I semi-accomplished my goal of taking it easy this weekend, in advance of what are sure to be two crazy weekends coming up with Hard Liver at Brouwer's next Saturday and the WA Cask Festival after that.

Friday we grabbed dinner at the Collins Pub and had a couple glasses of the new-to-town Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. It is a beautiful stout with lots of chocolate and a surprising amount of hops. I love it, but I get the feeling this will really shine after a year in the cellar to let the hops die down a bit. I heard that Uber had this on tap this weekend, and you should still be able to find cans of this in stores around town. Bellevue Whole Foods still had about 20 cans left this morning.

The Full Sail Top Sail BA Imperial Porter finally hit town this past weekend. I was told Uber had it on tap Saturday and bottles are around, but not in large quantity. It sounds like Bottleworks likely sold out of their allotment on Saturday. I'm hoping to find some hidden over here on the Eastside today.

The National IPA Championship came to a close this weekend, with the Green Flash West Coast IPA beating out the Bell's Two Hearted in the final; exactly as I picked it! I ended up coming in 1st for the Brewing News employee's competition, and I would have come in 4th for the overall competition(53 points). The overall winner finished with 60 points.
That's right, I'm now writing for the Northwest Brewing News. I've taken over the Seattle column from David Siegel, who has moved on to a job in sales with Snoqualmie Falls Brewing. Keep your eye out for my first column in the Apirl issue(Free at beery places all over town).

Saturday evening we headed down to Georgetown with some friends for the Georgetown Art Attack, which takes place every 2nd Saturday from 6pm to 9pm. All of the art/craft shops stay open, and many set out wine/beer/snacks to enjoy while you're checking out the neighborhood. It is a great way to get familiar with Georgetown, if you've never been down there. One great find of the evening was the newly opened Full Throttle Bottles, a nice looking bottle shop located at 5909 Airport Way South, right in the heart of Georgetown. Their wonderful beer selection is a welcome addition to the growing neighborhood. I'll have to go back when it is a little less busy(Art Attack brought out LOTS of people), but they seem to easily have the best selection on the south end of the city. I briefly spoke with the owner and beer guru(Erika and Mike?), and they seemed knowledgable and excited to finally be open. It's a huge store that has a small selection as wine as well. I wish they would work something out with the art space connected to them in the back, as it would be the perfect room in which to enjoy that beer you just bought. They don't have a webiste yet, and I can't even find a phone number.

To finish off the night, we stopped in the Hooverville Bar in SODO for a pint. It's a great, really chilled bar with a solid selection of craft beer. Selections included Boundary Bay IPA, Rogue Shakespeare Stout, Pike Kilt Lifter, Diamond Knot Possession Porter and other solid local beers. You'll never find anything crazy in here, but it's one of my favorite, and closest, spots to grab a beer(just don't tell anyone).

I headed out to the mountains on Sunday for some skiing, which it was a pretty fantastic day for. The snow wasn't great....but I'm a beginner anyways, so it doesn't make much of a difference to me. On the way back to Seattle I stopped in at Snoqualmie Falls Tap Room to see what their rotating Brewers Choice was. They currently have a "Rose Hip and Hibiscus" beer on tap that was interesting. The use of these plants gave it a strong, flowery/fruity tea aroma and taste. They used a small amount of Saaz hops that still added to the bitterness. Strong, bready malt was present throughout. It's worth a schooner for sure, but not really my thing. Scares me to think what this world would be without hops. The Brewers Choice is all about experimenting, and this one was probably quite interesting to brew.