Gourd Beer

This Wednesday is going to be awesome.

Our pals at Elysian Brewing are bringing down a load of special release beers, all made with pumpkin.

Here’s the list:

NIGHT OWL PUMPKIN ALE
Brewed with over 7 lbs. of pumpkin per barrel. Made with Pale, Munich and Crystal malts, green and roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin in the mash, boil and fermenter. Bittered with Magnum hops. Spiced in conditioning with nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. OG 14.9° Plato (1.060) alcohol 5.9% by volume.

THE GREAT PUMPKIN IMPERIAL PUMPKIN ALE
Silver medalist at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival in the Fruit and Vegetable category, the world’s first Imperial pumpkin ale. Brewed with pale, Munich, Cara-Hell, Cara-Vienne, Cara-Munich and Crisp 45° L Crystal malts. Roasted pumpkin seeds in the mash, and extra pumpkin added in the mash, kettle and fermenter. Spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. OG 19° Plato (1.078) alcohol 8.1% by volume. Brewed at our original Capitol Hill location in Seattle.

DARK O’THE MOON PUMPKIN STOUT
Spookily smooth and chocolatey with a touch of cinnamon – A perennial favorite, brewed with Great Western pale, Crisp 77° Crystal, Munich, Cara-Vienne, roasted, chocolate and Special B malts with roasted pumpkin seeds in the mash. Pumpkin in the mash, kettle and fermenter. Bittered with Magnum and finished with Saaz and crushed cinnamon. OG 19.35° Plato (1.080), alcohol 6.5% by volume. Brewed at the Elysian on Capitol Hill.

HANSEL & GRETEL GINGER PUMPKIN PILSNER
Brewed with organic pale, Weyermann Munich and Cara-Hell malts, with pumpkin added in the mash, kettle and fermenter. Spiced with peeled and pureed fresh ginger in the boil and bright tank and hopped with lots of Czech Saaz hops (otherwise it wouldn’t be traditional). OG 12° Plato (1.048), alcohol 4.5% by volume. Brewed at Elysian Fields.

In general, I am not much of a pumpkin beer kind of guy. But Elysian…those people can make a good damn pumpkin beer. I’ve never sold a pumpkin beer out of TRH unless it had the Elysian stamp on it (last year’s utterly amazing run of Night Owl & Great Pumpkin 22oz bottles), and for reason…they do it better than anyone else can (Dark O’ the Moon at this year’s TCBF was KILLER). These will be amazing. Wednesday October 21st at The Red Hot (2914 6th Ave in beautiful Tacoma, Washington, natch), officially starts at 7pm (but dont be surprised if we sneak some on early!)

Best Hot Dog & 21st Amendment

I guess the fine folks of Western Washington saw it fit to bestow upon us the title of “Best Hot Dog in Western Washington“! Thanks guys for voting for us and bringing the title to Tacoma! I know this because the good folks at King 5 asked us to come down and film a spot for it…but then changed their minds the day of. Oh well…

In other coolio news, tonight we are hosting the release party for 21st Amendment’s newest beer, Back In Black IPA.

We’ll be tapping the first keg of it tonight! We’ll also have on their Brew Free or Die IPA & Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, both huge hits at the recent Tacoma Craft Beer Fest. Expect discounted pints of 21A Beer and delicious good times starting at 7pm!

Last Beer Garden

Tomorrow, Sat Sept. 12th is the last beer garden of the year for The Red Hot. We’re doing the first ever New Belgium Bike-In Movie in Washington State with New Belgium Brewing. We’re raffling off a new custom “The Red Hot” mountain/commuter bicycle, outfitted with rear rack and bike lock, and some other cool bikey schwag for those in attendance!

Bike riders get a special schwag bag (tire patch kit, lip balm, bottle opener, etc). We’re showing the classic bike flick, 1979’s “Breaking Away”, outside, shot onto the building.

Garden opens at 7, movie at dusk! The weather is gonna be AMAZING!

Session Fest

Our pals at NW Beer Guide have organized a very cool thing in The Session Fest, starting next week and lasting 7 days. They’ve got together a grip of pubs/taverns/ale houses that like to play with beer to get behind this new project. We’ll be the only ones in Tacoma partaking this year.

So what exactly is a “session” and how does it apply to beer? Definitions abound, but our organizing pals define it as:

Session drinking is drinking in large quantities over a single period of time, or session, without the intention of getting heavily intoxicated. Unlike binge drinking, the focus is on the social aspects of the occasion. A session beer…is a beer that has a moderate or low alcohol content

So all next week, we’ll be participating by spotlighting beers lower than 5.2%ABV. We’ll even be pouring them for 3 and-a-half bucks. Stone Brewing, Hales Ales, Anchor Brewing, Maritime Pacific Brewing, and Baron Biers will all be making the rounds on our handles for this ongoing week-long event, as well as a few others.

