Pass-what?

Today hollyqueen and I went out for a date. We started having a regular Sunday date and it's been a lot of fun to spend some time with her where force ourselves to get out of the house together. We started by stopping by Malt & Vine here in Redmond. I picked up a small bottle of Lindemans framboise lambic, a bottle of Ridgeway's Lump of Coal holiday stout from Ridgeway Brewing and a bottle of J.K. Scrumpy's Orchard Gate Gold farmhouse organic hard cider. Unlike other specialty beer stores I've visited M&V is a nice, well lit and very well stocked store. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Certainly a place I'll be visiting again.

While I was talking with the guy at M&V I found out some interesting information about the great Strongbow shortage of 2007. He told me that some kegs of cider were contaminated so the company recalled the entire batch. Hopefully they will be able to get the problem fixed and the cider will flow again.

Next we went to Magus Books in Seattle. hollyqueen found a lot of books from her childhood and quite a few books from series she's been reading. I found The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum, Liefelümpchen by Wilhelm Mattheißen and Weichnachtsleider by Dietmar Bückart, two German books. Magus had a nice foreign language section but I'm still on the hunt for the Richard Scarry books in German.

After scratching our book itch we went to Big Time Brewery for a bite to eat. Sitting there I realized I forgot my shiny new WABL passport. That would have been my first stamp towards a shiny reward. Damn! Well I did try a particularly tasty beer called Hopgoblin. It was a seasonal pumpkin brew. A nice hint of pumpkin and spices and it wasn't too hoppy or bitter for my taste. Mmmmm...