this is my beer blog.

Smoked Flemish Beef Stew

2011-07-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy for the last few weeks with pretty much every aspect of my life. There's been a lot of work, and stress, and change; and yesterday, in the midst of a move, I decided to take some time to unwind while doing something I love: cooking with beer! What follows is the best recipe I've come up with for Carbonnades Flamandes yet. What makes this one really stand out is that I smoked the meat prior to continuing with the rest of the recipe. It gives it a great red color, and adds a ton of flavor that melds well with the rest of the dish.

For this recipe, I rounded up the following:

2.5 pound cubed stew meat

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of course fresh ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of onion powder

2 tablespoon peanut oil

2 tablespoons butter

3 large onions chopped

2 cloves of garlic crushed

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons dried parsley

.5 teaspoon dried thyme

750ml bottle of strong belgian dark ale

1 container of beef stock

a splash of acidic flanders red or oud bruin

To start, mix the flour, salt, pepper, and onion powder in a dish. You're going to use this mixture to coat the beef before you cook it. If your meat chunks are large, this quantity should be sufficient to coat them, if you have smaller pieces at this weight, you may need to prepare some extra to deal with the extra surface area.

Once you've got the meat coated, it's time to start warming up the grill. I used natural lump charcoal. For smoke, you can use chunks or chips for this recipe. If you use chips, soak them really well before you put them on the coals, you don't want a big explosion of acrid smoke all at once, you want a slow smolder. You can soak the chips with whatever you want. I soaked mine with beer!

When the grill is good and ready, and the chips have just started to smoke, place a grill safe, non-stick performated grill pan on the grate, and arrange the meat chunks on top. Close the lid and let the smoke start penetrating the meat. After a few minutes, you'll need to start flipping the chunks. At first, as the fat begins to render out of the meat, the flour and spices will look a bit transparent and sticky, this is fine.

You'll know you're done with the grill when the meat has taken on a deep red color from the smoke, with a bit of deep brown where the meat crisped a bit. When this happens, it's time to bring your smoked stew meat inside to throw in a large pan, heated to medium high heat with the 2 tablespoons of oil and butter. A lot of people use bacon in this recipe, but the first thing you'll notice when the meat hits the pan is that it already has a rich bacony aroma, so there's no need. Continue to cook in the pan until the meat takes on a deeper color. At this point, you're ready to add the onions, garlic, brown sugar, parsley, and thyme. Continue to stir the mixture until the onions have begun to soften.

At this point, you're ready to pop open that beer. The first thing you want to do is pour half into a glass. That's for you!

Next, take the remaining beer and pour it into the pan with your beef and onions.

From here, open up the beef stock, and pour enough in to cover the meat completely.

Cover the pan, turn the heat to low, and let this simmer for an hour and a half. This is a good time to empty the glass of beer you poured.

When the meat is tender, splash in the flanders red or oud bruin to taste. You're trying to give the stew a nice acidity and bite that cuts through the rich sauce.

That's it, Bon appetit!

Fred Fest 2011

2011-05-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

This past week Fred Eckhardt turned 85, and the annual traditional of helping him celebrate with a very special beer festival at Hair of the Dog took place once again at the brewery. Fred Fest is one of my favorite festivals of the year for so many reasons. The rarity of some of the beers, the intimate feel, the food, the raffle, the great crowd, and above all - the wonderful hospitality that Alan and the rest of the Hair of the Dog crew show make it a can't miss event on my calender.

This year, when I arrived at the brewery I was about 60 or 70 people back in line, despite being half an hour early. By the time the event began, it looked like all 300 ticket holders had joined us in the wait for the doors to open. I thought it was a little silly to wait in line for an event that was only open to so many people, but it proved to have been worth it. After getting in and buying my raffle tickets, I immediately made my way to the keg of 1998 Boilermaker from full sail - a beer that ran out before the last ticket holders in the line made it through the door. Let me say this: 13 years later, this beer is fantastic, and I bet it will continue to age gracefully for many years to come; a fantastic example of how much time can do for the right beer.

With all the chaos of opening the new location out the way this year, things at the fest ran a lot smoother than in the past. It was evident that a lot of time and energy was spent to make this year one of the best yet. The food was ready from the opening and there was plenty for everyone. Bottled water was available all over the brewery in plentiful quantities. The snacks were abundant and delicious. The taps were well manned, and the lines were always short-to-nonexistent, even for some most sought after beers.

Once again, the entire building was open to the fest-goers, which offered a nice glimpse into the operations of the brewery, and some of the projects that were in the works. I always love checking out the barrel aging area to try to get a picture of some of the future beer releases. This year I spotted another batch of Michael, Fred Flanders, Matt, Adam from the wood, and Bourbon Fred from the wood, as well as many other barrels just marked with cryptic symbols I couldn't decipher. In addition to the aging beers, I noted that the brewery picked up brand new fresh oak barrels to work with. I've only previously seen used wine and spirit barrels in my visits to Hair of the Dog, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of the fresh oak barrels in the future.

Once the crowd had all filtered it into the brewery, had a chance to eat, and quenched their thirsts, cupcakes were handed to each of the attendees, topped with chocolate mustaches reminiscent of Fred's famous whiskers. With cupcakes in hand, we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Fred, which was followed by a couple rounds of "For he's a jolly-good fellow". If my 85th birthday is a tenth as festive and attended as Fred's, it would be an amazing thing.

In addition to the Boilermaker, I made my way through the following beers over the course of the evening:

Bend Deconstructionater
Cascade Fredtastic
Deschutes Sour Saison
Double Mountain Fine Pimpin'
Hair of the Dog Peach Fred
Hopworks Kronan the Bourbarian
Laurelwood Mexican Mocha Ale
Lucky Lab Port aged Brown Ale
Midnight Sun Arctic Devil
New Old Lompoc Franc'ly Brewdolph
Prodigal Sun Neuer Morgan

Of those, there were some "hits", some "mehs", and a "miss" or two. For the hits, the Deschutes Sour Saison was near the top for me. I had heard from several people that the original keg that was on for Deschutes turned out to be the wrong one. I feel sorry for those that tried that keg and didn't revisit the tap after things were corrected. Since the original release of Dissident, Deschutes hasn't been able to impress me with a sour offering until now, and I'd go as far as saying the version I tried this weekend was their best effort altogether. Looking over some of the reviews on ratebeer, it seems like not everyone agrees, but I'll stick by my statement. Hopefully their ratings are based on the right beer at least.

Peach Fred really surprised me. I first tried it at the Matt release, and while it was better than Apricot Fred, it was still just... not that good then. With 6 more months of age on it, I'd say it's just starting to come around. Gone were the chunks from the first release. The sharp edges were rounded out, and the flavors were smoother and less hot then in the past. It was difficult for me to pick the "fred" notes out of it, but it was a delicious version none-the-less. I hope Alan has more of this stashed away somewhere to serve in another year or two.

I don't have much to say about my other top picks, as I've had them all before: Hopworks Kronan the Bourbarian is a great bourbon barrel aged baltic porter that I can never pass up. Midnight Sun Arctic Devil is one of my favorite english style barley wines of all time.

The biggest miss of the event for me was Cascade's Fredtastic. Yikes! "Aged in chardonnay barrels w/ dried Adriatic white figs and Spanish lemon peel", this one brought back unpleasant memories of Apricot Fred from six months ago... throat melting acetone. Oh well, you can't win them all, and there's no love lost between me and Cascade from this experiment.

For the second year in a row, I was successful in the raffle. My first winning ticket yielded a bottle of the 2009 Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head collaboration, Life and Limb. My second ticket awarded me with a series of every Fred Fest tasting glass made - filling in some gaps from the years I've missed.

Another year, another great event. I can't wait til celebrate Fred's 86th.

Jeff's Beer Can Chicken recipe.

2011-04-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

I've received a couple of complaints about my posting frequency lately. What follows is what happens when I post just for the sake of providing content, and not because I'm particularly inspired to write about something.

In other words, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

Today's entry is a recipe I just developed for cooking with beer that I found to be worth repeating and recommending. Basically, there's little to this recipe that's original or unique, other than maybe the combination in which the techniques were employed, but it's damn good chicken.

