SEAHOPS! And everything else.

It's only been a week, but GUYS, so much has happened!

First, Marshawn Lynch helped the Seahawks destroy the Saints (ok, maybe saying "destroy" is overstating it a bit - we all definitely got very nervous late in the fourth quarter). The Seahawks are now one game away from the Superbowl - but they have to beat the much loathed (and regrettably, not horrible) 49ers first. AH!

All of this also means this city is going nuts. 12th man everything. Ridiculous 12th man Bartells commercials, Seahawk spirit days at work...and well, basically the best thing ever: Marshawn Pinch.

From the Seattle Times: "...a hermit crab at the Seattle Aquarium becomes the 1st Crustacean in support of the team. Marshawn "Pinch" has been fitted with a vending machine souvenir for as long as the team continues winning ways."

Oh Seattle. You always find a way to warm my heart, even amidst your soul-sucking dark mornings and the occasional endless bouts of rain. Maybe that's why I keep coming back for more...

...which leads me to the second thing that happened: I celebrated my one year anniversary of moving back to Seattle on Wednesday! Yep, one year ago, to the date, I left San Francisco, the place that everyone couldn't fathom why I'd ever want to leave, to give Seattle another go. I was both excited and terrified, as so much had happened in that insane year known as 2012. Well, it turns out that 2013 had a lot in store too, with thrilling adventures and long nights of work, weeks of soaring happiness and times of self-doubt. And what does 2014 have in store? A and Ja are describing it as a "yellow-carrot-orange," promising of excitement and big things. Right. Well, um, as they figure out the specifics of what a yellow-carrot-orange year entails, I'll let you know.

Third: one of my favorite places in Seattle - if not my actual favorite beer place at present - was named one of America's 100 Top Beer Bars for 2014! Oh hellz yeah, Draft Magazine finally caught up with what I've known from Day 1: The Sixgill, of Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, is among the best places to get a beer on the West Coast and well, in the U.S. of A. The best part? Ok, the best part after their always phenomenal beer selection, fantastically knowledgeable and friendly staff, and very stellar foodstuffs? The Sixgill has only been open since April 2013. That means, in 9 short months, The Sixgill has established itself among the beer bar elite, the old money of brewski mavens nationwide. So here's to The Sixgill and all its wonderment (as depicted below) - cheers!

Where the magic happens: ah, soooo many great beers on tap, every night.

Ryan, one of The Sixgill's finest, pours a badass brew (unlike the quality of this picture) and writes witty beer descriptions like "unlike fruitcake, this is a beer that will not be regifted."

On the subject of The Sixgill - shocker - I've had the pleasure of enjoying some very tasty beers there lately. One of them was Pelican Brewery's Seahops (5.2% ABV, IBUs unknown, a few more limited details here), which made its debut on Saturday - shocker - for the Seahawks v. Saints game. See, those witty PNW-ers. Marshawn Pinch, Seahops...oh what punny people.

Anyway, I met A, Ja, Co, Cr, and Jo at The Sixgill to watch the game (ok, fine, I showed up an hour early and fought off no one for the prime table for game watching, and they met me at the SG at a much more reasonable time), and well, duh, to enjoy football and beer, and football and beer. The Seahops was a little less hoppy than I'd want my ideal beer to be, but honestly, it was kind of a perfect hop-forward football game-watching brewski. Why's that? Well, football games are long. I'm learning this - that and the rest of the game I suppose (yep, no one wasn't sacked in the envelope this game either) - and what I might enjoy at home after a long day at work or big bike ride may not always be I'd enjoy over the course of four hours of watching football. And at a comparable lower ABV than the typical hoppy beer, the Seahops makes an even stronger case for its status a pretty solid IPA to be swilled while hawking out. Sixgill bonus: you got to enter a drawing for two nights for two in Ocean City, OR and a tour of Pelican Brewery if you purchased a pint during the game! I'll be honest, I know nothing about Pelican Brewery, nor Ocean City. But I do know all about how much I like winning things, so this was a pretty easy sell for me - that, and Ryan saying that it was probably the hoppiest beer they had on tap on Saturday.

While the Seahops - and well, the Seahawks - delivered on Saturday, unfortunately, some beers I've sampled lately just haven't tickled my fancy (my tastebuds? my liver? meh, something somewhere in there). While I prefer to highlight awesome beers I've enjoyed, I also need to remember which ones weren't so stellar, which include (in no particular order, aside from what I pick off my coffee table first, second, and third):

(1) Apocalypse IPA, 10 Barrel 

(6.5% ABV, 65 IBUs, more details here)

So I thought I'd really like this one: a PNW IPA, described as having "a firm bitterness," and c'mon, it's got kind of a cool label. Well, someday I'll learn to be less judgmental of a beer's cover. From my notes: "[This is] a kind of 'light IPA' such that it would be the equivalent of a Bud Lite to a Bud: not horrible, but certainly more watery and of less substance than I'd ever really want my beer." Sorry, 10 Barrel, but you might be overselling the whole apocalyptic beer thing.

(2) Hop Lava, Double Mountain

(7.0% ABV, 75% IBUs, more details here)

Ok, I'm open to giving this one another shot. Maybe I was in a bad mood, maybe my taste buds took a nap and weren't responding to this beer's alleged "hop explosiveness." Maybe this whole review could be symbolic of second chances, or something equally deep and ridiculous. When it comes down to it, I just wasn't really excited about this beer. It was kind of blah, just kind of hanging out there - perhaps akin to a mediocre kisser. Like it's hard to precisely pinpoint what's lacking or going wrong, but it's just not good . And there's definitely a reason why I didn't pick up a second round of the Hop Lava at my most recent visit to Bottleworks (and opted for my beloved Hopnotch by Uinta and a Boundary Bay IPA instead...)

(3) Hop Logic, Highwater Brewing 

(9.5% ABV, 75 IBUs, more details here)

...and on the topic of Bottleworks, please know that - gasp - I'm not uber-boring and always go for tested-and-true brews when I hit up that oh-so-special place in Wallingford. Nope, I try to examine the hoppy beer corner and see if anything new catches my fancy. This time, I decided to give the Hop Logic a go, largely based on its Beeradvocate review saying that the "Hop Logic Imperial IPA is brewed for the true 'Hop Head.' " To follow that logic (ha!), I'd say yes, I consider myself a hop head, and thus yes, I should like the Hop Logic. Perhaps this reasoning wouldn't get high scores on the LSAT (drats, that could explain my poor performance come test day), but wow, I'm either not a "true Hop Head," or this beer is crap. Ok, fine. It's basically brandywine, which I should have been concerned about given the high ABV, but they said...they said...they said it was for Hop Heads! Not brandywine bozos! ARGH. So yep, in sum, this beer was way too heavy, too syrupy, too brandywine-y to even remotely be palatable for me. Never again.

And with that, I'm out. Another week awaits, another adventure to begin. Go Marshawn Pinch, The Six Gill, and Seahops!

Cheers,

N