This premier cycling event draws cyclists from all over the region to compete for cash and  liquid prizes as well as some decent biking gear donated by top-of-the line companies.

The course is a knee-crushing, 33-mile ride around Bainbridge Island, but there’s an all-you-can eat chili feed (vegan and meat) at the end so it’s totally worth it. The race is $7 and it will also cost you $8 to ride the ferry to the starting line. Meet at Alaskan and Washington under the Viaduct at 8:30 a.m. (look for riders sporting the home-made, Elvis-themed pirate bibs).

“It’s really about the spirit of cycling and promoting unity within the community,” lied an extremely belligerent and noticeably intoxicated Derrick Ito, FHR Organizer.

“The prize lists includes cash, booze and a ton of great bike schwag from our great sponsors,” Ito said, while trying hard to maintain his balance and hide the fact that he was slurring his words.

Ito has a an expanding prize list that includes a lap dance from a local stripper, liquid prizes from Cafe Metropolitan and a complete Hammerhead 7 bicycle from Dahon. The bicycle will be raffled off with proceeds to benefit a locally-owned bike company.

For more information, visit point83.com.

Fuck the Hills Race Flyer

See you at lunchtime.

The Comet Tavern
922 E Pike St
(206) 322-9272

*But don’t forget to tip your bartenders.

Only two more days until Fremont’s annual Oktoberfest, once hailed by USA Today as one of the top 10 Oktoberfests in the world. Fremont has added some funky additions to the traditional celebration of beer, beer and more beer. While The Stranger’s Microbrew garden will indeed include 70+ beers, the festival will also include musical acts, a 5k run/walk (with a ‘beer-belly’ division!), and the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest, pictured above.

A list of what’s on tap includes Beck’s Oktoberfest, Late Harvest Autumn Ale from Redhook (formerly located very, very close to Oktoberfest’s current location) and Giddy Up! from New Belgium, a coffee/beer concoction. Their schedule of events includes a brand new comedy show, and the pumpkin carving contest will be held at 1:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are on sale now, online or offline for $15 in advance or $20 at the door.

Brewed with 150 lbs. of pumpkin in each batch. Made with Pale, Munich and Crystal malts green and roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin in the mash, boil and fermenter. Bittered with Horizon hops. Spiced in conditioning with nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice.

And with the recent partnership between New Belgium Brewing and Elysian, I can now segue into a sneak preview of New Belgium’s, uh, newest beer: Giddy Up!

As the label states, this is an ale brewed with lemon peel and infused with espresso. (Is the lemon/espresso combo a café romano?) Beer and coffee together?!? What’s not to love? I could not discern the lemon flavor, but the addition of the espresso to the beer was divine. Again, like the Elysian pumpkin ale, the flavor of the infused ingredient was present, but did not distract from the fact that this is a damn good ale on its own.

A beer tasting at Aster

Tonight, at Aster Coffee Lounge in Ballard, you can participate in their most excellent beer tasting. I was lucky enough to attend their last beer and cheese tasting and let me tell you… for $7, it is an incredible value.

You get 5 tastes of beer, and they are generous tastes. Each is at least 2-3 ounces of beer.

Along with the beer, you get cheese samples and at least one chocolate sample. The beer tonight is all from Unibroue.

They will have a live DJ, and of course, their excellent coffee and snacks. The tasting runs from 4pm to 8pm.

Aster Coffee Lounge
5615 24th Ave NW

• Dave’s Market Place 669 Lincoln Ave E, Tenino
• Tacoma Boys, 5602 6th Ave, Tacoma
• West Seattle Thriftway, 4201 SW Morgan Street, Seattle
• Stadium Thriftway, 618 N 1st Street, Tacoma
• Everett Grocery Outlet, 710 SE Everett Mall Way, Everett
• Matthew’s at Lakemont, 4989 Lakemont Blvd. SE, Bellevue
• Blaine Cost Cutter No 489, 1733 H St. #100, Bellevue
• Anacortes Food Pavilion #79, 1519 Commercial Ave., Anacortes
• Metropolitan Market, 1618 SW Dash Point Rd., Federal Way
• Metropolitan Market, 2420 N. Proctor, Tacoma
• Lynnwood Grocery Outlet, 19800 44th Ave W Ste. G, Lynwood
• Vashon Thriftway, 9740 SW Bank Rd., Vashon
• Denny’s Harvest Foods, 215 E SR 902, Medical Lake
• Cowiche Harvest Foods, 16850 Summitview Rd., Cowiche
• Dayton Mercantile, 516 W. Main St., Dayton

In addition to the independent grocery stores, a number of national stores will also be participating. Those stores include:

• Safeway (Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Kirkland, Sammamish, Maple Valley, Wenatchee, and Spokane)
• QFC (U-dist, Bellevue, Broadway, and Redmond)
• Fred Meyer in Port Orchard

2 ounces of wine

In particular, there seems to be some (a lot of) complaint about the fact that samples need to be two ounces or less and a single person can’t drink more than four ounces in a single visit.

As a point of reference, here’s a 2 ounce wine pour. 4 ounces of wine isn’t a lot, but really… IT’S A TASTING! You’re not supposed to go to a wine tasting to get sloshed. You’re supposed to go to a wine tasting to TASTE WINE!

I won’t go on a rant about the WSLCB’s policies here, though feel free to do so in the comments. For now, I’m just disappointed that none of my local stores were selected for the pilot program.