I was holding off on writing up my Seapine Brewing post because the owner/brewer Drew was still tweaking his recipes the first two times I visited. On the third visit, he said he’ll probably never stop experimenting with them, so I’ll just have to post this with the caveat that the beers may not taste the same as when I took my notes. The differences will be left as exercises for the reader.

Anyway, Seapine’s an interesting place. It’s a little off the beaten path, between the 1st Ave axis of Epic Ales, Schooner Exact, and Two Beers, and the Georgetown/Airport Way group of Machine House, Georgetown Brewing, and Emerald City. On 4th Ave, just south of the West Seattle Bridge, it’s definitely worth a visit — the tasting room’s been getting progressively nicer each time I drop by, and now that he has a juicer, it’s tempting to spend my free summer weekends down there drinking fresh-squeezed radlers. That’s making me thirsty just thinking about it.

Seapine Brewing taster tray — Seattle, WA

Rob’s Picks
• La Fantasma Blonde – 5% – Crisp start then breadiness, floral and some grapefruit hops, bitterness. Good lingering flavors.
• Seapine IPA – 6.7% – Big juicy citrus, grapefruit and light floral hops. Bit of sweetness, too. Medium caramel maltiness, light breadiness on finish, and a touch of lingering bitterness.
• Super “C” French Saison – 6% – Smooth, some bubblegum sweetness, some honey, light funk, subtle coriander.
• Sea Witch Milk Stout – 6.2% – Big chocolate/coffee aroma and flavor. Creamy and smooth, with a good sweet edge, underlying roastiness, and decent bitterness.
• Radler – Fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice mixed with La Fantasma. Great grapefruit tang + interesting underlying Blonde complement = awesome summer beverage. You can see the juicer in the picture above.
• Black Ale – 4.8% – Roasty malt aroma. Smooth roastiness and somewhat sharp citrusy hop flavor that gives it a nice zing. Light and a bit spicy on the tongue, with a lingering maltiness.
• High Pockety – 7% – A bit of an experiment. Was supposed to be an IPA, but he didn’t have enough hops that day. So I guess it’s an imperial pale ale, maybe? Whatever its style, it was really good. Nice hop profile and somewhat sharp malty aspect. Very drinkable.

The Rest
• PNW Pale Ale – 5.5% – Third time I’ve tried this, and they’ve all been significantly different. The most recent batch was crisp, fairly sweet with a touch of bubblegum, and fairly bitter. Light floral and herbal hops, light caramel malt. Fairly complex. First two were pretty different (pine and citrus, then floral and citrus), and I quite liked both of those. The next batch (which was in the fermenter) had a different recipe, so there’s always a chance this’ll move to the Pick list next time I visit…

That brings up a good point: What to do with different versions of the “same” beer? Use version numbers? Create a new “Obsoleted” list? Add more and more tasting notes to the same entry? I think I will just put off that decision until after my next visit. Have to say, though, I do like the somewhat sinister “Obsoleted” list name. Feel free to comment below.

Oh, the pictures from my first time there weren’t very good, but I took one I was pretty happy with the next time. I was all set to use that as the main picture in this post, but then I took a more traditional taster tray pic on the third visit. It was a hard call on which one to use, so I’m including both. I will do my best not to take more pictures and further confuse the issue…

The picture I was going to use before I took the one with the taster tray. I love everything about the glass in this, although I wish I got less of the table top.

My previous post was on Washington’s largest brewery. This is on one of its smallest, Rooftop Brew Company. They are about as far north in the Queen Anne neighborhood as you can get – not quite along the South Ship Canal Trail, but on the other side of Nickerson St, behind the 7-11, in a rather small garage – and the Ship Canal separates them quite effectively from the Ballard and Fremont brewery scene. That bit of distance has given them a good little neighborhood brewery feel. You know, every neighborhood should have its own microbrewery or two (or in Ballard’s case, ten), especially one as cool and friendly as Rooftop. I really like their logo glass/public health workaround system – buy their glass and, as long as you keep bringing it in with you, all beers are $1 off. Otherwise it’s full price in a compostable plastic cup. You save a bit on their beer, and they don’t have to install an expensive glassware sanitizer system. Not sure this will make sense if and when they expand their facilities, but in the meantime it’s pretty awesome.

Rooftop Brew Company — Seattle, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Belgian Wit – 4% – Crisp, light and spicy, with a bit of clove (less so banana). The coriander and orange peel are not overpowering, which is good. Bready finish.
• Dry-Hopped Wheat Ale – 4.5% – Big citrus and piney aroma. Flavor not as big but at a really nice level. Light and smooth.
• Makeda Coffee Porter – 4.7% – Made with cold-press Makeda coffee. Great coffee aroma. You need to like coffee to like this beer. Fairly dry, with subtle dark chocolate flavor and an underlying bitterness.
• IPA – 6.5% – Big citrus and piney aroma and flavor. Good caramel maltiness. Really solid.
• Hoppin Honey Braggot – 9.5% – Sweet citrusy aroma. Floral and citrus hop flavors balanced nicely by honey and caramel sweetness. Good lingering flavors, though sweetness does build up a bit. Doesn’t taste like it’s almost 10%.
• ESB – Floral and some citrus hop with caramel and biscuit malt. Subtle underlying bubblegum sweetness. Smooth. Nice mix of flavors.

