A friend and I took advantage of some sunny weekend weather, as well as the 20 mph winds from the north, to bike south to Kent’s brewery, Airways Brewing Company. It was an awesome ride, cruising along at 20+ mph with no wind in our faces — the air felt quite still as we flew down the trails. The ride north up to Seatac wasn’t quite as enjoyable, unfortunately, struggling against the wind to keep up a 12 mph pace, but Link Light Rail handled the headwind the rest of way back to Seattle very well.

There was some good news and some bad news with the visit. Good news was they had logo glasses for sale. Bad news was they were out of two of their five year-round beers, the Starliner Stout and the Sky Hag IPA. Doh! I considered posting this entry and then updating after a re-visit, but I got lazy and just waited until their one year birthday party, figuring they’d have all the taps running, including some kind of small batch brew. But they were once again out of their stout, and were between small batches. Jeez. At least I got to cozy up with the Sky Hag. And partake of the free snack buffet. Mmm, free snacks…

Three out of five samplings (or six out of ten, perhaps) at Airways Brewing — Kent, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Jet City ESB – 5.5% – Good balance. Drinkable.
• Sky Hag IPA – 7.8% – Light floral aroma. Nice and hoppy, smooth, with a sweet caramel taste. Yum.

The Rest
• T-Tail Blonde – 5% – Fizzy, nothing particularly remarkable, but crisp, with some breadiness.
• First Class IPA – 5.6% – Decent hoppiness. A bit floral, but otherwise okay. A full-bodied IPA.

Airways Brewing is a much better name than Nose Cone Brewing — Kent, WA

I don’t think I’ll be heading down again just to try their stout, although they do seem to brew up small batches of beer fairly regularly (which run out very quickly, apparently). Oh well. They’ll be opening a brewpub in downtown Kent at some point this year, which is pretty cool. So, never say never, I suppose.