Jeff's take on Beer Can Chicken:

To do this right, you're going to need a charcoal grill. I like my old weber kettle, but any decent grill should work for this one. Also, for fuel you need to use natural lump charcoal. No one likes the chemical taste of briquettes man. I like to kick up the smoke on any grill recipe. If that's up your alley, grab a chunk or two of your favorite hardwood before you start too. Chunks, not chips.

First, you need to mix up the dry rub. The recipe for the rub is way more than you'll need, so have a good airtight container ready to store the rest for future use. My recipe is based on Hugh's Dry Rub Recipe, with minimal additions or substitutions. Here's mine:

1/2 cup paprika
3 tablespoons cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons ancho powder
5 tablespoons ground black pepper
6 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
6 tablespoons salt
5 tablespoons dried ground mexican oregano

With the exception of maybe one or two things on this list, you could probably whip it up with stuff you already have laying around your spice cabinet. If you do need to buy anything, my advice is this: Don't cut corners on your paprika. Maybe it's the Hungarian in me, but the range in quality of the paprika out there is huge. Also, freshness matters a lot, so it's best not to just use that little red and white tin from the back of your pantry that only comes out once a year to garnish deviled eggs. This is the main ingredient of the rub, you don't want to start off on the wrong foot. Check out European specialty stores for the good stuff. I've had some luck at Edelweiss here in Portland. I also added ancho powder to the list, it's another ground dried chili (poblano) that has a flavor distinct from cayenne or paprika blends. It's tasty. I omitted thyme from Hugh's recipe, and doubled the oregano to make up for it. I also made sure to specify Mexican oregano. It tastes a lot different, and I think the difference works a lot better with grilled meats. Anyway, that's that. Just mix it all together real good and store it somewhere cool and dry.

For the birds, there's really minimal prep other than the dry rub. Pull out the giblets, rinse em off in cool water, pat them dry with a towel (the chickens, I don't care what you do with the giblets). The only extra step I recommend before applying the rub is to peel a bunch of cloves of garlic, and insert them under the skin of the bird over all the best pieces of meat. I put a couple over each breast, as well as some in the thigh and drum areas. Once the chickens are looking nice and lumpy, apply a nice thin coating of peanut oil all over the inside and outside of the chicken. It will give it a delicious golden skin, and it lets the dry rub stick. Now that you've greased up your bird, you're going to want to apply the rub. Don't roll the chickens in it. It will be way too much. Apply a bit here and there and just rub it in, making sure not to miss any nooks or crannies. Do the inside surfaces of the bird too, if for no other reason, then because it's fun to wear your food like a puppet once in a while. After this step, wrap the chicken(s) in saran wrap or tightly seal in a ziplock with the air pushed out. Refrigerate for at least an hour or two to get the flavor to penetrate.

Now the fun part, and the only reason this post is even remotely appropriate for a beer blog: you need one half empty can of beer for each chicken you're cooking. To be honest, it doesn't seem to matter too much what kind of beer you're using, so I suggest something that's good enough to drink, but not too expensive to waste half a can of inside a chicken's ass. I used Dales Pale ale from Oskar Blues. I don't think it's the best Pale Ale in a can, but it was on sale for a couple bucks less than Caldera. Now a lot of guys will tell you to slide the chicken down on the can and you're done. I like going a step further. Get a bullion cube, crush it up, and stick that in the can with the beer first. The idea is that the grill will get the temperature in the can hot enough to start boiling the liquid, which will steam the chicken from the inside, as well as flavor it a bit.

Once the chicken is properly flavored by the rub, get your charcoal ready. Don't use lighter fluid, this isn't amateur hour. I like using a charcoal chimney. Once you use it a few times, it actually pays for itself in lighter fluid savings, it gets the coals evenly heated and ready to cook with fast, it wont make your food taste like ass, and (to date) we've never sent our troops overseas to secure charcoal chimneys. Once your coals are ready to cook with, lay them out for cooking with indirect heat. On the kettle, it's traditional to lay them all out on one side and place the meat on the other, but I do a little ring around the perimeter, it makes sure all the sides are getting exposed to similar heat.

While you're doing all that, you're going to want to soak your hardwood chunks in water (or beer?) for about half an hour. You want them to smolder, not burn. After half an hour, let them dry just a bit. You don't want to extinguish the coals with a dripping chunk of wood, that would be stupid.

You can prop the chickens up two ways. The tradition way is to make a tripod between the legs and the can. This works, and I did it with one of the chickens in the photo, but you have to be careful with birds cooked in this manner. If they fall over, beer spills all over, and it's a huge mess. The other option is a little stand that you can get at any place that sells BBQ equipment. It holds a beer can, and provides a wide base to support the chicken. You can see the stand under the other bird in the photo. I would have used the stand for both chickens, but I only have one, so I made do.

Position the chicken in the center of the grill away from coals, take one or two chunks of soaked wood and lay them on the coals, and shut the lid. Don't peak for at least an hour unless either of the following happens: the smoke escaping from the grill is thick and white instead of thin and blue, OR there is no smoke coming out of the grill (assuming you're trying to get some smoke flavor in there). If there's too much smoke, it's not going to taste right, and it's indicative of the wood chunk igniting instead of smoldering. If that's the case, move it away from the coals, spritz a little water on it, and soak it better next time. If there's no smoke, you might have to add another wood chunk because your first one burnt out, or maybe it was too wet or had insufficient contact with the coals to start smoldering.

A four pound chicken should probably take at least an hour and fifteen minutes. A bigger bird will take closer to an hour and a half or more. What you'll find though is that it's hard to overcook a chicken using this method, so it's safe to err on the side of "well done". To be sure it's done, stick a quick read thermometer in the breast (160 degrees), and the thigh (180 degrees). Once you hit those targets, you're good to go, regardless of how long it took you to get there.

Let the chicken rest away from the heat for ten minutes, and dig in!

PROTIP: This last time, I made an extra chicken. The next day, I pulled all the meat off, piled it in a pot with some more Dales Pale ale and some salsa, and simmered it up to serving temp. This is the stuff that the burritos of your dreams are made of.

Spring has sprung

2011-04-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

It seems like it's been months since the breweries started rolling our their spring seasonals, but the first signs of the season are only just popping up in my yard. I just noticed these new hop shoots protruding from one of my crowns. A close inspection of the rest showed things were beginning to happen for all them so far except my fuggles. This particular plant was the most prolific last year, and is showing way more activity so far this year as well.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about them this year. I'm probably not going to be living here for much more than another month or two. Should I leave them for the next owners? Should I dig the first few feet of each up and plant them somewhere else?

Genever and fun with yahoo babel fish.

2011-04-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

With all this talk about Genever and kopstootje floating around on the blogs as of late, a new light was shone on this relic I found while packing up the beer cave today. With my curiosity piqued, I decided to record a few photos and decipher the label before it's lost in a sea of boxes indefinitely.

For those too lazy to click on a link, genever is a Dutch infused liquor that is sometimes served with a beer back in a ritual called "kopstootje" (little head butt). While infused with botanicals similar to gin, what sets genever apart is the blend of distillates that replace a good portion of the neutral base spirits in gin.

Anyway, this old bottle of J.H. Henkes Oude Genever in my possession has a bit of copy on its label, some of which I understand from my knowledge of beer, but most of which I don't. I thought it would be interesting to see how the company described their liquor, so I ran it through Yahoo! Babel Fish to see how it might be translated. It's not the smartest translator, and the results are always questionable, but hey, it's free!

Here's what Yahoo! has to say, without any interpretation from me:

Old Genever, from grains stoked double persuaded.

Authenticity is possible... [hole in label] ...guaranteed if capsule is cork intact is and the fire mark stigmatising brandmerk henkes... [too faded to decipher].

Boooooring!

I was hoping for a beer recommendation for kopstootje or something.

Anyway, it's a neat old bottle.

The Man Cave Book.

2011-04-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago, I got an email from a guy named Jeff Wilser who was writing a book about "man caves". He wanted to interview me about my beer cave, and asked for a few photos to use in the book. I answered a round of questions, and several follow-ups, submitted photos, took and submitted additional photos by request, and then ultimately forgot all about it until today.

