I've been thinking about it and, although Black Raven is a pretty new (2 years old) and just a small area brewery, for me it really embodies the current state of beer in the NW.
They really "tip there hats" to the tradition of brewing English styles or English-inspired craft beers that exists in the Seattle area, but they're also making it their own.
They have a well-bittered 6.8% IPA hop bomb on the menu permanently to cater to the American "extreme" beer fans, but the majority of their beers are of medium strength (as determined by the local consumers so 5.2-5.8% ABV), with very English malt bills and even North American-grown malts that are attempted malt "clones" of traditional English malts. Their "formula" seems to be to take an English recipe and put their US NW "spin" on it; increase the ABV by 1.5% or so, use North American substitute malts, and hops from Cascadia, and maintain lower carbonation levels; the final result is something REALLY special.
Their "regular" pale ale (Totem NorthWest Pale Ale), is a 5.6%, 37 IBU beer brewed with ESB and what appears to be a mid-to-dark crystal malt; it's hopped with a combination of Summit (orange, tangerine apricot flavors) and Simcoe. Just a really great drinking pale with just the right amount of Summit to make it super interesting but not overly fruity tasting.
Their Brown Porter is definitely my favorite beer I've had there, though. "Tamerland Brown Porter" 5.8% ABV, 35 IBUs, ESB, Crystal, Brown, and Chocolate malts. It is what I always imagined a "brown porter" would be and it's a true thing of beauty. I love the fact that they've included brown malt, but it's still a very distinctly modern porter; it's this super dark red/mahogany color and has amazing body and smoothness (the light carbonation definitely makes it better); it's jam-packed with that fantastic English "nutty" malt flavor. It's truly something magical that they've created. It's flavor layered on flavor layered on flavor. You go through like 4 or 5 flavor "waves" with each sip; you get a bit of sweet smoothness, then some great nuttiness, which gives way to a bit of subtle chocolate and that English earthy hop flavor. I'm in love with this beer. It's incredibly saddening that the brewery doesn't currently bottle and a growler really wouldn't travel well... ;(
If you make a trip to what I feel is the most under-appreciated brewing center in America, and you come to Seattle of course you need to head straight to the "Pike Place Market" (the fish market where they throw the fish through the air) and the attached Pike Brewing Company and some of the established beer bars downtown, but then I'd certainly recommend heading north to do the Red Hook tour; plan your trip so that it goes through Redmond (it IS really cool to see the city that is Microsoft) and stop in to the Black Raven brewing company. It's not much to look at, and it's in a random location; they don't have food but there's a pizza place that will deliver to the tap room directly to your table. Just sit down and enjoy, and chat up the "Microsofties" and beer geeks that call it their local. The locals are incredibly friendly and if you really want to blend in, grow a beard; a flannel shirt and less-than-clean blue jeans will have then thinking you're a local in no time!
-And if you can plan it in, Wednesday is when they release their experimental cask beer; they tap it at around 3:00pm and it's around until it's gone (I've been told that some days its gone before 6:30...)
They now have 2 World Beer Cup Gold Metals, Silver and another gold metal for their soon-to-be-released barley wine from a barley wine competition in Alaska. They seem to be an up-and-coming brewery and they certainly have a very loyal cult following in the area; I can only hope that they grow to eventually bottle so that I can bring loads of that brown porter of theirs home with me on a future trip.
Adam
