A few days after returning from my January 2015 Bay Area trip, I went to Tacoma to visit a couple cousins, and we decided to do some of our familial bonding at one of the new breweries in town. The cousin who lives there had been to Odd Otter Brewing a few days before and enjoyed it, so that’s where we went. The name “Odd Otter” made me a little nervous, and they go a little overboard with otter names for their beers, but they’re located in a cool space on the north end of Pacific Ave and the woman working there was pretty nice. So it all kind of balanced out.

Sampler flight at Odd Otter Brewing — Tacoma, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Blind Otter – 14+% – Barleywine. Raisin and plum aroma and flavors. Some maple sweetness and bit of alcohol edge. Very warming.
• Jolly Otter ESB – 5.7% – Caramel with a bit of floral hops. Touch of breadiness and hint of spiciness.
• Otter Nonsense – 7.4% – IPA. There were calling this “Notteronsense” that day, but, yeah, that’s just too silly. Anyway. Creamy smooth. Caramel malt with citrus, resiny, earthy hops. Maltier than the usual NW IPA.
• Screeching Otter – 9.2% – Double IPA. Bigger caramel, citrus, resiny, earthy flavors. Lingering bitterness that blends back in well.
• Luck o’ the Otter – 5% – Irish Stout. Nice and dry. Light coffee and chocolate with a citrus edge. Goes right down.
• Winterface Holiday Ale – 8% – Made with cucumber, lavender, juniper, and orange zest. Fun botanical flavors with sweet caramel base.

The Rest
• Comrade Otter’s Russian Imperial Chocolate Stout – 11.7% – Chocolate and coffee, fairly dry, with a touch of molasses. Medium body.
• Momma Otter’s Pancake Porter – 8% – Sweet maple syrup. Hard to pick up other flavors other than a little bit of honey. Thought there’s be breadiness but nope. Pretty light body.
• Ottzel Quatzel – 5.6% – Peruvian purple corn pale ale. Some floral hops, some caramel malt, a bit of honey sweetness, and lots of bitterness. Not much corn flavor.
• Coconut Chai Porter – 7.2% – Chai aroma and flavor. Underlying chocolate and coffee, with a bit of coconut on the finish. Some honey sweetness, too. Fun, but a 5oz taster was enough.

This reminds me that I haven’t visited Tacoma in quite a while. There are at least three breweries down there I have not yet been to, and of course it’d be good to get in some more cousin-time. Gotta make that happen sooner rather than later.

The day after the monsoon ride to Dirty Bucket, I headed down to the south Sound with Jonny to do a little paddling on his inflatable catamaran thing.  We had a late start leaving Seattle, and then while pumping up the boat on the beach by the Anderson Island ferry dock, we discovered one of the chambers had two small leaks.  We’d left the car on the mainland, so we walked and hitched our way to and from the Anderson Island general store, where we found a tube of sealant goo and, more importantly, duct tape.  The goo/tape combo seemed to hold in the air, and we launched the boat into the Sound, our fingers crossed.

Good as new!

With the even later start, we only really had enough time to paddle to Eagle Island, where we walked around and failed to poach some beer from other visitors’ coolers.  Then we paddled back.  Luckily for us, the goo/tape patch lasted the whole trip, but I don’t think I’ll be paddling on it again until Jonny implements a permanent fix.  On the drive back to Seattle, we stopped at Engine House No. 9.  I’d heard something about barrel-aged beer, but otherwise didn’t really know what to expect.  Have to say, there were a lot of surprises.  I’m not used to college crowds in brewpubs, and the one here seemed like fraternity/sorority types, but with a Jersey Shore influence.  Then there were the middle-aged folk dressed as if they were still in the Greek system.  And not too long after we ordered, the 6′ 6″ 50ish guy sporting a ZZ Top beard and a kilt powered up the karaoke machine.  He warmed up the crowd with a couple Elvis Costello songs (well-sung, I must say).  Just another Saturday night in Tacoma, I guess.

Update! January 17, 2015: Okay, so it’s been 2.5 years since I wrote this post, and while I have not been back to E9, they have started bringing their beer to a few select places in Seattle, including the three beer bars I go to the most (Pine Box, Stumbling Monk, The Masonry). Kind of nice when the beer comes to me. Also in the past 2.5 years I have not been back in Jonny’s inflatable catamaran thing.

