The Taps at Mac & Jack

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.

My favorite, the Serengeti Wheat!

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/