Low Brow: Northern Exposure

Meet up at Low Brow HQ, 76th and 239th in Edmonds, WA

Since Oktoberskoot has been canceled, we’re putting together a one day ride hitting as many breweries North (and East) of Seattle that you’ve probably never been to or even heard of.

Rain or shine, we will ride to whoever will have us. Meet up at 11am at LBHQ on the County line in Edmonds, WA

We ride out at 12pm SHARP, no scooter time bullshit.

Will post up destinations as soon as we have confirmation of availability.
Confirmed so far…
Justice Brewing
Foggy Noggin
Ellersick Brewing
Black Raven Brewing
Red Hook
Malt & Vine

You can also check out the Facebook Events Page for this Event

Rally: Paseo Con Los Muertos VIII

Local Gordos are having their annual rally this weekend. Personally I will try to be there Saturday and Sunday. But I’m also a sissy gringo as I’m lacking tread on my rear tire so heavy rain is a no-go for me.

Saturday features the Taco Time Trials and Sunday the infamous Cemetery Ride. Check out their Rally Page for full details.

Short Notice Dept. – The Kings @ Tony V’s

Ladies and gents this is the last chance to see the greatest Punk Rock tribute to Elvis for the year! That’s right The Kings will be taking a two month break for the Holidays but tonight they will rock house at Tony V’s in Everett. Cover is a measly $3. You have no excuse to not come.

Tony V’s – Friday 10/30/2009 -  9pm – $3 cover

1712 hewitt ave everett, wa

Short Notice Dept. – Fremont Oktoberfest

This just in from the Short Notice department.

We’re meeting up at Fremont Oktoberfest. This Sunday the 20th, we will be there when the doors open at 11am.

Nothing more planned other than drinking some beers and general hanging out.

• General Admission: $25 Day-Of (6 tastings)
• Buxom Admission: $30 Day-Of ) (10 tastings)
• Designated Driver/Non-Drinker Admission: $15 Day-Of (4 water tokens)

Depending on the crowd we could retire to Low Brow HQ afterwards for beers on tap. Currently serving up Nate MC’s Honey Ale and Mac & Jack’s Serengeti Wheat.

Public events coming up…

September 26th VCOS @ Festa Italiana

September 27th – Oyster Run

October 2 thru 4th – Mister Mark’s Festering Oktoberscoot

Urban Beer – Fremont Brewing

What do you do when called that there is going to be a gathering at brewery on a late Thursday afternoon. You get off your butt and head on down to Fremont, former home of Red Hook and current home of Hale’s Ales, McMenamin’s, and now Fremont Brewing.

Situated in Fremont on Woodland Park Ave & 34th, behind Bikram Yoga lies the brewery and beer garden featuring tables of made of planks, kegs, and wooden pallets. Where you can shoot the breeze with Two Matts and an Aaron.

This was my first taste of Fremont Brewing’s wares, currently they have two beers; Universale Pale Ale & Matty’s Creamy Steamy Porter. They claim to be finished with the Firelight IPA, but the only evidence of it was a tap handle that poured out nothing. Aaron said it would be ready tomorrow.

As for a brewery tour, just spin around when you’re in there, you will have then seen the entire place. They are new and growing, you will see two hot liquor tanks, brewing tuns, and two (or was it three?) fermenters along with cold storage and some funky Naugahyde looking furniture that lays in a pile in the middle of the brewery. Apparently it’s for future use in the tasting room, hope they have it upholstered!

So far, I don’t think they’ve found their niche, everyone has that one beer they become famous for but I think they are still working on finding it. The Universale was a good solid Pale Ale, but it doesn’t blow the doors of Sierra Nevada which I would consider to be the holy grail of Pale Ale. Fremont Brewery also has a sustainable energy goal similar to Sierra Nevada who sells their discarded yeast to be made into Ethanol.

Low Brow Ride #1 – Mac & Jack Brewery, Redmond, WA

Low Brow Ride #1

Three of us decided to go to the Taste of Edmonds (don’t bother, it’s the same fair food as you get at any of them, the only one actually from Edmonds was Kafe Neo, which you can get anytime of the year.) but we were tired of it by 12:30, realizing that we had plenty of time to get to Redmond, we met up with some of the family and then 6 of us (3 on scoots) headed out. The ride was good and started to get hotter the later in the day we went, Aaron’s 50cc Met hung in with us on all the twists, turns, and 45mph speed limits so well that we were 45 minutes early to the tour so we hit up Gyros 2 Go for some Beef & Lamb Gyros.

Our arrival at the brewery was still about 15 minutes early. The closer it got to tour time the more people started to trickle in, a group of cyclists showed up as well as about 30 more people in cars. About 5 minutes after 3 the head brew master told everyone to line up for the first sample.

The first tasting was of the Serengeti Wheat, which is their lightest beer. It’s almost my favorite of their beers. There is no traditional notes of esters in their wheat like most German styles. They do brew following the Reinheitsgebot using only barley, hops, yeast, and water. Which means you won’t be seeing any Belgian styles come out of Mac & Jack anytime soon.

The second tasting was of their signature African Amber, which was named after a contest was held at the Park Pub to name it, which happened to coincide with the opening of the African Safari Section of the Woodland Park Zoo.

The third beer was their IPA, which has a lighter mouth feel than most IPA’s but still hits the floral notes that the style is known for without being overpowering.

The fourth was the Black Cat Porter, which I skipped as I was already getting a bit of a buzz, Thanks to Angela pouring her samples into my glass.

Mac & Jack is still brewing at full capacity and are at the limits of their current facility. They don’t plan currently to offer the beer bottled at all due to the fact that they can’t dry hop a bottle of beer, but you can bring down your own Keg or Growler, and they will fill it. I think I could figure out how to dry hop bottles, but hey they don’t pay me for my services… yet. But then it comes back to capacity constraints as they are already at the limit and they only are on sale in 3 states, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Their current yearly production is 40,000 barrels a year, which is about 80,000 kegs.

Their brew process is pretty much the same as you will see anywhere else. Once the wert is cooled down they pitch their yeast at about 70f, the will have an active fermentation for about 3 days. Once it has reached the final gravity they will cool it down to make any active yeast dormant so it will sink to the bottom. It is then transferred into secondary conditioning where it is then left for 4 days and then they force carbonate through a carbonation stone in only 1.5 hours.

All of that leads to some of the best American made German beers you will pour down your gullet and a mighty fine scenic ride through the back roads. Due note that if you want to purchase any wares, it’s cash or check only.

Website: http://www.macandjacks.com/

Tags: Beer, Brewery Tour, Ride