The St. Louis Cardinals are on the TV, beating Atlanta in the NLCS wildcard game, and I’m at The Pike Brewing Company in Pike Market in Seattle, Washington. I’m in town for a conference for work, and after everything finished up today, I came here for sightseeing. I’ve already had their Harlot’s Harvest Pumpkin Ale (along with a couple of beers at Black Raven brewing earlier). This beer was endorsed by James and the gang at Basic Brewing Video during their trip to Seattle for the National Homebrewers Conference a couple months earlier. This beer was brewed for the 50th anniversary of the city’s iconic landmark.

Location: On tap and served in a tumbler style pint glass at The Pike Brewing Company at Pike Market in Seattle, WA.

Numbers: 6.5% ABV, ~ 200 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s straw-gold and fairly hazy. It had a big creamy head on it that had some great retention, and left some nice lacing on the glass. There’s an obvious piney-resin hop aroma as well.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium, and the head gives it a very nice, creamy mouthfeel. Up front, there was a lemon and honey-like malt flavor and sweetness, along with a nice floral-citrus hop flavor. The citrusy hop flavors picked up during the middle and continued through the slightly dry finish. The hop flavors lasted for a couple minutes in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This had a lot of citrusy hop flavors with a mix of honey and lemon flavors as well. And since I’m at Pike Market, I’d probably pair this one with a fish dish. Something like a lemon and dill seasoned fish would go nicely with the flavors in this beer.

Overall Impression: During my small beer tour of Seattle, I was expecting some really hoppy west-coast-style IPAs. However, this wasn’t overly hoppy, and had a nice mix of floral-citrus hop flavors. The honey malt flavor up front hinted at a solid backbone, joined by the nice creamy mouthfeel. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good, solid IPA.

My Rating:

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