These photos were taken Tuesday, October 29 at Bale Breaker Brewing and The Outskirts Brewing Company in Yakima, Washington. While I may suggest that I hit the Pacific Northwest at this time of year for all the fresh hopped brews available, ever since 2018 the real reason is that I want to visit Bale Breaker Brewing.

Bale Breaker Brewing is one of my two “destination breweries” which is a brewery that if I am within 200 miles of it, come hell or high water (or pissed off girlfriend), I am going to do my best to get there. For those wondering, the first brewery that made the cut as a destination brewery for me was 3 Floyds Brewing in Munster, Indiana.

I left Oregon City Tuesday morning for the three hour drive to Yakima, only to discover the section of town I stay in to be under massive construction. It caused a slight delay, but I eventually got to the motel I always stay in. After I got settled in, I headed over to the true reason of my journey, Bale Breaker Brewing.

I was first introduced to Bale Breaker Brewing in 2018 and there is no question, it was love at first taste. I will never forget my first time which was enhanced by the presence of so many Los Angeles area brewers.

What you need to know about Bale Breaker is that it is a brewery built in the middle of a hop farm. During fresh hop season, breweries will brag how they are able to get their hops from the bine to the boil within 24 hours; Bale Breaker has some brews that take five minutes from bine to kettle. I remember El Segundo Brewing’s Rob Croxall commenting about how it was tough to compete with a brewery built on a hop farm.

As this was my fourth visit to Bale Breaker I knew some people by name, but discovered the guy I knew the best was no longer there; but I was told he is doing well, so that’s cool. On this visit I met Joey, my beertender for the day, and a nice guy.

Naturally, I started off with a couple Citra Slicker Wet Hop IPAs, which I definitely needed. As it was early Tuesday afternoon, it was not very crowded, but there were several dogs there, so I was happy.

As I have stated numerous times over this series of articles, my main objective was finding fresh hops Citra IPAs that I could bring home. As I was familiar with Citra Slicker that was definitely a beer I wanted to bring back to California, but apparently I am not the only one that enjoys that brew, because once again, they had sold out of the canned version. Luckily, they sell crowlers and growlers, so I got a crowler and a case of Topcutter and Bottomcutter to bring home. It was a good day.

Since I had not been to Yakima since 2021, I asked Joey what was new in the last couple of years; without hesitation he recommended The Outskirts Brewing Company. Actually, I think I was given two suggestions, but the other one would not be open for two more days.

Bale Breaker Brewing Company is located at 1801 Birchfield Road in Yakima. They are open seven days a week, offer crowlers, growlers and cans to go, and are dog friendly. They may or may not have a food truck, but there are several businesses that will deliver food there; or you can bring your own.

After filling up my coolers and saying my farewells, I headed over to The Outskirts Brewing Company, which conveniently was pretty much right between Bale Breaker and my motel.

Outskirts Brewing opened in May 2023 and is a combination brewery and restaurant; I guess you can call it a brewpub, but when you are in the brewery you kind of need to know that there is a restaurant in the next room as I never even smelled the food.

On the day of my visit, they had eight beers on tap as well as some can pours and wine. I also discovered that the restaurant has a full bar, so if you went into the brewery section to watch the World Series, your friend that doesn’t appreciate beer can order a cocktail from the restaurant.

The restaurant seems to be on the classy side, with steaks, burgers, sandwiches, salads and more available. While I probably should have gotten some food since it was there, I opted for the Canyon Crusher APA and a taster of their No Name Hazy.

The Outskirts Brewing Company is located at 707 Test Drive Lane in Selah, Washington. They are open seven days a week, with the restaurant opening at 11:00 AM and the taproom opening at 4:00 PM Monday through Thursday. I did notice some beers were available in cans to go.

The next morning I woke up to it being 35 degrees out and that was enough for me; I headed back to my friends in Oregon City. I was in Oregon City for about an hour when I decided I would transfer my photos from my camera to my external drive, something I have done literally hundreds of times; this time would be different though.

This time, as I put my cursor over the folder I wanted to upload the photos to, everything disappeared. Over 300,000 photos gone in a flash. It was at this point that I pretty much ended my Craft Beer Tour 2024 as I had zero confidence in my hard drive at this point.

I headed back to Novato a couple days later, then made it home and RECOVERED all my photos thanks to my friend Dave, who definitely relieved a lot of stress for me.

And with that my annual Craft Beer Tour ended. I wanted a month-long journey, but settled for 12; however, my primary goal of bringing lots of fresh hop Citra beer home was met. I will see what happens next year. Cheers!

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