Brouwer's Hopefest Starts This Friday

This Friday and Saturday, August 28th & 29th is Brouwer's Hopfest. A hop-head's dream, hopfest will feature over 65 beers on tap, each sure to put you in hop heaven. Here is the lineup of brews for this year's hopfest. If you can't find one you like, then you'll just have to face it. You're not a hop-head. ;)

Hopfest 2009 Beers:

1. Amnesia Copacetic

2. Amnesia Desolation

3. Anacortes Dry Hopped

4. Avery Ale to the Chief

5. Avery Maharaja

6. Avery Maharaja 2nd Batch

7. Bear Republic Racer 5

8. Big Time Fresh Hop Pale

9. Big Time Scarlet Fire CASK

10. Boulder Mojo

11. Boundary Bay Double Dry Hopped CASK

12. Boundary Bay Imperial

13. Bridgeport Hop Czar

14. Diamond Knott XXXIpa

15. Dicks Oak Aged CASK

16. Dogfish Head 60 minute

17. Dogfish Head 90 minute

18. Eel River Organic

19. Elysian Dry Hopped Promethius

20. Full Sail Lupulin Fresh Hop

21. Great Divide Hercules Imperial

22. He'brew Lennys RIPA

23. Hair of the Dog Fred CASK

24. Hales Aftemath

25. Hales Harvest CASK

26. Iron Horse Double Dry Hopped Black

27. Iron HorseDouble Dry Hopped Fresh Hop

28. Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

29. Lagunitas Imperial Red

30. Laughing Dog Dogzilla

31. Laughing Dog Rocket Dog

32. Left Hand Twin Sisters Double

33. Lost Coast Double Trouble

34. Maritime Dry Hopped Imperial

35. Meantime

36. Ninkasi Believer Double Red

37. Ninkasi Total Domination

38. Ninkasi Tricerahops

39. Ninkasi Dry Hopped Tricerahops

40. Pike Dry Hopped

41. Pike Dry Hopped Stout

42. Popperings Hommel

43. Port Brewing Hop 15

44. Port Brewing Wipeout

45. Port Townsend Carters Dry Hopped Amber

46. Portownsend Dry Hopped Boatyard Bitter NITRO

47. Ram ZZ Hop CASK

48. Roots Woody

49. Russian River Pliny the Elder

50. Schooner Exact 3 Grid

51. Silver City Dry Hopped

52. Skaggit Double Dry Hopped

53. Snoqualmie Serendipity Imperial

54. Southern Tier Hoppe

55. Southern Tier Imperial Pale

56. Southern Tier Unearthly Imperial

57. Speakeasy Double Daddy

58. Stone

59. Stone through a Randall packed with Golding Hops

60. Stone Oaked Bastard

61. Stone Ruination

62. Two Beers Echo

63. Victory Hop Devil

64. Walkingman Homo-erectus

65. Waterstreet Skipa Fresh Hop

See you at the hopfest.

Brouwer's Cafe

400 N. 35th St.

Seattle WA 98107

206-267-2437 (bier)

Brew on!

Brew Monger Expanding Soon!

Brew Monger (aka Michael Dieterle - your Brew Monger writer) has been spreading himself too thin. Due to my gaming website (360RantRave.com) I have not been detoving enough time to Brew Monger.

That's about to change. Following this year's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, WA (Sept. 4-6), I will be discontinuing work on my gaming blog and concentrating exclusively on Brew Monger.

Expect a lot more updates, beer & brewpub reviews, coverage of Seattle area beer events and more!

Brew on!

Help Stop The Beer Tax! Save Our Microbrews!

Are you a beer lover? Do you want to pay a lot more for your beer?

Assuming the answer is no, all craft beer drinkers need to take action now today to help prevent the government from trippling the excise tax for all beer 4.5% ABV or higher (Alcohol By Volume).

You read that right. If you live in one of the following states, take action today to help prevent this huge increase in tax from going into effect.

States proposing the tax hike:

Arizona Arkansas Delaware Florida Idaho Iowa Kansas Kentucky Maine Massachusetts Michigan Montana Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Dakota Oregon Texas Utah Washington West Virginia Wyoming

Save our beer! Go HERE for details on how to contact your local representative(s) and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that you strongly opposed this new tax.

The Pick 'N Shovel

This pas weekend we had some beautiful weather in Western Washington - far too nice to just stay inside all day. So, into the car we piled and headed off towards Mt. Ranier.

We wound up in a little town called Wilkeson - on the way to the Carbon Glacier on Mt. Ranier., and stopped into the Pick 'N Shovel for a bite of lunch and a beer.

