Winter Beer Tasting

On Saturday, January 21st, a few Boundary Bay Brewery folks will be at Bellingham Technical College (BTC) teaching about Winter Beers.  Join Anthony, our Assistant Brewer, and Matt, our Kitchen Manager and BTC culinary program alumni, for an afternoon of Winter Beer Tasting and food pairing!

Winter is a great time to stay indoors and warm-up with some great beer and friends. This winter you’ll have the opportunity to do just that at our “Winter Beer Tasting” class…you’ll experience a selection of strong ales, barley wines, and other winter warmers along with pairings of delicious food. The class focus will be on seasonal releases fro the U.S. and Europe plus a vertical tasting of barley wine to see how aging beer changes the flavor.

In the class, you’ll get to enjoy two spiced ales, some strong ales and barley wines – including one from Schamlz Brewing that was made with fig, date and grape juices aged in rye whiskey barrels.  There’ll even be a two year vertical tasting of Big Foot Barley Wine!  Along with all this delicious beer, Matt will be cooking up some focused food pairings to perfectly accompany these big winter beers.  Expect lots of seasonal dishes and warm, comforting foods.  Perfect for all this chilly, snowy weather we’ve been having!

There are still six seats left in this Winter Beer Tasting class, so call Bellingham Technical College or register online and reserve YOUR spot for this Saturday!  Cheers.  Oh, and if you’re STILL not convinced, check out this blog about the beer pairing class Anthony and Matt did last April.

Looking Back – 2011 at BBAY

Another year is winding down and before we say hello to 2012, we thought we’d say a fond goodbye to 2011 with some of our favorite moments of the past year.  Here at Boundary Bay Brewery, 2011 gave us lots of opportunities to expand on previous successes and was jam packed with brand new adventures as well:

giddy while filling the Dry Fly barrels with Scotch Ale!

* We partnered up with Dry Fly Distillery (in Spokane, WA) to try barrel aging a couple of our beers.  First up was our Scotch Ale which was consumed with gusto and our Oatmeal Stout is currently aging – to be released soon.  The project was a great success and we’re already looking forward to trying more barrel aging in the new year.

* We brewed up our very first Cascadia Dark Ale and cast our two cents in the debate about what to name this elusive beer style.  We still think Black IPA just doesn’t cut it and retain our vote for Cascadia Dark Ale in honor of the region this iconic style was birthed in.

* We jumped in to our first of (hopefully) many Beer vs. Wine dinners at Semiahmoo Resort.  Craft Beer is gaining ground as a food pairing phenomenon and we’ve had a lot of fun challenging Washington wineries like Chateau Ste. Michelle to see which beverage comes out on top.  We’ve got our next Beer vs. Wine dinner on January 28th, so why not make it one of your New Years resolutions to join us and open your mind to the possibilities of beer and food pairings?!

* We began highlighting our Local Connections through short video blogs, which turned out to be a great way to connect our customers and our suppliers.  It’s been inspiring to connect with those who are passionate about what they do, and we’ve enjoyed visiting the farms who grow our food and the great cafés, bars and restaurants who serve our beer!   We’ll start the new year with a behind-the-scenes peek at Ralf’s Bavarian Pretzels and show you exactly why we love working with this awesome local business.

our shirt on the Discovery Channel!

* We came up with some new merchandise to tempt you: a new 2L growler and a Cabin Fever Hoodie.  Our hoodies continue to be known as Bellingham’s unofficial uniform and our Save the Ales slogan is recognized far outside of our little corner of the Northwest.  We hear about our customers being stopped in Disneyland, in New York and even in New Zealand when someone recognizes our iconic shirt.  A lot of you have probably even seen our Munzinger shirt on the Discovery Channel special “How Beer Saved The World.”

* Our relationships with craft beer lovers across the country (and into Canada!) are continuing to grow and strengthen: our beer was officially poured for the first time in Hawaii when we took part in the Kauai Beer Festival, we’ve expanded our distribution into British Columbia which has been received with MUCH enthusiasm and our little brewpub was even written up in the Vancouver Sun, EnRoute: the AirCanada in-flight magazine and the American Airlines in-flight magazine!

* We were honored to find out that Bellingham Firefighters refer to our brewpub as Station 7 (since there are 6 official fire stations here in town) – so, with their input, we created a Station 7 shirt and are donating the proceeds from shirt sales to Camp Phoenix which is a camp for child burn victims.

