(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

It makes us a little bit sad that we can't get Silver City here in Eastern Washington. The Silverdale brewery produces some really nice stuff, but their reach leaves a little to be desired.

Silver City's Fat Scotch Ale is a favorite here at Team SpoCOOL, one to check out the next time you hit the west side. This is a nicely made Scotch ale, one that doesn't break the bank.

Pour, and the color rests somewhere in between amber and brown, looking very clean indeed. There's about a finger of tan head, with a decent retention.

The nose hits like a Scotch ale should. A slightly syrupy sweetness with plenty of maltiness dances right there up front, adding some nuttiness to the end. Pleasant smelling, without being overwhelming.

Sip, and the round, pleasant flavor feels like sucking on a boozy caramel. Not that it slaps you around or anything; at 9% ABV it really just warms you up a bit. In fact, I wonder if the ale would have been a little too sweet had the ABV been lower. The alcohol actually takes a bit of the edge off the caramel, which is an interesting role reversal.

The flavor, then, is definitely heavy, without the body being on steroids or anything. I'd say we're talking somewhere around medium here.

This is an incredibly pleasant beer; more of a winter warmer than many seasonal releases have been. It might be too heavy for some, and the lack of hops will be a bit off-putting for some IPA fans. For those of us who like sweet malts it's perfect, though.

Pick up a bottle next time you visit the west side. Or pick up more than one; you can certainly store the Fat Scotch for a while.

Growlers are a great way to bring beer on tap home, at least if you have some people to share the half-gallon with.

Michael S. sent us an email asking if we could list local breweries running discounted growler fills and what days they do so. This sounds like a great undertaking, except the only ones we know of are the ones he sent us.

So. Should you be a brewery or a bar featuring discounted growler days, feel free to contact us with the information. We will try to put a list together that possibly could help those in search of some big drinks.

Here is what we currently have...

Update: We've expanded the list to include some regularly cheaper-priced growlers too.

Brewery/Pub	Regular Price	Discount Days
12 String Brewing Co	N/A	Tuesday, $10
Bottles	$8-10	N/A
Budge Brothers	N/A	Wednesday, $5
Enoteca	N/A	Special member prices
Flying Goat	N/A	Tuesday Mug Club discounts
Good Spirits	N/A	Mon-Thu, 3-5pm; Sun; $12-15
No-Li	N/A	Sunday, $3 off
Post St Ale House	N/A	Same as 3 pints, starting at $12
Total Wine	$8-12	N/A
Tricksters Brewing	N/A	Growler Club

Are you a brewery or a bar offering discounted growler fills? Email us at team@spocool.com or tweet us at @spocool. (And please contact us, too, if any of the information is wrong.)

We've talked about the KeepCup before, and an excellent cup it is. Intended to replace paper cups, it serves pretty much the same function while looking good, being reusable, customizable, and keeping your coffee warm, at least for a while.

The latter might be somewhat of a downfall for the slower drinkers among us. "A while" is longer than what you get from a paper cup, but the KeepCup is not intended to be a thermos. (Also, the Doxey also whined about his cup having a leaking issue, and we can only hope he had the good sense to have it exchanged. We have not seen that problem.)

Anyway: As far as a good alternative for those wanting to keep their coffee warm, almost literally , forever, we recommend Klean Kanteen.

This is, of course, simply a canteen, fashionably misspelled, and it works better any type of thermos we've tried. There are quite few variations of it out there, and while you can find them at a few standard resellers in Spokane, one of your favorite coffee shops might just be carrying them. We know Coeur carried some Stumptown branded ones.

The Klean Kanteen have two points of awesomeness: Like already mentioned, it keeps your coffee warm through the whole day, pretty much at the temperature it was poured.

Secondly, it gives off no metallic aftertaste to the coffee. This has been the problem with some canteen we've tried, but not so with the Klean Kanteen. The flavor is still clean as should be.

It's also easy to drink from, which, hey, is always a plus.

We think the Klean Kanteen is well worth its price. Check in and see if your favorite coffee shop carries them. Otherwise we'd heartily recommend the ones from Olympia Coffee Roasting Co, which we use.

So this is probably pretty much the end of the winter beer season which is... Well, it's kind of odd, but Deschutes has already puked out their annual Red Chair NWPA, so I suppose that was that.

Let's end on a low note then, with Iron Horse's Cozy Sweater. Iron Horse usually does pretty OK with me; I've at least never deemed any of their stuff to be too awful. Cozy Sweater, meanwhile, is all kinds of a letdown. They call it a stout, and maybe it technically is, but I cannot remember ever having such a thin stout. Thin in every way possible.

Even the color seems off. I mean, it pours black... ish. Kind of like a puddle, it has sort of a dirty, dark brown color to it. It does not look particularly good.

Sniff, and there's a bit of vanilla in there, and a vague malty smell. This is probably the beer's best trait. Get this beer if all you want to do is to sniff it.

Take a sip, however, and disappointment hits once again. It's like drinking water; no body, and very little flavor. Maybe some burnt coffee toward the back, mixed with just a hint of vanilla, but really, there's nothing going on here. 

No, I really did hate Cozy Sweater. Sadly. I couldn't find any hints of winter, body, or flavor. It wasn't cozy at all.

It's still on the shelves, so try it if you like, but don't say I didn't warn you. Frankly I'd pick up the Red Chair instead,