Brouwer's Cafe in Seattle

While visiting my friend in Seattle, we checked out a very cool place called Brouwer's. Located in Fremont at the corner of 35th and Phinney, Brouwer's has a large bier bar featuring an extensive selection of beers from around the world. They're open for lunch and dinner serving Belgian inspired dishes like steak and frites and a lamb burger that sounded delicious, and open late until 2am for drinks.

Brouwer's occupies a fairly large space which I liked because it made it easy for our group to find a spot to hang out. A renovated warehouse, the interior is characterized by lots of dark wood and exposed steel - and this cool cross in the background of my picture.

Alright, so you should probably just look at the beer lists yourself here. But, just to give you an idea, some bottled beers I see: twelve from Allagash, nine from Cantillon, a ton of Belgian names I don't recognize, Austrian beers, five trappist brewers, and a St. Bernardus Abt. 12 60th anniversery. Draught beers? How about Hennepin Saison, Duchesse de Bourgogne, Old Rasputin, Russian River Damnation or Salvation? This is a big deal to me because Russian River (Northern California) beers are very highly regarded (nine beers in the top 100 rated on beeradvocate.com), yet I have never been able to find even one in Portland.

I went for a Salvation, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale 9.0% ABV. This is one of the most complex and flavorful beers I've ever tried. Banana, cloves, dark fruit, chocolate - one of those beers where you could almost justify any tasting notes. The beer is a clear dark brown with amber highlights and a nice rocky foam. I really, really enjoyed this.

This is a must see for beer enthusiasts in the NW.