While Bellingham's beer community is growing, so is our capacity to support more breweries. Our palettes are developing, as is our willingness to try new things. Each Bellingham beer location has something different to offer, which is part of the beauty of the Tap Trail passport. While it gives you an [...]
The resurrection of craft beer – after its Prohibition-induced death – is still in the fairly recent past. Fritz Maytag bought Anchor Brewing Company in 1965, Jack McAuliffe started New Albion in 1976, and Sierra Nevada brewed its first batch of Pale Ale exactly 37 years ago, in November of 1980. [...]
If you’ve been around the block in the Bellingham brew scene, you know that each brewery has a style of their own. Aslan has a knack for citrus IPA’s, Wander has sour-ing down to a science, Menace’s Chili Bravo spicy brew is hard to beat. With so many breweries that [...]
Illuminati Brewing has announced it's open date. All three of their fermenters will be full by today and they might even have a beer on tap by Sept. 8th, next Friday. Owner Bill Kimmerly said that the soft opening will be Sept. 15th (Same date as the release of the [...]
Chuckanut Brewery is absolutely on fire these days. Their mastery of the lager world is ever more apparent in 2017, with 15 medals between the North American Beer Awards and the Washington Beer Awards, including Large Brewery of the year at the WABA. As I've mentioned before, I'm a brewery [...]
If there are two things Bellingham has lots of [but not enough of!] it's coffee and beer. We're well aware that Bellingham is an elite craft beer destination. With world class beers and more breweries per capita than any of its neighbors, it ranks at the top of all craft [...]
Yeah, things are slowing down in craft beer. But keep in mind that is saying something for one of the hottest growing business sectors in the US. 2016 saw a tapering off in in growth and, by some measurements, a regression. But there's still over 5,200 breweries in the United [...]
Wander Brewing brewhouse This Saturday will mark 3 years of Wander Brewing on Dean St. in Bellingham, WA. But Chad and Colleen Kuehl and the whole team have extended their reach well beyond their offshoot street along Whatcom Creek. They have created amazing beer after amazing beer that is being recognized not [...]
Let's do something a little different today and grab something a little vintage. It may be sacrilegious to willingly cellar and drink an IPA, but I assure you all that this beer is an IPA in very few ways. It is much more so a funky dry Brett beer, courtesy of the [...]
Our email list is the first to hear about new local brewery openings, breaking news, exclusive email list gear deals & general craft greatness. Infrequent and always full of beer. Sign up here. Pint Points Melvin Brewing is moving quickly towards opening. Owner Jeremy Tofte tells us that they hope to be open [...]
Happy Tuesday folks, we've got something a bit different today, a somewhat obscure style. Roggenbier is a traditional German style beer brewed with a very heavy portion of Rye in the malt bill and a strong yeast profile to balance the spicy rye. Pelican is nestled in Pacific City, OR [...]
Happy Monday folks, happy snowy Monday. I didn't quite anticipate the amount of snow we'd get today, but I am thankful that its visit doesn't appear to be a long one. I've taken a reach on todays selection, I know you're not supposed to read a book by its cover, but [...]
Jesse Nelson, CEO of Overflow Taps Jesse Nelson of Overflow Taps, a craft beer bar in Lynden, WA is surrounded by strong community, a dynamic team and is driven by an inspired mission that's about more than just beer. Overflow Taps will be celebrating its 1 year anniversary [...]
Happy Snow Day! I thought I left Colorado to avoid the snow, but truth is I love the snow...In small doses. I can do a snow day here or there, just don't give me sustained temperatures below 10º with snow and ice that never seems to fade. A nice fresh [...]
Only a month into 2017 and Bellingham continues to make its mark in craft beer. The Annual Best of Craft Beer Awards just wrapped up and Kulshan, Wander and Aslan pulled into a total of six awards, ranging from Bronze to Gold. Six awards is twice as many as last [...]
Hello again all craft drinkers and advocates. We've got a fun one today that I was pleasantly surprised to see and find. We did a collaboration beer last week of Evil Twin & Westbrook's Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break, which was quite good. Today we journey to the other side of [...]
Menace Brewing opened at 6:45pm on Saturday. I had the opportunity to stop in yesterday for a few pints with Tap Trail's Business Manager (and my wife) and my daughter. Upon approach to 2529 Meridian St you'll notice that there are lots of windows. The entire north side of the building has [...]
