The Harmon Brewing Company

I don't know why I have never been here before. About 10 years ago I was in a class with someone connected to the brewery... granted I was 15 and not into good beer at the time... or alcohol at all... ~cough cough~ but hey, it just never peaked my interest until now.

The Harmon is a 15 barrel microbrewery and restaurant. Here is a little bit of info about the company.

The Harmon Brewing Co, est. 1997, is located in the heart of downtown Tacoma and the beautiful historic warehouse district. The Harmon name comes from the building itself - The Harmon Manufacturing Bldg, built in 1908 for F.S. Harmon - once the largest furniture manufacturer this side of the Mississippi. Our restaurant/brewery is the anchor tenant in what is the tallest post and beam structure in Tacoma. Beer and food always tastes better in rustic buildings like the Harmon - which boasts solid posts 3' square and original fir floors! It's truly one of a kind.

One thing I liked about the brewery is that all of the beers were named after landmarks of my childhood... and that they brought me my flight on a ski. That was pretty awesome... I guess that is what made The Harmon part of the Tacoma scene though. These beers were pretty decent overall but nothing really stood out as too special to me. One of the highlights of the night is that it was bottomless fish and chips night, but they "ran out" before we got there. Great planning, HAH!

The first beer was the Mt. Takhoma Blonde Ale. For a blonde, I would say it was well done. This is a hard style to put together but it seems I have been liking many of them recently. Makes me think I should brew one. The nose has a nice clean, lemony, citrus scent. My first impression when I tasted it was that it tasted somewhat like tea... I thought this was a weird response but I just went with it. It worked. The herbal hops help to make this combination work and it had a very dry finish.

Moving on to the Pinnacle Peak Pale Ale, it had a fairly light nose that was really floral. This was more of what a pale ale should be like in my opinion. I mean, a lot of breweries make good ones but it had a full but mellow hop flavor that was very tropical in a way. Being a brewery from the PNW, that is kind of funny in its own but it worked. A very nice pale ale.

Brown's Point ESB was one beer I was really looking forward to being I am a Fuggle head. Fuggles are some of the best hops. Especially best for bitters. Brown's Point was nice and earthy with a soft, but biting bitterness. The Puget Sound Porter was very roasty, chocolatey, and had a tad overpowering malt bitterness. It wasn't to bad but it was a major distractor. Both of these beers were GABF winners of past years so there has to be something to them.

The last beer in my flight was the Point Defiance IPA. This one definitely brought back memories. I used to work at the Point Defiance Zoo at one point in my life and there was always so much to do down there with friends. I remember once we road a golf cart around... maybe we won't tell that story... The nose was strong, sweet, and fruity. The bitterness was surprisingly low I thought for the style. I'm not talking about how everyone is trying to do the next biggest thing, it just seemed that some of the other beers here, like the pale, were more bitter. Again, nothing really got to me but it was nice to have a taste of home if you will.

Cheers!