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By Root 1248 0

taps and fifty bottled selections, and better yet, no loud music or TVs. Nor is there a menu of food (unless you count potato chips as food), but you can order in. In classic dive bar fashion, you come here for board games like Scrabble, Connect Four, and Battleship. It gets cramped and sweaty. But this is a dive bar that also happens to boast a great list of beers, from the exotic sours of Portland’s Cascade Barrel House to Belgium’s iconic pale ale with Brettanomyces, Orval (6.2% ABV).

ÜBER TAVERN

7517 Aurora Ave. North • Seattle, WA 98103 • (206) 782-2337 • uberbier.com

There’s a reason locals talk of the Über warp—time disappears when you step in the door. Opened in 2006 with 17 taps and 150 bottled brews (heavy on the Belgians and upstart regionals like Black Raven and Beer Valley, of Ontario, Oregon), this idyllic little Green Lake–area beer bar is neither dive nor stuffy beer snob perch, with cool neon signage outside and a rapidly rotated beer list within its cobalt blue walls (and I have to mention the gas-flame fireplace table). Look for Anacortes Brewery’s Locomotive Breath, a bold, barrel-black Imperial Stout (8.5% ABV).

BOUNDARY BAY BREWERY & BISTRO

1107 Railroad Ave. • Bellingham, WA 98225 • (360) 647-5593 • bbaybrewery.com

Bellingham, the college-y “City of Subdued Excitement,” got quite a bit more buzz in 1995 when this standout brewpub came online. With twelve taps, nine bottles, and two casks at any given time (plus a hearty menu of burgers, beer-barbecued pork, smoked salmon chowder, mac-and-cheese, and fish tacos), this large brick neighborly hangout has scored high marks thanks to beers like Inside Passage Ale (an IPA of 6.4% ABV) and the outdoor patio and grassy beer garden, hosting live music and spontaneous hula-hoop contests.

THE NORTH FORK BREWERY, PIZZERIA, BEER SHRINE & WEDDING CHAPEL

6186 Mt. Baker Hwy. • Deming, WA 98244 • (360) 599-2337 • northforkbrewery.com

True to its name, this quirky destination (est. 1997) along the Mount Baker Highway about thirty minutes from Bellingham has a whole lot of love going on for one place. With just five taps from a tiny little 3.5 bbl system, it may look a little like Navin R. Johnson’s family home from The Jerk, but that’s exactly why you’ll want to make the drive. Where else can you hang out in a log house with ninety years’ worth of beer bric-a-brac, drink nano-brewed beer (try the 11% ABV Barleywine to steady those nerves), eat pizza pie, and get hitched?

EVERYBODY’S BREWING

151 E. Jewett Blvd. • White Salmon, WA 98672 • (509) 637-2774 • everybodysbrewing.com

Established in 2009 with sixteen taps (up to nine of their own) Everybody’s has a 26-foot-long handcrafted bar, wood banquet tables, and idyllic views of Mount Hood across the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. Remember, you’re in hop country, so order the Country Boy IPA (6.2% ABV) and head out to the porch.

Idaho

Victor

GRAND TETON BREWING CO.

430 Old Jackson Hwy. • Victor, ID 83455 • (208) 787-9000 grandtetonbrewing.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

Grand Teton Brewing Company was actually founded seventeen miles away from Victor, in Wilson, Wyoming, as Otto Brothers’ Brewing in 1988, by Charlie and Ernie Otto. It was the first modern microbrewery in the state, and represented the first malt beverage production permit in Wyoming in thirty-five years. Eventually changing their name and relocating to beautiful Victor in 2000, the brothers have embarked on a few interesting firsts.

One, they claim to have reintroduced the sixty-four-ounce growler into modern use after an offhand comment by their father, who recalled using lidded tin pails in Germany to transport beer. And more recently, they created an all-Idaho beer, using only ingredients grown or sourced from within the state. The uncommon Zeus and Bravo hops were grown in southwest Idaho, the barley was grown and malted in the southeast, and the water came from a spring in the Tetons. If you’re anywhere near Victor and the Grand Tetons, you can get a taste of this brew at their quaint little taproom (no edibles)