DAY 5 : West Seattle Hop Celebration

TODAY: Friday is the final day of our week-long Celebration-o-Hops in West Seattle. To close the week out we will be pouring two beers featuring the use of fresh hops from Gamache Ranch near Yakima:

1) Hop Harvest Ale: brewed in Burien using fresh Amarillo hops in the brew kettle and dry-hopped in the fermenter with Amarillo, Columbus, and Centennial pellets.

2) Fresh Hopped Elliott Bay IPA: we stuffed as much fresh Amarillo hops into the keg as was feasible, then filled the keg with our house Elliott Bay IPA. Tasting next to the regular and dry-hopped versions will make for an interesting comparison opportunity.

DAY 4 : Hop Celebration @ West Seattle Pub

TODAY/Thursday will feature two recipes from Brewer Dan of the West Seattle brewery:

1) RyePA is an IPA with 5.0% ABV and around 70 IBUs, but also 20% of the grain bill is Rye. Rye adds a spicy and grainy quality to the brew to balance out the hoppy bitterness.

2) Hoppus Callosum is a heavyweight, weighing in over 8% ABV with 71 IBUs. Focusing the hopping on late additions and a substantial dry hopping makes this a very aromatic example of the power of hops.

Day 3 : Celebration of the Hop in West Seattle

TODAY/Wednesday will feature two Belgian-style IPAs:

1) Imperial von Boorian is 7.1% ABV and 100 IBUs and is dry-hopped w/ Chinook, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops.

2) Hop von Boorian is 5.8% ABV and 70 IBUs. Think Trippel w/ a load of hops.


Both have distinctive Belgian yeast strain characteristics and a moderately high level of fruity esters owing to the warmer fermentation temperatures.

Day 2 : Hop Celebration in West Seattle

TODAY/Tuesday we will feature two brews from our Burien location:

1) Hellmouth Imperial IPA is a 7.1% ABV and 100 IBU brew, dry hopped with Chinook, Amarillo and Simcoe hops.

2) Highline IPA is the house IPA of the Burien pub, and comes in at 5.8% ABV and 80 IBUs.

Tuesday, we will also be having a "Meet the Brewers" Night from 8:00 till 9:30pm. All three brewers from our two pubs, Doug, John, and Dan, will be on hand to chat with and answer questions.

We will also be serving a special gravity fed cask of our Riot Strong Pale Ale dry hopped with fresh hops from Head Brewer Doug's recent trip to the Gamache farms in Yakima.

Don't forget, Tuesday is also "Top it off Tuesday" at the pub, where pitchers can be had for only $9.00 from 3:00 PM to close.

DAY 1 : Hop Celebration in W. Seattle

Today/Monday, we will feature two of the Elliott Bay stalwarts:

1) our GABF medal-winning Demolition Imperial Pale Ale weighs in at 7.25% ABV and 103 IBUs, and is dry hopped with Cascade and Chinook hops.

2) Riot Strong Pale Ale has an ABV of 7.6%, 71 IBUs, and is dry hopped with Saphir, Cascade, and Chinook hops.

Customers will be able to order a sample tray of five 5 oz. samples of hoppy brews made at our two breweries for $7.50. Three of the samples will always be our Elliott Bay IPA, Dry-Hopped IPA and a cask-conditioned hoppy treat that will rotate as the casks empty. The remaining two samples will be of the daily featured beers.

In addition to the beer, our Executive Chef, Kerry White, has put together a small plate of various treats to pair with the hoppy brews, for $6.95. The plate includes: trout pate, smoked scallops, aged white cheddar, house made pickles, crackers and summer sausage.

Check back tomorrow for the next set of featured hoppy beers.

'Celebration of the Hops' Menu Items

Here it is...hot off the press...the small plate menu that will be available next week in West Seattle for the duration of Celebration of the Hops.


-Smoked Scallops
-Trout Pate
-House Made Pickled Veggies
-Aged White Cheddar
-Dan’s Summer Sausage
-La Panzanella Crackers

Hop Celebration in West Seattle Pub

The coming of fall brings the annual hop harvest in Eastern Washington and across the world. The hoppy minds at Elliott Bay Brewery and Pub in West Seattle decided to dedicate the week of September 28th- October 2nd to celebrate hops in our pub.

Each day, customers will be able to order a sample tray of five 5 oz. samples ($7.50) of different hoppy brews made at our two breweries. Three of the samples will always be our Elliott Bay IPA, Dry Hopped IPA and a cask-conditioned hoppy treat that will rotate as the casks empty. The other two samples will rotate each day to give customers a chance to try ten additional hoppy selections made by our brewers.

The general lineup looks like this:

Mon.: Demolition + Riot
Tues.: Hellmouth + Highline IPA
Wed.: Hop von Boorian + Imperial von Boorian
Thurs.: RyePA + Hoppus Callosum
Fri.: Hop Harvest + Fresh Hop EBay IPA

In addition to the beer, our executive chef, Kerry White, has put together a small plate of various treats to pair with the hoppy brews ($6.95). The plate includes: trout pate, smoked scallops, aged white cheddar, house made pickles, crackers and summer sausage.

Check back here for details of each day's featured IPA selections.

Hop Trip 2009

Yesterday we made a run over to Hop Country, WA to pick up some fresh hops. We were fortunate enough to show up when the coveted Amarillo variety was ready.

So we stuffed some bags and boxes full of plump cones and headed back over the hill to ready the hops for their ultimate destination...Hop Harvest Ale in Burien and a guest appearance in a batch of Riot Ale in West Seattle.

Many thanks to our gracious host, Darren Gamache, for hauling us around and giving us such great access to some of our favorite ingredients.

Check out the pics: http://bit.ly/L502m

West Seattle Hop Harvest

Nice evening in Seattle to harvest some hops: Cascade + Chinook.

Brewer Dan, is there a fresh hop cask in your future?

Hop Poles Arrive in Burien

A set of three 60-year-old cedar hop poles arrived at our pub in Burien today, compliments of the Virgil Gamache Farms of Toppenish WA.

Plans are to situate them amidst the "field of barley" on the 4th Ave. side of our building, string up some steel cable for support, and plant hop rhizomes there next year that will complete the "green wall" of basic brewing ingredients.

Many thanks to Darren and his family for bestowing upon us these historically valuable resources!

Hopp.us Callos.um Now on Tap

notice the resemblance?...this is your brain on hops...

HOPP.US CAL.LO.SUM...(kə lō′səm) an ale that connects the malty and hoppy hemispheres of the mammalian brain...

- an Imperial (Double) IPA now on tap at our W. Seattle pub. You won't want to miss out on this one...a citrus hop giant with a massive malt backbone...18.8P / 7.6 ABV / 75 IBU. Dry-hopped with Amarillo and Simcoe

A Visit to Hallertau Hop Region

While in the Holledau (Hallertau) region, we visited Andreas

Schlachtbauer, a young German hop grower who had visited Yakima and Seattle during the summer of 2008 as part of a scholarship program. Parts of Andreas' farm house were constructed in the early 1500's, but much of the equipment is quite new. The machine used to pack the 60 kilogram (~130 pounds) bales shown here is operated by Andreas'
mother during the fall harvest.

The family grows Hallertau, Magnum, and Select hops on their farm near Aiglsbach, approximately 60km (37 miles) south east of Nuremberg.

Here's a short video of the drive through hops fields near Aiglsbach.