Taster tray at Engine House No. 9 — Tacoma, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Deux Cinq Trois – 6.5% – Belgian Pale Ale. Saison-like funk/bubble gum plus smooth pale ale. Some caramel malt but not much hops. Pretty nice.
• Tacoma Weisse – 3.7% – Light, lemon tartness, a little bit bready, with some subtle egginess. Touch watery but very drinkable and refreshing.
• Verre Violet Currant Sour – 7.6% – Awesome berry aroma and flavor with solid sour character. Red wine barrel aspect. Pretty wonderful sipping beer.
• Nameless DIPA – 9% – Batch #11, I think. Big citrus, pine, bit of tropical. Just enough caramel malt. Little bit of lingering bitterness. Much better than previous batch I had. Hope they name this one!
• Dark Passenger – 11.5% – Bourbon barrel imperial stout. Aged in Heaven Hills barrels. Fairly thick. Bourbon, chocolate, coffee, vanilla swirl with lovely lingering finish. Sweetness builds up a bit, but otherwise solid.
• Golden Berry Wild – 5.9% – Raspberry and sour aroma. Good medium sourness with just enough golden raspberry flavor (from Streino farms). Underlying funk balance. A touch syrupy but very fun to drink.
• Nameless IPA – 8% – Pine and citrus up front with fairly big malt backbone. Finishes with some caramel and biscuit malt flavor and medium lingering bitterness. Nothing great but pretty solid.
• Cabernet Bramber – 7.8% – Big cab aroma and flavor. Bit of tartness, generously tannic, some spiciness on the tongue, and subtle oak. Mellows out to fairly smooth finish.
• Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Imperial Red – 8% – Whiskey aroma. Good spicy rye whiskey alcohol flavors that go really well with the big biscuit malt. Subtle oakiness, too.
• Rhubarb Sour – 6% – Fruity sour aroma. Sweet rhubarb up front, with great lingering sourness. Kind of like candy. Almost watery towards the end but the flavors make up for it.
• Belgian White – 4.1% – Nice and light.  Good crisp breadiness, subtle bitterness.  Lemony aroma, bit of flavor.  No need for that lemon wedge.
• Tacoma Brew – 5.1% – Sweet and crisp, with light maltiness and floral hoppiness.  Slight oaky/bourbon finish.
• Rowdy Dick Amber – 6.2% – Pretty dark amber.  Really smooth, not so hoppy, and also with a nice oaky/bourbon flavor.  Really drinkable.
• Fire Engine Red – 7% – Solid maltiness and hops with alcohol flavor and subtle oaky finish.  Pretty big and aggressive.  Not as smooth as the others — reminds me of drinking a single malt scotch, in a way
• IPA – 6.6% – Pretty light and smooth.  Not crazy hoppy, with good maltiness.  Quite drinkable.  I’d prefer hoppier, but I like it.
• Chocolate Stout – Thick and rich.  Good coffee flavor, but not so strong.
• Parky – seasonal – Lighter in color than the Red, not as aggressive.  Good maltiness and oaky/bourbon kick.  Little spicy on the tongue, too.

The Rest
• Golden Raspberry Tacoma Weisse – 3.2% – Raspberry aroma and flavor. Light, tart, refreshing, but a little too watery. Raspberry flavor really good, though, not syrupy at all.
• Snow Cru 2013 – 10.5% – blend of Dark Passenger stout, Thunder Buddies barley wine and Holy Diver. Interesting mix. None of the three take over, so good balance. Some malt booziness, some bourbon, some raisin. Kinda sweet. Pretty solid but not really my thing.
• XPA – seasonal – Much hoppier IPA, but too much floralness for me.
• Gose Rhymes with Rosa – seasonal – Really light for a sour beer.  A bit watery, too.  I prefer a more aggressive sour.

With all the cognitive dissonance going on, I forgot to ask if they had logo glasses available.  So I’ll be returning to E9, but I’ll make sure it’s a weeknight.

Now that my cousin has moved to Tacoma I’m slowly but surely visiting his nearby breweries. I made my latest trek south for his housewarming/baby shower BBQ fiesta, joined by my brother, and en route we stopped at the brand new location of Wingman Brewers. Pretty convenient location, right next to the train station and bus transit center.

Cute little tasters at Wingman Brewers — Tacoma, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Tripel – 9% – Nice caramel aroma. Really nice and crisp caramel and alcohol flavors to a malty finish. Subtle banana/clove flavor as it warms up.
• Dubbel – Don’t usually like dubbels, but this one’s pretty good. Nice balance of malty sweetness with raisin flavor. Caramel notes, and quite crisp.
• Ace IPA – 7.4% – Crisp and hoppy. Mostly floral, but with some grapefruit notes. Good malty base.
• Riveter Root Beer – 0% – Cool flavors: coriander, ginger?, honey. Really fun.

