Friday before Memorial Day weekend the weather was looking pretty good for a ride to the shiny new Dirty Bucket Brewing in Woodinville. So I hopped on the bike and began pedaling up the Burke-Gilman. The further north I got, the larger a dark storm cloud I was heading directly towards became. Interesting, I thought, I hope it’s farther away than it looks. In Kenmore, the wind started picking up, and then, just east of the bike tunnels, I saw a sandwich board with the word “BEER” on it and figured it was a good time to stop and investigate. Turned out to be the brand new taproom for 192 Brewing, which I thought had closed. The rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated, and the taproom’s grand opening would be the next day. I got a beer, and as I roamed around their literal beer garden, fat drops of rain started to fall. Everyone packed inside the little taproom while the rain poured down for 10 or 15 minutes. Pretty crazy. Finished my beer soon after the storm passed, and so I hopped on the bike again, continuing on to Woodinville. The rest of the trail was littered with broken twigs and thin branches that the strong wind and rain had ripped from the trees, and it made the biking go more slowly than I wanted. But I finally made it.

Update! 8/4/13: I’ve re-visited a few times over the past year, but for some reason have been slacking off on updating this post. Shame on me. Dirty Bucket keeps putting out quality stuff, and they’ve been slowly but surely growing their operation. They seem to be starting to experiment with fruit beers, but I have not yet sampled one of them. Good enough reason to hop on the bike on hit the B-G again, I suppose.

Little buckets of beer at Dirty Bucket Brewing — Woodinville, WA

Rob’s Picks
• 1st Anniversary Ale – 6% – Grain profile from their amber, hop profile from their Filthy Hoppin’, and dry-hopped with citra. Citrus and tropical fruit aroma. Big, fairly sharp citrus, grapefruit, passion fruit hop flavor mix, with a touch of cattiness. Solid malt backbone. Big and bold.
• Full Nelson – 7% – Chocolate and coffee aroma with some citrus. Good thick head, luscious black color, but not too heavy. Smooth, with coffee/chocolate flavors with a nice little citrus hoppy edge.
• Ruski Porridge – 6% – Oatmeal coffee stout with beans from Highland Coffee Roasting. Smooth and not too thick, with good coffee flavor, very subtle sour mash edge, and a bit of alcohol on the finish. Good mix of flavors.
• XXX-tra IPA – 9% – Sharp, citrusy aroma. interesting flavor mix of sharp citrus and whiskey-like alcohol, with a solid body.
• Bedraggled – 5% – Irish red ale. Sweet caramel maltiness with a bit of honey flavor, quite smooth, with a solid body. Lingering caramel with subtle bitter balance.
• Dirty Blonde – 4.7% – Nice and crisp. Good breadiness with slight lemon flavor and subtle bitter finish.
• Dirty Amber – 5.5% – Malty but with a great hop finish. Good strong body.
• Rusty Pail Pale Ale – 5% – Crisp with subtle floral hoppiness and nice hoppy finish. Not as hoppy as other nw pale ales, but quite drinkable.
• Filthy Hoppin’ IPA – Citrus aroma. Spicy citrus start, with a touch of floral, and a great malty base. Bit of caramel, too.

The Rest
• Dirty Jack Pumpkin Ale – 5.5% – Crisp, with good bitterness to balance the pumpkin. Touch of alcohol flavor, too. Good for a pumpkin beer, but a taster was enough for me.
• Black Lab American Stout – Strong coffee aroma. Smooth coffee flavor, touch of chocolate. Not too thick.

Some of the debris had been cleared off the trails by the time I rode back, but what surprised me the most was having to dismount and walk around the pickup parked on the B-G. Maintenance guy was there with a chainsaw, cutting through a downed tree across the trail. The next downed tree trunk was taking up only half the trail, so I had no problem biking around that one. All in all, it was the most adventurous ride I’ve done on the Burke-Gilman.