I vaguely recalled the planned release date to be sometime this month, so I looked into it, and sure enough, it's set to be released April 19th. I have no idea what, if anything, from the interviews and submissions of mine made it past the editors for inclusion into the final print version, but it would be neat to see it immortalized in a book.

Anyway, for anyone who might be interested in seeing the lengths that some men go to create a comfortable place to retreat to with their buddies, this book should be pretty sweet. I know I take pride in the time I put into my place, and all the great old beer stuff I've collected, but it's amateur hour at my house compared to some of the stuff I've seen from my more financially-fortunate brother "cave men".

Currently, the book is available for about 50% off if you pre-order it on Amazon.

(Here's a photo of the cave I built.)

Sadly, there's another part of this story. Circumstances have brought an end to the tenancy of my beer collection in the garage in which it currently resides. Over the next few days, everything is getting boxed up, and I'll be on the hunt for a new place to set up shop. It's the end of an era, but like the phoenix, I have faith that it will rise from the ashes bigger and better than ever before.

EDIT: Jeff Wilser saw a tweet I made about this post, and retweeted it saying "Yep, your garage made it. Congrats." So there you have it!

EDIT 2: Just received this:

I could get into religion.

2011-04-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

For Lent, can man live by brew alone?

"For the 46 days of Lent, J. Wilson is forgoing solid food and only drinking beer and water - just as Bavarian monks did hundreds of years ago."

an artist's intentions

2011-03-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

(this years four play label, released 3-20-11)

Please read this post after reading this one and then this one. I was alerted to the second one this morning while I was laying in bed and my phone send me an alert that someone had mentioned me on twitter. The tweet said the second posting was for me!

As you can see, there was quite a bit of controversy over this years label design for upright's annual release of four play. There were some that saw no problem with it, some that thought it objectified women, and finally some like me, who had no problem with it except in thinking that it might have been a misstep from a branding perspective because of the group that might have been offended by it.

While I had plenty to say about the branding aspect, I could see all sides of the issues, and the label wasn't going to keep me from trying to buy a few bottles, so I thought I was pretty much done with the issue. Besides, I've met Ezra a few times and he's a nice guy, and he even did me a big favor in helping me procure a bottle of beer I would have otherwise had no chance of obtaining, so I didn't want to get into it too much.

But then something happened that I just can't ignore. Ezra lives in my neighborhood (I know because of the time I went to his house to grab that beer!) and while on my way to the Hawthorne Hophouse, between his place and the bar, I found a little flash drive on the sidewalk. I picked it up. It didn't have a name or any contact info on it, so I thought I'd see if I could figure out who the owner was by looking at the files on the drive.

There was only one folder: "rejected upright labels", and it contained the following BOMBSHELL, which seems to confirm some of Beervana's reader's suspicions about where Ezra's mind is at when he's making these labels! He even changed the government warnings, I'm not sure how they would have felt about that! Click to see it bigger.

(I guess we know why this one never made it to bottles)

I kid, I kid!

St. Patricks Day 2011 and 98 yr old beer.

2011-03-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

It's St. Patrick's Day again, and although I'm not aware of having any Irish ancestry, they say we're all a little Irish today. Last year was my first real St. Patrick's Day celebration. I didn't do much, but I did buy some O'hara's stouts, and made a corned beef and cabbage for a few friends. Always looking to one-up myself, I decided to take things a little more serious this time around.

It started about three weeks ago, when I decided that a store bought corned beef wasn't going to do it for me this time around. I looked up several recipes online, and settled on this one. I also followed the advice in the comments to double the pickling spices. For the last 22 days, a 6.5 pound brisket has been sitting in a big crock in the back of the fridge, monopolizing valuable space while it cured.

This morning I cut about 2 pounds off the home cured corned beef brisket, and with additional spices and sauce, began smoking it to make a beef bacon/pastrami hybrid in the backyard. The remaining 4.5 pounds went into a crock pot to become this corned beef and cabbage recipe. I made a few changes though. Instead of water, I used a mix of Guinness, apple juice, and water. I also left out the potatoes, because I'm making a delicious colcannon on the side. For the colcannon, I'm using Kale instead of cabbage since we'll already have cabbage with the corned beef, and instead of using ham or bacon, I'm using the smoked spiced home made corned beef in it's place.

I'm pretty stocked up on Murphy's and a few varieties of Guinness, and some friends have pledged to bring over other beers and Irish whiskey.

For entertainment, I've got If I should fall from Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story, Waking Ned Devine, all six Leprechaun movies, and several hours worth of Irish drinking songs.

Finally, the day reminded me of the oldest full bottle of beer that I currently own, which I pulled off the shelf and took a few pictures of to commemorate the day. Here are some pictures of my 98 year old 1913 bottle of guinness foreign stout.

Home made Cherry Cyser

2011-03-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

Toward the end of 2009, I got really into making home made mead and ciders. Since I was new to it at the time, I started making up recipes to test in 1 gallon batches. Some were pretty good after just a few months, some were just bad, and the jury was out on a few of the rest, which I saved to see how much some time in the bottle could do for them.

After I dropped my wife off at work today, and started working on our dinner for the night, I felt "the thirst" creep in, and decided to see what I had in the cellar. While I was digging through bottles of beer that I wasn't ready to get into just yet, I came across a couple swing tops with sticky notes indicating their contents toward the back of one of the shelves.

I didn't take any serious notes, gravity measurements, or anything else that a serious brewer would take, but I did write down the ingredients in case something ended up tasting worth making again. The particular bottle I ended up with in hand said only the following:

2# Honey
1 qt. Cherry Cider
2 tbls. Raisins
Fill with Apple Cider

While I'm reluctant to admit this, the yeast I used was ordinary red star baking yeast from the grocery store, which made every ingredient in the whole creation available at fred meyer. The apple cider was unpasteurized and organic, so I suppose there might have been some wild yeast riding in on that too, but who knows what was doing the work here. I do vaguely recall trying this creation after about 3 months, and thinking to myself "yuck, this is SWEET!", which is why I was ecstatic when I tried it again just now, about 12 months later. This stuff is GOOD. I've been dabbling in store bought ciders and mead on and off since I started this experiment, and while I've found a few that I really enjoy, it seems like most miss the mark for me. This one would be a frequent purchase.

Sometime in the next month or so, I plan on making this one again in a 5 gallon batch. I'd like to take a few readings before I start so I can know a little more about what it is that I have this time around. I have no idea how much alcohol this batch contains for instance (although I'm one glass in and feeling pretty.. "loose" as I write this). Regardless of what the numbers say, if I can do a repeat performance of this beverage in greater quantities, 2013 will be a good year.

2011 Lucky Lab Barleywine & Big Beer fest

2011-03-06T09:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Lucky Lab for their annual Barleywine and Big Beer Festival. My friends and I walked out to the fest in the morning to beat the crowds and be there by the time the doors opened. I spent a long time at the fest last year, but list year there were fewer beers available (at least during the time we were around) that I really wanted to try, so I kept my list small and focused, and we were in and out before there were any lines. The beers I sampled this year were:

2007 Lucky Lab Old Yeller
2009 Lucky Lab Son of Old Yeller
2007 Anchor Old Foghorn
2009 Ninkasi Critical Hit
2009 North Coast Old Stock
2010 Emelisse Barley Wine
2008 Rogue Old Crustacean

Of the beers I tried last year, I remember son of old yeller and 2006 old foghorn being among the best of the batch for my tastes, so I was glad to revisit vintages of each. The 2007 old foghorn was significantly different then my recollection of the 2006 last year. Last year I said the 2006:

"was a model for how well some beers age. All the flavors of the beer were perfectly melded and softened, and it definitely drank better than a beer that clocks in with that ABV should."

This year my experience with an equally old version of the old foghorn was quite a bit different. While it was enjoyable, I felt like it was more sharp and tart than mellow and melded. It was one of the beers that I tried at this years fest that immediately drew a strong contrast from to my other samplings.

