Brewpub Review – Elliot Bay Brewery
“West Seattle’s Neighborhood Brewpub
Location: West Seattle

Tucked away in a small but busy street in West Seattle is Elliot’s Brewpub. The facility is designed with a mix of rustic meets modern. I arrived today at 6:32 and it’s packed for a Sunday night. The locals have the bar crowded so I opted to sit at a table.

I was greeted by Tim who handed me a decent size list of beers. Of course, I always have a hard time deciding so I am starting off with the sampler.

The sampler line-up:

Alembic Pale Ale
Gold Medal winner
IBU: 49
ABV: 5.3%
Brewer’s notes: Brewed with Belgian aromatic malts and hopped with Yakima goldings and cascades yielding a very smooth malty beer with pleasant hop notes.

Taster’s notes: Faint hop aromas, malty flavors balanced out wit a touch of hopiness at the end. Clean finish, easy drinking. Good compliment to the mussels.

Luna Wizen
IBU: 23
ABV: 4.5%
House wheat beer made with barley and wheats imported from Germany and Hallertau hops from the Yuka Valley.

Taster’s notes: light citrus aroma, clean filtered, refreshing. I’m not a wheat beer fanboy myself so perhaps someone who is a fan of wheat beer might have higher praise. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice brew, but not my favorite style.

Elliott Bay, IPA
13-50 Plato
5-6% ABV
IBU: ?
Taster’s notes – Pronounced hop flavors, great citrus aromas, smooth finish.

No Doubt Stout
13-15 plato
5.5-6.32 ABV
IBU: N/A
Taster’s notes: DARK, hearty, robust flavors, subtle oat flavors, hints of chocolate aromas. Nothing that rocked my world.

Brewers notes: a deliciously assertive hoppy ale, brewed with 5 different hops

Seasonal: Red won Boorian
IBU: 20
ABV: 5%
Brewers notes:
Deep garnet color’d ale brewed with 20% honey malt for a touch of sourness.
Taster’s notes: Money! Extremely balanced, with a touch of sour tones. Gorgeous amber colors with a clean finish. gorgeous copper hues, pronounced hopped aromas, fantastic balance, excellent pairing with the Manhattan Chowder, really plays well w/ the spicy flavors of the chowder. Crisp finish and very drinkable.

Spot light brew:
Dry Hopped IPA:
Beer Style: India Pale Ale
IBU: 114 according to pub manager
ABV: N/A 6+% is my guess
Taster’s note: HOP BLAST! Hop-heads rejoice, this ultra hoppy ale will keep you wanting more. Refreshing, hoppy with a surprising clean finish. I would expect that a brew delivering 114 IBU would coat your tongue with hoppy goodness for days! Golden hues with a simple cream color head, the persistence wasn’t there but in most cases, IPA’s head retention isn’t always there. With a simple agitation of the glass, the head quickly forms and then almost as quickly dissipates. The aromas of this brew is quite deceptive because the flavors for exceed that of the aromas.

The food:

Appetizer: Sambal Mussels and Frites
Whidbey Island Penn Cove Mussels simmered in Sambal with coconut milk, lime ginger, and basil mint aioli. Served with pub fries this delicious treat paired well with the heffe. The flavors remind me of thai cooking. The classic coconut milk, lime, ginger and basal are common characteristics of thai looking. Very flavorful but unusual pairing w/ the fries, perhaps bread of rice balls to sop up the delicious broth.

Ahi Tacos:
Southwest seasoned ahi tuna flashed seared to medium rare, laid over a bred of fresh citrus cilantro cole slaw and wrapped with godita shells. Served with house made pico de gallo and chipotle aioli, typically served with fries but I opted for the Manhattan Chowder.

Taster notes: Although the presentation didn’t rock my world, this was a great recommendation by my server Tim. The crisp texture of the cole slaw was a fanastic contrast to the seared tuna. Definitely on the lighter side of the menu.. good call Tim.

Featured employees:
Without a doubt service can really make or break a place. The place was really busy when I came and the employees didn’t really have a lot of time to chat with me about beer. I was able to pull a couple of people for a quick hello and interview.

Meet Robert

Manager:
Name: Robert (Manager of pub)
Nickname: Robert no nickname
Favorite Brew Style:IPA! Hopman indeed
Least Favorite: Stouts, not big malt fan
Leave favorite brew:
Favorite: no miller lite, maybe PBR but no way.

Grew up in the mid west – his friends dad had a pub with several beers on tap where he began his journey on trying different beers Robert eventually moved out to NorCal (San Francisco where he began his passion for microbrews.

Robert is a super cool guy. He offered up two free mini samples of their dry hopped IPA and their Belguim style IPA for me to try out. If Im not mistaken, the Belguim hopped style beer was their Hop Von Boorian – IBU: 70, ABV 5.8%

Okay so now for the CoreBrewing’s feature spot lite: Beer Babe
Meet: Rebecca!

Name: Rebecca
Nickname: Becca
Favorite beer style: Belgium
Favorite beer: Whit Bon Borrian (Belgium whit beer)
Least favorite beer style: Pilsners / largers
Least favorite beer: Milwaukie’s Best
How did you get turned on to good beer?
The Northwest has a lot of good brew pubs and she began eating there first and then eventually started to journey with beers.

Overall Impressions of the brewpub:
Great beer, the food didn’t knock my socks off however, when paired with the right brew, it really made the difference. Try the Ahi tacos with their house Heffe, mild yet flavor combination. The heffe paired well with the spice of Ahi tacos once I squeezed a little lemon on them. This place is buzzing with business for a reason. Great beers, good food and friendly service makes me want to come back to this place a few more times this week!

Tags: beer babe, Brew Pub, microbrew, Pairing, Review, Seattle

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 1:37 am and is filed under Brewpub Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.