Ballard Breweries – Beer Heaven in Seattle
November 3, 2022
On a recent house-sit in Seattle we were told about an area in East Ballard where you can easily walk, or later on, stumble from brewery to brewery. We managed to visit 6 different breweries each of which offers different styles of beer, and some very unique features that were definitely new to us. The bottom line, I was in beer heaven!!!!
The breweries in Ballard are all within a few blocks of each other. There is no need for an Uber to get between them (just to get home) which is fantastic. Most of the breweries have outside seating to enjoy the early evening sunshine. It’s very low key (and un-American), going to the bar to get your own beers and you even have to bus your own tables.
To bus a table means to clear , set and wait tables. It comes from the original term for the job “omnibus boy”
It makes the atmosphere very social and friendly with no distraction other than that of pure beer consumption.
So what new "beer" facts did we learn?
- Eastern Washington State is the major hop producer in the USA, providing 69% of the hops. It is also top 3 in the world for hop production.
- Hops have a very short shelf-life, so they are normally dried and shipped in pellets.
- Fresh Hops – Seattle is only three-hours from where the hops are grown. As such the breweries can have them delivered fresh from the fields and use them immediately in the brewing process. This gives a unique flavour and a freshness to the beer. The harvest is typically mid August to the end of September so this is a seasonal phenomena. Our timing was perfect!
- Seattle Fresh Hop Festival is early October (7-8 October 2022)
- IBU – International Bitterness Units are a measurement of the number of bitterness compounds that make your beer taste bitter. Almost all the beer you’ll ever drink will have a measured IBU between 15 (low) and 80 (high)
- When visiting a brewery for the first time, I recommend trying a flight of beers, where you can try six or more 3oz glasses (1/7th of an English Pint) from the menu. Do not try the pint option as a sample, it can make it a very short (and drunken) evening.
The Breweries
This was the first bar we visited and their selection of beers is very large. Oh, what to choose? I had no idea what the various beers were, starting with the fresh hops, and as there was a large queue I randomly selected an IPA and a sour beer. Out to the garden, a buzzing space with loads of seating, cool murals on the walls and the glorious late afternoon sun. On talking to a local couple I learned about fresh hops and never looked back. There’s a really fresh, clean taste to the fresh hop IPA. This particular one was a little sweet for my liking but quaffable all the same. The sour was my side of sour, i.e. not too intense.
Note from Jackie – I’ve tried quite a few sours since they now seem to be a thing, especially in the craft brewery sector. Some of them really do smack you in the face like you’ve just sucked on a lemon. All of the sours we’ve tasted here seem to be more subtle, it’s actually possible to taste more than just sour. The “sour”, I’ve read, comes from the lactic acid produced by added bacteria during the fermentation process (often Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria). Hang on, does this mean it’s a healthy beer? Well, not exactly. It still has alcohol. What it does have though is beneficial bacteria to help your digestive system’s microbiome (I knew my qualification in nutrition would come in handy). I’ll take that…healthier beer.
We were on our second visit to the Ballard Brewery scene, and once again enjoying the early evening with a sun-drenched beer garden. There was a long list of 20 beers and as I love a Mosaic hop I had to try the Mosaic Pale Ale and at 5.3% not too strong, hic.
Education time: Mosaic hops were released in 2012 and are not naturally occurring but bred from a combination of Simcoe and Nugget hops. They offer a unique and complex blend of floral, tropical, fruity and earthy characteristics that translate well into several styles of beer; Pale Ale and IPA being my favourites.
I then had to have my newly discovered fresh hop beer, a Citra IPA Perrault Farms, and Jacks had a Dunklewezen,
Education time: Dunklewezen – these southern German wheat beers are brewed as darker versions (Dunkel means “dark”) with complex malts and a low IBU. They are full-bodied and most Dunkelweizen are medium amber to amber-brown and appear slightly murky from the weizen yeast
All three were great beers that did not disappoint. We hadn’t considered the beer flight at this stage, so 3 pints went down the hatch in the first brewery we visited. It could be a long night…
It’s interesting that we arrived here at around 8 O’clock (I know, Europeans are still getting ready to go out), but the place was pretty quiet. There is nothing quiet about the beer. I have never come across beer fermented in a wine cask for 11 months, and the “Syrah” had grapes added to the brewing process. Jackie was delighted when it came out in a wine glass. Rather than me prattle on, here is the link to what this beer is all about https://shop.fairislebrewing.com/product/syrah. Most of the other beers were Saisons.
Education time – After much research Saisons are based around the pilsner malt, but brewers have a large degree of latitude. So in fact, reading a menu that listed pale ales, IPAs, farmhouses, ambers, etc. and all are described as Saisons, leaves me a little confused. If anyone has a better definition other than it’s French for ‘Season’ please leave a message. Jackie thinks she can identify the Saison flavour in a blind taste and to be fair, she is 5 for 5 at the time of writing.
Whilst looking at my phone map we spotted a brewery on the outskirts of the area, and as we were crawling from bar to bar this seemed like a perfect spontaneous visit. It was pretty quiet in the bar and so expectations were fairly low, until we saw the beer list and decided to sample a flight of beers. Tea infused larger, Pina Colada Sour, 18-36 month old barrel aged sour mixed with key lime, mango, peach and aged for another 12 months (is this beer we are talking about?). The beers were innovative but most impressively, they all tasted fantastic. I was blown away.
Obec went for a European approach to their beer and they said this was to differentiate themselves from the other very close competitors. You will find English Bitter, Czech Pils, Dark Larger, Amber ale, Sottish Ale, plus IPAs etc,,, Sounds logical but these were my least favourite beers (I did get a cool flight shot in the sunny outside seating area). Whether it’s because as a European my expectations were set and the beers did not match, I’m not sure, but personally they needed more punch.
I have a confession to make, this was at the end of our tour, the food truck outside only had Doughnuts left and was shutting (it was only just past 8pm, so if you are going to eat make it early. So there wasn’t anything to soak-up our previous beer consumption. In short, my memory of Wheelie Pop is a little hazy. However, we did like the atmosphere, and it seems the menu had a motor racing theme; Ascari Amber, Pit Lane Pilsner, Veloce Italian Pilsner, Powerslide Stout etc… The Burn Out CDA was a black IPA which was a little different and slipped down nicely.
The conclusion - Beer Heaven!
It’s quite well-known that I like beer, and wherever we explore we try to find the local breweries. However, in all the countries we have visited I’ve never come across an area so full-of breweries all vying for the same customers. I actually found out that a number of them don’t make it each year and are replaced with another hopeful enterprise. Good luck to them all!!!
Definitely in your element, hope you found your way home ,,!!!!!!!!!!