* We have continued to take full advantage of our own success and to spread that love by doing everything we can to support local nonprofits.  Every year, we donate to over 100 local charities and  this year, for the first time, we became a sponsor of the Dirty Farm Trek – a physical and mental obstacle race put on by the VZ Foundation.

at the St. Patrick's Day Parade, 2011

* The Bellingham Firefighters Pipes & Drums band has, unofficially, become our house band!  We’re delighted that they feel welcome enough here at the brewpub to just drop by for spontaneous performances and entertain our customers with their tunes.

* Our General Manager, Janet Lightner, has been the driving force behind Bellingham’s St. Patricks Day Parade and we were thrilled to help her put on another successful parade in 2011 despite the unfavorable weather.  Amazingly, it’s almost time to start thinking about next year’s parade too!  This year, the 2011 Paddy’s Day Parade will fall on the 17th – St. Patrick’s Day itself, so mark your calendars and plan on a whole day of Irish-inspired festivities.

* We brewed the very first Ski to Sea ESB  – commemorating 100 years of racing and look forward to continuing that tradition next year.  And, the Boundary Bay Brewery women’s Ski to Sea Team enjoyed another win in the Competitive Women’s Division and continues to be the ONLY team in Ski to Sea history to win their division 11 years in a row!

* We are thrilled to have been named the Best Brewery in Washington, the Best Brewpub in Washington and the Best Scotch Ale in the Northwest by the Northwest Brewing News Reader’s Choice Awards and were named the Best Bar in Bellingham by the Bellingham Herald Readers Choice Awards.

* And, the biggest news of all for 2011, is our impending expansion!  We’ll take over the lease of the new space on January 1st and are excited to start the new year with lots and lots of construction.  ;)

As we look back on 2011 and ahead to whatever may come in 2012, we want to take a moment to say thank you to all of YOU – our beloved friends and customers who have become a part of the Boundary Bay Brewery family!  We are so proud to be a part of this incredible community (both Bellingham and the craft beer community at large) and honored to have your support as we move on to another year of handcrafted beer and great local food.  We truly couldn’t do what we do without you.  Cheers, from all of us here at Boundary Bay Brewery!

What To Pair Your Winter Beer With…

Cabin Fever

We know choosing foods to pair with your beer can get a bit tricky during the winter months, when rich, dark, flavorful seasonal beers are in season.  So, our Sous Chef, here at Boundary Bay Brewery, came up with a few suggestions to help you find just the right flavors to compliment the craft beer you’ll be serving.

CraftBeer.com recommends matching strength with strength and suggests pairing assertive beers with strongly-flavored foods.

Our Cabin Fever is the most popular of our big beers.  It’s our Winter Seasonal ale with a dark red-brown color and a very rich malty flavor.  Try it with an apple, cheddar and sorrel turnovers for a savory pairing, or go sweet with a dessert pairing of chocolate espresso torte.

If Cabin Fever’s not quite your thing, try our Old Bounder.  It’s a rich, full-bodied barley wine that has a copper color, a smooth caramel sweetness and a balanced hop character.  Which makes it a perfect partner for dark fruits like figs served with nuts and blue cheese (or another cheese with big flavor, if you prefer).  For a sweet pairing, check out the Cranberry Panna Cotta recipe below:

Cranberry Panna Cotta

Old Bounder

for panna cotta

4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 packets powdered gelatin (about 4 1/2 teaspoons)
6 tablespoons cold water

for cranberry sauce

1 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup port wine
1 tsp orange zest
Mixture of 1 tsp arrowroot powder and 1/3 cup water (for thickening)
candied orange peel for garnish

panna cotta recipe

1. Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

2. Lightly oil eight custard cups.

3. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Pour the very warm Panna Cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

5. Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into the prepared cups, then chill them until firm, which will take at least two hours.

6. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each Panna Cotta and unmold each onto a serving plate, and garnish with sauce and orange peel

cranberry sauce

1. Cook the cranberries in the sugar and water until soft.
2. Add the orange zest and wine
3. Slowly whisk in your arrowroot/water mixture until desired consistency. Be sure to use low heat.
4. Try not to reduce the sauce after adding the port. It is easy to turn this cranberry-port sauce into a port wine reduction!

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Our beloved Cabin Fever will be on tap as of Monday, October 24th!

It’s our Winter Seasonal and we roll it out annually, but this seems like one of the earliest release dates I can remember.  Maybe it’s just because with each passing year, the Cabin Fever cult following just continues to grow and the demand was too great to delay.  Whatever the reason, we are happy to start pouring Cabin Fever before it’s even November…’cause then we all have EVEN longer to enjoy it’s malty goodness.

