floor. I assumed the food would be pretty basic, but my salmon sandwich had the fanciest presentation I’d ever seen for such a meal: a triptych of a platter, condiments on the left, the bun and fixin’s on the right, and the fish and onions cooking and sizzling away in the middle on a piping hot square stone. The “stonegrill” stayed hot a long time; my friend ended up using it later to keep his pizza slices warm. We went with the full-on sampler of all the Diamond Knot beers on tap. Good thing I wasn’t driving.

Diamond Knot tasters galore — Mukilteo, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Blonde Ale – like it. Nice drinkable blonde.
• ESB – nice balance, nice caramel flavor. Not very hoppy for an ESB but very drinkable.
• Whip Ale – good citrus and hop flavor, and there’s a Queensryche connection. Rock on!
• IPA – really good. Not particularly crisp but great flavor and hoppiness. Yum!
• Industrial IPA – tastes a lot like the IPA but 7.9% instead of 6%. Dangerous if you like very hoppy beers.
• Brown Ale – also very drinkable. Not your usual brown, though — fairly light. Maybe a better name would be “Beige Ale.” Ha!

The Rest
• Golden Ale – okay for a light beer but not really my thing
• Cream Ale – tastes a lot like the Golden, but with a very slight edge to the aftertaste. Not too creamy actually.
• Hefeweizen – decent hefe. Slightly sweet — no lemon wedge needed, really.
• Possession Porter – kinda weak. Not such a good porter IMHO, although the aftertaste is okay.
• Steamer Glide Stout – Guinness wannabe. Okay, but I’d rather drink a Guinness.

Another brew post down! Woo hoo! Two more to go and I’ll be all caught up once again.