The son of old yeller was great again. The vintage Old Stock and Old Crustacean were as good as expected as well. A big surprise for me was the Emelisse Barleywine. I'd never tried this beer before, but the temptation to try the only 2-ticket beer of the fest proved too much for me to overcome, and I guess I'm pretty glad it was. It certainly had the flavors I associate with common belgian yeasts, but it was unmistakeably a barleywine. I think a lot of the time when you get the barley wine strength using belgian yeast, you end up with something strong triple or quad-like, but this was pretty unique from those styles for sure. Besides the surprise the 2007 Old Foghorn provided, the only other miss for me was the Ninkasi. It wasn't bad; it just wanted suited for my tastes. I should have expected what I got though, as it was decidedly "Ninkasi".

After we went through our samplings, we walked over to Henry's for their Happy Hour lunch. I got a cheap burger and some Gorgonzola fries, along with a Goose Island Matilda on tap.

From Henry's, it was on to the Rialto to shoot some pool. I had a Widmer KGB followed by a Widmer Drop Top, and reigned victorious over the table.

Another good day in Portland!

EDIT: It should be noted that while I love how dog friendly the lucky lab is, and I'd love to take mine there; Daisy spent the day asleep in her custom made bed, due to the fact that she hopelessly tries to eviscerate any canine she senses in her presence.

zwickelmania 2011

2011-02-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the annual Oregon Brewer's Guild Zwickelmania event, when breweries across the state open their doors for tours of their facilities and tastes of their beers. There are way too many stops to see in a day, even among the ones within city limits, so this year I decided to limit myself to a few of my favorite inner east side breweries.

I started out by meeting a few friends at Hopworks, where we lined up in front of the large overhead doors of the brewery, and received free pint glasses and tasting tickets for the tour. I enjoyed a hopworks IPA from the bike bar out front, and when our assigned time came, a group of us pushed in to start the tour. Working out way through the workings of the brewery, we were invited to taste several types of malts, as well as secession and a new maibock. Of all the stops we made throughout the day, hopworks was the most organized and informative of the bunch. The free swag and ample tastes were a big plus too. It was a great way to start out the day.

From Hopworks, we drove north to the Cascade Barrel House, where we parked for the day to continue the tours (and drinking!) safely on foot. On the production side of the brewery, we grabbed some tasting cups, and were treated to several tasty options, straight from the barrel. The first was a soured honey rye, that we were told would be blended with lime and ginger in the future. From there we tried a spiced sour belgian quad, and finally a a sour tripel that had been aging on raspberries for the last few months. We also were able to check out the climate controlled barrel aging rooms and take a peak of some of the beers that cascade currently has up it's sleeve.

After Cascade, we headed toward the river to see what was going on a few blocks away at hair of the dog. We arrived just as the rogue tour bus (which carried crowds we tried desperately to avoid all day) was about to leave. To kill a little time as the crowd filtered out, I enjoyed a doggie claws on tap from the bar out front. Eventually, we made our way back to the brewery, where there were tastes of Adam and blue dot (as fresh as it gets!) straight from the tank. The event at HotD was very loose and self-guided, which allowed time to poke around and explore a bit. Among my favorite parts of the stop was looking through the various barrels aging in the back to see what we might expect from Alan in the future. Some barrels were clearly marked like the latest batch of Michael and Fred Flanders shown here to the left. Others were marked a little more cryptically, which left one to speculate about their mysterious contents.

From hair of the dog, we went north a little bit to check out one of Portland's newest breweries, Burnside Brewing. The tastes that were being handed out for the event were of their Oatmeal Pale, but Jason was kind enough to take me into another part of the brewery and let me try his new stout a few days before its debut. The pale I had (and had enjoyed) in the past, but the stout was a new experience for me. Chocolaty and delicious for sure. After the tastes and a little peeking around, we set out once again for another brewery.

The last zwickel event we hit was further north still, over at Upright Brewing. It's always fun taking someone new to Upright; navigating your way through the quiet and mostly empty building to the basement were the noise of cheerful drinkers and the smell of wort greet you from down the hall. It was pretty packed inside, and the line was long for beer, but it was a worthwhile stop none-the-less. I had the upright coffee stout for the first time.

After all that drinking, we were ready for food. We walked south back to Burnside and ate a bunch of pizza at Sizzle Pie. Full and drunk, my comrades made the right decision after dinner and threw in the towel. I ended up back at Cascade for a bit, and then closed out the night at Sassy's. It was a long day.

Pizza Port at Apex.

2011-01-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

In the beer geek world, there are a lot of opinions about who lives in the best beer city in the US; and for every opinion, there's a unique metric for quantifying it. Some say it's the breweries per capita, some say its geographic density of beer places in the city, some say it's the culture, and some say it's just about the beer itself. The first two are pretty easy to sort out from where ever you may be, but one can't accurately form an opinion about the others without personally experiencing them.

When it comes to the San Diego area's stake to the claim, the Pizza Port family of breweries is often used as one example for the city's beer brewing prowess, and the limited distribution of their beers often makes this a "I'll have to take your word for it" example. So, when it was announced that the brewers of the Pizza Port Brewing collective would be visiting Apex bar in Portland with a good sized cache of their offerings, I knew it was something I needed to be there for. Last night's list included a wide assortment of draft only offerings that I've never seen this far north (I know some of their stuff gets to Washington, but I never do), and these beers provided a little window into the San Diego beer scene for those who attended the event.

After I closed down my store, I rode my bike down to Apex around 7:15 to find it more densely packed than I've ever seen it before. Clearly a lot of people were excited about this event, and a quick scan of the crowd proved it a nearly complete who's who of the Portland beer community. There were bar owners, bottle shop owners, bloggers, brewers, and the people who love them.

In an example of possibly the ultimate meta-beer-geekism, I even saw one beer blogger film two other beer bloggers, while they filmed Pizza Port Brewer Jeff Bagby out front.

I had to taste the nectar that caused this beer orgy.

I took no notes, and couldn't concentrate very much on what I was tasting in that chaotic environment, but I certainly paid enough attention to form some opinions of my own.

I started with the bourbon barrel aged night rider imperial stout. It came well carbonated, but with little head. The bourbon and vanilla packs a wallop and dominates the base stout into submission. The mouthfeel is very light compared to many other examples of imperial stout, and while I may have previously docked a few points for such lightness in the past, it's something I've slowly come back around to, and I found it quite enjoyable to drink. Did it blow my mind? Certainly not. It was a good beer though. Something I'd put in the B+ to A- range. There are better and worse examples of barrel aged imperial stouts in Portland and San Diego. This one reminded me a lot of Full Sail's Black Gold.

While I quaffed my night rider, I listened to the crowd reaction to some of the other offerings to decide what I'd go with next. I decided I'd try the Faceplant and the I-5 Brown before the night was through.

The Faceplant was tough for me to drink. I've previously demonstrated my love for Belgian Beer styles, but I thought this one missed the mark. It was simply too sweet and too... spicy for the style. Or any style. We all know what kind of qualities we want in a triple, or belgian strong pale, or whatever this was trying to be, and it had those qualities... but in the wrong quantities. The great thing about the best examples of Belgian beer is the balance the brewers achieve with such distinctive yeasts to create complex and full flavor yet smooth and well rounded drinks. This had in your face spicy belgian yeast and high gravity and not much else. C range.

For me, not being a big fan of hoppier styles anymore, the I-5 Imperial Brown Ale won "Best in Show". It was unique. It was complex. It was balanced. It was smooth and creamy. And it was delicious. I don't know how many other Imperial Brown's I've ever tasted, save for dogfish head palo santo marron, and the two would just be impossible to compare given the distinctive flavors the palo santo wood gave dogfish's example; so it's hard for me to say how it stacks up for the style. Regardless of that, it just worked. I'll give it an A.

The reputations of places like Pizza Port is enough to give any Portlander a little insecurity about his claim to "Beervana". It's a good brewery, no doubt, but after tasting a variety of their goods, I can confidently say I haven't tasted anything from them that we don't do better here.

New Brew Review: Central Waters Satin Solstice Imperial Stout

2010-12-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

Continuing to work my way through a great box of Wisconsin beers that I received from a friend last week, I tried my first beer from the Central Waters Brewing Company this evening: Satin Solstice Imperial Stout.