The Boundary Bay Brewery Cabin Fever is a strong ale or “Winter Warmer” with dark red-brown color and a very rich malty flavor.   We dry-hop it lightly with Cascades for a pleasant aroma and slightly spicy hop finish. This big beer is deceptively strong, yet tastes very smooth thanks to extra long cold conditioning.  (Original Gravity: 1.072. 22oz)  Try this beer with spicy foods or any rich, heavy dishes…perfect for the holidays. We should have it available to go pretty soon, so you can start planning it’s place of honor at your holiday table now!

Last winter, we took a couple bottles up to Mt. Baker for a photo shoot.  There were plenty of enthusiastic skiers and boarders eager to model with our Winter Warmer…and even one very cute dog who got in on the action!  Check out all the pictures from that day on the mountain on our Facebook page.

Our customers said their favorite pairing for Cabin Fever is our pulled pork sandwich.  It’s slow roasted & shredded pork with tangy BBQ sauce & coleslaw on a ciabatta roll with your choice of roasted potatoes, house salad or Tim’s potato chips ($8.99).  Janet, our General Manager, also suggested a few other pairings to really complement the flavor and body of this Winter Warmer.

First on her list was the Beer Beef Stew: a warm & hearty compilation of vegetables, potatoes & tender chunks of beef simmered together in our Scotch Ale (Cup 3.99 Bowl 5.50 Stew/Salad Combo 8.99). If you’re wanting a heftier meal than stew, try paring Cabin Fever with our rich, moist meatloaf made from ground Harris Ranch Angus beef, ground pork, onions, seasonings, eggs and breadcrumbs and wrapped in Hempler’s pepper bacon.  Served with mashed Yukon potatoes, seasonal vegetables and a demi-glace infused with our Dry Irish Stout ($15).  Or go the traditional Boundary Bay way and choose the Yam Alechiladas to partner up with this delightful Winter beer.  They’re a mixture of American yams, Cheddar & Jack cheese, caramelized onions & roasted garlic, wrapped in corn tortillas & topped with mole poblano sauce. Served with beans & rice (9.99).

Got another pairing you really like?  Tell us in the comments below.  Cheers!

Husky Season Again!

If you know us at all, you know that here at Boundary Bay Brewery we are big fans of the UW Huskies!  For a number of years now, we’ve partnered up with the College Inn Pub in Seattle to offer Huskies fans a great way to celebrate Home Game Saturdays!

The College Inn Pub was established in 1974 and is located at 4006 University Way NE. It’s a great place to drink whomever you are.  They’ve got pool tables (free on Sundays), real darts, vintage pinball and a rockin’ jukebox…not to mention sweet deals on Boundary Bay Brewery beer during these Home Game Saturdays.  During each Huskies home game, a different Boundary beer will be featured for just $3.50 a pint – through the duration of the game.  Come early for the special pre-game prize drawings too!

The first of these special events is this weekend, September 3rd as UW goes up against Eastern.  We’ll be featuring our Pilsner, so come try this light, honey colored lager with a beautiful hop aroma and flavor that’s always a favorite brew for summer!

9/3 – Pilsner (our summer seasonal)

9/10 – Single Hop (Sorachi Ace)

9/24 – Fresh Hop ESB

10/15 – Harvest Ale (our fall seasonal)

10/29 – Scotch Ale

11/5 – Cabin Fever (our winter seasonal)

Local Connections – Slough Food

This second episode in our Local Connections series profiles Slough Food – a great little shop in Edison that is definitely worth the trip!

John DeGloria, the owner of Slough Food, traces the inspiration for his shop to his lifetime love of good food and wine as well as his travels in Rome.  The place has an old world feeling and the owner himself stands behind the counter slicing meats and cheeses and greeting each customer who enters the store.  Not only can you find incredible artisan cured meats, fabulous cheeses and an unbelievable wine selection, but you can also enjoy treats like locally made honey, unusual grains and, of course, Boundary Bay Brewery beer!  You can also treat yourself to one of John’s tasting events to learn more about the delicacies you’re enjoying.

We were lucky enough to catch John for a few moments to ask him about Slough Food, why he chooses to support local businesses and why he decided to stock bottles of Boundary Bay Brewery beer when shelf space is a limited commodity in his tiny jewel of a store.  Here’s what he had to say:

The Best of 2010

It’s hard to believe, but another year is already drawing to a close and it’s got us in a reflective mood over here at Boundary Bay Brewery.  So, today…we’re looking back!

