Seattle Brewery Walking Tours

Grainne Ale Craft Beer Festival @WestportHouse I tried some great beers from James at @LoughGillBrewer, Conor at @reeldeelbrewery and Cillian from @mescanbrewery

Linda and I had a great time at the Grainne Ale Craft Beer Festival @WestportHouse. It was a great day for a beer festival, with four breweries from northwestern Ireland present. @mescanbrewery, @reeldeelbrewery, @LoughGillBrewer and @BlackDonkeyBeer

I'm looking forward to visiting my first craft beer festival in Ireland, the Grainne Ale Festival at Gracy’s Pizzeria and Bistro @WestportHouse with my new favorite Irish craft beer, @mescanbrewery this Saturday and Sunday with food and music.

@mescanbrewery specialize in bottle conditioned Belgians beer. Head brewer Cillian likes authentic ingredients including the spring water from Croagh Patrick and hops, barley and yeast from Belgium. Look for their saison, blond, red tripel, a wheat triple and a Baltic Porter,

Founded in 2010 by two veterinarians, Cillian and Bart, who built a 1000 liter @mescanbrewery from scratch. Many of the pubs will have local craft beers in bottles behind the bar, and most Off Licence (aka liquor stores for Americans) will have a craft beer section.

While staying in Westport, Ireland, I visited @mescanbrewery. About 17 km, 11 miles west, a bit hard without a car, I had a great taxi. On the side of Croagh Patrick the brewery is named after St. Pat's brewer. Mescan specializes in Belgian beers, a bit more ABV then Irish ales.

A day of beer tasting, for a group of old friends, including a lot of Fresh Hopped IPAs, ends at Lagunitas Seattle TapRoom & Beer Sanctuary. Hanging with old friends is always better with a beer. @lagunitasbeer

Last week my tour was lucky enough to catch @BickersonsB head brewer and owner, Frank Castro, in the act of Fresh Hopping, curtesy of @LoftusRanches After the wort was filtered through the fresh hops and moved to the fermenters it was time to clean out the mash tun.

A rare treat for my beer tasting tour last week. We arrived just as owner and head brewer Frank Castro of @BickersonsB was adding fresh hops from @LoftusRanches into the Mash Tun. Frank gave my guests an impromptu lecture on the fine art of fresh hopping.

It is Fresh Hop Season and a great time to be drinking beer in the Great Pacific Northwest. Everyone is brewing and pouring some great, fragrant and hoppy beers. Last week my tour stopped at @BickersonsB right when they got a load of fresh HBC 586 hops from @LoftusRanches

New brewery opens this weekend in Seattle - Bickersons Brewhouse second location, Grand Opening Sat. & Sun. @BickersonsB washingtonbeerblog.com/new-brewery-op…

Big fun on our tour at Obec Brewing with Damir, Joseph, our guide, Brian, Joe, Alison, Eric and Leslie. Obec means community and we found it in a glass of beer. @ObecBrewing

Small world story, on our tour, Brian from Delaware, far right, taught Jr. High Science to Joe, 2nd from left, from Philly, with his wife Alison. They had not seen each other all these years. Beer does have the power to unite people. Our group enjoyed the beers at @stoupbrewing

On his way home to Delaware from a trip to Alaska, Brian joined me on a walking tour and we visited @urbanfambrewing

Now is a great time to visit the Georgetown breweries because @JellyfishBeer is giving discounts on pints if you take a selfie drinking at.@lowercasebeer @ElysianBrewing or @MachineHouse. On our tour we enjoyed Brown Ale and cask conditioned ESB at Lowercase

Cheers David and Ann at Jellyfish Brewing Company. This is a great time to visit Georgetown because breweries like @JellyfishBeer, @ElysianBrewing @lowercasebeer and @MachineHouse are giving discounts on pints if you take a selfie drinking at one of them.

The only thing better than going to a @SoundersFC game is a brewery tour first like David & Ann here at @ElysianBrewing. Now the Georgetown breweries: @JellyfishBeer @lowercasebeer and @MachineHouse are giving discounts on pints if you take a selfie drinking at one of them.

At the end of our tour, I ended up with Vrithi and Vik of Epicurious Passport at @ObecBrewing.

At @stoupbrewing the brewers emptied the mash tun. We tasted a bit of the mash. Kind of like a warm oatmeal. They also showed us some of the hop pellets. PRO TIP: Unless you really, really want to know what bitter tastes like, just smell the hops, don't put them in your mouth.

On our stop at @stoupbrewing Crystal and Sabrina examine the BW Red Ale and realize how it got its name.