With an appearance that is a bit light for an imperial stout, this one pours a caramel color that turns black as it pools in the glass. Satin Solstice is adequately carbonated, but head retention is low, even with a somewhat aggressive pour. As the head recedes, a sticky blanket of lacing hangs on the sides of the glass, and the remaining carbonation becomes thin and fine like a wisp of smoke across the dark surface. Held to the light, this is black in the center, but light penetrates the top half inch or so, revealing the toffee colored hues.

The nose on this imperial stout is big on dark chocolate, a bit sweet, and creamy like lactose. Swirling the glass brings up more of that dairy sweetness as well as a little smoke, and raisin.

While the appearance suggested that Satin Solstice lacked the guts of an imperial stout, the flavor suggests otherwise. Bold from start to finish, the dominant flavor notes are dark chocolate and lactose, with a semi-sweet finish that contains a touch of smoke and a mineral aftertaste that lingers on the back of the tongue. Little perceived hop bitterness, but the dark roasty malts pick up the slack. Perceivable alcohol, but more "warm" than "hot". Tasty!

This beer has a medium viscosity, and is a bit sticky and coating. Several minutes after your last sip, you can still feel this one from your lips to the back of your throat. The carbonation is a bit prickly. It's not "soda" bad, but the smoother feel that finer carbonation could impart would be a welcome improvement.

This is an imperial stout, but it clocks in on the lighter end of the spectrum for the style. A bold beer overall, it has good strong flavor without being over the top, a comfortable level of heat, and medium body which makes it a very drinkable example of style that's often best enjoyed a little at a time.

The Verdict: B+

New Brew Review: New Glarus Coffe Stout

2010-12-05T15:18:00.001-08:00

Last week, I received a great surprise package from a friend that contained the following beers: New Glarus Coffee Stout, New Glarus Raspberry Tart, New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red, and Central Waters Satin Solstice Imperial Stout. I opened the first of the bottles today after spending the morning working on the yard, and thought I'd take the time to write a review of it. If not for my own memory, then to show my appreciation for the gifts by giving them the attention they deserve. The Raspberry Tart and Belgian red came in 750's, which I thought I'd share w/ friends over the holidays, so I chose the 12 oz Coffee Stout for this afternoon.

The beer pours from the bottle a deep brown color, almost black in the thickest parts of the pour, and taking on a rich brown on the sides with highlights of burnt sienna. A fair amount of carbonation is evident as a creamy beige head rises up the glass. The head is mostly small, soft, creamy bubbles, but it's punctuated here and there by a few larger ones. From an arms length, it looks uniform in color, but a closer inspection reveals darker brown lowlights in the places where the bubbles have popped and the resulting liquid pools before it finds it's way back down through the remaining foam and into the darkness below. In the glass, the beer itself is very dark. When held to the light, only the edges of the glass allow any light through, but in these red brown edges, the color is very clean and crisp - not muddy as one might expect from how little light escapes it.

At first the nose is quite subdued. It's light and dry, and the first thing I can pick out is just simply "roasted". Digging my nose into the glass further, I began to pick up more distinct notes of brown sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, and finally coffee. This doesn't smell like an "in your face" coffee beer, but rather a nice dry stout that has been accented with coffee. It's promising on a mild sunny afternoon, compared to such behemoths as Espresso Oak Aged Yeti, and Jahva.

The taste follows the nose well, although the coffee is a little bit more evident here. As I suspected, this is a stout first, and a coffee beer second. The coffee flavors are obviously present, but they are there to add to something, not dominate it. Compared to other examples, this beer is light and crisp in taste, with no over-dominant cloying aspects. No heat is detected, and although the bottle doesn't list an ABV, anything over 4.5% that it might contain is well hidden. The finish is relatively dry, and there is a lingering malty aftertaste that isn't dissimilar from what one might experience after washing down a bite of pastry with a sip of unsweetened joe. Despite the addition of coffee, and labeled designation of "stout", this beer reminds me a bit of black butte porter, although a bit lighter and drier even.

The first thing I noticed about the mouthfeel of this beer is that it's a bit lighter and thinner than I would have expected, although looking back at my experience with the nose, I should have guessed. Decent carbonation helps add perceived body, and delivers the flavor of the beer well.

Drinkability is quite high. This is a well constructed stout in a more traditional form than many I've tried in recent years. The thinner body and relative dryness keep it refreshing and easy drinking, which is something that can be appreciated from time to time in a world of "imperial this" and "double thats".

It's a very good beer, and probably something I'd drink a lot of if it was available here at a decent price. It's not a "wow beer", but I don't think all beers are intended to be, and this one is doing just fine without that distinction. After finishing my glass and typing my review, I looked up the ABV online and found it listed at 5.7%. A bit high to be a session beer, but if I had a 6 pack in the fridge, I'd imagine I'd make my way through it fairly quickly anyway.

The Verdict: A-

2010 Deschutes Abyss Release

2010-12-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

(the old sign with the new "portland")

Yesterday was a day full of beer drinking that started with a walk over the burnside bridge to the pearl district to attend the release of this years Abyss at the Deschutes brewery, and ended after a couple of hours attending the first day of the Holiday Ale Festival. Today I'm going to cover the trip to Deschutes.

I arrived a few minutes before the pub opened, and saw that the day's beers were only just being offloaded from a truck out front for the event. I joined a small line that had formed at the door that was mostly full of people just waiting to get their hands on bottles. Knowing that these things will be around for a few weeks, my only goal in coming early was to secure a good seat at the bar, and to make sure that I got my fill of some of the rarer vintages before those kegs ran out. I was able to order a vertical flight immediately, and a few minutes later I was sitting in front of a paddle of beers that included 2010 Abyss, 2010 Abyss on Nitro, 2009 Abyss, 2008 Abyss, and 2007 Abyss vintages. I also ordered the Abyss Burger, which turned out to be delicious, although rather pricey - It was cooked in black truffle abyss sauce, and served with mushrooms and onions, melted havarti, and abyss mayo. But back to the beer. Tasting my way through the various beers in the flight, i discovered a few surprises. I thought the 07 was just a bit passed it's prime, the 09 was the worst of the five, the 2010 is probably the best batch I've ever tasted fresh, and it should be a crime to not always offer Abyss w/ a nitro option. After sipping back and forth for a good hour or so, I ranked each beer in my head in the order I preferred them. Here are the results:

The best of the batch was the 2008 vintage. It was rich, full bodied, and very smooth, with just enough lingering heat to warm you up and add an extra layer of complexity to the experience. This was the second most chocolaty tasting vintage to me, and a sip of the 08 reminded me a bit of a chocolate milk with a little spike of bourbon on the back end.

After the 08, I chose the 2010 Abyss on nitro as first runner up. Replacing the prickly CO2 bubbles with velvety smooth nitrogen did amazing things for the heat that fresh Abyss usually exhibits. It was as if the alcohol burn had diminished to the smoothness of the older vintages on the paddle, but unlike those other vintages, the bold flavors of the fresh vintage remained, keeping this rich and complex as well. In the past my feelings have often been mixed about what nitro can do for a beer, but this example really shows the best of what the method can offer. The mouthfeel was nice, but more than anything, I couldn't believe what it did for the heat.

I was not surprised to find those beers in the top two. Between the age of the first choice, and the novelty of the second, they were sure to stand out. Third place surprised me though. The number three spot goes to fresh, regular 2010 Abyss. This one was better fresh than the 2009 was, and it's better fresh than 2009 is now with a year on it. It's the most chocolaty tasting of the batches, and at times it reminded me a lot of previous reserve series black butte anniversary beers. It's hot, but the flavors and mouthfeel of this vintage are bold and complex, and the heat works well as an integrated part of the whole. If the taste of this one coming out of the gate is any indication for the future of this beer, this could be a pretty historic release.

Coming in at number four is the 2007 version. This was the smoothest option by far, but a lot of the flavors have become dull and subdued; as well as integrated to the point that they were hard to pick out on their own. While the almost total lack of heat and supreme smoothness did a lot for this vintage, the dwindling complexity and richness knocked this one down a few pegs for my tastes.

