Food & Drink Apr 27, 2011 at 4:00 am

How Georgetown Brewing Company Came to Make the Best Beer in the Universe

Thanks, guy! Kelly O

Comments

1
great story, and I also love manny's :)
2
Alas, if only I could buy bottles of the amber nectar....
3
Manny's is the best beer and I'm so glad MY wife introduced me to it.
God Bless you Chao.
4
Hooray for Manny's! And Manny!
5
A few months ago I was in Seattle for the weekend and staying at a businessman's hotel. Flew in late afternoon, drove in heavy traffic through sideways rain at dusk to the parking garage. I live in a sleepy, trafficless berg and was fairly stressed out by the time I checked in. They let me know that their complimentary dinner was just about to end so I went straight to the dining area where I found a kind gentleman presiding over a tap of FREE Manny's (also there was some kind of pasta bar getting cleaned up, I skipped it). I asked if I could take the beer to the room and he offered me a tray with two extra beers on it. I went up and proceeded to fall in love with Manny's Pale. It was definitely the best beer I'd ever had at that moment.
Throughout the weekend I continued to seek it out and found it wasn't just situational- it's a great beer, for just the reasons described in this article. I like IPAs but I don't need them to hit me over the head with the hops. This is a fantastic, well balanced beer.
6
It's a very nice well balanced beer. It's interesting reading that they were going for an everyman's beer, since I think that's exactly what they achieved. Whenever I'm in Seattle I have as much of it as I can.
7
On top of the delicious beer, Manny is a really nice guy who also happens to be quite hot.
9
You can't beat a cold Manny's. It is the very best!
10
Meh. It's no Mirror Pond.

Now their Nine-Pound Porter, that's another story.
11
I think Manny's is pretty boring. But I'm an IPA guy. If they were trying to go for an everyman beer, they did a good job. It is a safe bet with non-beer-o-philes. For Seattle beers, I still prefer any of the Maritime Pacific 'lighter' brews. But to each their own. I'd love for Georgetown to go a bit further and produce some more interesting brews for more ambitious palates.
12
Hooray for EVERYTHING georgetown makes.
13
Oh, Manny's is OK. Georgetown has many far better beers in their lineup. And I much prefer Maritime Pacific or Schooner Exact.
14
A testament to the power of Manny's - a couple years ago my fiance and I moved to Pullman which was going to be a bit of a shock coming from Seattle. I was having an easier time with the adjustment and really worried whether she was going to make it. Then she found Manny's at the Coug, the iconic campus pub, and everything has been ok ever since.

God bless you Manny's!
15
Not only do they make great beer, but Georgetown also supports lots of great causes around town.
16
for the record, Manny's is the 4th best beer georgetown makes. it's an avg pale ale for the pac NW.
17
Meh.

I sometimes drink Manny's but it does have an aftertaste.

I'd say it's probably the 3rd best.
18
Manny's is awesome. Roger's is even better.
19
You've got to be kidding me.

The best beer in the world doesn't come pressurized out of a keg, that's for sure. It doesn't even come out of the US. Manny's is good beer, to be sure, but it pales (see what I did there?) next to proper Real Ale, as served fresh from gravity taps in pubs in the North of England.

One of the things that kills off American beer is the absurd quest for super strength. Those beers @16 likes? They're freaking 8 percent! By American standards, Manny's, at 5.2%, is very mild, but it's right in the sweet spot of tolerable. American ales also dump in the most flowery hops by the ton, which is a horrible thing to put in beer. Manny's scores high on this scale, too, being very moderately hopped.

But best? Not on the same continent as best.

The best beer in the world is Banks's Mild, now that Cain's has killed their mild ale.

The best beer that's available in the US is still a properly poured pint of Guinness. The Irish know a thing or two about malt as well.
20
Manny's is my mainstay, but if you like the hops, give the Lucille's IPA a try.
21
Note to self: do not read articles extolling the joys of one of your favorite beers while you're pregnant. It's just frustrating.
22
Um, Mannys is a decent beer, but come on.

I do like that Nine-pound Porter quite a bit, though.
23
I love Georgetown Brewery and most of their beers, and I definitely support local and regional businesses, but to call Manny's the "best beer in the world" (even using admittedly subjective hyperbole) is, in my own subjective opinion, just wrong. Manny's is the most ordinary, mediocre, and overrated beer in Seattle. It is the proverbial "Budweiser" of local microbrews. Give me just about any other "pale," let alone a beer with real body and flavor, over Manny's.
24
Manny's is, indeed, awesome.

If only they'd can it. I have to settle for Dale's Pale Ale from Oskar Blues.
25
It's odd that he modeled it after Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, because I think that's a pretty hoppy beer. Way hoppier than Manny's. I think everything SN makes is pretty over-hopped, though, especially their porter. Porter should be caramely with complexity on the malt side, not bitey and hoppy.

While I do consider myself a huge fan of Manny's, one thing I've noticed is a pretty large inconsistency from keg to keg. Sometimes it's real hoppy, other times not, sometimes a bit flat, sometimes over-carbonated. When I drink the first few sips of Manny's, it's only about half the time that I get that "Yep, that's a damn good Manny's" taste. But it's always drinkable.

