New Year’s Eve Photos

New Year’s Eve 2012 was a great time had by all. If you haven’t yet, check out the photo feed, download your favorites, and share with your friends.

Help Us RE-Stock the Food Banks

Tap House Grill is proud to be partnering with Hopelink.  One of the many ways the Hopelink has an impact in our community is through their five food banks.  After the holiday season many food banks are in need of re-stocking.

Starting today and running through Valentine’s Day, both Tap House Grill locations will have a food donation box available for you to make donations.  Thank you for helping us re-stock the food banks and continue to provide critical support to families in need.

Please visit the Hopelink web site to make an online donation.

http://www.hope-link.org/

Donation Details: please bring non perishable goods only.  Donations will be delivered to Hopelink on February 15th.

New Year’s Eve 2012

Every year our New Year’s Eve event gets better and better. This year is no exception. The party keeps going for New Year’s Eve in both Bellevue and Seattle.  Join us, December 31st, to ring in 2012! Start the night off with some delicious Tap House cuisine and libations, then rev it up for a night of dancing and celebration. We will have a DJ and dancing at both locations as well as drink specials from our friends at Absolut Vodka and Stella Artois. Dress to impress.

Ninkasi Brewery Spotlight

Some of the most coveted brews on the Tap House wall have to be the beers from Ninkasi Brewing, one of the favorites among the northwest breweries. “It’s an explosion of citrus hop paradise,” Aaron Frohm, Tap House Manager, boasts about his favorite beer. When we started the idea of spotlighting some of our favorite breweries, Ninkasi was a top contender on our list of Breweries to feaure. Not just specifically that their beers are awesome, but also because the Ninkasi staff is incredible to work with. From helping to jumpstart the Tap House Grill Brewer’s 9 Ball Tournament during Seattle Beer Week, to getting us their most coveted beers when we need them, Ninkasi is just another example of why the Northwest has quickly become the hottest destination for microbrews.

Ninkasi Brewing began on June 15th, 2006 when Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge spent 17 hours brewing their first batch of Total Domination IPA in a leased space inside a German restaurant in Springfield, Oregon. Once a brewery, the building was equipped with a 15 barrel brew house set up for a brewpub. A year later, Ninkasi moved to its current location at 272 Van Buren Street, in the Whiteaker neighborhood of Eugene. The brewery now features a 60 barrel brewing system, and uses it to produce beer that is distrubuted throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, and San Francisco. The Ninkasi family of beers has grown from a single IPA (Total Domination) to include ‘Tricerahops’ Double IPA, ‘Believer’ Double Red, and ‘Oatis’ Oatmeal Stout, as well as some popular seasonals: ‘Spring Reign’, ‘Radiant Ale’, and ‘Sleigh’r’ Dark Double Alt.

The Ninkasi Tasting Room opened in November 2009 and is located in the brewery building. It has been remodeled and is a great place to taste the current seasonal beers as well as the flagship Ninkasi lines – ‘Total Domination’, ‘Tricerahops’, ‘Believer’ and ‘Oatis’. Visitors will also find a rotating selection of specialty beers and Ninkasi merchandise. The tasting room is open Noon to 9pm Sunday – Wednesday and Noon to 10PM Thursday – Saturday. The beer dock is even open Monday – Friday 9:30-5:30 and Saturday Noon to 4:30PM, for the purchase of kegs to go. Yes, you heard correctly, TO-GO!

In addition to making and selling locally oriented craft beer, Ninkasi supports all forms of positive community gatherings and non-profit organizations. So far, they have worked to promote sporting events and team sponsorships, musical events and bands, theater and the fine arts, a well as festivals and neighborhood parties. In early 2011, Ninkasi even teamed up with the local water and electric board (EWEB) to brew a special release beer to raise awareness of their 100th anniversary. All profits from the beer go to support the local nonprofit McKenzie River Trust in their efforts to maintain the water supply that feeds the brewery as one of the cleanest purest sources in the world. They also look forward on continuing to make great beers and having a positive impact in the communities where they do business.

Some other little known facts about Ninkasi that most people don’t know:

- Believer is a recipe that founder Jamie Floyd started working on as a home brewer roughtly 19 years ago.

 - The Ninkasi logo is based on an Egyptian revival mirror.

- Ninkasi is one of the fastest growing craft breweries in US history! 35,000 Barrels in under five years.

- The Grateful Dead’s lead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s daughter Annabel did the ‘Maiden the Shade’ artwork for Ninkasi. Iron Maiden is one of her favorite bands.

- ‘Total Domination’ 22oz bottle is the number one selling 22oz in the Northwest! (IRI data)

- Ninkasi was top 10 nationally in 22oz bottle sales and they are only in 4 states plus San Fransisco.

- Nikos Ridge, one of the two founding owners, worked on Wall Street when he was 17!

- Jamie Floyd, the other founding owner, has 20+ years brewing experience!

- Sumerians worshipped Ninkasi the Goddess of fermentation in what was the first known documentation of beer making in 6000BC.

- ‘Tricerahops’ is the name of the art car for Burningman that was built by Justin Langphear who was the architect for Ninkasi’s beer garden. Jazz Kahlsa who makes Ninkasi’s tap handles and also built their bar, tables, chairs and gates also helped creat the truck. ‘Tricerahops was partially named from the Burningman vehicle and partly from the beer that Jamie used to make, Hopasaurus Rex at Steelhead, also in Eugene.

- Jamie Floyd worked with tattoo artist Paul Zenk on a design to be a potential beer label for ‘Believer’. The tattoo was too intricate to make a label but was later augmented by Tony Figoli, Ninkasi’s art director, to become the ‘Beer is Love’ design Ninkasi uses today. ‘Total Domination’ was Ninkasi’s first beer. Believer was their first winter seasonal and was so popular they turned it into a year round beer.

- ‘Oatis’ is the name of Ninkasi’s head brewer Matt’s dog.

- ‘Spring Reign’ originally was going to be called ‘Spring Loaded with two pistols crossed on the label and roses stemming from the barrel’s but the government denied them the label approval.

- Ninkasi has up to 60 employees now!

- Ninkasi will have a limited holiday seasonal coming out this year (2011) called ‘Imperiale’, a 9.1% Imperial Stout.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of trying the beers of Ninkasi on draft, please make your way to your nearest Tap House Grill. Seattle & Bellevue currently have ‘Tricerahops’ tapped and Seattle has ‘Maiden the Shade’.

IPA Week 2011 is HERE!!!

Tap House Grill has always been known as the place with the best beer selection and now we want to take it one step farther. Join us for IPA week. We will feature 40 handles dedicated solely to IPAs. Many of our brewing partners have made special batch or limited release offerings available only to us. In addition, we will have some “one time only” beers that we will tap on certain days and when they are gone, they are gone. The best way to keep up on all the special releases is to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We will make announcements they day of special tappings so you can always be in the know. Tap House Grill is proud to share a portion of our proceeds with FareStart.

Here is our final list of IPAs.