Finally, in last place, was the 2009 version. The kegged version of this vintage did not exhibit any signs of the infection that turned up in the bottled version this year. Standing alone, it's still a world class example of an imperial stout, but in this line-up it was easier to pick it apart for its flaws. The body was noticeably thinner than the other vintages, and the roasty flavors bordered on burnt. The thin feel and less overall complexity on this vintage allowed the heat and burnt astringency to take center stage, and that was enough to earn its ranking at the bottom of the paddle.

After I drank my way through the beers, I chatted with Lisa "the beer goddess" Morrison for a bit about my experiences with both the abyss flight, and the dissident as well.

It was a good morning in Portland.

EDIT: now complete with the Beer Goddess video:

Sweet Release! Mother of all Storms, Dissident, Matt

2010-11-21T11:27:00.001-08:00

This was a pretty busy weekend for me. It started with an early morning drive out to Pacific City to attend the Mother of all Storms release at the Pelican Pub. A few buddies and I hopped into a rental car since none of owned a vehicle with more than 2 seats, and we were off through the forest well before sunrise.

We arrived in Pacific City just before the rain started; about 20 minutes before the pub opened. The line was short, so we checked out the surf, then walked across the street and warmed up in the coffee shop for a bit until the doors opened. We were excited about being early, not because we felt it necessary to secure our bottles, but because we wanted a table with a great view of the waves coming in during the storm.

We got a great spot, ordered bottles, breakfast, and the vertical tasting flights they were offering for the event. The verticals included one each of the following beers, served in snifters: Stormwatcher's Winterfest 05, 08, 09, 10, and Mother of all Storms 09, and 10. In addition to the flight, I tried a taste of Bad Santa, and a glass of Full House.

After we were full, warm, and brave, we loaded up the car, and walked up the dunes, enduring the pounding rain and wind-swept sand to the look-out to enjoy the power of the surf and the wonderful view. When we returned to the car, we were thoroughly soaked and gritty; and ready to head back to Portland for more beer releases.

We headed back on the 26, and my lead-footed friend passed a state-trooper, who later accused us of driving about 17 over the limit. Getting a speeding ticket is never fun, but this time it was especially humiliating. There we were, 3 city boys from Portland in a rented Toyota Prius, out in the woods, getting busted in front of a gas station, where locals in big diesel pick-ups and full camo outfits where gassing up their ATV's and getting ready to go out and kill stuff. On a lighter note, the entire gas bill for the trip was $15, which they probably spent on diesel just idling in the parking lot snickering at us.

(Whoops!)

Ticket in hand, we were on our way again, monitoring the speedometer a bit closer all the way back to the city.

Once the car was parked, we once again donned our rain gear, and walked north to Deschutes, where the Dissident had just finally been re-released. We grabbed a table, and ordered a round, which we made our way through and collectively decided wasn't quite good enough to hang around for a second of. We learned that bottle sales had been brisk earlier in the morning, and that if we wanted bottles direct from the brewery, we'd have to act quick, but with everything else going on, we decided to pass on the opportunity... despite having eagerly anticipated this release ever since running out of bottles of the 08, two years ago.

From Deschutes, we walked to the burnside bridge, and then down to the springwater corridor to Morrison, which dumped us right in front of Hair of the Dog. Inside, there were special samples of new beers awaiting us on the draft towers. Peach Fred, and Apricot Fred, both aged in oak barrels for 17 months. Sounded promising! I've enjoyed every other version of Fred I've ever tried, be it regular Fred, Fred from the Wood, Cherry Fred, or Bourbon Fred, but these fell short of the mark on all accounts. To be fair, I kind of liked the peach fred. It was very chunky, with bits of fruit suspended in the beer, but I've enjoyed chunky beer in the past, so that wasn't too much of a put-off. It tasted of peach ice tea. Not just the sweet peach up front, but also a perceived black tea like astringent flavor in the finish. I love peach iced tea. It was also still a bit hot, so there were essences of schnapps in there too. Again, not a bad thing, but it wasn't like any of the other times I tried a new Fred: it wasn't a "wow" moment.

The Apricot was a different story. The nose was of sharp acetone. Am I at HotD, or picking my wife up from a manny-petty? The flavor wasn't far from the nose. It burned. There were moments when you just went numb, and tasted a rich fruity delicious apricot booze, but those moments were fleeting, and it wasn't enough to salvage the experience.

To HotD's credit, the only way this beer was offered was in a small taster format. I didn't mind paying a few bucks to try a new Fred, but if I had to plunk down $7.50 for a 12 ounce pour and get stuck w/ it, it would have been a different story.

After the tasters, I had a 2010 Doggie Claws on tap, and then Alan brought out some cask 2009 Doggie Claws, which we got some of the first pours of. This is a beer that always hits the mark for me, and just gets better every time I try it. It was a nice way to finish the trip to the tasting room, as it reminded me why I love this place so much again.

From hair of the dog, we walked a block south the bunk bar, where we got some delicious sandwiches, and anything worth reporting on a beer blog ceased happening. Still, the night went on longer than it probably should have, and waking up the next morning early for the Matt release was a bit of a challenge.

After reading a quote from Alan about the Matt release earlier in the week on beeradvocate, saying "if you show up right at 10:00, you probably wont be able to get any", I decided to show up around 8, and wait in line for one last treasure of the weekend. I easily secured my allotment, and around 10:00 when I left, the line was gone, and there was plenty of beer to be had. Looks like I could have slept a bit more of it off after all!

Still, two hours in the cold was probably for the best. It certainly got me back to an even keel, which was required because I returned to a house full of in-laws, ready to go out and have a good time in our city.

I thought my beer trip was over, but in a few hours, I found myself sitting at Hopworks, with sampler trays and mugs littering my table. Beers of note that I really enjoyed were two seasonals: dark helmet lager, and pig war imperial IPA. The pig war, in particular, was a pleasant surprise for me. I've really fallen out of love for hoppy beers over the last year or so, but just when I thought I was out... this one pulled me back in! Very well balanced, incredibly smooth, not too bitter, and elegantly floral with soft citrus notes, I will certainly return to this one if the opportunity arises.

My in-laws scheduled a family portrait session (oh the horror!) at sears (the horror!) at the lloyd center (the... oh you get it) for an hour or so later, so we freshened up, drove over, and got a rosy-cheeked and rudolf-nosed shot taken. Things were stacked against me in this one too. Not only had my previous few day's activities put me at a disadvantage, but the only other white person in the family was visiting from California, which made me stand out like a pale-white-and-red sore thumb in the shot. Ce la vie.

Next up was dinner at Irving Street Kitchen. My brother-in-law's wife's sister is one of the chefs there, so we always get great treatment when we pop in for a meal. Usually we order what we want, but they bring us one of everything anyway. Among the highlights of the first course was a rabbit pate, duck mousse, crispy bone marrow, pastrami marmalade, and a shrimp and crab ragout. For my entree, I had a roast sirloin, accompanied by a 12 hour smoked rib. My wife had a whole roast trout, which I had to decapitate (and hide the head of) before she'd eat it, but we agreed, it was delicious. Everything else was great too. For drinks, I started with an old curmudgeon, a delicious peppery bourbon drink with grapefruit bitters. From there though, it was back to beer. Sleigh'r to the rescue!

I was in bed for much needed sleep shortly after.

At work now, who knows what the rest of the visit will bring.

p.s. speaking of "bring", my brother-in-law brought me a bottle of beer from Southern California that he said he particularly enjoyed. Lightning Brewery's Ionizer Lager. I'll report on that later.

beer cave update

2010-11-13T12:23:00.000-08:00

I don't have much to write about right now. I've been laying low to save a little cash for all the big releases that are occurring next week. I did get a package in the mail a few days ago that contained part of a trade. In it was an Ithaca Brute - an american wild ale I've only ever previously tasted that I had been seeking a full bottle of ever since. The extras included a weyerbacher insanity, and a founder's nemesis, two well known east coast barleywines that I'm eager to try. I might open those as part of a barleywine tasting in the coming month or so, which would be appropriate with the Mother of all Storms release occurring next week. My buddy in Germany who previously surprised me with a package containing Westvleteren 12 says to expect another package this week. It's contents are a surprise, but I'm sure it will be awesome. I think he's buttering me up because of the MoaS and Matt releases next week. I'll be sure to send some Oregon love out to him in return.

