Gluten Free Beer - Capitol Hill, Seattle

holy sh#%! what a (mis) adventure

what i learned from tonight:

the (still) only 2 bars to go on cap hill to enjoy gluten free beer:
the hopvine on 15th ave e. serves 'new grist' for $ a bottle
this a great, sweet (but not overly-so) independent-made beer from milwaukee, WI (thank you, milwaukee!)
and
(lucky for me & all g/f queer girls in seattle) the wild rose on pike
serves 'redbridge' for $ a bottle (not the best, but usually the most accessible, this is definitely the 'budweiser' of gluten free beer.) it is in face made by anheauser bush. but hey, it's definitely palatable, half-decent, not super-strong and the most accessible of the gluten free beers i've found. been able to find redbridge in places like safeway to trader joe's.

(ok whats it called, by dance hall has green and black's for like $10 a bottle but that's kinda just too expensive to pay for a single bottle of beer, even if it's good gluten free.)

Grocery stores
bad news: the two grocery stores closest to me (and right, it's all about me, i know, but seriously, c'mon on seattle, there's not one, but TWO LARGE grocery stores within 4 blocks of my apt, why couldn't ONE of you carry just ONE type of gluten-free beers??)

good news:
there are multiple grocery stores that DO carry:
1- Safeway on 22nd and Madison - Redbridge (usually $7.99 or 8.99 for 6-pack)
2- Trader Joes' on 17th and Madison - Redbridge (similar price, $7.99- $9.99 per 6-pack)
3- Madison Market on 16th and Madison (no surprise here)- but the real surprise is that the last few times in, they've only had 1 g/f beer in stock, and it's a doozy called St.Peter's (British), looks like you're buying some sort of medicine glass bottle/ vat, and it could be used as medicine, it's strong as shit. whatver %, and seems even stronger. It's a deal at $4.99 per bottle, b/c if you split one you're good to go. And if you drink the whole one by yourself, you'll be plenty buzzed / under the influence (especially if you're a lightweight like me, you'll struggle even to finish it..I'm just saying)
4- QFC on Broadway at Republican (aka: The Big QFC) - Thanks to the TJ's worker who sent me in that direction, which I had nearly overlooked...and which if my hunt was unsuccessful, I was gonna be about to break some stuff I was so frustrated, but luckily...all turned out well. I not only found single bottles of the uber-great-tasting, strong, dark, Belgian (style?)organic, g/f beer, Green & Blacks for $6.99 a bottle but..
BOTH Bard's Tale and New Grist in 6-packs. Bard's Tale was $12.99 and New Grist was $9.99-- guess which one thrifty me chose? yeah, well I just had Bard's Tale last week, so it's all good, and New Grist is damn tastey!
Bam! QFC on Broadway wins the award so far for carrying the most g/f beer! A whopping 3!! :)

oh and for good measure, when I was in San Antonio, TX last week, the local HEB (equivalent to Safeway) actually carried 6-packs of the high quality Bard's Tale for only $8.99. Go TX!

It's hard to not describe the impetus of tonight's grand mission: to find all the gluten-free beer places on the hill. Was in fact inspired by whiny, crankiness, PMS, a good reading at Elliot Bay from a great, new-ish writer I just discovered today, as well as a desire to find a little niche, not dark, but not over-lit, quiet and just write and have a beer, and just wanting to have a beer, be warm and relax and write...but my night was not to be that simple. It involved me walking and stopping by various bars, restaurants and grocery stores for about 2 hours and covering about that many miles of north and central capitol hill.