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Before we did our brewery walking tour in Ballard, Bad Jimmy’s was actually the first brewery we visited during our recent trip to Seattle. It’s not quite in the cluster of breweries in Ballard but it’s close to that area.

The Beers

Here they have a list of Year Round beers and a list of Seasonals. It’s $9 for a flight of Year Round or Seasonals, or $10 to mix them up (stout costs extra $2), or simply $2.50 for a 5oz taster. So naturally, wanting to try more, we ordered a flight off each list.

We had:

• Year Round – Blood Orange Honey Wheat, Whale Tail Pale Ale, Habanero Amber Ale, Cocoa Vanilla Porter
• Seasonal – Wildberry Gose, Carrot Cake Rye, Bourbon Oak Aged Milk Stout, and Nutter Butter Brown

As you can see from the names, Bad Jimmy’s makes some interesting beers. I was quite looking forward to trying the Blood Orange Honey Wheat but it didn’t have the blood orange flavour that I was looking for. There was some sweet citrus note but it didn’t strike me as blood orange.

The Habanero Amber Ale was such a pleasant surprise! At first sip, the heat didn’t come through until the end. Then it just lingered. But it’s just the right amount of heat so you know it’s there. It didn’t burn and it went well with our takeout from Ezell’s.

Another good one was the Nutter Butter Brown. It tasted like diluted (in a good way) nut butter mixed with hoppy note. Super nutty and delicious!

I was also looking forward to trying the Carrot Cake Rye. It did have the spices and sweetness that reminded me of a carrot cake but the flavour of a rye ale seemed to have gotten lost for me.

The Whale Tail Pale Ale was not bad, so were the Porter and Stout.

Food

Bad Jimmy’s has a “Bring Your Own Food” policy. There are two restaurants literally next door so you can grab a bite there. Or if you were like us, bring over some Ezell’s fried chicken. They do have some self-served tortilla chips if you just want some snacks to go with your beers.

Final Thoughts

Overall, interesting concept of beers but not all had hit home for us. We did enjoy the patio space on a warm spring evening. If they have different seasonal beers in rotation, I wouldn’t mind going back again next time around and build my own flight.

Bad Jimmy’s Brewing Co.
4358 B Leary Way NW, Seattle
badjimmysbrewingco.com