{"id":351041,"date":"2025-12-19T08:51:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/reflecting-on-an-eventful-year\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T08:51:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:51:47","slug":"reflecting-on-an-eventful-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=351041","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on an Eventful Year"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The stories that generated the most web traffic <\/h2>\n

I published nearly 400 stories on the Washington Beer Blog in 2025. Below, I share our top ten most-visited, most-viewed stories of the year based on web traffic. The list does not include stories published before 2025, though some of those stories still get a lot of attention, and some of this year\u2019s stories relate to last year.\u00a0Interested in how we do, and do not, track traffic here on our website? The amount of traffic might surprise you. Read this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Top 10 Stories of 2025<\/h3>\n

10) Beers at the Ballpark<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s not the first time this annual guide to beers at T-Mobile Park has landed near the top of the list. There was a time, say a decade ago, when the ballpark got a bit silly. Barrel-aged imperial stout on tap at a Seattle Mariners game? Even a beer geek like me thought that was ridiculous. Nowadays, it\u2019s more about value than choice. We\u2019ll be back next season, providing you with this critical information, and we all hope the Mariners have another successful season. If nothing else, good baseball sells a lot of beer.<\/p>\n

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A thing of the past. The ballpark\u2019s cask-beer station is long gone.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

9) Lowlander Brewing Opens in Seattle<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 This story dropped late in the year, on December 13th, and still managed to make the top 10. Local celebrity chef Renee Erickson and her restaurant group opened three adjacent restaurants in Pioneer Square, near the stadiums. One of them is a brewery and taproom: Lowlander Brewing. Renee Erickson is a James Beard Award winner. Just as crucial to beer geeks, Josh Waldman is a well-known brewer in this town (Cloudburst Brewing, Georgetown Brewing, Elysian Brewing), and he\u2019s the one making the beer at Lowlander Brewing. A brewery in the former home of Seattle\u2019s legendary RX McRory\u2019s? All is right with the world.<\/p>\n

\"Street
Are you familiar with the painting \u2018Nighthawks<\/a>\u2018 by Edward Hopper?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

8) Beach Cat Brewing Opens in Bellingham<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 The brewery opened its first location in Birch Bay, Washington, at a most challenging time: 2020, during the pandemic. In 2025, it opened its second location, a beautiful new brewery and taproom on the waterfront in Bellingham. Not just a lovely bay-side taproom, with an expansive deck, but a whole new, bigger brewery. The latest word is they\u2019ve started distributing beer in the Seattle area. Good stuff. Look for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Picnic
Just fabulous!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7) Kelce Brothers Beer Realizes 500% Growth<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 When the original story broke in 2024, a lot of people saw Garage Beer for precisely what it was: a beer built on star power, but not necessarily beer power. Like a bolt from the blue, Garage Beer swept across the nation, primarily fueled by a distribution agreement wth Molson Coors. Garage Beer still meets the Brewers Association definition of \u201ccraft.\u201d It is mainly brewed by City Brewing in Tennessee and Founders Brewing in Michigan. Its widespread distribution and the Kelce\u2019s starpower explain why it realized 500% growth in the first half of 2025. We\u2019ll see how long it lasts.<\/p>\n

\"Jason
Not a bad gig if you can get it.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

6) 2025 WA Beer Awards Winners Announced<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 It makes me happy that this story got so much attention. The mission of the Washington Beer Blog is to promote Washington beer and the breweries that make it, so it\u2019s comforting to know that we are achieving our goal. The annual award ceremony is an absolute blast, and this year it included the induction of the inaugural class into the recently formed Washington Brewers Guild Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Happy
Another fun night, rewarding a lot of great beer.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

5) Rogue Brewery Closes<\/a> <\/strong>and 2) Rogue Brewery Files Bankruptcy<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Two stories, both in the top five. The first story was about the abrupt closure of all Rogue Brewery facilities: the brewery in Newport, OR, and the various pubs. The second story explained the first. Massive debt, a potentially crippling lawsuit. Not good. It all came down just before Thanksgiving. This story received significant national attention, even from some mainstream media outlets. It\u2019s bad enough for a legacy brewery to go down, but the way this happened is just unfortunate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4) Scuttlebutt Brewing and The Big Dumper<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Talk about good timing, this story broke mid-season when Seattle Mariners All-Star catcher and Homerun Derby champion, Cal Raleigh, was the top story in all of baseball. His historic season, putting up numbers never before seen, captured the attention of much of the nation and all of the Pacific Northwest. Presumably, Cal and Scuttlebutt Brewing hatched this plan long before the hoopla ensued. This was just one part of the 2025 Mariners magic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two
\u201cDumper\u201d usually has a negative connotation when used to describe beer, but\u2026<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3) Pike Brewing Closes its Historic Pub at Pike Place Market<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 It was an unceremonious end to a story more than three decades in the making. On the surface, it was sad, even for casual observers. Below the surface, for those of us familiar with the larger story into which this closing fit, it was also unhappy. For us, it was less surprising and almost seemed inevitable. Of course, I say that now with the benefit of hindsight. Nobody wanted to see this happen. Nobody. But reality is what it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Interior
The pub is now permanently empty. Memorabilia is gone.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

1) What You Don\u2019t Know About Non-Alcoholic Beer<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 The fact that this was our most-read story of the year speaks volumes. It attracted a lot of eyeballs from outside the Northwest. Right now, \u201cnon-alcoholic beer\u201d is a very popular search term on Google. In case you haven\u2019t realized it yet, or have been sleeping under a rock, NA beer is a big deal these days. My story focused on how it\u2019s made. A lot of people drink it, but apparently, many also want to know about the science behind NA beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Year Ahead<\/h3>\n

As we face 2026, I will make some predictions. In the coming year, I will tell more stories about long-beloved breweries closing and about new breweries opening. The industry will continue to face headwinds, and I will tell stories about breweries that defy the odds and find ways to charge forward. The Mariners will make another playoff charge and win the World Series this time. I am less sure about that last one, but we can dream.<\/p>\n

About This Stuff<\/h3>\n

All of the stories we publish are indexed by Google, and we use Google Analytics to track traffic to washingtonbeerblog.com. No, we do not use cookies or anything else to retain any information about you. We just know that someone paid us a visit and what they looked at. In 2025, the website attracted 1.7 million hits. Google Analytics calls it a page_view\u2014an event triggered when a user loads a page on the website. The site attracted about 600,000 active users<\/em> \u2014another Google term that basically means unique visitors. In other words, the list of most-read stories is legit\u2014a good sampling of what mattered to people. <\/p>\n

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