I am by no means a pro taster, this is just collective thoughts from what I personally saw/tasted.
Spent Saturday in Seattle with my wife and some great friends. We went to a new brewery in the Ballard area that had just opened up the night before - Hilliard's Beer.
It seems like they're pushing for the new trend of 'good beer in cans'. This has been a recent movement with newer breweries in attempts to break the dogma of 'the only beer that comes in cans is bad beer'.
First off - their facility is pretty impressive in terms of improving what it used to be. There are before and after pictures and video on their website (below). The brewing system is a 15bbl (465 gallons) skid mounted system. Steam fired boiler to supply heat for mashing/boiling equipment. 4 main conical fermenters with what I'm assuming was a brite beer tank on the end. They also had a canning machine that will do 24 cans per minute - I know nothing of canning/bottling equipment, but it looked impressive.
The beer -
I got to try all of their beer except for the Saison.
I had a full pint of the Indomitable dry stout which was hands down my favorite. It was a very balanced stout with full body and mouth feel that wasn't too dry or overpowering in toasted-ness.
Britt had a Scottish Blonde which was my next favorite. I'm usually not a huge fan of blondes, but this one was an exception. It was fantastic! I only got a few tastes of it so no huge review, I just remember it was very very smooth. Had a bit of a spice and sweet taste like there was bitter orange peel and coriander and overall was not what I was expecting out of a blonde (probably where the Scottish comes from). The Amber Ale was nothing special to me. It was a pretty run of the mill Amber with a great aroma (Cascade? Amarillo? I wish I knew). Nothing that tickled my fancy.
The place-
Not sure if it the brewer was in a funk or what, but he wasn't very interested in answering questions or selling his beer to me. I asked about their capacity and what they were using for energy and all I got were very short answers and no elaboration. I don't know about you, but if I'm passionate about something - I'll talk your ears off about it (thanks dad for that attribute). The place itself is very industrial - which was awesome - but they need to do a little more work on the inside as far as accommodating a crowd. They had some pretty cool concrete benches and chair, but they really need to execute the arrangement better. It also was a little weird seeing kids there. Britt said "I feel like I should have brought my baby." Lots of babies and kids running around - not that that's bad, just different in a taproom I guess.
Overall thoughts - very very good beer, atmosphere needs a little work, I feel like the opening was a bit rushed, but I'm no pro at this. With it being a taproom and not a food-serving pub, the atmosphere needs something else to keep it interesting, especially if the brewer isn't into talking/answering questions - shuffleboard? Nonetheless it's worth checking out if you're in the Ballard area.
Side note - their glassware is some of the coolest I've ever seen.
Hilliards Beer - 1550 NW 49th Street - Seattle WA 98107
http://hilliardsbeer.com/
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