Stuff in our Red Hot World…

Tons of stuff happening over here at TRH World Headquarters.

We just got in a new batch of t-shirts. This is what the new design looks like:

Hoodies with our “Shield Logo” will be in next week or so.

We’ve also been getting elbow-deep in trying to get awesome beers in house, resorting to driving to different breweries and getting it ourselves (yes it’s all legal…I had to get a special endorsement on our liquor license to make sure the Guvna gets the taxes…doh). Two weeks ago we were the first to bring in Two Beers Brewing, a 1-year old brewery out of Seattle, and their delicious Echo IPA (we’ll soon have their 20/20 Blonde, the most amazing blonde beer I have ever tried). Joel hand delivered his beer that he brewed himself, and we got to talk beer in the early morning hours of opening up TRH. Great guy, great beer. The keg went in 3 days.

This week, we were the first to bring in Schooner Exact Brewing from West Seattle, and their killer Three-Grid IPA. Great people, and head-honch Heather is a past Tacoman. Again, it just feels different when the owners/brewers hand-deliver their own product, and you can actuallly have a conversation about it. I’m glad people are as enthusiastic about their product as I am about turning people onto it. Gives you a big-ol’ beergeek warm fuzzy…

To keep the ball rolling, we’ll be first in town to bring in Chuckanut Brewing from Bellingham, WA, and their amazing Rauchbier. Chuckanut is the new project of Will & Mari Kemper, from Thomas Kemper Brewing, the first craft brewery beer I had in Washington State (Poulsbo) back in 1992. So stoked.

We’ll be having our First ever Dry Hop Fest on March 25th. I’m working with local Washington State Breweries to make hopped up versions of their brews, so that every handle at TRH is truly unique, and a celebration of the hop. Every style that we normally represent will be dry hopped, so all you Porter and Stout and Pils fans will get in on this action, too. We’ll also have a cask of dry hop Herbert’s, which I am extremely floored about! I have bigger beer stuff news that involves Tacoma, but it’s not all finalized yet. If it works out, it’ll be incredible. More to come later…

www.redhottacoma.com/www.beerandhotdogs.com will be up and running very soon.

And finally, this Sunday is the first Sunday TRH will be open for business. Our new Sunday hours are from 1pm to 10pm. Yessss.

Hales Ales Kolsch German Style Ale

At this past weekends Moisture Festival, held at the Hales Brewery in Fremont, there were a full array of Hales offerings on tap. I selected to drop my comp tickets on their Kolsch, a seasonal brew that caught my attention last year around this time.
A sweet malt flavor on first taste, backed up by a good hoppiness. Hazy yellow color, but a fuller body to it than most that ape this style. A nice dry-bitter mouthfeel, and extremely drinkable…hell, let’s just say gulpable while we’re at it. I was rather impressed, especially with the Motorhead umlauts on the label, which as we all know, makes anything tagged with said umlauts that much more kick-ass.

This baby announces the arrival of Summer here in the Pac Northwest. Take the best parts of lighter styles of beer (good, full body of a lager…crispness of a good, dry pils…and hoppy/fruity stuff from a lot of NW ales), and this is what you get. This can hold it’s own with the ‘blessed’ beers from Euro-Land any old damn day of the week, and maybe even twice on Tuesdays.

Moisture Festival 2008 @ Hale’s Ales

Sunday we loaded up the family truckster and pointed it north towards Seattle. Having never heard of, and therefore never been a part of the annual Moisture Festival, I thought it fitting to give her a go. The day we went they were showcasing New Old Time Chautauqua (shuh-tok-wuh). At first I was a bit skeptical, but after settling in and realizing it was a bunch of people celebrating total ridiculousness and fun at any and all expense, I was totally sold. Think vaudeville. It’s billed as “a comedy/varieté celebration”. Flying Karamazov Brothers…giant puppets…grown men and women acting the fool…juggling…poetry…scantily clad bodies…singing…dancing…some weird interpretive thing that was actually entertaining…and more. Variety indeed.

All that vaudevillian shenanigans got me thinking…where have our Horns of Destiny been hiding? Does one have to erect The Red Hot Outdoor Palladium (more on this later) to get you out of hiding?