The Rest
• Imperial Porter – 10% – Strong, sweet, alcohol and coffee aroma. More sweet, alcohol flavor than coffee/chocolate. Bit of Kahlua edge. Hint of dryness. Still a work in progress.
• Steamer – 5.2% – California Common-like pale ale. Floral aroma and flavor. Caramel and biscuit malt. Pretty smooth. Light lingering bitterness.

Oh yeah, you’d think that with a name like Rooftop, they’d have a roof deck, but no, they’re just in a little garage. Start small and dream big, right?

The one benefit to being behind on my blog is I get to visit new local breweries multiple times, allowing me to sample a decent selection of their beers, before I finally get around to writing up their posts. Take Standard Brewing, for instance, the first brewery in Seattle’s Central District neighborhood. I visited them four times in 2013 and now have a respectable amount of tasting notes for a solid post. Then again, they just recently tapped a couple new beers that I want to try, but if I did that it would postpone this post even longer. It’s a careful balancing act, this beer-blogging. Anyway. Standard is very much a nano-brewery, utilizing pretty much every nook and cranny of a funky corner of a small building. In addition to the usual array of beers (well, usual for Seattle, I suppose), they also make a couple low-alcohol regional/folk brews.

Standard Brewing: from kettle to glass — Seattle, WA

Rob’s Picks
• Bee’s Wine – 2% – Ginger honey goodness. Really, really refreshing.
• Pale Ale – 6.1% – Tropical fruit aroma and flavor. Bit of floral hops, too. Good malty base with caramel on the finish, as well as some bitterness.
• Rye IPA – 6.5% – Good “frothy” mouthfeel. Malty with citrus and tropical fruit hop flavors. Subtle rye undertones. Solid but not big.
• Imperial IPA #1 – 9% – Floral aroma and flavor. Fairly strong maltiness with bit of a biscuity finish. Good bitterness.
• CDA – 9.5% – Roasty malt aroma. Great roasty flavor and underlying bitterness. Light but interesting lingering flavors.
• Wheated Red – 6.1% – Bready and caramel maltiness. Light, but with a touch of chewiness. Subtle spicy hoppiness, and even more subtle floral. Really drinkable.
• Tepache – 3% – Sugar-based, pineapple fermented beverage popular in Mexico. Sweet but not overly so. Has a bit of a balancing alcohol edge to the flavor even though it’s only 3%. Cinnamon and clove, too, for extra flavors to think about. Awesome post-bike ride drink.
• Beet Ale Juice – 5.5% – Made by a guest brewer, with mosaic, willamette and amarillo hops, as well as beets. Great citrus and piney aroma and flavors. Beet earthiness is an interesting mix that, despite my initial wariness, worked quite well. Pretty light on the tongue, too.

The Rest
• Saison – 7% – Made with Dupont yeast and grapefruit peel. Fairly strong banana/clove and citrus/grapefruit flavors. Complementary floral hop flavor, as well. Somewhat bitter finish.
• West Coast IPA – 7.3% – Citrus aroma. Some citrus flavor, some bitterness, big malt backbone. Hint of sugary sweetness in lingering finish.
• Imperial IPA #2 – 8.6% – Grapefruit citrus aroma and flavor, with a bit of pine. Some biscuit and caramel malt backbone. Big bitter finish that blended back in pretty well, but a bit too bitter for me.

It’ll be interesting to see how Standard grows. They’ve already taken over the space above them and turned a parking spot in the small lot into a year-round beer garden/patio. I’ll just have to keep visiting to find out, I suppose.

Breweries keep opening here in Seattle, and they’re starting to spread into neighborhoods other than Ballard and Sodo/Georgetown. Spinnaker Bay Brewing, the first brewery to open in the Hillman City neighborhood (and, I think, all of Rainier Valley), is also notable for being woman-owned and operated. They’re in a cool old brick building and somehow acquired and installed a nearly century-old wooden bar from Chicago. So yeah, great atmosphere. I’ve visited twice – the first was a short ride to check out three new breweries, and the second was around the south end of Lake Washington, with Spinnaker Bay as a convenient pit stop towards the end. No kitchen, but there’s always a food truck.

Fancy old bar with fancy new beer at Spinnaker Bay Brewing — Seattle, WA

Rob’s Picks
• High Heel Imperial IPA – 8.1% – Solid herbal hop and malt flavor mix. Almost tea-like tannin aspect towards the finish, along with slight sweetness. Fairly subtle but strong.
• Fraid Knot Pale Ale – 6.1% – Smooth and relatively light on the tongue. Light floral hoppiness and bigger malt flavors – mostly caramel but other interesting maltiness going on, too.
• Even Keel Scottish – 8.1% – Spicy, sharp caramel aroma  and flavor. Hint of smokiness. Big flavors but great balance. Spiciness has almost a prickly character to it. Good intense take on a Scottish Ale.
• Don’t Panic! Porter – 6.7% – Coffee/chocolate aroma and flavor. Dry, with roasty malt flavor, as well, and a bit of an alcohol edge.

The Rest
• Sarah B – 8.1% – Bourbon barrel-aged IPA. Unfiltered amber color. Floral aroma and fairly strong flavor. Light bourbon barrel influence. Smooth, with good malt backbone and a touch of lingering bitterness. Well-made, but too floral for me.

Would be nice if a few more breweries opened in the Rainier Valley neighborhoods to lure me down to the south end of Lake Washington more often on my little bike rides. Probably just a matter of time. Considering my backlog of brewery visits to blog about, though (now up to 23, after a long, busy weekend in the SF Bay Area), I should spend some quality time catching up on posts before that happens.