We've got one hell of a collaboration brew on the table today. Each of the collaborators is best known for their dark beer efforts, particularly their Imperial Stouts. Evil Twin has long been a brewer without a brewery, Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø founded Evil Twin in 2010 and has quickly climbed the ranks [...]
It's here, Founders Brewing has officially launched in Washington state! The core beers have been out for about two weeks now, and the specialty beers are just now starting to reach the market, move quickly because they likely won't last too long. Perhaps the most famed Founders beer is what we've [...]
For a while Boundary Bay has had 9 taps. Each one pouring award winning beers to thirsty folks. Well, that's all changed! They just added five more taps to bring their total to 14 taps. If you include their cask offerings, add two more taps for 16. No doubt the number [...]
Happy New Year and welcome to 2017, I hope you all have enjoyed the holiday splendor with family, friends, and good beer, I know I did. We've just closed out a fantastic 2016, replete with numerous new beers, and plenty of old favorites making their newest vintage debuts. 2017 promises to [...]
Welcome back to Tap Trail Reviews, it has been another stellar year for beer. We are clearly still on an upward trajectory in both quality and quantity. There are so many superb beers out there that it is tough to taste even one percent of them in a year. Fortunately we've [...]
Structures Brewing is, without a doubt, one of Bellingham's most unique and prolific breweries. Since opening in December 2015, they have brewed over 60 different beers. That's more than 5 different beers, every single month. James Alexander, Structure's owner and head brewer, brought his style of northeast beers to Bellingham and we're [...]
Hey, we're offering you a chance to win a badass hand-picked craft beer gift basket from the beer ninjas at Elizabeth Station by simply taking a photo. So here's how it works. Photos must be new (can't tag old photos.) Take as many awesome photos until 12/12 on the Tap Trail of you [...]
Welcome back to another installment of Tap Trail Reviews. We've taken some time off as we've been inundated with some awesome Fresh Hop beers. Some of my favorites were from Fremont, Fort George, Laurelwood, Skookum, and well, too many to name. This years crop was fantastic and the multitude of [...]
Wander Brewing's first canned offering, Googly Eyes Double IPA, was released in September during Bellingham Beer Week to rave reviews and copious cans consumed. Googly Eyes was was only available in Wander's taproom, both on tap and in cans. I bought a few of those sweet looking delicious four packs. [...]
Fresh hop season is upon us and I could not be any happier. Fremont has been giving us delicious but limited fresh hop beers from their kick ass Cowiche Canyon hop program, where they partner with hop growers to grow small plots of organic delicious hops. For the first time this [...]
Ah the venerable Berlinerweisse, the approachable lightly tart German wheat beer. A delicious low alcohol treat on a hot summers day. I much prefer a clean and tangy Berlinerweisse to a sweet and sticky Radler on warm days like we've been having lately. These sour wheats do have a broad spectrum [...]
Welcome back folks, and welcome to another Tap Trail review of epic bottle proportions. I want to extend a warm welcome to Terry who is going to be gifting us with some hyper local reviews of the good stuff being cranked out by our local breweries, while I'll continue to focus on [...]
Women have been a part of beer’s history from the very beginning. In fact, it was women who were the first to brew, the first to introduce hops to the process, and were the sole driving force behind the creation of beer. Over the years, however, women were pushed out of the [...]
Good morning to all, this installment of Tap Trail beer reviews is coming in extra early. I am heading out for a quick camping trip and didn't want to leave everyone hanging again. Also reading this before you do your beer shopping might inspire you to grab something new today, maybe [...]
UPDATE: Quiz has been updated on June 8th, 2017 Just how well do you know the Bellingham Tap Trail? Take our quiz, learn more about the Tap Trail, get your results and let us know how you did! Yep, you could cheat by Googling everything, or grab your Bellingham Tap Trail [...]
Welcome back metal mavens, sour sucklers, funk floggers, beer brothers, and welcome to the most recent installment of Tap Trail Reviews. We've got a fun one today, from a small brewery in Denver called TRVE (pronounced true). TRVE was one of my most memorable stops during my trip back home over [...]
I put little superstition or thought into Friday the 13th, it is just another day. However this most recent one, donned "Freaky Friday" by our beer brothers at Crux Fermentation Project brought us the release of something quite special and unexpected. My ears, and taste-buds always perk up when I see or hear [...]