The Rest
• Warrior Single Hop IPA – 6.8% – Also crisp and hoppy. Pretty intense and lingering hoppiness. Also has a good malty base. Hops in this one just didn’t jibe with me, though.

The careful reader will notice that there’s a sixth taster but only five listed. They were also pouring the Ace through a Randall with Siracha hops (but not, unfortunately, Sriracha, which was what my brother heard when it was described). It was a little smoother, sweeter, with more caramel flavor than the regular Ace. Pretty awesome. They didn’t have their P-51 Porter or Stratofortress cedar-aged Belgian ale available, so I’ll just have to re-visit one of these days. I have the feeling that once my cousin’s kid is born, though, there won’t be as many parties in T-Town.

Back in January a cousin of mine and his wife moved from Boston to Tacoma for all the obvious reasons, and I’d been meaning to meet up with them. Then one of his brothers came up to the Puget Sound area for a few weeks, and that seemed to be the tipping point for taking the long trek to T-Town. The initial plan was to hit the Harmon brewpub, but soon after we arrived, the evening’s entertainment, a fairly standard bar band, cranked up their amps and started playing, making conversation basically impossible. Kids these days, with their loud rock music! No wonder they’re all deaf! Anyway, the staff directed us to the Tap Room, another location in Harmon Brewing Company‘s burgeoning south sound beer empire, and away we went. Turned out to be a smaller place, but they didn’t do sampler trays, and as soon as we sat down, they cranked up the stereo. Those meddling kids! I shook my cane at the waitstaff, and they thankfully turned down the volume from 11 to something that allowed us to talk to each other. These kids, with their “smarty-phones,” they don’t talk to each other anymore, they just beep-beep-boop-boop on their sexting and the Twitters. I don’t understand it. At least they’re still drinking. So where was I? Oh yeah, the Tap Room didn’t do sampler trays, nor sell logo pint glasses. Crazy! Between the three of us who were drinking that evening, we were able to sample all ten of the beers they had on tap, mostly through periodic requests for tastes but also occasional pints. And then we found out Sundays at the Tap Room are half-off everything. Combined with two free pizzas because they managed to mess up the first order, and it was a very inexpensive night, indeed. Good times.

Not even Photoshop can save this awful picture — Tacoma, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Point Defiance IPA – 5.8% – Kind of mellow for an IPA but tasty and very drinkable. Not particularly crisp, but it’s smooth.
• Mt. Takhoma Blonde – 3.8% – Lemony aroma, and slight lemon taste. Very light and drinkable, not too fizzy, not too bready. All around, pretty good.
• Puget Sound Porter – 5.4% – Good solid porter. Slight chocolate flavor. No fancy vanilla stuff (see below). Pretty crisp, too.
• Vanilla Porter – seasonal – Awesome aroma: chocolate/coffee/alcohol — very Kahlua-ish. Tastes pretty good, too. Has a lot going on — chocolate with a bitter edge. Noticed the vanilla more in the aroma than in the taste, actually. It’s a porter that makes you think, but not in a bad way.
• Bourbon Oak Winter Warmer – seasonal – Really nice. Smooth, dark, not very heavy, doesn’t taste strong. Yum!

The Rest
• Pinnacle Peak Pale Ale – 4.2% – Strong floral hoppy bite at first, then mellows to nice breadiness. Pretty decent.
• Brown’s Point ESB – 5.6% – Very smooth, not very hoppy, bit of breadiness. Their description says, “full-bodied amber.” I agree.
• Banana Hammock Blonde – seasonal – Another f’n banana beer. Strong banana aroma, but banana flavor is not as strong as El Jefe, thankfully. Can actually get a light fizzy beer taste at the end. Still not my thing.
• Cream Cicle Pale Ale – seasonal – Cream soda aroma. Orange taste comes through. Kind of odd. Not my thing, again.
• T-Town Brown – seasonal – No Tacoma aroma, thank goodness. Basically smells and tastes like an alcoholic root beer. Another odd experiment.

I have no excuse for the terrible picture I ended up taking. It’s like I wasn’t even trying. Managed to tart it up a bit in Photoshop, but still, it’d probably be better to leave this post picture-less. Oh well.