I managed to combine a brewery visit with some mountaineering this summer.  Both before and after climbing Eldorado, a friend and I stopped by the Skagit River Brewery, and I was able to try all but one of their beers on tap. The skipped one, their lager, I’d had a week before at a restaurant in Bellingham. I didn’t take notes at the time, as you’ll no doubt notice from my brief review of it, but I didn’t find much there to take notes on, unfortunately. Ah well.

Skagit River taster paddle, with sunglasses — Mt Vernon, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Gose – 3.7% – Interesting mix of a beer. Malty, spicy crisp start with subtle salty balance. Nice light lingering saltiness. Bit of citrus aroma and flavor, too.
• Skagit Brown Ale – 4.5% – Nice crisp roasted barley flavor and slight caramel sweetness. Pretty smooth.
• Gospel IPA – 7.4% – Good strong hop attack. Initial floral hoppiness, then it diversifies. Good lingering taste. Nice light malty base. Strong floral/citrus aroma, too.
• Farm to Market English Bitter – 5% – Really nice. Great malty/hoppy balance, and the flavor keeps you thinking, and drinking.

The Rest
• Highwater Porter – 5.2% – Dark color and quite bubbly. Good roasted barley and coffee flavors, but hoppy undertone is kinda floral, which is an odd mix.
• Jenny’s Scottish Ale – 7.8% – Nice darker color like the brown and good malty flavor, but sweetness is like cough syrup.
• DelRio Lager – Kind of blah, not very interesting.