2011 May: 19th - 29th ~ Seattle Beer Week

    Externship proved to have yet another benefit.  I showed up to work on Thursday and was informed that I was going to get to go to The SafeCo field and taste Sierra Nevada beers paired with foods and those of some local breweries as well.  We also got game tickets for the afternoon game.  So we worked through the early breakfast and lunch rush and then headed out.  Passing up lunch at the airport to save room for the repast that we envisioned in our hungry and thirsty minds.

    I went with Thor one of the assistant managers at my extern site and also a local brewer disciple of sorts.  He has a great knowledge of the local brewery scene and the various styles of craft beers.  Working part time at one of the up and coming breweries.  We arrived at the stadium and headed up to the suites with hussle and fervor.  It was free flyswatter day...One of the players had been presed out in plastic as a flyswatter.  What ever happened to hat day?

     We searched the suites, no Sierra Nevada, we went up to the nose bleed seats and no Sierra Nevada.  What is up?  Where is everybody?  So we asked one of the attendants and she asked a manager who informed us that the tasting had been on the field pregame around 10am.  Wow, that is a piece of information that we would have loved to have.  So here we were at the stadium starving and thirsty.  But as an extern I have limited funds and stadium food is not in my budget.  What made this even more dissappointing was the fact that the day before we had met the local sales rep and the Sierra Nevada head brewer.  They had described the wonderful beers that they were going to serve at the event.  I must admit I was dissappointed.

    So noone was in the seats to watch the game and the view from the top row of the stadium was so bad that we left.  I was determined that I would participate in a beer tasting.  Low and behold just a block away down the stadium row of vendors is the "Elysian Fields Brewery".  One of the multiple sites of Elysian Brewery.  They had a robust and multi faceted selection of their craft beers and a few from guest brewers that were from previous Mariner and UW opponents home towns.  I talked with the bbeertender about some of the selcections and built a custom tasting board.  Thor had a tasting boards as well and we traded tastes to expand the experience.  Sierra Nevada eat your heart out (not really I still wanna taste those beers).  Elysian makes great beer!

THE IMMORTAL ~ India Pale Ale 6.3%

DRAGONSTOOTH ~ Stout 7.45%

BIFROST ~ Winter Ale 7.5%

AMBROSIA ~ Maibock 6.5%

PROMETHEUS ~ India Pale Ale 6.1%

OATUS ~ Oatmeal Stout (Guest Brewer) 7.2%
Ninkasa Brewery 0 Eugene OR.

Thor tasted these for his selection:
AK-47 ~ Malt Liquor 6%

ROSEMARY'S BABY ~ India Pale Ale 6.6%

BETE BLANCHE ~ Belgian Triple 6.9%

GOLDEN BOOT ~ Golden Ale 5%

YUZU ~ Belgian Style Golden Ale 6.5%

MEN'S ROOM ~ Red Ale 5.6%

The beers were all of good character and full bodied.  I was suprised at the overall character of all the beers.  Not a bad one in the bunch.  The yuzu lemony flavor was a great change from the typically malty Belgian.  The IPA's were awesome even the rosemary scented one.  The rosemary was very subtle and not overpowering.  The Dragon stout was rich with chocolate and coffee and very smooth.  And my favoite was the winter ale.  It was a good thing I was just doing a tasting.

     We that took care of the thirst and boy howdy I even got a little buzz.  The sun is shining and Seattle is looking awesome.  Now to eat.  The tasting was a mere $8 and food needed to be in that range as well.  Thor suggested a local spot called Samari Noodle, hailed as Seattle best authentic ramen shop.  I had the tonkotsu which is "porkbone" a rich hearty pork broth like milk with braised pork and green onions.  Not to be confused with tonkatsu which is the pork cutlet.  I had extra pork and a hard boiled egg in mine.  I can see why it has become a local favorite.  It was so good and filling.  Very small and definately a remnant of the Seattle grunge era. 
     After the meal we walked off the full stomach by going down to a local importer called RFI,  they had shelves of Meditteranean goods and a whole case of imported cheese.  I could not help but get a little of the creamiest goat cheese they had.  A nice rind and perfectly aged.  It was eaten that night for dinner with crackers and crusty bread and a Redhook IPA.

What a great day for a Fieldtrip.  Thanks Sierra Nevada!