Seattle Brews & Views

Experience Seattle from a beer-lover’s perspective. Sample the stouts, ambers, ales and other handcrafted beer at selected breweries in Seattle. Learn about the brewing industry in the Pacific Northwest. Sightsee through Seattle’s downtown area, vibrant neighborhoods and scenic vistas in comfortable vehicles and leave the driving to our engaging guides. Seattle is home to many of the 82 breweries in Washington State. Many of these breweries are “micro” or “craft” breweries, producing less than 20,000 barrels per year. We will highlight several of these breweries on our tour through Seattle, learning about the beer-brewing craft and the history of Washington breweries. We will also enjoy the sights of Seattle, including the historic Pioneer Square, Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Olympic Sculpture Park, scenic vistas of mountains, lakes and the city, and vibrant neighborhoods. Our experienced guides will provide interpretation of the natural and cultural history of Seattle throughout the afternoon.

We start in downtown Seattle and head either north or south depending on your brewery itinerary for that day. After a brief stop at a scenic overlook of the city, to the historic fishing community of Ballard, a neighborhood of Seattle, you will hea to your first brewery! One of the breweries we visit today may be Maritime Pacific Brewing Company, a small, family-owned brewery created to salute Seattle’s seafaring industry. They focus on handcrafted ales, lagers, and seasonal beers. We may also visit Hale’s Ales, a former industrial hose manufacturing plant converted into a brewery (brewing beer in a traditional English method, with open-topped fermenters and a specially adapted ale yeast), and a comfortable brewpub inspired by English pubs. They produce ales (cream and IPA), amber, stouts, porters, and seasonal beers. Just east of Ballard, driving through the Fremont neighborhood, famous for its public art (like the Troll and the bronze Lenin statue) we may head to the Fremont Brewing Company. This small brewery, started in 2008, makes organic ales, all from local ingredients and is dedicated to sustainability (producing beer while minimizing environmental harm).

We may drive through the SoDo district of Seattle where we’ll visit the Georgetown Brewing Company for a brewery tour and beer tasting. This microbrewery is a draft beer only production brewery specializing in Porters, Pilsners, Pale, Red, and Brown Ales. We may head west to the Two Beers Brewing Company, a new, small brewery also in the SoDo industrial district. They are committed to making beer from locally sourced ingredients and specialize in Blond and Pale Ales, IPAs, and Ambers year ‘round and produce seasonal beers such as their Jive Espresso Stout and Crooked Belgium Wit. We’ll continue to West Seattle for where we’ll take in a panoramic view of downtown and visit the Elliot Bay Brewpub, a neighborhood brewpub and brewery operating since 1997 and now home to 12 organically-certified beers! They produce a quite a variety, including Pale Ales, IPAs, Belgian, Wheat, Stout, Seasonal, and Cask Conditioned Beers. They also take their environmental stewardship seriously, serving organic tea and coffee, composting food waste, recycling waste fry oil into biodiesel, and reusing spent grain from the brewing process as an ingredient in its hamburger buns and as a feed supplement for livestock. Other possible breweries for the tour include the Pike Brewing Company in the Pike Place Market of downtown Seattle and the Schooner Exact Brewing Company, a tiny brewery in the Harbor Island area with plans to open a tasting room in the near future.

This price includes: Hotel pick up and drop off, highly qualified and knowledgeable naturalist guide, travel in adventure outfitted luxury Mercedes Van or Jeep, morning tea with pastry or afternoon tea and cookies, essential tools, refreshments and comprehensive naturalist commentary from your tour guide.

All details of your tour will be sent to you after booking.