I have been exploring many of the breweries around Seattle after moving back to the area a few months ago. Today I just happened to be in South Seattle around Sodo and decided I would like to check out some breweries there. Ghostfish was right nearby where I was , so I decided to check it out after reading reviews. I was going to stop by Georgetown Brewing but they closed at 5PM, so decided to give this brewery a try instead.
Anyway, I walk in around 6PM and get a seat at the bar. I can tell almost immediately that the bartender seemed stressed out. The service was very unfriendly, rushed and inattentive. You would think that they could at least greet you with a smile , but instead all I got was dirty looks and the "You are wasting my time, I am busy" type of expressions. Well, it was my first time there and I was new to the menu. I understand she was over-worked and the place functions as a gastropub and the bartender was stuck pouring all drinks and even bringing out food. So, in some ways I cannot totally hold all this against her, but against the management. Maybe, if she wasn't so stressed she would have been nicer?
The service alone is not why I am giving this 2-star review. Why I am giving the place a bad review was I was very unhappy with the beer I had. Well, it was hard enough to get samples as bartender seemed annoyed and would walk away from me in the middle of me trying to make a decision (rude, but she was overworked and busy, as it appeared). So, after sampling one beer which didn't taste particularly good (Non-Barleywine as it was called) I decided to avoid making her too aggravated to just order it,. However, the brewery is a bit deceptive in its pricing. Almost every brewery I have been to has been upfront with pricing and this brewery pulls a bit of a bait-and-switch. They list the price as being $6/pint, but then she tells me that the pour for that beer is 12 oz and it is actually $7 even though there is nothing on the menu or anywhere indicating the price and size. That was a bit annoying so I told her I didn't want it then.
Since I was having a hard time making up my mind and she seemed to just want me to order I told her I would get the Watchstander Stout on Nitro. She eventually gave me the beer and I could tell from looking at it that it didn't look like a typical nitro pour. They told me their nitro was having some issues that day. Anyway, I took a couple sips of the beer and it made me absolutely sick. In fact, I am still very sick to my stomach from the beer and have been sick the whole day from drinking it. The beer tasted like burned rubber and reeked of either rancid malt or some type of bacterial contamination. Of all the breweries I went to in Seattle this is the first brewery of dozens I have tried now where I have had a rancid beer I could not drink and actually made me sick. Well, I told her that I couldn't drink the beer and she did offer to get me another beer which I did appreciate. Instead, I had some apricot sour , but cannot comment on it because my palate was so devastated by the gnarly and funky stout beer. The Apricot Sour wasn't my style, but it didn't taste bad and was actually ok, although I have had better apricot beers, such as the one from Urban Family Brewing.
The only reason I am giving this place 2 stars is that it has a very nice ambiance and definitely seems to promote itself more as a gastropub rather than a pure brewery. The food looked quite decent and smelled good. My review here is strictly for the beer. However, I was not happy with the beer, service and didn't like getting sick from the beer I drank. I probably will not be going back to this brewery as there are so many others in Seattle where I have experienced nothing but exceptional service and very high quality beers.
Hopefully, next time I get to South Seattle I will be happier with the other options in the area. read more