Pierce County Events Calendar

The Thursday night beer run started in January, 2010, with just seven runners. It’s a social run that now exceeds one hundred runners nearly every week of the year. Thousands of people have joined this run from every corner of the region.

The Thursday night run is approximately three miles long. This distance is a night off for some; it’s aspirational for others.

For more information about this event, click here.

Run location changes weekly. Check Tacoma Runners’ website regularly to find out where we’ll be running next.

The Thursday night beer run started in January, 2010, with just seven runners. It’s a social run that now exceeds one hundred runners nearly every week of the year. Thousands of people have joined this run from every corner of the region.

The Thursday night run is approximately three miles long. This distance is a night off for some; it’s aspirational for others.

For more information about this event, click here.

Run location changes weekly. Check Tacoma Runners’ website regularly to find out where we’ll be running next.

For beer snobs, their love of beer comes in a close second only to their true loves. But there is nothing that says, “I love you” more on Valentine’s Day than offering them a snifter or two of chocolate beer.

Brewers make chocolate beers in a variety of ways, whether adding chocolate to the brewing process or using chocolate malts. The style usually comes in the form of a browns, porters and stouts. The flavor of chocolate in these styles is rich and tasty and the smell is aromatic. When chocolate beer hits your lips, it’s like an alcoholic chocolate explosion.

Peaks and Pints will tap several chocolate goodies Thursday, Feb. 14, including Perennial Abraxas, Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, Boulevard Chocolate Ale, 10 Barrel German Chocolate Cake, Avery Raspberry Truffale, Fort George From Russia With Love and others.

This is chocolate’s Super Bowl folks, and you should plan a stop at Peaks and Pints for no other reason than chocolate’s a natural aphrodisiac. Cheers!

PEAKS AND PINT CHOCOLATE BEER VALENTINE, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Peaks and Pints, 38916 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover

Culinary Series Cooking Class
This cooking class was modeled after culinary school. The series will be over a 5-Week Period, each session will be 3 hours in length. Each class will have a demonstration from Chef Jan and then proceed to a workshop setting in groups. The class will focus on classical culinary techniques, maintaining discipline in mise en place and CAYGO (Clean As You Go), but at the same time keeping the mood light and fun. This series will give you the opportunity to gain more confidence in the kitchen and professional tips to make cooking more efficient & organized. Learning this will allow more room for fun in the kitchen and less of a chore. The class will allow you to collaborate with your group and create a tasting menu for a community panel. Let’s cook!

Week 1 Knife Cuts
Week 2 Stocks & Mother Sauces
Week 3 Sauté
Week 4 Bread
Week 5 Cook for a Panel

Notes:
*Class is hands-on and rigorous. Expect to be on your feet.
*All food prepared will be enjoyed by students.
*Feel free to bring your sharp knife, please bring in a knife guard.
*Notify Chef Jan of any food allergies.
*Beginners and advanced cooks welcome.

Just in case you somehow missed them in front of supermarkets, annoying account supervisor Chuck at your office or at your front door, Girl Scout Cookie Season has arrived. Through this annual tradition, Girl Scouts across the region learn valuable life skills, earn badges and generate work for local dentists. Once you’ve filled your cupboards with Thin Mints, Samoas or whichever cookies you prefer, you might be tempted to sit back and enjoy them with a nice, tall glass of milk. But here at Peaks and Pints we prefer pairing our cookies with Rainy Daze Brewing beers.

Thursday, Feb. 21, the Poulsbo brewery will celebrate the most delicious season of the year, when taste buds get to revel in the glory of Thin Mints, Shortbreads, Peanut Butter Patties and other Girl Scout cookies paired with Baltic Porter, Dukes Up Red, Sunrise Coffee Porter, Test Drive Amber, Goat Boater IPA and other Rainy Daze beers at Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District.

“It’s fun, and it’s tasty,” says Rainy Daze founder and head brewer Mike Montoney. “That’s what beer is supposed to be about anyway.”

Cookies will be paired with pints, snifters and tulips full of Rainy Daze deliciousness, as well as a five-beer, five-cookie flight option.

Like so many things in life, Girl Scout cookies are a fleeting pleasure. They’ll only be available for a short, period of time. Then you’ll have to resort to black-market eBay buying. Feb. 21 is your chance to taste most of the Girl Scout Cookies in one sitting.

