9 Yards Brewing

This week we started off a day early! Marshall and I decided to stop in at our favorite homebrew shop, Micro Homebrew in Kenmore and after some inspiring conversations with the guys there, we decided we had to find a place to stop and have a beer and didn't want to go to far. 9 Yards Brewing was less than two blocks away right off the Burke Gilman Trail. Like a lot of breweries it was originally a big nondescript warehouse before the three owners came in and took over. When we came in we were greeted with enthusiasm which is always a plus, but the thing that impressed me the most right up front, was the blatant lack of IPA on their beer menu. When we inquired the owner Paul answered, "We don't really like IPA so we don't brew it." Fair enough. So 9 Yards is not for IPA lovers, but for anyone else there is a plethora of yummy things to be tried... including four unique infusions that rotate regularly.

When we went they had on tap: Homewrecker Red 6.5% 50 IBU Brilliant Blond 6.3% 20 IBU

Regal Lager 6.0% 27 IBU Pitchfork Blond Sour 4.2% 28 IBU Torch Red Sour 4.6% 28 IBU Milk Stout 5.9% 35 IBU Vershtaken Marzen 6.0% 20 IBU Brown 5.0% 27 IBU Imperial Red Ale 7.4% 60 IBU

Infusions:

Brilliant Blond & Orange Homewrecker Red & Cinnamon and Vanilla Pitchfork Sour & Cherries and Basil Milk Stout & French Roast Coffee

There was a good reason our Sunday beer meeting started early this weekend and though it was tough waiting for everyone to get off work so we could meet and taste it was well worth it. I accidentally left my camera at home so I didn't get a photo of the line up before we began (So sad!) but I have no doubt I will be back and I'll take picures and add them later. I'm probably the least technical when it comes to tasting out of the four of us and probably the least opinionated so bear with me and please read Joe, Thorin and Marshall's notes as they become availible and don't just rely on my thoughts as to whether or not you want to pay these breweries a visit! Out of all thirteen I had two that really stood out for me. One of them was the Marzen and the other one was the Red Ale / Cinnamon Vanilla infusion. With the exception of some sours I tend to lean toward sweeter beers so naturally I gravitated to the Marzen first. It's super malty but not heavy and with a really light hop profile I could probably sit and drink that all day long and not get tired of it. The Cinnamon Vanilla Red Ale infusion really caught my attention for a completely different reason. Since the beer is being imbued with these spices and not brewed with them the cinnamon vanilla flavor is in you face like you wouldn't believe, but to me it really deepend the complexity of a red ale that was already very good and added a bunch of other flavor notes that would have otherwise not really been noticed. That didn't make it any less of a palatte blaster, but it was worth every sip and really made me crave rum cake.