I don't know if it's just a consequence of a micro brewing process (can they really be considered micro?), inconsistent ingredients, or kegs going flat (how that could happen to a keg of Manny's, I'm not sure), but it's not really something I've noticed with other micros.
26
I like Manny's because it gets my wife drunk.
27
@23 is spot on. Manny's is overrated. The Lucille, Nine Pound, and Rogers is better. I drink Manny's only under duress. Solid marketing, tho
28
Something I appreciate about Manny's: bartenders used to think my order was "a pint of mayonnaise", or once, "a pitcher of mayonnaise." This hasn't happened recently but it happened nearly a half-dozen times in GBC's early days.
I like how it's able to accommodate a lot of different beer preferences. When you want a pitcher for a group that includes a devotee of Rainier tallboys, a stinky-skunky hops lover, 2 people who don't care and a nerd who'd rather be drinking scrumpy, Manny's works.
29
Belgian's are the cilantro of beer.

IPA's are the jalapenos.
30
I love Mayonaise but best beer in the world? lol you're serious too.
31
@19 once again proves he can't hold his beer.

If it isn't 8 percent, you're not doing it right.
32
Fnarf, King of the Arseholes! The Douchiest Douche of Douchmerica! Also, Hater Extraordinaire!
33
Manny's is a good, safe beer, but it's only the best beer ever if your beer palate is still in it's infancy.

And note to Northern England Beer Superiority Guy: while warm, flat, tasteless beer may make you nostalgic, it’s not in the same league as 90% the beer available in this city.
34
Manny's is my favorite beer in teh world. You have inspired me to stop for a growler on the way home tonight.
35
Oh Manny's, how do I love thee? Well, not as much as 9lb Porter, that's for fuckin sure! but we can still get along, right? yeehaw!
36
@33, you mean "alive", not "warm and flat". CAMRA would disagree with you. But you're fine, you stick to your lifeless fizzy stuff.

@32, you got a groovy thing going there with Will in Seattle. Good luck with that.
37
Does anyone know where to get Yuengling in Seattle?
38
@37, no, but Yuengling was my favorite beer when I was in DC many years ago. I recently went back and visited, itching for a Yuengling, only to discover it cannot hold a candle to my favorite beers here, namely Manny's and Mirror Pond
39
redhook esb, shiner bock, and manny's. sorry, if those are your benchmarks you have no place declaring anything the world's best beer. the pacific northwest is FULL of much better beers. they are yours for the sampling. you should really expand your palate (or not, like what you want, cool it with the idiotic declarations).
44
I suppose if I were a bigger beer snob, I wouldn't insist that in order for a beer to be considered "best", it must be actually available for sale in most, though not necessarily all, of the places where I actually buy and drink beer.

So you can fuck right off with whatever beer helped you feel superior when you were ever so recently abroad.

Also, I can't be the only person who gets the splatterpoops from unfiltered beer. Manny's tastes fine, but it isn't worth upsetting my delicate digestion.
45
Shiner Bock is overpriced swill for hipsters who have moved on from PBR.

Manny's is OK but there is that aftertaste. Maritime Pacific, served fresh at the Jolly Roger Tap Room, is fantastic!
46
Unfortunately you can't get Yeungling here. I've looked at every bottle shop in the city - they just don't ship outside their territory.
47
"...throwing itself in our path with ever more regularity and steadily earning a place alongside making out, marijuana, and Melrose Place on the list of Things We Love Together."

Melrose Place? Ah yes, the Bud Light of television viewing.
48
Come on, Fnarf, you can't say the super-strength is an American obsession only. Here in the Netherlands, 5.2 is standard for your regular biertje. Belgian beers tend to be stronger, 10% is not out of the question, but your standard dubbel or blonde will be about 6-8%. And those are beautiful beers.

Personally, I'll take the Belgians over the English. But they have lambics, and Flanders red ales, and those will sway me to anything.
49
Call the Heartland Cafe in W Seattle. They used to carry Yeungling but not sure if they still do.
50
I'd say Manny's is the best gateway beer ever, sure. Start there, enjoy it as you can, and then find yourself a good beer store (like Full Throttle, conveniently also in Georgetown) and explore from there.

Worked for me, anyway. :)
51
If you're not stoked on Georgetown, you're either too much, or not enough.
52
Can't comment on Manny's, as Roger's is the best in the NW. No other beer matters.
53
Well when you compare it to Redhook ESB and Shiner Bock I'm sure it does seem like the best beer in the world, of course you could also say that Transformers 2 is the best film ever made if you've only seen Krull and Breakin 2 Electric Boogaloo.

I mostly like Manny's and a 6$ growler fill is an absurdly good deal but it far from the best beer in the city, region, world.

I'm assuming that you are trolling for comments with that ridiculous declaration, if so nice work.
54
Manny's is always on tap in the Rathskeller at Chez Vel-DuRay.
55
I love Manny's, and several of Georgetown Brewery's other beers are nearly as good. Their growlers are indeed a bargain at $6 but I wish they would custom fill their growlers upon purchase. As it is, the beer in their growlers is flatter than the beer on tap in your local pub because it's been pre-filled and has been sitting around for a while. Still, it is a great deal for the price.

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