The Porterhouse - Mt. Vernon, WA

The Porterhouse is Mt. Vernon’s tap room. It is a great place to sample brews not available in our Portland market. The 20 taps and one cask has interesting offerings from Scuttlebutt, Boundary Bay, Georgetown, Hale’s, Anacortes, and Lazy Boy brewing. You would probably be hard pressed to find such a great selection of harder to find Washington beers outside of the Seattle area. Inside, the room is very warm and inviting, thanks to the dark green and wood walls and the central fire place. The Porterhouse is also the only bar in Mt. Vernon that I have managed to find not one, but two steel tip dartboards.
The beer I would like to chat about is Anacortes Brewing’s seasonal release, Noel. If you have thumbed through my past blogs, you may have noticed I am not usually not an Anacortes fan. During my last two visits there, I was unimpressed with the beer, service, and food. That being said, I was blown away by the Noel. At 7.0%, it nicely warms you up during a chilly December night. The beer had a complex nose of caramel, oak, and whiskey. The color was a strawberry red, and was poured with a nice head. It had a wonderful, spicy mouth feel. It also had notes of wheat, malt, and caramel. It is a pity that those who do not travel that far north may never try this beer.