STEVE DUNKELBERGER: 99 BOTTLES >>>

99 Bottles owners Craig and Tiffany Adamowski loved checking out new beers, and they liked doing it so much they have decided to stake their lives on it by opening the beer store in Federal Way in January of 2007.

“Life is too short to choose a favorite brew! When playing croquet, Craig tends to drink Pete’s Strawberry or Moosehead. Lately, he’s been expanding into some of the sweet stouts and nearly all of the labels from Dick’s Brewing Co. He also likes Fish Tale Old Woody.

There’s also a brew from England’s Black Sheep Brewery called ‘Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale’ â€" Every time I see it, I think ‘’tis only a flesh wound!’ and ‘You’ve been banging two coconuts together’ and ‘We are the knights who say ‘NI!’“

Besides the weird sounding beers, there are the weird tasting ones, like the tequila flavored beers that have been cropping up.

“Seems like a waste of beer to flavor it with tequila ... but then, I’m not much of a tequila fan,” Tiffany says. “The French beer Belzebuth scares me ... I think that’s because of the fluorescent orange ‘13 percent’ on the neck (denoting its higher-than average alcohol content).”

Tiffany gives these tips to customers to show how much they care for beer. First off, the store has ultraviolet lights since direct light shortens the life of beer and deadens its flavor. UV lights slow that process. Second, nearly all beers on the shelves are cellar-able, so beer connoisseurs can place them directly into their beer cellars. In fact, 99 Bottles offers many Belgians and barley wines that improve with age/cellaring.

“It’s amazing that the world’s best wines sell for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars ... while the world’s best beers sell for around $20 (wine-size bottle) and improve with cellaring,” Tiffany says. “We are also excited to see that area restaurants and brewpubs are effectively pairing food with different types of beer.”

The Deschutes Black Butte XX just arrived at 99 Bottles. The imperial porter marks the 20th anniversary of the initial release of the original Black Butte Porter.

[99 Bottles, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, 35002 Pacific Highway S., A102, Federal Way, 253.838.2558]