EYELUVBEER: Hale’s Ales 30th Anniversary at Concordia Ale House

Last night around 8pm we headed over to Concordia Ale House for Hale’s Ales 30^th Anniversary celebration. Hale’s is the oldest, independently owned craft brewery in the Northwest. Established in 1983 by Mike Hale, the brewery produces approximately 8 standard beers and has several seasonals flowing at various times throughout the year. The story on Hale’s is worth a read. It even features a timeline about Mike and the Brewery from 1965-1998. Click your mouse here for more info: http://halesbrewery.com/about_full.htm

So, my wife has been taking a break from beer this entire month, but when she heard Supergoose was going to be on draft she elected to bend the rules. It’s one of her favorite beers, and I think highly of it also. For Hale’s 30th, Supergoose was being served up special. It was being run through a randall filled with fresh hops. We were looking forward to trying it this way. Unfortunately for us latecomers Concordia only had one more pint left of the randalled beer. I ended up ordering Hale’s Wee Heavy Winter Ale and we shared the last pint of fresh hop Supergoose. By sharing, I mean I managed to get two sips. We both found the Supergoose to be very good, but not excellent. The only reason it didn’t get a gold star was because it was a bit on the warm side. Other than that, it was delicious! We told our beertender about the warmish beer and he removed it from our tab. Now that’s good customer service! My Wee Heavy was fine. I’m not a huge fan of this Scottish style of beer, but I’ve never had Hale’s version on tap. It was very smooth, malty and caramelly.

Hales’s 30th Anniversary runs from now through Saturday at Concordia Ale House. I’d recommend stopping by for pint of Hale’s and giving them the recognition they deserve for being one of the pioneers of the craft beer movement. Since Concordia Ale House is only blocks away from our new digs, I know that I’ll be swinging by one more time for my very own pint of fresh hop Supergoose.