To Andrew Bieber, there is no greater beer than Sumerian Brewing’s Narcissism IPA.
The reason, though, isn’t something beer nerds can quantify on a beer rating website.
It’s all about earning it.
“By the time I get to Woodinville and ride up to Sumerian,” said Bieber, pantomiming exhaustion, “when I drink that IPA, it’s always the best beer I’ve ever had.”
Bicycling and beer are inextricably linked for Bieber. It’s right in his nom de plume, the Cycling Cicerone, referring to beer’s version of a sommelier. He started the blog and podcast with that name a few years ago after passing the Cicerone beer-brewing test and quitting his day job at Microsoft.
Now he regularly makes the 35-mile ride from his home in Fremont to Sumerian, starting on the Burke-Gilman Trail and then the Sammamish River Trail — and he can call it job research. The ride takes Bieber past nearly a dozen breweries, including Fremont Brewing, Kenmore’s Cairn Brewing and the recently opened Burke-Gilman Brewing near Seattle Children’s Hospital.
He’s not alone in his love for beer and biking. As craft beer boomed over the past decade, an underground collection of beer-loving cyclists grew along with it.
Dick Mergens and Shawn Dowling, owners of Crucible Brewing, have seen it first-hand. Both Crucible locations are close to extended regional trails: the Interurban Trail in Everett and the Sammamish River Trail in Woodinville. So it made sense to join in and help when some customers started talking about creating an official group of like-minded bicycling beer drinkers.
From those conversations was born the Washington Bikers and Beer Drinkers, a Facebook group now with 4,000 followers. Spearheaded by Daniel Rodriguez and Eric Brodski, the group has its own shirts and organizes all kinds of rides: road or mountain, long or short, fast or slow. The only constant is there will be beer at the end.
These aren’t booze cruises, Dowling cautions.
“Safety is a big concern always,” Dowling said. “Everyone rides in a pack and the veterans teach hand signals and bike maintenance. It’s a great biking community.”
Crucible has extended the cycling theme to the brewery itself. Beer drinkers get $1 off pints if they bike to the brewery on Two Wheel Thursdays and, later this year, they plan to transport a keg from the brewery’s Woodinville location to Seattle’s Latona Pub via bike on the Sammamish River Trail.
“Both beer drinking and cycling are inherently social activities,” Dowling said. “Plus, you don’t feel as bad when you tip back that extra pint.”
Crucible isn’t alone. A number of local breweries have cycling themes, including Kirkland’s Chainline Brewing, Greenwood’s Flying Bike Coop Brewery and Woodinville’s Metier Brewing, which serves its beer at the Seattle bike shop with the same name.
Burke Gilman Brewing, which opened July 17, also has a strong tie with cycling. Located right off the Burke-Gilman Trail in Laurelhurst, the building has a large outdoor patio and parking for 15 bikes and has been a big hit with cyclists, co-owner Kenneth Trease said. For Trease and his three partners, it was important to find a building for the brewery that would be a place that people could walk or bike to.
“Craft beer and breweries are really community-driven,” Trease said. “Biking makes you feel more connected to your community, and our goal was to be that kind of brewery. We want to encourage people to walk or bike here and make it a neighborhood gathering place.”
Bieber said that sense of community is what drove him to create the city’s first “brew trail.” Navigating trails and city streets, the Ship Canal Brew Trail takes riders around lower Queen Anne, starting at Urban Family Brewing in Magnolia to Old Stove Brewing near Pike Place and back again with four stops in between.
Bieber said he loves how cycling can simply and cheaply expand the region people call home.
“Seattle has very distinct brewery neighborhoods and bicycling can connect those neighborhoods and open up the breweries to others,” Bieber said.
Bieber, who has showcased Snohomish County breweries like Lazy Boy and Scrappy Punk on his blog, is working with the guys from Crucible and Eric Schneider of Bothell’s The Hop and Hound taproom to create an official brew trail along the Sammamish River Trail, with plans for similar brew trails along Snohomish County’s Interurban and Centennial trails.
“Sure, you have your local breweries in your neighborhood, but if you don’t own a car or don’t want to take an Uber, you can just hop on your bike,” said Bieber, who doesn’t own a car. “Be a tourist in your own town.”
Try these bike and brew experiences
They might not be officially Brew Trails, but there are a number of local trails that have easy stops to kick up your feet and have a pint. Centennial Trail, the Interurban Trail and the Sammamish River Trail/Burke-Gilman Trail are all near Snohomish County and have plenty of breweries nearby.
Below is a look at Centennial Trail. For a look at the other two trails, visit www.heraldnet.com/hopsandsips.
The Cycling Cicerone
Check out Andrew Bieber’s blog and podcast at www.cyclingcicerone.com. To take part in the Ship Canal Brew Trail, visit one of the six breweries on the list, get your punch card stamped twice at each brewery by purchasing a pint or growler fill, and win a T-shirt.
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