the Foggy Noggin

Our Fn Beers!

This past weekend my girlfriend Barbara told me about a guy in Bothell who opened a nano-brewery.  For those not in the know a nano-brewery is defined as a brewery that brews less then 4 barrels at a time.  The Foggy Noggin definitely meets that criteria as they brew English style ales on a 1/2 barrel system. 

The Foggy Noggin is located in a rural area of Bothell and is actually operated out of a garage.  You step into the garage and sitting in the middle is a keezer hooked up with four beers on tap with another, smaller keezer next to it with two nitro taps.  To the right of the taps is a large walk-in freezer and next to it sits a display fridge full of growlers.  The head brew-master's daughter and her boyfriend (I think) were in charge of the taps when we visited.

I decided to try the Christmas Duck porter for my first pint and it was delicious.  Probably one of the best porters I have ever tried.  Barbara wanted to sample their beers so she got tasters of their other beers, the Bit o' Beaver English Bitter, the Diablo del Sol English Pale, the Anniversary Old English Ale, the Whasky (on Nitro) and another sample of the Anniversary (on Nitro).  I helped Barb finish a few of her beers and the Diablo del Sol was my favorite, so I had another pint of that.  Their Anniversary Ale on Nitro was also delicious.

After we sampled some beers we wandered out back to their brew shed and met the head brew-master Jim.  He had just transferred the beer he had made into the fermenter and was in the middle of the cleaning process but still took the time to talk to me and answer some questions that I had.  Jim started brewing roughly twenty years ago and opened the Foggy Noggin in 2008. 

All in all it was a great place and I will definitely be visiting again in the near future.  Seeing a successful brewery that was that small really made me dream about what is possible.  I would love to someday open a little brewery and be able to sell our beers.  Gus and I have a long way to go, but it's always nice to dream.