Imagine Cup + Beer
Posted by Skrud at Wednesday, June 13th 2007 at 2:02am
Our schedules at this Finals competition basically consists of:
10 BREAKFAST
20 CODE
30 LUNCH
40 CODE
50 DINNER
60 CODE
70 SLEEP
80 GOTO 10
Now, it’s not so bad. I think my team is pretty cool and we’ve gelled pretty well. This morning we got a visit to the Microsoft Company Store, where you can buy copies of Vista Ultimate for $40 or Office Student and Home 2007 for $35. I bought a copy of Office, a hoodie, a t-shirt, and a luggage tag (because I didn’t have one). We also went down to the Microsoft Visitor Center, which I would describe as a “Museum of Microsoft History”. There were even demos of Surface to play around with.
Aside from being perfectly happy to sit around and geek out all day, I love beer. The Seattle are happens to be a hotspot for microbrews and beers of all kinds. The hotel itself has four taps that I’ve never even heard of: Alaskan Amber Ale, Pyramid Hefe-Weizen, Manny’s Pale Ale and Mac & Jack’s American Amber:
The previously mentioned Rock Bottom Brewery is but one example of a brewpub. Right next-door to it is the Taphouse Grill, a restaurant which boasts having over 160 beers on tap. One hundred and sixty!!!! I met up with Vivian, who just started as a Project Manager at Microsoft (and whom I already missed from Montreal) and we checked it out.
Beers I’ve tried at Taphouse:
- Fish Tale Organic Amber: Delicious. Vivian thought it was the best of the bunch. It was very tasty, and just sweet enough.
- LazyBoy Hefe: Not as good as some other Hefe-Weizens I’ve had. I thought this one was too fruity, but still pretty good.
- Rogue Chipotle Ale: A hint of smokiness and smooth flavour. It was damn good.
- Skagit Valley IPA: An excellent, extremely hoppy and bitter IPA. Just the way I likes it. This was my favourite of the “Northwest Sampler” (which included this beer and the others above it).
- Franziskaner Hefe-Weizen: A German Hefe-weizen that Harley highly recommended. I thought it was okay, and I prefer Paulaner.
- Alaskan Oatmeal Stout: I was a little disappointed with this beer. I think the McAuslan St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout is much better.
- Diamond Knot IPA: Recommended by the waitress when I asked for a good IPA. This one was fantastically bitter and utterly delicious.
I also tried Manny’s Pale Ale, the Humpback IPA (from Rock Bottom) and Rock Bottom’s Wheat Beer.
The IPAs that I’ve had here have been king thus far. I love bitter, hoppy IPAs, and I’ve been extremely impressed with the quality of IPAs that I can get out here in Bellevue, WA. Seriously, these are some of the best beers I’ve had. The Skalit Valley IPA reminded of Benelux’s Imperial IPA, only it was smoother, yet just as flavourful. It’s like heaven.
