Tugboat Ales

The variety and style of ales at the Tugboat rotate from month to month and season to season. You will also find on tap Thunderbolt Pale Ale, and a variety of seasonal beers such as dopplebock, porter, red cloud, Tugboat Pale Ale, Barge Bitter, a fruit ale occasionally and others as demand and creativity warrant.

Our flagship ales will most always be found on the tap wall and consist of:

This delightful copper-colored ale is spawned by the smart inclusion of a variety of specialty English malts, and a very generous portion of Cascade hops. Our thirst quenching E.S.B. has been compared favorably alongside the very best E.S.B.'s in the world. We dry hop this sweet, and spicy hopped ale in the keg, like we do most of our ales, to give you another delicious dimension to taste: a floral smell. Our approach is that brewing is more art than science. If this ale was a person, he would sport a beret, read Chomski, and smoke cloves.

Most micro-breweries make an I.P.A. and for a good reason, they're really good. "I.P.A." is an ale that was designed to withstand the slow boat from England to colonial India, at the request of the thirsty British Military. The sailors discovered that an ale had to be alcohol and hop rich to survive the long, unrefrigerated journey. What you have at the end of that trip, and at the Tugboat Brewing Company, is a big-bodied, dirty blond, hoppy ale that makes you say "zoinks" at the first sip, and "another please" at the last.

This ale mimics the distinctive lagers of the Czech Republic. Our Czech bitter has quite a following due to its unique characteristics. Its balanced golden body allows room for the imported Saaz hops to smartly bully this ale. Few breweries in this country use the Saaz hop, due to its sketchy availability. If you have been "over there", come visit over here, reminisce and bring your thirst. This ale's popularity is evident by the many musicians nationwide repeating into microphones the ale's proud name.

This is the first part of a great ale event. Stout lovers come back again and again drinking and attempting to describe what it is that makes our stout so pleasantly different. Our guarded recipe makes for a memorable stout experience. We know what makes it so great, and we're not telling. It took us 4 years of development to make it this good. Ask for a pint and try to figure it out yourself!

Northern Brewer hops and peat malt make this beer qualify for the "something in between" that is a common Pacific NorthWest request. Hop Red has a body like Jacky Gleason and the bitterness of Gloria Steinham, and is as smooth as Sammy Davis Jr.