Seattle Beer Week

Beer. It's a fairly new thing for me. Sure, I've always liked beer, and thought myself to be a bit of a beer snob, but now it's rapidly becoming a passion, something nearly equal to my obsession with food.

Now, when I say I've been hitting up Seattle Beer Week, I don't mean that I'm heading out to the bars with the sole purpose of getting drunk. While becoming a little tipsy might be a byproduct of tasting 15 beers in three hours, the main goal of SBW is to find new, different, interesting, and/or rare beers to try.

And, if you're like Carrmat and I, freaking out your waitress a bit by taking notes on each beer you taste. GYM is fairly tolerant, sitting and sipping beers while we discuss whether one smells like soap or apples or dirty socks (yes, really).

This photo was taking at Elysian Brewing Company where, according to ratebeer, we tasted and rated 15 rare Elysian brews.
The night before, we'd gone to Brouwer's, where we were joined by Broberto, for a Back in Black Stout Night. Unfortunately, unlike the Elysian, Brouwer's didn't do tastes, so we had to get a pint of each. When the beers you're drinking clock in at 7-10%, we weren't consuming more than two each...so I didn't get to taste as many stouts.

Thursday is Sour Night--my favorite style of beer. I'll be heading back to Brouwer's to sit for a few hours, sampling as many of these unusual beers as possible.