Sunday 30th of May 2010 07:43:59 PM

link
I went to Water Street Brewing and Ale House in Port Townsend a couple seeks ago. The town is super cute with plenty of old, beautiful buildings. Water Steet itself was no exception.

We had the Nina IPA while there and it is a stellar beer. Very hoppy and well balanced.

We also have the burger and fries while we were there and they are NOT to be missed. Water Street is probably now my favorite burger and fry place in the NW which is sad since it is not that close to where I live.

Monday 11th of January 2010 08:58:32 PM

link
There were four house-made beers on our latest visit (normally there are five): Queen Nina’s Imperial IPA, Schwag Lite, Dancing Feet Wheat, and Purdy Pale, along with Deschutes Black Butte Porter, and two ciders.

The pub occupies the ground floor of a classic American Victorian three-story brick building painted red. The space is long and narrow. In the front is a large bar area (adults only). The door is on one corner, set at an angle. The ceilings are very tall and the floors are old worn wood. Large floor-to-ceiling windows line the front sidewalk and wrap partly along the side. The bar itself is a classic wooden bar with ornate, almost art nouveau, carved figures, a brass foot rail, and wooden stools. The bar back is similarly ornate wood with carved columns, arches, and mirrors. On top of the bar back are various pieces of driftwood and a ship’s figure head. Walls are dark red, except for exposed brick on the long side street. The ceiling is black with various crumpled currency pinned to the ceiling (from a pub game - ask for details!). Around the room are various wooden tables and wooden captains chairs. There are also a few couches and stuffed chairs on the music stage and in an adjoining small room. Glass light fixtures hang down from the ceiling, some modern, and some classic in style.

Continuing back, through arched openings in the back wall, is the dining area (kids OK) which has more wooden tables and chairs and more windows. And even further back is the outdoor seating - a concrete patio with wooden railings that overlooks a parking area, and the water just beyond.

The atmosphere is true pub, relaxed with conversations, and a mix of locals (mostly at the bar and comfy chairs) and tourists. Decorations are funky - assorted paintings on the wall, a few hanging plans in macrame hangers, and a large painting (a tableau with various demons and a reclining naked woman) over the wall that divides the bar from the dining area.

Sunday 14th of September 2008 01:20:33 PM

link
Had a nice lunch here with my wife and child. We came in after a nice drive up the hood canal. The service was awesome we loved the atmosphere. Just a simple pub with great art and a fun feel. The huge bar area with the bar was just what one would look for in an old bar. They have pool tables upstairs and with the no smoking so you can pay with out issues. Lots of beer on tap over 10 of their own taps. The food was awesome and they serve lots of it. This was a fun place I will come back for the Strange brew festival next winter. Will check this place out in the summer I bet it is rocking then. The beers did have a flavor that was a tad too hoppy but that goes to show you what they do in the Pac NW.

Saturday 20th of October 2007 06:51:17 PM

link
It's an idyllic place, Port Townsend, Washington. A registered National Historic Monument, the town harkens back to the turn of the century (the 20th Century!) with it's 4 blocks in old downtown lined with maples of varying species that burst with golds, reds, oranges and yellows in Autumn. Guarding the northern edge of the Kitsap Peninsula & Puget Sound, it's many restored brick buildings and Victorian cottages, antique - book - jewelery stores, live music cafes, organic food co-op and one movie theater makes this artistic community an extraordinary example of living large in a small burg. The village is also blessed with a brewpub pouring outstanding beer.

Then there is the Water Street Brewery.

Housed in a statuesque 1880 brick landmark, Water Street attempts to foster a down-home, small-town feel but fails because what should be the main focus - the beer - fails.

Following an outstanding dinner at one of the many 1st class restaurants, wife Persimmon & I braved the fierce winds coming off Puget Sound to enter what we hoped to be the welcoming atmosphere of a friendly, neighborhood pub. What we got was something else entirely.

Sitting at an ornate, beautiful dark wood 30-foot bar, we waited and watched the young bartender tend to his bar and not his customers. Not knowing how long he'd worked there, perhaps he was overwhelmed by the back-bar that rose half-way up the 25-foot ceiling or got lost gazing at his own reflection in the 10x10 mirror. Regardless, it took more than 5 minutes to catch his attention.

"I thought we were invisible," said we. "No," Jesse replied, "I found you" -- and then disappeared for another 5 minutes. Quick smoke? Bathroom? Don't know. Don't care. That feeling of hoped-for commaraderie had been destroyed. Perhaps, on this blustery cold October evening, if the fireplace had been lit? But, no - even that would have made little difference.

As a drunk at the end of the bar shared his cell-phone conversation with everyone (all 12 of us), we asked for our usual sampler tray...and discovered we really only needed to try one. The Purdy Pale Ale, Schwag Lite, Balls to the Wahlstrom Hop-Bomb, Millennium Falcon Amber, Queen Nina Imperial IPA, Wang Dang DunkelWeissen - even the Sheba Coffee Stout & Burrbun Burly Wine, although appearing different, tasted exactly alike.

In apparent agreement, we noticed the 8 table-sitters (men and women) were all wine drinkers.

Barley (or burly) wine should be fruity with the hops subtle in the back end. Stout must have some coffee or chocolate hints, not just the little devil-flower aroma & taste. And neither should ever make me shiver as though I've just sucked on a lemon...one that lost its ripe in 1960.

This so-called Northwest Style has gotten out of hand at Water Street. Have brewers entered into an un-spoken competition with one another to determine who can produce the hoppiest beer? Or have they simply forgotten that the reason craft breweries have exploded in the last 10 years was our demand for variety in beer tastes?

Perhaps the rumored 500(+)percent increase in the price of hops might put a halt to this absurd obsession.

I understand brewer Skip Madsen is creating his own version of beer.

I also understand now why little Port Townsend can support a second brewery.