Bothell Brews

Since my job is moving from Everett to Bothell in a short time, I thought it would be appropriate to conduct a reconnaissance mission to learn about some surrounding craft breweries.  We hooked up with our friends Bob and Kathy on a recent Saturday, and being residents of the area they were the perfect tour guides.

Our first stop was a little place called Foggy Noggin.  This joint doesn't just feel like it's in someone's garage.  It IS in someone's garage.  And it's only open once a week, on Saturdays, and just for a few hours at that.  Like the Machine House in Georgetown, they specialize in British style ales, with their flagship beer being a low alcohol session English Bitter called Bit o' Beaver (I later learned that the owners are huge fans of Oregon State University).  BowlingWidow and I shared a sampler tray which consisted of an array of eight beers.

A quiet unassuming garage from a distance

Foggy Noggin also got some press recently by brewing a concoction called "12th Man Skittles IPA" as a salute to both Seattle Seahawk fans and Skittle-popping running back Marshawn Lynch.  They received a cease and desist order from Texas A&M University over the use of "12th Man" and ended up calling it....you guessed it:  Cease and Desist IPA.
 

The offerings at Foggy Noggin

Next it was on to Twelve Bars Brewing.  The proprietor is a blues guitarist, hence the name.  We enjoyed the dry, crisp and hoppy Wicked Riff IPA.  And these guys get bonus points and the friendliest brewery of the day award for the impromptu tour the gave us "backstage".
 

The Twelve Bar Boys

Our third and final stop was at the stylish and impressive Triplehorn Brewing Company.  We went with a Landwink IPA and enjoyed chatting and watching both the homebrew competition, and some sort of wedding or graduation party that was taking place in the big room.  A lot seems to happen at Triplehorn, and I noticed on the way out that they have a cask night every Thursday that starts at 4:00pm.  Right after work and just a few miles away.  Hmmmmm.
 

The bar at Triplehorn:  a nice use of space

To end the day, Bob and Kathy took us to their favorite Mexican restaurant.  Pasion Tequila is located in downtown Bothell.  It's a small family-run restaurant that is worth going to.  I can probably count the number of what I think are good Mexican restaurants in the Seattle area on one hand.  Pasion Tequila has earned a spot there.
 

Crawling In Georgetown

Well, hello.  It's been a while since I've posted anything so it's time to dive back into the pool.  My job has kept me pretty busy lately and I've done a fair amount of work-related writing lately, so the last thing I've felt like doing was going home and doing......more writing.

But there are a backlog of topics that aren't going to go away anytime soon so let's get to it.  Several weekends ago, BowlingWidow and I embarked on a mini pub crawl in the greater Puget Sound area.  There are a couple of parts of the region which have become a hotbed of hops in recent times and we just had to pay some visits.

This post will focus on the Georgetown area near Boeing Field.  Quite frankly, Georgetown was a dump not all that long ago.  But now they're climbing out of the abyss with some nice stores, restaurants and yes, breweries.

The Machine House:  just like being in England...but not

Our first visit was to a place I've been wanting to check out for quite some time:  The Machine House.  The style is strictly British ales.   I can confirm that it even smells a bit like a rustic English pub despite being located in what is essentially a modified warehouse.  Just as in Great Britain, these are session ales with relatively low alcohol content being delivered from the casks.  They offer a Special Bitter, a Mild, an Oatmeal Stout and one or two more (I opted for the bitter).  I've learned to prefer the highly hopped full-bodied beers which makes the Pacific Northwest famous, but this was a nice choice and a good starting point for the day.
 

BowlingJoe enjoying a pint of bitter at The Machine House

The next stop was another spruced up warehouse which houses Two Beers Brewing.  "Life is just a little more honest after two beers" is the phrase which inspired their name.  We both enjoyed one of their EVO IPAs (I never did figure out what EVO stands for).  The staff was particularly friendly and since business was a bit slow on this Saturday afternoon we were treated to a personal tour of their brewing and bottling operation in the back room.
 

Nice day to be outside at Two Beers

Our third and final stop was Schooner Exact Brewing.  We ordered a snack (one must have actual food after all when embarking on a mission such as this) and consumed a Hopvine IPA.  The hoppy goodness certainly lived up to its name.
 

The friendly bar of Schooner Exact

We ended the South Seattle sojourn by feasting on Ethiopian food for dinner.  We had never had Ethiopian before and figured it was a good time to cash in the Groupon that was sitting in my desk drawer for an extended period of time.  The place is called Dahlak Eritrean Cuisine.  Ethiopian food is eaten primarily with your fingers, using pancake textured bread to scoop up the various items on the serving plate.  Spinach, chickpeas....honestly I don't entirely know what we ate at the meal.  For the most part it was good but we're not sure if our American palates will be up for a return visit. 
 

Our Ethiopian culinary experience

Next up....some Bothell area brews.