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🍺 The brew boss is in
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🍺 The brew boss is in

Cheers, Kendall.
(📸: Kim Sharpe Jones)

THE BREW BOSS IS IN

Kendall Jones is a local authority on beer. He’s just humble about it. “Many people know a lot more about beer than I do,” he wrote on his site, Washington Beer Blog. “But there are many who know less.”

To warm us up for tonight’s meetup and beer trivia at Seapine Brewing Company — which Kendall just anointed Seattle’s Brewery of the Year (🎉!)— we picked his brewy brain for the stuff every local should know.

In one sentence, why are YOU a beer writer?

I’ve been a beer enthusiast all of my adult life and a professional writer for most of my career, so when the software industry cast me aside in 2009, I decided to start focusing my writing on something about which I actually give a damn.

What’s your favorite local brew for a sunny day?

Probably Pre-Flight Pilsner from Airways Brewing in Kent, but there are so many great Washington-brewed pilsners these days that it’s difficult to decide. Definitely a pilsner.

How about a rainy day?

Global Mutt Baltic Porter from Wander Brewing in Bellingham. It’s dark, rich and just boozy enough to warm you up from the inside out.

What’s the biggest challenge for local brews and brewing these days?

The market is getting quite crowded with so many breweries. It’s getting harder and harder to find space on a grocery store’s shelves or on a pub’s draft lists. These days, having a popular and profitable taproom at your brewery is more important than ever.

And what’s one reason to be oh so proud of it?

History. Craft beer is a recent phenomenon in most of America, but it is nothing new here. The rest of the nation is just waking up to something we’ve known for over 30 years. Although our younger, newer breweries get a lot of attention, and deservedly so, there’s no denying that breweries like Big Time Brewing, Hale’s Ales Brewery, Maritime Pacific Brewing, and Pike Brewing introduced Seattle to great beer decades ago.

Ready to dig in to your city’s brew scene? Follow Kendall’s work in Seattle magazine and on Washington Beer Blog, which has this handy map of all the breweries in Seattle. Want to cheers beers with Kendall in person? Join us and Seattle magazine TONIGHT for learn-as-you-go beer trivia in SoDo.

NOW HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON IN YOUR CITY

Good news in growth?! For months our city’s been talking about rising rents and tricky apartment hunts. But all that’s changing — fast — thanks to a lot of new apartment buildings that are competing like crazy for tenants right now. As real estate reporter Mike Rosenberg put it: “The apartment openings have finally begun to outpace Seattle’s nation-leading population growth.” 🙌 “Of course, this doesn’t mean Seattle is suddenly cheap,” he adds. Just that the rental market for tenants is “no longer getting any worse.” Other key takeaways from Mike’s must-read rental update?

  • Seattle’s getting more new apartment units this half-decade than in the preceding 50 years combined.
  • A quarter of all the apartments in our downtown core are empty right now.
  • We rank 22nd this year for rental price growth. Last year, we were no. 1.
  • Landlords are offering an average of $360 a year in freebies to lure renters. Last year, it was just $24.
  • None of this means our pipin’ hot housing market’s cooling down. We’re not building new homes fast enough to meet demand, we’ve still got a condo shortage, and we still have the fastest-growing home prices in the country.

BYOF. When it’s summer in Seattle, we make up for those months we didn’t go outside by going outside as much as humanly possible. Our weekends are crammed with festivals, our parks are packed with people, and we even watch movies outside because why the hell not? But we’re still hungry, and that’s why you need this handy guide to the best picnic food in the city — from Salumi in Pioneer Square to Ezell’s Famous Chicken in the Central District. (Infatuation Seattle)

The last straw. The Seattle sipping life will never be the same after Sunday. That’s when a citywide ban on plastic straws finally kicks in — after 10 years of exemptions expire on Saturday. We’ll the first big city to suck the suckers out of our 5,000 eateries, and then some: We’re also banning plastic utensils. But don’t worry, steadfast sippers: Paper straws and biodegradable utensils are subbing in. (The Seattle Times)

Outside the box. A guy named David Peterman decided to take a picture of himself with every blue mailbox in Seattle “because it seemed like an absurd, meaningless thing to do.” Yep, this is a real thing that really happened. You can see David’s pics with 346 Seattle USPS mailboxes on his Tumblr, and you can see Seattle Redditors collectively ask him WTF here. (Tumblr, Reddit)

PARTNER EVENTS

🍻  TONIGHT: Hang out with fellow readers of The Evergrey and Seattle magazine at Seapine Brewing Company for good beer, good company, and craft brew trivia with WashingtonBeerBlog’s Kendall Jones (SoDo)

 

⚡  Wednesday: Get tips on how to break through barriers in innovation at this Impact Hub Lunch + Learn (Pioneer Square)

 

Want to partner on your event with us? Here’s how.

AROUND TOWN

TODAY

👋  Hang out with us and Seattle magazine at the Brewery of the Year (SoDo)
🗣  Talk civil rights at KEXP (Queen Anne)
💡  Hear from a global health rockstar (Downtown)


TOMORROW

🍴  Fill up on noms at the Food Truck Taste Off (Sand Point)
💡  Learn how designers can shape our world (Downtown)
👋  Party with a new Seattle dating service (Queen Anne)
🎟  Go see The Color Purple musical — through July 1 (Downtown)
💪  Get advice on how to smash barriers in innovation at this Evergrey partner event (Pioneer Square)


THURSDAY

🎈  Mark the Woodland Park Zoo’s carousel’s 100th birthday (Phinney Ridge)
💡  Hear from the woman who coined the term “white fragility” (Downtown)
👋  Listen to your neighbors’ stories about being fooled (Capitol Hill)


FRIDAY

🏞  Stay up late to bike in the dark (Ballard to South Lake Union)
🎟  See a burlesque tribute to femme fatale Mata Hari — through September 30 (Downtown)
🎟  Watch Batman take on Shakespeare in “Bat-Hamlet” — through July 1 (International District)


SATURDAY

🎈  See awesome vintage cars and hot rods (Greenwood)
👋  Don cosplay at a Volunteer Park picnic (Capitol Hill)
🗣  Speak out against immigrant family separation (Downtown) — link updated, thanks to reader Erika Cordova
💪  Pat yourself on the back for recycling like a pro (
West Seattle)
🏞  Go on a walk to support an International District food bank (Seward Park)


SUNDAY

🎈  Check out all things handmade at Urban Craft Uprising (Queen Anne)
⚽  See former Seattle Sounders star Obafemi Martins in action (Tukwila)
🗣  Show solidarity with detained families at the Northwest Detention Center (Tacoma)
🎶  Head to the Peninsula to hone your fiddle skills — through July 8 (Port Townsend)


Going to one of these? Take us with you! Email a pic to [email protected] or tag #theevergrey on Instagram. See more upcoming events on our events page, and add your own events with an Evergrey membership.

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

We’ll see you tonight at Seapine Brewing. 🍻 — The Evergrey

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