HollyKing's Journal

Last night was my trip to Pillagers Pub. I arrived, made my way to a table and was pleasantly surprised when sea_gaagii came over and joined me. I guess posting my plans worked.

I tried a pint of the Rauchbier and found it to be very good. The aroma and flavor of smoke was an accent to the flavor of the beer and not overpowering. Traditional Rauchbier is made using malt that is smoked with beechwood. I've had a few stinkers that seemed to just add liquid smoke to the beer, but Baron's version was not one of them.

see_gaagii ordered a flight of the Three Skulls Ales and we tried them together. We both agreed that the Three Skulls Amber didn't have much flavor and quickly disappeared next to the other beers. My favorite was the Black Bonney Porter and I found the Hop the Plank IPA to be an IPA I could drink.

We were joined by PL, a coworker of mine. He also enjoyed the Rauchbier. He tried a few of the German style beers brewed by Baron but from what I picked up he preferred the Rauch. I had to leave to pick up hollyqueen so missed his opinion of the beer he drank. My full review of the Rauchbier will be in a later post. Probably my next one.

A few people warned me away from Pillagers Pub and I have to wonder why. I guess that the place has changed since their visits. The food was the average stuff I find at every bar around here. The atmosphere was better than the average bars I've visited in the area.

They had the music too loud as I had to raise my voice to talk to people at the same table, but that's a common failure in places I've visited all across the country. There's nothing wrong with music but why do they always turn it up so high? If there was dancing or a live act I would expect the music to be louder. Otherwise it should be part of the background.

I have to give high marks to the staff. The woman working the bar was helpful, friendly and knowlegeable about what they had for sale. She went above and beyond the call to replace the keg when I ordered a growler so I would get a full bottle from a fresh keg instead of the dregs of one and the top of another.

While Pillagers isn't my ideal pub it is a good one I will visit again when I'm in the area.

The next stop will be 7pm on Thursday at Über. After that I'll be working my way through my Washington Beer Lovers (WABL) passport. The plan is to visit two or three places each month.