Cheers to our 15th Anniversary!

2010 marked our 15th anniversary and we had a fantastic party here at the brewery to celebrate!  We ranked as the largest selling brewpub in the nation for the third year running and were voted the Best Brewpub in Washington by the readers of Northwest Brewing News – also for the third year in a row.  The Northwest Brewing News Readers choice awards also named Boundary Bay Brewery for Best Scotch Ale and Best IPA…which makes our IPA the winner for the last five years consecutively!

In 2010, we brewed our first Tripel, made an anniversary ale called “15” and created a special brew to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Village Books…and all were met with rave reviews! We got a new Mash Tun and installed our very first beer engine which now lets us provide our thirsty customers with not one but TWO cask ales every day.  We brought home medals from the North American Beer Awards, the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup:  Silvers for our Dunkles Bock (WBC) and our Porter (NABA) and Bronzes for our Cabin Fever (WBC), Imperial IPA (WBC) and Imperial Oatmeal Stout (GABF).

our logo come to life in St. Paddy's Parade!

We had the pleasure of helping over 100 local nonprofits and in bringing the community together for Bellingham’s first annual St. Patrick’s Day parade (thanks to Janet, our General Manager!).  We had a Locks of Love donation party with free haircuts in our beer garden and brought together lots of local and sustainable businesses for our very first Earth Day Sustainability Fair.  We surpassed 10,000 fans on Facebook, held our first (possibly THE first ever?) Virtual Brewers Night and took back the tap as the House IPA at Beveridge Place Pub!

And, besides all that, we’ve kept on keeping on…brewing and bottling all our usuals that you’ve come to know and love, serving up fresh and local Northwest food, hosting events here at the brewery throughout the year and doing our best to help keep Bellingham a strong, local, sustainable community.  It’s been a whirlwind and we’ve had a fabulous time!  We just want to say thank you to all of our incredible fans who are such an important part of what we do.  We could never be a success without the love and support we receive from our community.  So, cheers everyone…and thank you!

 

 

Celebrate the Solstice With Us

We love that Boundary Bay Brewery is a place that people come to celebrate their lives: their weddings, their birthdays, and their holidays.  Not only can you spend Christmas Eve and New Years Eve with us, but you can celebrate the Winter Solstice with us too!

Join us on Tuesday evening, December 21st at 8pm for a Solstice Celebration with Lydia McCauly and Grammy award-winning composer Nancy Rumbel.  Come warm up with a pint of Cabin Fever, our Winter Ale and enjoy FREE Celtic, Medievel and Appalachian songs in our Tap Room (which means no minors, sorry!).

Nancy Rumbel is a professional composer, recording artist,performer and teacher. Her primary instruments are oboe, English horn, double wooden ocarinas, clay ocarinas and keyboards. She is well known for her work for the past 25 years with the GRAMMY award-winning duo Tingstad & Rumbel.  Lydia McCauley’s music is a combination of contemporary sounds mixed with an older tradition that is categorized as New Age or Folk.

At our Solstice Celebration here at there brewery there will be holiday merriment and incredible music from medieval Spain, France, Scotland and England!  Lift your spirits and join in the fun with vocals, keyboard, oboe, English horn, ocarinas, viola, percussion and harmonium.  Please also bring a food donation for the Southside Food Bank and help feed our community during the Holidays!  Non perishable food requested, such as canned meats (tuna etc…) canned fruit, vegetables, pasta and pasta sauce. Monetary donations accepted.

 

 

 

Virtual Beers

photo posted by @BrewSpeakGirls

Last week we tried our very first Virtual Brewers Night.  We sent the beers and the schwag down to Alligator Soul in Everett and told everyone to show up with their smart phones in hand.  We didn’t really know what to expect, but we thought it would be a relatively fun adventure no matter how it turned out.

Over the last three years, we’ve had a lot of success with Boundary Bay Brewery on social networks.  We’ve built up our online community to over 12,000 members on Facebook and almost 3,000 on Twitter and are happy to say that it’s still growing every single day.  We’ve found fun, unique ways to interact with our online friends – from writing Haikus about Cabin Fever to recommending favorite BBAY beer and menu pairings.  We even ran a contest around Father’s Day where people wrote about which Boundary beer their Dad was the most like in hopes of winning a membership to the Washington Association of Beer Lovers.  It’s been a lot of fun and we’re always looking for new ways to connect with our social media community.  So, we decided to take the basic idea of a tweetup and turned it into a Brewers Night.

