Georgetown Brewing’s Shelly’s Leg IPA launch supports Seattle Pride causes

Georgetown Brewing is shutting its taproom at 4 p.m. and reopening an hour later for Love On Tap, a 21-plus ticketed launch built around Shelly’s Leg IPA and timed to kick off Pride Month. The event is set for May 31 at the Georgetown Brewing taproom, runs from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and costs $35, with general admission including venue access, a drag show and drink tickets.

The night is more than a beer release. Georgetown Brewing says Love On Tap will feature the Bacon Strip Drag Show hosted by Sylvia O’Stayformore, while additional proceeds from Shelly’s Leg will benefit Lavender Rights Project, which provides social and legal advocacy for Black gender-diverse people across Washington State. Seattle Pride’s listing says 100% of ticket and beer sales benefit The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and The Abbey of St. Joan, giving the event a direct fundraising edge that matches its Pride-month timing.

The beer’s name reaches back into Seattle nightlife history. Shelly’s Leg was Seattle’s first disco and an openly gay establishment, operating from 1973 to about 1977 or 1978. HistoryLink says the club was named for Shelly Bauman, who lost a leg after a parade mishap in Pioneer Square and later helped fund the nightclub with settlement money. It opened at 77 S. Main Street, and HistoryLink Tours notes the sign above the bar made its stance unmistakable: “Shelly’s Leg is a GAY BAR provided for Seattle’s gay community and their guests.” OutHistory adds that the club opened in December 1973 and drew lines that reportedly stretched around the block.

Georgetown’s current Shelly’s Leg IPA carries that legacy into a modern taproom format. The brewery describes it as a juicy, lightly hazy IPA at 6.5% ABV, dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic and Krush, with mango, passionfruit and guava notes. That pairing of a fresh release with a specific piece of Seattle queer history is what gives Love On Tap its weight. It turns the taproom into a place for beer, performance and memory all at once, with Pride fundraising doing the rest of the work.