Women have been a part of beer’s history from the very beginning. In fact, it was women who were the first to brew, the first to introduce hops to the process, and were the sole driving force behind the creation of beer. Over the years, however, women were pushed out of [...]
Welcome back all you Tap Trail trekkers, ale admirers, IPA initiates, and Saison scourers. We've got a fun one for you today from the new guys on the block, State Street, that is. Structures has consistently released a nice array of beers since their inception late last year. They have enjoyed [...]
Women have been a part of beer’s history from the very beginning. In fact, it was women who were the first to brew, the first to introduce hops to the process, and were the sole driving force behind the creation of beer. Over the years, however, women were pushed out of [...]
Welcome back masters of malt, guzzlers of Gueuze, sippers of Stout, to another installment of Tap Trail reviews. As much fun as it's been getting down on some spectacular beers from all over the land, we wanted to take another look back at the wonderful homegrown scene we've got here in [...]
Welcome back all you hop hawkers, bottle browsers, draft drinkers, and new release raiders. Friday saw the worldwide launch party of Melvin Bottles at Elizabeth Station. The house was packed and folks were clamoring to get their hands on the beloved 2X4 IPA for the first time ever in bottles. Up to this point [...]
Peace out, 2015! What a year for craft beer, especially here in Bellingham. From new styles to new breweries to new sell outs, the craft world keeps getting bigger and bigger. Just take a look at the production statistics posted by the Brewer's Association. Here are the top trends in craft [...]
Today is a special day, for we have before us a super local Barrel Aged beer to sample. As many of you may know, on Friday Boundary Bay offered a unique glimpse into their barrel-aging project: The Bootlegger Barrel Series. Tapping exclusive barrel aged variants of Cedar Dust IPA, Scotch Ale, Cabin Fever, and [...]
Courage. Power. Strength. These were all the qualities Frank Tosset and his partner Jack needed to take on their unconventional way of starting a brewery. They needed a powerful mascot that could help push them to where they needed to be. Aslan, the Turkish translation of lion, was the perfect representation [...]
Hello Everyone, and welcome to another installment of Pop Culture Pairing, a Tap Trail series where we take our favorite pop culture characters and pair them with popular craft brews. Catch up with past articles on Star Wars and Game of Thrones. This week, we tried something a little different. We've partnered with Kiersten [...]
This is a series on the Tap Trail where we introduce you to all the fantastic head brewers behind all the delicious beer in our town. Catch up with past articles on Aslan, Kulshan, Boundary Bay, Chuckanut, and Wander. This week, we highlight Eric Jorgensen of North Fork Brewery. While technically located just [...]
Fall is nearly my favorite beer season, it is a very close second to the Winter beer season. Fall absolutely has some superior beer selections compared to Summer and Spring. There have already been some heavy hitters released thus far, Sierra Nevada's Celebration & Narwhal, Hopworks Abominable, Fremont Kentucky Dark Star, I could go [...]
This is a series on the Tap Trail where we introduce you to all the fantastic head brewers behind all the delicious beer in our town. Catch up with past articles on Aslan, Kulshan, Boundary Bay, and Chuckanut. This week, we highlight Chad Kuehl of Wander Brewing. Although Wander Brewing has [...]
Click to read past articles on Aslan Brewing, Kulshan Brewing, and Boundary Bay Brewery. Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to another installment of "The Face Behind the Beer." While all their beers are worthy of praise, Chuckanut Brewery has absolutely perfected the art of German style brewing. In fact, Chuckanut [...]
Hello everyone, and welcome to another installment of Pop Culture Pairing, a Tap Trail series where we combine our love of beer culture with our love of pop culture. This week, we travel to Westeros and beersonify Game of Thrones characters with a popular brew. *Spoilers ahead. Be wary reading on if you [...]
In this series, we introduce you to all the fantastic head brewers behind all the delicious beer in our town. Catch up with past articles on Kulshan Brewing and Aslan Brewing. Boundary Bay is the founding father of the Bellingham craft beer world. They were the first brewery to open up in Bellingham [...]
Bellingham you nominated many beertenders in our qualifying round from all over the Tap Trail (strangely, some from places not even on the Tap Trail.) After sniffing out some ballot stuffing, the following six sud slingers made it into the semifinals of the 1st Annual Bellingham’s Best BeerTender competition. Below, you can read [...]
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