Also, I received a few emails over the past week or so about the status of the book that my garage is going to be featured in. It sounds like they're finalizing the layout, and the book will be available to purchase in April. It wasn't until I thought back to the photos that I had originally submitted that I realized how out of hand my collecting has been this year. I'm going to have to move into a place with an unfinished basement or a bigger garage soon if I don't get a check on my hoarding. Recently, I ran out of room on the walls for signs, so I took down all the mirrors and started mounting them on the ceiling to make more space.

rally-round-tabor urban beer hike

2010-11-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

A few monday's ago, I joined Urban Beer Hikes on a little Southeast Portland beer hike. We had discussed several options, and decided to go east of 39th, to do a tour of beer places that form a loop around Mt. Tabor park.

The three of us (including Link, the urban beer hikes shiba inu mascot), met in front of the Horse Brass, where I had already taken advantage of the special anniversary taplist and had a pint of the 2010 Sasquatch Legacy Imperial Oatmeal Porter.

Agreeing to end with the Horse Brass, we began hiking clockwise around the mountain. We started out heading towards Belmont Station, where I failed as a tour-guide by forgetting that the cafe side didn't open until later in the afternoon. From Belmont Station, we walked east, just outside the northern tip of the park, which had us starting with a bit of a climb. In this section, we came across a little snake, which I caught to take a photo of. Link was interested, but didn't quite know what to make of it.

The start of the hike was nice. The forecast called for rain, but things were pretty clear and crisp, and it offered a good opportunity for us to enjoy the start of autumn.

As we descended Mt. Tabor towards Montavilla, we made our way over to Stark Street, where we opened Roscoe's with orders from their Fresh Hop Beer Summit List. I ordered a cascade fresh hop porter, was as delicious as always. If I remember correctly (between the alcohol, and the time that's passed, my recollection is fuzzy) Dave went with the Fort George Cohoperative.

Not wanting to spend too much time in any one place, we left after one drink, and then head south, to enter the park on the southeast side, heading west, toward the beer cave. We contemplated the side trip to the top, but by this point, the rain had started, and visibility was low, so we opted against it.

Once we arrived in the cave, we had a variety of beers to choose from. Dave had mentioned having never tried a baltic porter, so I produced a bottle of last year's Alaskan Baltic Porter to check out.

After the break in the cave, I thought it might be cool to check out another cool neighborhood spot, so we went over to the Landmark Saloon a few blocks away. To our delight, there was both a monday special, AND a happy hour discount. We each got a pint of Ninkasi Sleigh'r - for $2.50 each. Not too shabby!

From the Landmark, we walked over to hawthorne, for a stop at the Hawthorne Hophouse. Bill from It's a Pub Night was there waiting for us, and shortly after, we were joined by Ezra of The New School. We each had a couple of drinks and dinner, dried off a bit, and they even let Link in to warm up and watch the door. I had an Oakshire Ill Tempered Gnome and an Anthem cider from Wandering Aengus. I also took a bad photo of everyone. Sorry guys!

After dinner, we concluded at the Horse Brass. Angelo from Brewpublic was playing darts, and several beer bar owners from around town (Bailey's, Beermongers, etc...) were in attendance to help celebrate 34 years of the Horse Brass.

I finished the night off with a Caldera Mogli. A great beer, and a great way to help celebrate the anniversary of a historic portland beer bar with new friends.

Hawthorne Hophouse, Bourbon Fred From the Wood, Tasty n Sons

2010-10-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good beer drinking weekend. On Friday, I checked out the opening of the Hawthorne Hophouse with a friend. I ordered a couple Oakshire Ill-Tempered Gnomes and a oregonzola-bacon burger. The beers were as expected, and the burger was pretty tasty. The taplist was mostly regionally focused, and although it was all decent stuff, there wasn't anything very special on the list that would have drawn me in if I wasn't already in the neighborhood. The place was full, well staffed, and appeared to running pretty smoothly by the time I arrived around 8:00 in the evening. I think it will do well as a neighborhood bar and burger joint, but unless the beer list is a bit more carefully curated, it probably wont be taken very seriously as a beer-geek destination. We'll see how it evolves after they've been open for a bit and have had better access to kegs.

Last night I went over to Hair of the Dog after work because I had heard that they had tapped a keg of Bourbon Fred from the Wood. I ordered a glass along with an order of rabbit fricassee, and a side of bread and butter. It was a hearty meal with rich gravy, but the Bourbon Fred had no problem standing up to it. It was nice to have a warm meal and strong delicious beer, sitting next to a window with the rain pounding down, overlooking the downtown skyline.

This morning, I went over to Tasty n Sons for breakfast, which is on Williams, by the Lompoc Sidebar, and the future second location of HUB. I had wonderful breaded, pan fried pork cutlets over spinach, with a fried egg on top, accompanied by a gin and absinthe cocktail, and a spicy bloody mary. It was just what I needed to get ready for work today. The reason why I included this report on my post today however is what I spotted on the desert menu just before leaving:

Kriekenbier Cherry Flemish Float.

Yes, cherry kriek with a scoop of chocolate ice cream is a dessert item at Tasty n Sons. If I wasn't in a rush to get to work in time (and already a little buzzed), I would have extended my stay to try it. I'll be back for you kriekenbier float!

Beckamoyces Aasskraquii

2010-10-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

First it was the use of the "recently isolated plumbers strain of Brett called Beckamoyces Aasskraquii" in Cascade's Beck Berry. Now it's the addition of "Bourbacide" to the freshly tapped barrel of cherry bourbon double red.

I'm OK with a brewery having a little fun with their beer descriptions, but what am I actually drinking?

Part of me wants to shrug it off, and say "who cares? if it's good, it's good right?" (and it is!), but another part of me thinks it's a little weird to list fabricated ingredient names in something you expect your customers to consume - joke or not - without a little further explanation down the line.

I've heard beck berry was the result of accidental brett infection. I also know at one of the events at the raccoon lodge, Ron handed out a couple of tasters of a brett beer described then with the name beckamoyces aasskraquii - presumably the accidental brett infected barrel that ended up being used in the beck berry blend. Fair enough, you get an infection, you don't know the actual strain of brett that got in there, you taste the beer, and you just give it a funny name, I get it.

How about bourbacide? Another term that google finds no further use of outside of the beer description it's used in. Did they pour a bottle of bourbon in the barrel and swish it around to "sanitize" the inside before aging beer in there, is that the joke?

Is bourbacide like b. aasskraquii - just the name of another base beer?

Help me out here.

bourbonic plague and vlad the imp aler

2010-10-16T10:15:00.001-07:00

I got up early to swing by the cascade barrel house a few hours before the bottle sale started to save a place in line. I had read a lot of panic on the internets about the availability, and the possibility that perhaps too much had been reserved for pre-sale orders to leave much left for us locals; but I was only the 4th person to arrive and even without an actual line forming beforehand, was able to buy a case of bottles in about that order. I also enjoyed a glass of bourbonic on tap, and liked it this time a lot more than I remember having liked it in the past. I don't know if there was variation from keg to keg or what, but this time it seemed a lot more well integrated than I remember in the past, and while the flavor was bold and complex, I felt like everything was working in harmony, rather than fighting for the spotlight, which was my impression before.

On a side note, I babysat my niece last night, and my sister surprised me with a gift card for helping her out. It was $50 to the cascade barrel house! Now that the bottles are secure at the house, I'm thinking I might head back this afternoon to enjoy the rest of the festivities.

Today is a good day.

I'm slacking, flashback/link post.

2010-10-13T20:51:00.001-07:00

(Found these today! The spuds was only released in 1987 for the openings of new bars, and it's a light!)

I've been slacking on keeping this blog updated, but I've drank a lot of beer since my last post none-the-less.

For posterity's sake, I'll make note of the recent highlights.

