On our recent little trip to the northeastern hinterlands of Washington, we stopped at a few brew pubs along the way. Our first one was in the town of Winthrop. Winthrop was founded by folks looking for gold. They still are today, but instead of panning and digging, they now mine tourists.
The Ruud (Pronounced like "Rude") Family bought out the old Winthrop Brewing Company, revamped the place and renamed it the Old Schoolhouse.
My first brew was "Uncle Big's" Nut Brown Ale. It wasn't as malty as I would have expected. It was somewhat hoppy and it finished dry. The aroma had some hints of malt, but not as much as I would expect from this style. It was a good beer and it went really well with the pulled pork sandwich I'd ordered.
I next tried their "Black Canyon" porter. I like porters - it's one of my favorite styles so I was hoping for good things. I don't know whether it was because it was served too cold or what, but it had a definite "mediciney" aroma. It also tasted a bit like soy sauce. It might be a good beer to cook with.
The owner took me on a tour and I was able to take some pictures of his little operation.
These are fermentation vats.
These are the old rubber hoses that used to be part of the old delivery system.
The new hoses installed.
Just before I left, Ruud Sr. offered me a sample of their "Ruud Awakening" IPA. True to its name, it was definitely a rude wakening. It had a marvelous citrusy-grapefruit aroma and it tasted like it smelled. It was almost like biting into a ripe grapefruit. It was a really well balanced IPA. I'm not as familiar yet with IPAs and this will definitely be the one all others are judged against.
Until I design my rating system, I'm going to assign this one three out of five hop cones. They make good beer and good pub grub. The only real disappointment was the porter. The owner did say that they were going to change the recipe for the next batch. I think they know it could be improved.
Cheers!
VW
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