With a belly full of food, I got back on the bike and pedaled from Anacortes to Mt. Vernon in the hot August afternoon sun, with one break en route to cool off with an iced mocha. It felt like it took forever to reach North Sound Brewing, but after parking my loaded bicycle out front and then ordering the mega sampler tray I became a bit of a conversation piece with the locals, and that made it all worth it. One guy suggested NSB install a web cam above the entrance to capture video of out-of-towners like me trying to bike away after drinking a bunch of high octane beers. Fortunately, they did not heed his advice.

A whole lot of North Sound Brewing samplers — Mt Vernon, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Mystery Wheat – 4.5% – Really smooth and refreshing. A bit creamy, lightly bready, really drinkable. Made with “mystery” juice — I guessed apple or grape but was wrong. It was pretty subtle.
• Goosetown Brown – 7.2% – Good coffee and chocolate flavors. Really drinkable.
• Rye Opie IPA – 6.8% – (Opie 2) Touch of orange plus bitterness. Pretty light, but good mix of flavors, with a nicely balanced maltiness.
• To Hell in a Hop Basket Imperial IPA – 10.6% – Big and barley wine-ish. So many hop flavors. Piney and citrusy, with a bit of an alcohol taste, as well. Somewhat creamy.
• Imperial Porter – Really smooth. Similar barley wine-ish flavor, but so creamy, and with some chocolate/coffee flavors, too.

The Rest
• Big Bend Blonde – 5.6% – Light, bready, bitter finish, but with a stale taste. Bad batch, maybe?
• Bitter Rain ESB – 5.8% – Malty flavor, smooth, with light bitter finish. Drinkable, but I’d prefer something more aggressive.
• Hop Chops IPA – 7.5% – Lots of floral hoppiness. Decent malt balance. Bitter finish.
• Sláinte Stout – 5.9% – Really creamy and smooth. Coffee and chocolate flavors, with lingering coffee finish. Thick and chewy. Very drinkable, but I’d prefer more of a bite.

As I slowly made my way through the tasters, the possibility of catching the 8:30pm train back home to Seattle became increasing less guaranteed. The local farmer/homebrewer sitting next to me at the bar offered to let me camp on his property — would’ve been fun to try his potato beer, actually — but I decided to stick with the train.  Sleeping in my own bed was just too tempting.  I didn’t quite finish all the samplers (sorry, Big Bend), but I did just barely have enough time to safely bike to the station, procure a ticket and bike upgrade, and board the train.

Earlier that day, when I took the ferry from Vancouver Island to Anacortes, I met three folks who were biking down the Pacific Coast. Then on the train I met someone else who would be starting her bike tour down the coast the next morning. It was the perfect time of year to do that trip, and part of me wanted to just keep biking — it made the uphill ride back to my place a little bit harder. Ah well. Another time.

Oh yeah, the mystery juice was blueberry.

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.