SCOUTS HONOR: GIRL SCOUT COOKIES PAIRED WITH RAINY DAZE BEERS, 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover

The Destiny City Film Festival is a homegrown, true-Tacoma community event, inspired by our city’s nickname — The City of Destiny — and is built to showcase the best independent films from the Pacific Northwest and beyond housed in the Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma’s Proctor District. Curated by former Tacoma Film Festival director Emily Alm, the sixth version of this film fest kicks off Friday, Feb. 22 and runs through Sunday, Feb. 24 with the closing party at 3:30 p.m. at Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom and restaurant. After the 2 p.m. screening of the documentary Earthrise — the story of the first image captured of the Earth from space in 1968 — followed by My Indiana Muse — a documentary on artist Robert Townsend and his muse, Helen — Peaks and Pints will host the closing party complete with a film inspired beer flight and the release of Scut Farkus Strikes Back, a 7.8 percent winter warmer brewed by Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. that was aged in a Chamber Bay Distillery bourbon barrel.

“Expect toasty flavors of toffee, raisin, chocolate, and of course, bourbon, meld together to create a full-flavored experience,” says Bethany Carlson, head brewer at Pacific Brewing and Malting. “A small amount of cinnamon was also added lending a hint of spice.” Carlson brewed the original Scut Farkus Winter Warmer with Greer Hubbard, head brewer at neighboring Odd Otter Brewing Co.

While the Destiny City Film Festival Closing Party is free to attend, the films screening at the Blue Mouse are $7-$9, free for students with ID. A VIP All-Access Pass, good for entry to all the films and events, is $70. Tickets can be purchased through DestinyCityFilmFestival.com, and the Blue Mouse Theatre.

Culinary Series Cooking Class
This cooking class was modeled after culinary school. The series will be over a 5-Week Period, each session will be 3 hours in length. Each class will have a demonstration from Chef Jan and then proceed to a workshop setting in groups. The class will focus on classical culinary techniques, maintaining discipline in mise en place and CAYGO (Clean As You Go), but at the same time keeping the mood light and fun. This series will give you the opportunity to gain more confidence in the kitchen and professional tips to make cooking more efficient & organized. Learning this will allow more room for fun in the kitchen and less of a chore. The class will allow you to collaborate with your group and create a tasting menu for a community panel. Let’s cook!

Week 1 Knife Cuts
Week 2 Stocks & Mother Sauces
Week 3 Sauté
Week 4 Bread
Week 5 Cook for a Panel

Notes:
*Class is hands-on and rigorous. Expect to be on your feet.
*All food prepared will be enjoyed by students.
*Feel free to bring your sharp knife, please bring in a knife guard.
*Notify Chef Jan of any food allergies.
*Beginners and advanced cooks welcome.

The German Beer Purity Law — Reinheitsgebot — is three years past its quincentennial: 500 years of absolutely nothing but barley (or wheat), hops, water and yeast. Not so much as a spruce tip or cacao nib may defile anything called “beer.” Occidental Brewing’s brewmaster Dan Engler mostly brews beers in the spirit (if not the letter) of the Reinheitsgebot. Opening in 2011 in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood, Occidental makes some of the best German-style beers in the Northwest, including their authentic Bavarian Hefeweizen. It’s hefeweizen makes one want to throw on a pair of lederhosen over your flannel. If you like wheat beer — heck, even if you hate it — you must try this sweet, banana- and clove-scented hefeweizen pouring from Peaks and Pints’ Western red cedar tap log Wednesday, Feb. 27 during Occidental Brewing’s Tacoma Launch Party.

Did you choke on your Occidental Hefeweizen as you read that last sentence? Yes, You have been enjoying Occidental craft beers for quite some time at Peaks and Pints, but that’s because the brewery’s sales executive Chris Spinelli has been periodically driving his beer up to Tacoma. This month, Occidental signed with NW Beverages, which means Spinelli can cancel his Goodyear Tires of the Month membership. NW Beverages driver Shawn Emil will now deliver Occidental beer weekly to Peaks and Pints, which means a constant stock of goodness.

Peaks and Pints will host the Occidental Brewing Tacoma Launch Party from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27 pouring their Hefeweizen, as well as Alt, Helles Lager, Kolsch and Pilsner.

