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!

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!

Repurposed Messenger Bag?

We got a bitchin’ new messenger bag from New Belgium Brewing to give away tonight. It’s made from old NBB advertising banners, kind of like these. Should keep you bike-to-worker’s stuff dry and secure on your commute. We’ll raffle it off tonight (WED JUN 24) with our reCYCLE’d bike. You can’t enter to win the bike today, but you can score the bag and even pick up some NBB chapstick (honestly, the best chapstick I’ve ever used), glasses, or tshirts. We’ll have $3 pints of Fat Tire and Skinny Dip starting at 5pm, and we’ll also feature the newest offering in their Lips Of Faith Program, Dandelion Ale.

Here’s a nifty commercial NBB made which inspired our reCYCLE the Bike Nights:

Last Day to Enter

reCYCLE The Bike Night #2

Our second installment of repurposing unused bikes has another go at it tomorrow night, Wednesday April 22nd at The Red Hot. It’s a Giant Cruiser bike, ridden like 6 TIMES. Orange in color, new tubes, a large Topeak rear basket to carry a fresh supply of craft beer with you on the go, a “I HEART my bike” bike bell, and a New Belgium head tube badge. Solid.

We won’t be accepting entries tomorrow the day of, but you can enter tonight ($2 Tuesday!!!).

Tomorrow we’ll also be doing a keep-the-glassware from New Belgium with their beers on tap, while they last.

We’ll have a new bike up in the window in a week or two to be given away at reCYCLE The Bike Night #3 at the end of June!!!

p.s.- for all you regulars, a new Gauntlet Champion has risen!!!! 25 minutes, 30 seconds!!!!!! Congrats to Stadium District’s Jeff Lee!!!!!!

Lucky You…Chocolate Porter Cupcakes

Tonight at The Red Hot we’ll be welcoming our new pals, Lucky You Baking Company, with a batch of their delicious cupcakes. Lucky You Baking Co. is the new Tacoma bakery and brainchild of former Corina Bakery all-star, Miss Julie Rex. Lucky You is contract only at the moment (no storefront), but her delicious wares will be available in fine businesses around town.

On deck tonight at TRH are Lost Coast Brewing Chocolate Porter Cupcakes (enjoy on tap as well, to pair nicely), and Red Velvet w/cream cheese frosting (if you’re into pairing, I’d have a Allagash White with this). These delicious treats are on at 8pm, get ‘em until they’re gone.

Obama Spotted In Tacoma?

Reports are sketchy, but here’s the photographic proof:

You, too, can build your own Obama.

I have some printed out on cardstock here at TRH if any of you lovely patrons want one. Be careful of that site and it’s links…I lost hours!

Recycle the Bike Night…

So one of my hairbrained ideas has finally taken flight again. “Recycle the Bike Night” is a way to give someone something cool, promote my biz, give life to something instead of heaving it in the landfill, and having fun all at the same time. We’re giving away this Dyno Roadster Kustom Kruiser at The Red Hot on February 25th.

These rides are coveted for their frames alone, going for a couple hunge on the innernets. We buffed it, fixed the chain, tightened all the loose nuts, lubed it all up, gave it some love, and took it for a test ride. Our pals at New Belgium Brewing are on board with this ongoing project, and even hooked us up with some bling:

Practical? No. Fun as hell? Absofrickin’-lutely. We’ll unveil the next ride when this one goes home with someone. This year we plan on doing at least 6 bikes. ANYWAY, you can enter once a day until the drawing. Honor system. Don’t be a chucklehead. It will be a great party on the 25th…