A Saturday Afternoon Ballard Pub Crawl

Some friends recently went on a pub crawl in the Ballard area of Seattle.  Like BowlingWidow and me, they appreciate a quality ale more than just every now and then, and were happy to report of several new microbreweries and nanobreweries (those with less than a 4-barrel brewing system) that have opened up in that part of town recently.  We decided to visit a few of those on a recent spring afternoon.

View of the tanks from the loft of Rueben's Brew

Our first stop was Rueben’s Brews.  Although technically larger than a nanobrewery, it’s a small microbrewery that’s run out of a spotless facility which appears to have been an auto garage or something in a previous life.  Owner and transplanted Brit, Adam Robbings, named the place after his young son, Rueben, whom I’m thinking is around 15 years or so from enjoying the product named after him.  We bought a sampler of four 4-ounce tastes each, ranging from pale to strong.  I particularly enjoyed the Robust Porter with its deep chocolate tones.

The funky neighborhood front of Populuxe Brewery

We next took a 10 minute walk to Populuxe Brewing.  This really is a small place in a residential area.  A couple of home brewing neighbors got together and pulled this off.  They had four or five selections on tap along with complimentary pretzels and peanuts.  We opted for the Populuxe IPA and enjoyed it immensely as the sun broke through the clouds in the outdoor area at the back of the house.  On the way out we had a nice chat with owners Peter Charbonnier and Amy Besunder, and walked a few more blocks to our next destination, Maritime Pacific Brewing.

Populuxe may be a tiny brewery but they make a great IPA!!!

Maritime is a pretty good sized place with a decent food menu, and the timing was right for some of that.  BowlingWidow had an IPA on the nitro system (think draft Guinness) while I had the same, cask style.  We shared an order of onion rings and a deep fried dill pickle.  We’d seen deep fried pickles on menus before and figured we had to try one.  It’s one of those things that is worth trying…..once.

BowlingJoe with Amy and Peter at Populuxe:  They were too photogenic NOT to take their picture!

Our final stop was at another small place called Peddler Brewing.  The proprietors of this small brewery must be real bike enthusiasts as there is plenty of space to park your 2-wheeler as well as bike memorabilia all over the place.  Like Populuxe Brewing, Peddler patrons can enjoy the bean bag toss game called Cornhole.  I’ve never actually played this game, but it is fun to say “Cornhole”.  The Northwest IPA we had at Peddler wasn’t our favorite of the day, but I’ll chalk that up in part to the fact that it was our last stop, our stomachs were full, and we were in need of a nap.  Getting older can be brutal.