THE OCCIDENTAL BEERIST IN TACOMA, 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26th, Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover

The word oligarch first came into wide use in and about Russia in the 1990s; back then, it referred to men who had built their fortunes on the ruins of the Soviet economy and then used their wealth to obtain political power. In Putin’s mafia state, oligarchs have surrendered their autonomy — and any political ambitions — in exchange for wealth. In Breakside Brewery’s craft beer state, The Oligarch has surrendered its flavor to bourbon barrels for two years before being exiled to Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom and restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District.

Peaks and Pints will host the Tacoma release party for Breakside’s The Oligarch bourbon barrel-aged British imperial stout and its six variants 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28 — the last day of Peaks and Pints February Stout Month.

The Oligarch. The “original” beer is a single batch of British imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels for more than two years in the making. Next, the Breakside brewers replaced their Russian fur brewer bibs for scientist lab coats adding a variety of ingredients to the base British imperial stout.

“This is also the first time we’ve blended different-aged batches of the same wood-aged stout into a finished blend, which gives The Oligarch incredible nuance,” says Breakside Brewmaster Ben Edmunds in a media release. “When we took on this project, we approached each blend seriously, trying to create a whimsical, balanced, and delicious set of flavors. I hope that people enjoy drinking these beers as much as we enjoyed creating and blending them.”

The Oligarch project encompasses 84 casks, resulting in 122 barrels of finished beer. Beers that will pour from Peaks and Pints’ Western red cedar tap log Thursday include:

The Oligarch: An imperial stout blended from four different batches of stouts aged in bourbon barrels, this craft beer is rich, sticky, sweet and aggressive.

Maple Oligarch: The maple bourbon barrels from Bissell Maple Farm in Jefferson, Ohio provide a ton of complexity, offering an especially nerdy delight to be found in this intense and rich beer.

Candy Cap: This variant is made with one of the Pacific Northwest’s most beguiling foodstuffs: candy cap mushrooms. Their intense brown sugar smell helps create a sweet-then-savory sensation that dovetails perfectly into some of the strong oxidative notes of the casks.

Bocconotto: Aged on cinnamon bark, toasted almonds, chocolate and a touch of lemon zest, this beer is an ode to one of Breakside’s favorite Italian pastries, a specialty of southern Italy.

Champurrado: Comprised of eight of the richest casks from the series and inspired by the flavors of Mexican champurrado, Breakside aged this stout on a mix of cacao nibs, vanilla bean, and toasted corn.

Piedmontese: The most elegant variant in this series, this beer was fashioned on the off-sweet cakes of northern Italy. Breakside conditioned this blend of maple barrel-aged stouts on Oregon-grown hazelnuts and vanilla bean and added a touch of sea salt for depth.

Coco Breakfast: Breakside grabbed inspiration from Edmunds’ favorite childhood breakfast cereal and loaded up the cocoa and vanilla for a beer that works for dessert — or breakfast.

THE OLIGARCHS ARE COMING! THE OLIGARCHS ARE COMING!, 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover

No one talked about recycling or reducing his or her carbon footprint back when you started covering your house with beer cans in the 1960s. You’ve worked slow and steady at covering your entire house with beer cans. The roof, windowsills, gutters, even your mailbox and fence are covered in beer cans. And, every Jan. 24 on National Beer Can Appreciation Day — the very day that canned beer first hit the American market in 1935 — you host a blowout beer can drinking party. The annual topic of conversation in your can cave? When is pFriem Family Brewers going to can?

Well, rip down that Krueger’s Cream Ale can door bell cover because pFriem Family Brewers has canned their IPA and Pilsner. And, Peaks and Pints will host the Tacoma pFriem Can Release Party at 5 p.m. Friday, March 1. pFriem Senior Brewer Bryan Cardwell and pFriem Sales Executive Blake Jackson will be in our craft beer lodge popping cans and discussing how your many outdoor adventures, backyard barbecues, or front yard light post calls for a can of pFriem.

The brewery has upgraded its facility and enhanced its infrastructure to make way for canning. The team expects annual barrelage for cans to be around 5,000 barrels in 2019. To meet that production level as well as to continue to grow its draft and 500 ml bottle production, the brewery will be expanding its Hood River facility in 2019.

In addition to all the cans, Peaks and Pints will pour pFriem craft beer from our Western red cedar tap log because we CAN.

Hope you CAN join us.

TACOMA PFRIEM CAN RELEASE PARTY, 5-8 p.m., Friday, March 1, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover