When I first heard about the bike-centric Peddler Brewing, it sounded like a perfect fit for me, what with my apparent obsession with biking to breweries and all. I even pre-ordered a logo pint glass by kicking in a few bucks to their Kickstarter campaign. The two Peddlers, Dave and Haley, took over the old Maritime Pacific space and made it their own with an indoor hanging bike rack and workstation, sidewalk patio, and an awesome concrete bar with embedded bike parts. Interestingly, they and neighboring brewery Populuxe (more on them in an upcoming post) officially opened on the same day — I wasn’t sure how that would pan out, but the local media deemed it newsworthy, using it as a lead-in to stories on the burgeoning Ballard brewing scene. Both places were packed all weekend.

Peddler Brewing samplers (couldn’t think of a clever bike pun, sorry). They have since upgraded the logo sign hanging above the taps. — Seattle, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Kolsch – 4.9% – Light banana/clove aroma. B/C flavor lighter the aroma, with herbal and floral hoppiness, light breadiness, a bit of sweetness, and some bitterness on the finish.
• Caramel ESB – 5.4% – Light and not too sweet. Caramel comes in middle to finish. Very subtle floral hoppiness. Great balance and somewhat restrained.
• Tangerine Wheat – 5.5% – Tangerine aroma. The flavor goes well with the wheat. Some tanginess, some breadiness, good mouthfeel. Nice tangerine finish.
• IPA – 5% – Muted hoppiness. Subtle flavor mix: grapefruit, floral, lemon, malty backbone. Lightly bitter.
• Snow Beer’d – 7.9% – Caramel aroma and flavor. Good carbonation. Bit of alcohol edge on the finish. Nice balance.
• Patio Pale – 5.1% – Floral aroma. Nice light floral and herbal hop flavors. Fairly complex maltiness to balance — biscuit, toast, caramel. Really drinkable.
• Stage 22 Stout – 5% – Strong coffee/chocolate aroma. Light, with coffee/chocolate flavors and a bit of a spicy mouthfeel. Bit of dark chocolate bitterness on the finish.

The Rest
• On Your Left IPA – 6.4% – Quite bitter. Masks the other flavors, unfortunately. Some floral hop flavor and maybe some herbal, too, and some sort of maltiness.
• Rye-P-A – 5% – Floral aroma. Floral and herbal hoppiness. Caramel maltiness. Rye is subtle but there if you look for it. Lingering floral flavor.
• Coffee Saison – 7% – Banana/clove aroma and flavor, with some coriander that goes well with it. Little bit of bitterness on the finish and maybe some very subtle coffee flavor there, as well, but I wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the name.
• Pale Ale – 4.8% – First batch on their production system. Pretty bready, light on the hops, and a touch of lemon.
• Belgian Spice – 7% – Banana/clove aroma and flavor. Ginger flavor, too. Fairly light and bubbly, but a touch watery.

Now that the local media have done the Ballard brewery story, I wonder how that’ll affect the openings for the two to three new breweries planning to open there this year. Might be just a matter of time before we start seeing “Not another Ballard brewery!” headlines.