Last weekend
my husband
Rich and I, along with our puppy Kona, headed east to Leavenworth, WA for
a nice little get-a-way to celebrate my husband’s birthday.
Leavenworth is a small town modeled after a
Bavarian village on the southeast side of the North Cascade Mountains.
The town thrives off of tourism.
They host a lot of German festivals to draw
people in, including
Oktoberfest
in the fall for 5 weekends straight, an
Ale-Fest,
a
Maifest a
Christkindlmarkt (Christmas
Market), and many more.
The weekend we
went happened to be
Taste
Leavenworth with all sorts of tasty treats, wine, and spirits tastings all over town.
We drove
through Snoqualmie Pass stopping at a new brewery along the way located in the Snoqualmie
ski area.
Dru Bru has only been open about 4 months and
primarily makes German style beers and other lower alcohol beers.
We were very impressed with their Kolsh and Wit.
Their Session IPA was light with a nice balance of citrus hops on the back.
Their Alt bier was
also tasty and so was their Schwarzbier, which we tried on both the regular C02
tap and on Nitro!
For a new brewery their beers were solid and I’d definitely recommend them.
After a
(mostly) beautiful 2.5 hour drive through the mountains we arrived in town and
checked into our Bavarian looking hotel,
Fairbridge Inn & Suites.
We decided to wander around looking for food
before
heading to
Icicle Brewing located on the north
side of town.
We stopped in at the
Munchen Haus for liters of beer and some German wursts and Bavarian Pretzels.
I had the currywurst, while my husband had
the traditional bratwurst.
The whole
place was outside with tents setup and heaters for the cooler nights.
After our sausages
and liters of beer we wandered through the town taking pictures and playing
tourist with all the cool looking Bavarian buildings and signs.
We stopped in to do a wine tasting, and then
headed to Icicle Brewing for a taster tray and a few rounds.
Icicle makes some good beer and was at almost
every place in town, as they’re the local brewery.
My favorite beer of theirs was the ‘Dark
Persuasion,’ a darker beer, but not to high alcohol with a delicate dark
chocolate backbone and sweet coconut finish, like a German Chocolate cake in a
glass.
Their pilsner was also quite
tasty.
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| Bavarian buildings and signs |
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| Bavarian buildings |
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| Bavarian buildings |
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| Wenatchee River on our run |
Saturday
morning we woke up and went for a run through the countryside.
We then set out on our adventure to 'Taste Leavenworth' and
drink beer with Kona, our puppy.
We started out by having lunch the
Leavenworth Sausage Garten where we each had a wurst and
beer, then proceeded to taste at shops participating in the Taste Leavenworth event
up and down the streets.
We had a whole
assortment of things, from a meat cup with locally smoked meats and cheeses,
pear gelato, candied pears, caramelized pear covered almonds, pear cheesecake,
and many other tasty treats.
We also did
several different wine tastings with pear influenced pairings.
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| A coachman in lederhosen roaming trotting down the streets |
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| Beers by the fire at Icicle |
We stumbled
upon
Blue
Spirits Distilling and did a flight of some of their offerings.
We tried the Espresso and cucumber vodkas,
along with 4 of their whiskeys, the 6 year Rye, 7 year straight bourbon, 4 year
straight bourbon, and their cherry whiskey.
We ended up taking a bottle of the espresso vodka and 4 year whiskey
home with us.
After the distillery we
went to the winery next door and did another wine tasting before heading to
Icicle Brewing to sit outside by the fire and just drink beer in the sun for a
few hours talking with fellow beer drinkers.
After a few
rounds at Icicle we headed back to the hotel to drop off Kona and then headed
back out to try some more tasty treats from places that didn’t allow dogs,
including a pear gingerbread cookie from a local bakery.
When we woke up Sunday morning the passes had
gotten some snow. We had to take Snoqualmie Pass back to Seattle instead of our planned route, Stephens Pass, due to snow and ice on
the roads and traction tires being advised.
Overall it was a great weekend getaway with lots of great beer and food. Definitely a worthwhile trip and I think we'll be headed back for one of their beer festivals sometime. Cheers!
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| Fresh snow on the mountains as we departed |
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