Good Beer Experience: Maritime

I stopped in there for a briefish visit about a year ago. Agreed, nice place, good menu for pub grub, and very good beers.

But, I wouldn't go as far as best in the PNW, personally. I'd probably go with LaConner for that.

-Steve

That good, eh?

-- Joel Plutchak Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"Resorting to personal harassment is a tactic of desperation."

Well, at times they were worse than my average homebrew performance which is definitely sub-commercial quality.

Phil

Mukileto, or however that's spelled. I visited there once, about a year ago. Smashingly good IPA, and the Industrial IPA is orders of magnitude better.

As for best in the PNW? From my more-limited experience, Rogue most definitely would not be in there. Overrated, AFAIC. Maybe it's different when you can routinely get it fresh, and certain beers are FG. Deschutes, yes. LaConner, most certainly. Ditto Diamond Knot. Haven't had enough MP. I'm quite fond of Elysian.

If Skagit River is the one I'm thinking of, I'd actually rank it was one of the worst. Scheidt can let me know if it's the one I'm thinking of - that one brewpub we stopped in right off the 5 that was pretty much an infection cornucopia.

-Steve

Mukilteo. Excellent. Only 40 minutes from me.

Jeeze, how could I forget?! "Immoral" IPA always on tap at my favorite pub (the Brown Lantern in Anacortes), and the Perseus Porter is delicious too.

Infection cornucopia... I'm not following. I'm sure its the same brewery, we've had this discussion before. It is right off the 5, right on the RR tracks. I believe they may have changed master brewers in the last few years. I used to hate everything they made aside from the Highwater Porter - but each year the beers get better (isn't that always the case?). Its the Trumpeter Stout I'm so fond of now.

I rarely get beyond stout, porter, and IPA in a joint (unless they have a barleywine). Can't speak about their pales.

fr0glet

See, I like *everything* Deschutes brews, so they hold my "favorite brewery" slot. I like a handful of Rogue beers, and I like them so much I'll blow big bucks on them again and again. Brutal Bitter has been my favorite beer for about 2 years, and all Rogue's stouts, porters, and XS line sit well with me.

I wouldn't know what a not-fresh Rogue tastes like.

fr0glet

Speaking for the rest of us east of the Rockies... you suck.

I agree. When I first started going there, I tasted many infected beers (my hubby's into samplers), but it's since gotten better. I liked their Trumpeter Stout, too. I think it's their best yet, actually.

I must be honest, though...I really like the atmosphere there. The food's fairly tasty (if a little uninspired), but I really like being there when the trains go by. ;)

Brina

Well worth it. I'd almost consider moving to the Seattle area just for Diamond Knot.

Well, I'm misremembering.

Yep, that's the one. When I visited there a year ago, it wasn't infection that was the problem (thanks to Scheidt for reminding me), it was this awful minearlly taste. Something was clearly way out of whack. I could have just caught them with some bad batches, but I tried at least two quite different beers, and they both had it. Something was way, way wrong with the water they used.

-Steve

Deschutes are definitely in my top five. The only thing I've had thus far that failed to impress was the Quail Springs IPA. Just a so-so beer. Everything else has been very nicely done.

Brutal Bitter's a one-trick pony to me. My tastes have changedto the point where big-ass hops is just not enough to do it for me anymore. Granted, I still like big blasts of hops, but I prefer them to have the malt to back it up. I want to taste all of what goes into beer, not just the green leafy things. I don't get that out of BB.

My favorite Rogue beer probably is the St. Rogue Red. That does have the balance I'm getting at. Old Crusty is of course excellent.

Not only have I had non-fresh Rogue beers across the country, I've even had them at their place in Portland. Well, one.

-Steve

So what constitutes an "infected" beer?

Me too! I'm actually pretty afraid of trains, but I really enjoy the feeling of being scared... so I always sit on the front porch with the hopes of a train going by. I also appreciate a non-smoking atmosphere, although I smoke in the evenings I don't care to smell it while I'm eating. Plus lots of hardwood, cool toys to play with, live music about once a month, and if you follow sports they've a big-screen tv upstairs with several couches. Plus a GIANT chess table, the pieces must be 6" tall!

Yes. I like Skagit River Brewery. Plus its less than 2 miles from my house. :)

fr0glet

I prefer Quail Springs to Bridgeport IPA, and they're both always on sale for 12 packs at the grocery store. Can't complain. I'd still rather drink Obsidian Stout or Black Butte Porter.