Reunion ‘09, a Beer for Hope

Reunion ‘09 is a collaborative effort to raise awareness and funding for Myeloma Cancer Research (plasma cancer). This year’s release will be a Double White Ale available in draught only. Bison Brewing in Northern California returns for a third year as a production and fundraising partner. Joining Bison this year as production partners are Elysian Brewing in Washington, Pizza Port in Southern California, and Terrapin Brewing in Georgia.

Reunion Double Wheat Ale will be sold at all three Elysian locations as well as 15 other outlets in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Elysian will be making a donation for every pint sold at their locations as well as every keg sold to area restaurants and pubs. As these locations are confirmed they will be posted HERE

If you are not a beer lover, you can also make donations directly HERE.

We’re Two Years Old…

Tonight (Saturday 8-15), 7pm: Randall Battle with Schooner Exact Brewing! 3 Grid IPA through 2 Randalls…one with Amarillos, one with Cascades! Meet the brewers and geek out!

Tomorrow (Sunday 8-16), 1pm: Our anniversary party opens our beer garden at 1pm. On tap out there will be Elysian Koolsch (pub only from Elysian Fields), 7 Seas British Pale Ale, Port Townsend Hop Diggidy IPA through the Randall, and the debut of our beer engine with a cask of Big Al’s Hop Soup IPA. At 5pm, we’ll be tapping a firkin with our pals from Schooner Exact outside with their delicious dry-hopped 3 Grid IPA that we can’t get enough of. At 6pm, the return of the annual hot dog eating competition! This year is all about speed, with each eater given 3 hotdogs and buns…whoever downs ‘em the fastest, wins! The weather is going to be killer, sunny and 78, and we’ll keep the garden open into the night. Hope to see all of our pals there to celebrate!

Coming Soon: Reunion ‘09 Double Wheat, Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, Port Townsend Scotch Ale NITRO, Double Mountain Hop Lava IPA, Laurelwood Hop Monkey IPA, Walking Man Homo Erectus IPA, SESSION FEST, NBB BIKE IN MOVIE, & MORE!

p.s.: Website for Tacoma Craft Beer Festival is live! IT’s still being tweaked and things added, but the first draft is up!

Beat the Heat With Woody

Woody is a travelling tavern on wheels. It’s a giant wooden keg that opens up into a tavern, complete with stereo and disco ball.

Woody is from our pals at Deschutes Brewing. He’s in Tacoma today rolling around, and will be making a full-fledge stop at The Red Hot Wednesday Night @ 7pm until close. We’ll be pouring a ‘heat-friendly’ batch of beers on tap in the outdoor beer garden out of Woody: Deschutes Red Chair IPA (from Deschutes Bond Series of beers), Green Lakes Organic Amber, Twilight Ale, & Black Butte Porter. There may even be some surprise handles. All Deschutes handles are on special. The best part is we reworked the beer garden so it’s all in the shade. Hell. Yes. We’ll be on our “BBQ Menu” for the night due to increased capacity, but at least it’s easier on your purse strings…and your hot ass living room. We’re giving away shirts, hats, growlers, glasses, and even a Deschutes Skate deck.

It’s gonna be a damn good time!

#300

It’s that time again…

Today we put our 300th flavor on tap here at The Red Hot. Not our 300th keg, but our 300th different handle of beer we’ve put on tap. All before our 2nd Anniversary . Eugene, OR’s Ninkasi Brewing gets the nod with their Summer Seasonal, “Radiant”:

This means $3 pints of Radiant until it’s goners!

For a full list, go here (canned and bottled only do not count).

Red Hot Signage

Local great-guy-about-town, Peter Whitley, is one of our regulars. He’s done custom Red Hot skateboards, he’s done custom pieces for myself (wedding portrait I gave to wifey for 1-year Anniversary) and other TRH crew (custom set of Ramones Skateboards), and over the course of time, he’s been doing these TRH Staff portraits. He teamed up with Chris Sharp and made this totally bad-ass art project to “get to know your TRH Staff”. Check it:

Sign by Chris, wooden portrait placards by Pete. Look for a very cool art show we’re doing with Pete in the future!

In other TRH portrait news, wicked art wrangler Stowe is slinging ink on his own take of The Red Hot vs. The Parkway staff portraits as we speak for another Bearded Baby Buttons set. Totally killer!

Red Hot Art on the Ave

Art on the Ave is back! We’ll be opening at 11 am this Sunday. We’ll have a sidewalk table (featuring a brown-bag special for those who want a meal on the go…all beef hot dog, bag of chips, moon pie, and a RC Cola) and seating set up out front on the Ave (rest your feet and grab some eats), and we’ll have an outdoor beer garden set up out back (with an additional 4 handles pouring out back as well) with tons of seating. You can even duck inside for an air conditioning break. It’s always a killer time. I hear the Fashion Show next door at The Wedding Bell will be making a trip thru our beer garden as well.

If you hate crowds, the AOTA stuffs is over at 5, & we’ll be open to our regular Sunday close time of 10pm. Word.