October 1996 Volume 19, Issue 10

Rock Bottom - In More Than Just The Name

by Charlie Webster

When I was scheduled to attend a business conference in Seattle this week, I thought "Ah…microbrew heaven." When I checked in to my downtown hotel, I asked the concierge if she knew of any place within walking distance to have some local beers. "Just around the corner, they just opened a new brewpub called Rock Bottom Brewing," she replied. Great! A short walk found me in a nicely appointed, and somewhat noisy brewpub. An inspection of the brewing vessels behind the obligatory glass wall showed that this is an ambitious operation; they’re set up for 20 bbl batches.

"Looks promising," I thought as I ordered the sampler of five beers including a hefe-wheat, a pale ale, the obligatory red ale, a brown ale, and a stout. The promise started to fade with the first taste of the hefe-wheat. It was sweet and malty tasting with a strong hop flavor. The promise faded even farther into the background with the pale, which was thin and watery, with little flavor of any kind. The red was different only in color, almost indistinguishable from the pale in flavor. The stout wasn’t even a decent porter. Might have been a decent brown ale. The brown ale was the best beer, having a character much like Pete’s Wicked Ale, decently balanced but still a bit thin for my taste.

No one on duty on a Sunday night knew anything about the brewery beyond what was printed on the placemat, telling me that the Monday night crew "knows all about that stuff." Unfortunately the beer wasn’t even close to good enough to lure me back on Monday night to have my questions answered.

The Rock Bottom has a full bar, and a full restaurant. I had only an appetizer (Buffalo Wings, which weren’t too bad) and so can’t pass judgment on the food. I think the current MicroBrew fad that is gripping the great northwest is leading to some pretty mediocre beers, and will soon enough pass. During my three days in Seattle, in visiting four drinking/eating establishments, the best beer I had was the Red Hook ESB on draft at the … convention center .