BB tastes like grapefruit juice to me. I've never had such a fruity hoppy beer. I guess I must be becoming more and more of a hop-head... every time I talk to the beer disto dude at the local co-op he says "well this beer is perfect for hop-heads" and I think "boy that's one of my favorites...". I've also used BB to convert a couple of my girlfriends over from hefeweizen-only drinkers. "You'll like it, it tastes like fruit juice!"

The funny thing about Brutal Bitter is I don't find it bitter, nor brutal, at all. I find Hop 'Ottin much hoppier than Brutal. Don't get me wrong, I love Hop 'Ottin too. :)

fr0glet

Kisses, Lew. I can only aspire to drink like you.

fr0glet

About the same distance from me.

The Elysian also does some great seasonals, including bocks and Belgian styles.

There were some strange off-flavors the day Steve and I were in there. I'm not sure if they were infected, or if something else had gone amiss. Some of the beers had an unpleasantly minerally, almost sulfury off-taste. I'm not talking sulfury like some of the British brewers, who use hard water with high mineral content (Thwaite's, for instance, but there are others). The SR beers we'd tried were just plain off.

If Charlie is hiring better-skilled brewing staff, good. Some of those beers needed help.

Ya gotta broaden yer horizons!

Being west of the Rockies is no guarantee. I've run into stale Rogue more than once in LA.

-Steve

Well, all kinds of stuff. At Skagit, I definitely tasted a couple lacto infections (sour/vinegar) a few years back, but they seem to have that under control now. They've also had issues with DMS (cooked corn aroma/flavor), but again, not recently.

Practically within stumbling distance. That alone makes it a more desirable place to visit. ;)

Brina

Lactobacillus? Or what?

Dimethyl sulfides? I've read in SOME beers (I think it was lagers?) that's considered a character agent. Do you mean issues like, it was too much? Or didn't sit well on your palate? Were you drinking a lager at the time?

So let me dig more on the concept of "infection". Are we talking about a bacterial sterilization problem? If so, doesn't it stand to reason that the brewmaster would identify such a problem and remedy it ASAP? I can see how it could happen (been reading up on homebrewing, esp. sterilization) but what brewer in his right mind would let it continue? I guess it seems like a fairly basic problem to me, one that a brewer would confront and solve to move forward with their brewing practice.

I'm the designated drunk, married my driver. He gets me drunk on purpose, I think. ;)

Thanks for the reply, always faboo to hash out beer with the locals.

fr0glet

DMS usually is not a function of infection, rather of inappropriate cooking techniques.

The problem with a lot of bacterial/wild yeast infections is that they appear in taste only after a certain time. And also, a lot of brewers are much better 'cooks' than microbiologists. I wouldn't care for feeding all those that have never seen trough a microscope to their own beer. Cheers, Joris

Yes, that's a common bacteria that shows up in infected beers. Acetobacter is as well. Other notable infection agents are various yeast strains. While the bacteria tend to sour the beer, off yeasts give them all sorts of funky flavors, usually described as medicinal or "band-aid-like." A basic homebrew text would outline all the various things that could go wrong with beer and how to identify them.

In pre-Prohibition-style pilsners, it's definitely an acceptable and even desirable trait. Beyond that, depending on levels, I'd say it starts becoming a flaw. Some lagers have a bit of a sulfury note, but that can just as often come from the yeast. Cooked corn, which is what DMS reminds me of, doesn't go well in most beers.

Do you mean issues like, it was too much? Or

Almost always, yes.

One would think. Given the frequency I've seen it from some breweries, though, it's not a safe assumption.

I'd say it is a bit odd - certainly not unheared of, though - for brewpubs to have infection problems. Most breweries with infection issues have it at bottling, since bottling machines are expensive to buy new, old ones are difficult to keep clean, and bottling cleanly is a complex process anyway.

I can see how

I'm not sure, but you could go ask whoever was brewing at Wildcat Brewing Co. in Indianapolis about 4-5 years ago. Had infected beers for well over a year or more. I only bothrered sampling a couple times, but had enough reports from others. Maybe it's like people who think that skunked Heiniken is supposed to taste that way.

Sanitization and cleaning do take time and dilligence. If you have a lazy brewer...

-Steve