The second stop in our first beer tour of the Seattle area was Harmon Tap House in Tacoma. This place is very new, under two years old, and has a clean upscale feel for a small brewpub. This is the third site for the company, with most of the commercial bottled beers being brewed in the original facility. They have a dark back room called the Harmon Underground where they often have live music. There was a brief tour of the brewery by the head brewer, though I didn't think to record his name for this blog. I blame all the good beers! I think he enjoyed giving a tour to a group that actually had tough brewing questions for him, and not having to explain what malt is...
We had a lunch of spaghetti and a very nice salad whilst sipping on beer samplers. I met some great folks on the bus and we shared beers in order to try them all. One beer had some diacetyl, but otherwise all were very pleasant. The stand-out was their Anniversary IPA, which was dry and balanced and remains one of the best of the style I had while on my trip. Not too shabby for a small brewery surrounded by big guys!