While the selection of beers on tap at the Pick 'N Shovel was quite limited, they did have three beers on tap from local brewer, Elk's Head Brewing Company in nearby Buckley, WA. Lynn enjoyed their stout while I sampled their ESB. Next time, we'll have to travel to the brewery itself in Buckley.

Brew on!

The Mayor's Proclamation

Here is Mayor Nickels' proclamation, establishing Seattle Hand-Crafted Beer Week. Click the image for the full-size version.

See you at The Pike tonight! :)

Brew on!

Gearing Up For Seattle Beer Week

Seattle Beer Week kicks off tomorrow at The Pike Brewing Company at Pike Place Market. I'll be heading down after work to join in the festivities and grab a growler of Pike's new Double IPA - which goes on tap for the first time tomrorow. If you can't make it to The Pike, you can also head down to Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle to kick things off.

Things continue on Friday with the release of Ale Of Two Cities at Naked City in Greenwood, then the Elysian Hop-Scotch Beer Festival at Elysian Fields.

Brew on!

Craft Brewing Enjoys Biggest Growth

2008 Craft brewing statistics are out, and show that craft brewing continues to grow at a pace that outperforms non-craft domestics (i.e. Mass produced beers) and certainly imports (which actually dropped).

Vermont topped the list of breweries per capita for 2008 with 19 breweries one brewery for every 32,698 citizens in the state. Lucky Vermont! ;)

Washington state placed a respectable 8th on the breweries per capita list, with 100 breweries in the state (one for every 65K citizens).

Craft Brewing statistics:

• Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2008 was 5.8% by volume and 10.5% by dollars.
  
• The craft brewing industry produced nearly 8.6 million barrels of craft beer in the U.S. in 2008.
  
• The fastest growing sector craft brewing sector continues to be microbreweries, showing customer support for local breweries.
  
• The craft brewing sales share as of December '08 is 4% by volume and 6.3% by dollars.
  
• Total U.S. craft brewing industry annual dollar volume is $6.3 billion.

(Source beertown.org.)

It appears that, even in tough economic times, people still need a good beer. It also seems that an increasingly larger segment of the population is warming up to craft beers over mass produced American lagers.

Brew on!

1st Annual Seattle Beer Week Is May 7-17

OK, so the 7th to the 17th is a bit more than one week. Are you complaining? Get ready for the very first Seattle Beer week, kicking off Thursday, May 7th at The Pike Brewery at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

A few years, back the Brewer's Association and the American Homebrewer's Association established American Beer Month (July). Of course, that just wasn't enough for us here in Seattle (and who wants to wait until July?) We had to go one step further and create Seattle Beer Week - and here it comes!

Whether you are a seasoned vet or brand new to the Seattle beer scene, Seattle Beer Week is filled with enough variety so that anyone can find a beer they're sure to enjoy. So grab a few friends and head out to one of your favorite Seattle watering holes for this week of fun.

See HERE for a full listing of Seattle Beer Week events.

Brew on!

May Beer Events

The 2009 Barleywine festivals are over, but that doesn't mean you still can't find some great beer events. Here is a listing of beer events happening in and around Western Washington this May:

Merchant du Vin Belgian Beer Tasting (Huckleberry's, Spokane, WA):
May 2. 2-4PM
Jhon Gilroy from Merchant du Vin will be on hand to discuss Orval Trappist, Westmalle Trappist, Rochfort Trappist, Lindeman's Lambics and Green's Gluten-free Belgian Ales.
$5 for 8 tastes. Call 509-624-1349 for more info.

7th Annual Hopscotch (Fremont Studios, Seattle, WA):
May 8. 5PM-12AM and May 9. 1PM-12AM
Here's your chance to chat with experts in beer, scotch and tequila.
Proceeds benefit SIFF.
$20 advanced. $25 at the door. http://www.hopscotchtasting.com/

Chuckanut Brewery's Spring Brewmaster Dinner (Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA):
May 11. 6PM
A decadent night of beer and food pairings along with discussions by Brewmaster Will Kemper and Chef Chad Bowes.
Tickets $50. http://www.chuckanutbreweryandkitchen.com/ (or 360-72-2337)

South Seattle Breweries Open House (Various Locations, Seattle, WA):
May 16. 10AM-6PM
Visit the five craft breweries in the South Seattle area: Georgetown Brewing, Baron Brewing, Trade Route Brewing, Schooner Exact and Big Al Brewing.
No cost. Maps: www.seattlebeerweek.com/events.htm

As you can see, there's plenty to choose from. So get out there and enjoy some great beer.

Brew on!

Welcome To Brew Monger

Hello and welcome to Brew Monger!

I will be posting regularly about beer, brewpub, homebrewing and other beer-related topics in and around the great Northwest and beyond.

Follow my exploits as I start my journey to visit every brewpub in the state of Washington!

Brew on!