Here’s a little bit of what BrewSpeak blog had to say after attending our Virtual Brewers Night: “So, amid splendid food and drink, and with live music from “Stan is Love”, it was time to get down to some serious tweeting. The twitter feed was up on a tv screen, with both Alligator Soul and Boundary Bay actively participating, offering prizes for correct answers, and raffle tickets. If you want to see the tweets from the night, search for the hashtag #bbaygotsoul. You’ll find a fair few tweets from us as well. Pretty soon some of the more avid tweeters were gravitating towards each other, and before we knew where we were we were actually having real life, proper conversations! We had an excellent chat with Tim Gormley from www.beerblotter.com. The beer blotter guys have been blogging for about a year, and based on the conversation with Tim, and a look at their blog, I can heartily recommend it. We have a lot to learn from folks like Tim – a good guy with a love of great beer.  It was also fun to meet Tim Lorang from www.timlorang.com. Tim is a man of many talents, who among his many skills, counts himself as a social media integration specialist, with a background in both wine and beer. Who knew such people existed? All in all, despite the slightly odd premise, I’d count the evening as a success – with the evening made better for us by being big winners at the raffle. So Cheers to both Boundary Bay and Alligator Soul for an innovative event that will hopefully be repeated.”

photo posted by @Alligator_Soul

On our end of things, it was a little bit odd…and definitely jealousy inducing!  It’s rough to be holed up alone in your office at 8pm on a Thursday night interacting virtually with people drinking your favorite beer on earth and talking about it…while you get none (at least ’till you’re off the clock!).  As the night got rolling, people posted pics of themselves at the brewers night…standing at the bar with a beer in one hand and their phone in the other.  Even the owner of Alligator Soul posted a pic of his “command central” – his laptop loaded up with Tweetdeck to track all the happenings of the night.  My pic was less fun…just me in my office.  But it was fun to get to “see” what all these Social Media users looked like in real life. It was a bit like dodgeball as we kicked off the trivia via Twitter and awarded tickets for correct answers.  It was a challenge to track all the people interacting with us and Alligator Soul throughout the night, but with the help of Hootsuite, it was definitely doable!  We were impressed with how the night went, overall, and would absolutely do it again.

Thank you to all who joined us for our very first Virtual Brewers Night. We really appreciate you being willing to go on this social media adventure with us.  Till next time…Cheers!

Here Comes Cabin Fever Season Again

Good old Dad used to tell me quite regularly that I wouldn’t believe how quickly time seems to speed up the older you get.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe him…it just wasn’t relevant to me at the time.  I was busy being a kid and then a teenager when things like summer vacation or the countdown to Christmas seemed to stretch on into infinity.  But, years have passed and…like all of us…I’ve gotten older.  And suddenly, Dad’s words make a whole lot more sense than they used to.  I find it nearly impossible to believe that another year has passed again and it’s almost time to break out the Cabin Fever for another Bellingham winter.

The Boundary Bay Brewery Cabin Fever is a strong ale or “winter warmer” with a dark red-brown color and a very rich malty flavor.  We make it with Mt. Hood, Warrior and Crystal hops and balance the flavors with the following malts: Pale 2-Row, Dark Crystal, Munich, Carastan, oats and Chocolate Malt.  While this is a big beer that is deceptively strong (7.2% ABV) it tastes very smooth thank to extra long cold conditioning.  Try this beer with spicy foods or any rich, heavy dishes…perfect for the holidays!

Our Cabin Fever has developed a bit of cult following and we have customers asking for it year round here at Boundary Bay Brewery. It’s our Winter Seasonal brew, though, so we only bring it out at certain times of the year.  Lucky for you, that time is now!  Here at the brewery, Cabin Fever will officially be on tap Friday, November 5th and we’ll debut it the day before with a special Cabin Fever cask on Thursday, the 4th.  If, however, you can’t wait that long…you’ve got a couple of options.  If you feel like heading to Seattle, you can score Cabin Fever at Pouring Main Street Alehouse in Bothell and at Sully’s in Seattle on Phinney Ridge.  But, if fighting I-5 traffic doesn’t seem like a good time to you, check out our Brewers Night at Mckay’s Taphouse (aka: Pizza Pipeline on Samish Way in Bellingham) on Monday, November 1st at 5pm when we’re taking over the joint armed with kegs of Cabin Fever and lots of BBAY goodies to give away.

Winter’s coming…get your Cabin Fever now!