In Skagit Valley this week, a brewery reopens, special Tulip Festival beers are tapped across the region and a one-off beer in Edison gets both fruity and funky. In Bellingham, make plans to celebrate spring with an upcoming Garden Party pub crawl and stay tuned for seasonal releases from a new cidery and a popular brewery. In the spirits scene, a new drink at Chuckanut Bay Distillery may sound familiar to readers of this newspaper.
Brews News
Bastion Brewing has reopened following a three-month closure. Now open Wednesday through Sunday, Bastion makes for a refreshing stop along Highway 20 between Burlington and Anacortes — especially if you’re in the area for the Tulip Festival or the Skagit Farm to Pint Roadshow this month.
While they won’t be participating in the Roadshow this year, the family-friendly brewery offers a limited food menu in addition to its beer lineup. Welcome Bastion back by sipping a pint in their open-concept brewhouse — where you’re likely to catch the brewers in action.
Breweries throughout Skagit Valley are now pouring special Tulip Festival and Skagit Farm to Pint Roadshow brews. These beers showcase and celebrate local Skagit Valley malts.
Try the official beer of the 2022 Tulip Festival, Tulip Valley Pilsner, at Anacortes Brewery. Over at Chuckanut Brewery in Burlington, you’ll find Skagit Tulip Ale — a crisp California common style. Temperate Habits Brewing in Mount Vernon is offering an easy-drinking Prickly Pear Kolsch for the event.
Some of the most interesting Skagit brews this month are coming out of Terramar Brewing in Edison. Amadeus Festbier — an unfiltered amber lager — is Terramar’s official Tulip Festival beer. But it’s not the only beer on the tap list made with Skagit Valley Malt. You’ll also find Hop Secret IPA (a West Coast IPA with resinous pine bitterness) and Skagit Haze IPA — a double dry-hopped hazy IPA featured at Tulip Town this month.
I popped into Terramar recently to taste two of their wilder beers. The Raspberry Kettle Sour is a Berliner Weisse-style ale made with Skagit malts and raspberries sourced from Berry Acres Farms. Dry, tart and gorgeous raspberry-red, it’s everything I want in a kettle sour. The funky, fruity Apricity Saison with Brett was another winner. Pouring from “The 11th Tap” (Terramar’s rotating specialty keg with limited availability), this one-off beer won’t last long.
Celebrate Spring in Sunnyland
In Bellingham, the second annual Sunnyland Garden Party will run from Thursday, April 14 to Sunday, April 17. Participating breweries this year include Kulshan Brewing, Otherlands Beer, Twin Sisters Brewing, Stemma Brewing, Wander Brewing and new-to-the-neighborhood North Fork Brewery.
During this celebration of spring, attendees are invited to try new releases from each brewery, win swag, dress up, and have fun while raising money for Northwest Youth Services (all proceeds from the sale of special Garden Party branded koozies go to the organization). Each brewery has crafted a special beer (or two) for this pub-crawl-style event.
According to the organizers, “springtime enthusiasts will be able to visit each brewery over the course of the event, receive stamps on a punch card, and be entered into a drawing to win amazing swag packages that include a mix from each brewery. Fancy and fabulous garden party attire is strongly encouraged.”
In another year without Bellingham Beer Week or April Brews Day, it’s great to see local breweries coming together and creating their own festivities. So sport your finest floral attire and make a long walk (or bike ride) of it. See you in Sunnyland!
Recent Releases
You can now try the first release from Bellingham’s newest cidery, Bull Biter Cider. Available on tap at Aslan Depot, The Black King is a 100% Kingston black (an apple variety) cider benefitting Black Lives Matter Seattle/King County. Take a trip to the Depot to sip this English-style cider.
Wander Brewing has released Extra Brown Ale, a malty, low-bitterness beer with notes of light toffee, honey, chocolate and dry-roasted nuts. Brown ales are the perfect spring style — neither too dark nor too light — equally enjoyable on a rainy spring afternoon or a 65-degree day in the sun. Brown ales strike a balance between bitterness and sweetness for satisfying sipping from winter to summer.
Spirits Scene
During a recent visit to Chuckanut Bay Distillery, one drink stood out to me on the menu. “Cascadia Daily” uses Chuckanut Bay bourbon, ginger apple shrub, ginger beer and lime for a classy, local spin on the Whiskey Ginger. And it has nothing to do with this publication (I asked). Rather, the recipe comes from Shrub Farm — a Bellingham-based shrub producer.
Shrub is made from raw, organic apple cider vinegar infused with fresh fruit and herbs. It can be used to flavor sparkling water, and it makes an excellent cocktail mixer. So next time you find yourself at Chuckanut Bay in need of a zippy local cocktail, ask for a Cascadia Daily — and tell them the newspaper sent you.
Brandon Fralic’s Drink Cascadia column runs weekly on Wednesdays. Reach him at drinkcascadia@gmail.com.
