The line has been out the door at pastry chef William Leaman’s West Seattle Bakery Nouveau ever since it opened in 2006, and when the Capitol Hill locale debuted in the spring in a long-deserted space, it didn’t take long for lines to snake out the door there, too. But those queues aren’t for the…

Sky Hag IPAAirways Brewing Stupid Sexy Flanders American BrewingOld BirdbrainBlack Raven BrewingAmber’s Hot FriendSkookum Brewery The Big Lebrewski Naked City BrewingExtrabeerestrial ESB Loowit BrewingMistletoe Bliss Lazy Boy BrewingNaughty NelliePike BrewingThe Seamstress UnionSchooner Exact BrewingHarlot’s HarvestPike Brewing(These last three pay tribute to the working women of Seattle’s pioneer past.)Joint EffortA collaboration between Redhook and Hilliard’s, brewed…

In beer lingo, the word “sour” refers to a range of beers that are intentionally acidic, tart and, well, sour. Sour beer is often associated with Belgian breweries, where monks use techniques predating the Gutenberg press to create it, but a growing number of local breweries now dabble in this mysterious craft. Brewers add crazy…

Patience, grasshopper. If patience is a virtue, barrel-aged beers are the most virtuous of all brews. Usually a beer is ready to drink after a couple of weeks in a stainless steel conditioning tank, but sometimes a brewer takes a finished beer and lets it rest in oak barrels for a year or longer. Typically,…

We describe beer—extra special bitter, pale ale, stout and so on—using terms from the English brewing tradition, but these days around Seattle, there’s a more immediate impact: Three British expats are putting their stamp on the local beer scene in their own unique ways. Nigel Slater is the sales manager for Black Raven Brewing in…

Archaeologists argue about how many thousands of years ago our distant ancestors started brewing beer, but no one questions that women did the work. The dominance of clean-cut men in lab coats and artisans with belly-length beards is a relatively modern phenomenon. Around Seattle, plenty of women are carrying on the ancient legacy. Heather McClung,…

You might not know it, but each year Washington produces approximately 75 percent of the United States’ hops crop and 25 percent of the world’s, and virtually all of our state’s hops are grown in the Yakima Valley by a handful of families that have been doing it for generations. While the family farming tradition…

Between 7-Eleven and the bottle shop (beer store) lies the beer convenience store—a new breed that offers a broad selection of craft beer along with other essentials, such as tortilla chips and cigarettes. Super Deli Mart in West Seattle regularly hosts special beer events, fills growlers and even sells kegs to go. At Norm’s Market,…

Most people associate Woodinville with wine—after all, it is home to more than 100 wineries—but these days, more people are chasing their Pinot Gris and Merlot with fresh, local beer. Woodinville is now home to six breweries, which are often crowded with oenophiles seeking refuge for their wine-soaked palates. The best way to conduct a…

Along airport way south in georgetown a giant, beautiful, old brick building dominates the east side of the street. Originally home to Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, this is where Rainier Beer was born in 1884 and died in 1917 with Washington’s enactment of Prohibition. In 1935, Seattle’s most iconic beer brand was reborn farther…

Washington boasts more than 190 breweries. That’s more than in any state other than California and just about as many as in the entire nation of Belgium—long considered the beer lover’s Shangri-la. In Seattle, where breweries were once scattered hither and yon, a recent spike in the brewery birth rate has spawned brewery districts—single neighborhoods…