We'll start w/ the hood river fresh hop festival. Anyone who remembers reading about the big (and somewhat comedic, in retrospect) ordeal that occurred at my last hood river hopfest, will find this report incredibly boring in comparison. I went, the weather was nice, I enjoyed some of the beer, and then I went camping on Mt. Hood again; at the scene of the disaster. This time I felt good, got a great night's sleep, and felt awesome the next day; when I watched the Eagles on TV with a few more beers. Unfortunately, I think the part I enjoyed about going to this festival the most wasn't that I had a great time or particularly enjoyed the beers. It was just good to not have to worry about what I missed. I might be confident enough to just not go next year, we'll see. To be fair, the fest was well run, the selection was great, and the value was good, so there aren't any complaints there. I just don't really like pales and IPA's much anymore, so fresh-hop fests just don't do it for me like they used to. I think my favorite beers of the event were extras that weren't even fresh hopped. I liked the bourbon barrel aged oatmeal stout from big horse, and the redwood smoked lager from upright the most.

After the fresh hop fest, I had a new friend in town that I had previously only known from beeradvocate.com. He was visiting from Germany with his lovely new wife, on their honeymoon. He had previously provided me with a copies of the FANTASTIC beer show, Tournee Generale, and then later, sent me a surprise package from Europe, containing a bottle of westvelteren 12; a beer that I had only ever consumed in Belgium, and hadn't seen again since. We both had busy schedules while they were in town, but we managed to get in a couple of bars while they were around, and they saw many more on their own. First, we had dinner at produce row, then we cruised over to the cascade barrel house, where we enjoyed such wonderful beers as bourbonic plague, vlad the imp aler, beck berry, funk II, sang noir, and noyeaux.

I've been back to cascade twice since that night. A few beers have changed, the crowd has become more varied (this is a good thing, I can only stare at other beer geeks for so long), and they've announced the much anticipated bottle release of vlad and bourbonic, which will take place this saturday from 9 am to 6 pm; coinciding with a performance by Ron's band at the barrel house.

Other than that, I've been buying and collecting beers, trying to put away a little cash for the release of Mother of all Storms at Pelican next month, and getting some sweet breweriana for the cave.

Oh, and a movie filmed a scene at my store toda y.

I promise to be more proactive on this blog in the near future.

My first trip to Block 15

2010-09-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, I went down to Corvallis with a friend to check out the Block 15 Brewery for the first time. The drive down was smooth and we were there before we knew it. I had tried or read about a lot of their brewers reserve beers, and cellaring projects, and while none of the ones I was particularly interested in were available just yet (lots of great stuff will be coming on in October), there was still a pretty extensive tap list of house made beers to enjoy. I started with a glass of their 6 hop wonder, a 9.5%, 100 IBU, imperial IPA made with 6 varieties of locally grown hops. For someone who has really fallen out of love with the IPA/IIPA style, this beer still managed to impress. It was well balanced, full of flavor, smooth, and (despite the hefty ABV), easy to drink. While sipping on this one, I checked out the menu. Everything looked pretty good, but when I saw that they had a "Brewer's Challenge Burger" meal, I knew I had to go with that. My wife and I love "man v food", and she's always saying I should be on that show, so I couldn't disappoint her by passing up on a food challenge.

"Brewers Challenge Burger
Two hand-spanked beef patties, two slices of Tillamook cheddar cheese, thickly sliced bacon, fried jalapeños and your choice of two sides. If you can clean your plate, your first pint of beer is on the brewer!"

Turns out it wasn't much of a challenge. Even the waitress conceded that most people beat it, and that they're working to revamp the menu; including a more difficult challenge for future diners. Still, it was delicious and filling, and they bought that 6 hop wonder when I was done, so it was a challenge I was happy to take.

After dinner, I enjoyed a couple more beers. Nebula oatmeal stout, which was sweeter and more caramelly than I'm accustomed to from the style, though still enjoyable. Forbidden Orchard, a sort of imperial wit, which I think went a little overboard on the orange peel and spice, and finally a guest beer on cask from Brewer's Union Local 180, which was a deliciously smooth, and perfectly balanced ESB.

Overall, it was a good trip. The pub is attractive and comfortable, the food was good, and the beers were mostly enjoyable. I definitely plan to be back when some of the more special beers I've been waiting for become available to try (and buy; they'll be offering certain beers in 750 bottles soon).

If only Corvallis were a little closer.

The Cascade Barrel House is Open!

2010-09-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

Just got back from attending the long awaited opening of the cascade barrel house. Stopped by after work and had a bourbonic plague, vlad the imp aler, and nightfall, along with a grilled ham and Gruyere cheese sandwich and salad, which was delicious and affordable. For a barely announced opening, things were being run real smooth and professionally, the place was well staffed, and the crowd was large.

I don't have much else to say, other than it was worth the wait!

oktoberfest!

2010-09-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Ever since going to Munich last year, I've been wanting to do more German beer related stuff back here in Portland. I've thought about going to Mt. Angel a couple of times for their annual fest, but so far it hasn't worked out. This year, I decided last minute to have a little oktoberfest party of my own at the house instead for a couple of friends. Bad pictures courtesy of me leaving my camera at work, and having to turn to my cell-phone as a back-up.

Fresh hop wreath with picture of sign from munich's fest (welcome to oktoberfest)

Spruced up the mantle with a fresh hop bine from the yard, a stein lamp, and various bavarian glasswear.

Marinated these brats overnight in beer and spices. Simmered them in the mixture on the stove, and then finished them off on the grill.

The spread! Bavarian Obatzda w/ soft pretzels for dipping, German potato salad, Brats, and home made kraut!

I'd call this the prost before the mass race, but I was drinking w/ a bunch of sally's, and there wasn't any real competition.

For beer we had various German (Paulaner Oktoberfest, Franziskaner hefe, Franziskaner dunkel, Weinstaphaner Korbinian), German styled (Bayern Oktoberfest, new belgium imperial berliner style weiss), and other somehow "german" connected beer (old german tallboys!). After eating our fill and watching Michael Jackson's german Beer Hunter episode, Hitlers Oktoberfest Downfall, and Beerfest, we were off to Apex to close out the night with Hofbrau oktoberfest mugs. It was a good night!

hops

2010-08-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

Time to start finalizing the recipe for my fresh hop rhubarb braggot.

The one plant that did the best this year is really starting to fill up with cones. I'm pretty impressed with how well it did for a first year plant that I put in the ground in mid June. Of the other 4 plants I put in the ground this year, one has 15 cones, and another has only 5 0r 6, the last two didn't flower at all. This one's a champ. A good 6-8 feet of the bine is pretty heavily covered in cones.

Hair of the Dog

2010-08-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

2005 Rose Cassis

Yesterday I went to the Hair of the Dog brewery and tasting room for the first time since it officially opened its doors. There were no big surprises regarding the remainder of the build-out since Fred Fest. The kitchen equipment is in place, lights have been hung, and most importantly, the beer is flowing. Food is still two weeks out, but I was told there will be a few pasta dishes, some salads, house cured meats, a rotating braised meat dish, cheese, chocolate, and voodoo donuts.

The beer list right now is pretty great. All the standards plus some of the rarer house beers are available on tap, and there is a pretty extensive list of vintage bottles to choose from for in-house consumption. I started my day off with a glass of Cherry Adam. The beers are served in very attractive branded tulips, and at $6.50 for a 12 ounce pour, the draft option is a good deal.

From the Cherry Adam, I moved on to a beer I had never tried before; a bottle of 2005 Rose Cassis. This beer had an appearance unlike any I'd ever seen prior. It poured a turbid purple brown, a color this tripel picked up from the addition of currants in the recipe. True to it's name, the Rose Cassis had a floral quality in both the nose and taste. It was really delicious, and something I feel very fortunate to have tried.

Later in the day I returned to Hair of the Dog with another friend for a second round at that menu. I started with a 2008 Fred from the Wood, and then moved on to split a bottle of 09 Matt with a friend. The Fred from the Wood was great, but it was not my first time sipping a vintage one. The Matt however, was a fantastic first time experience for me. I likened parts of the Matt flavor profile to parts of the original Adam, but with a lighter, more drinkable mouth feel, and a roasty drier finish like that of a stout. I learned the beer was a stronger one than Adam, but the lighter feel was a result of the addition of candy sugar and a higher percentage of roasted malt. A delicious beer, and one I eagerly await the next release of.

Around the time we ordered the bottle of Matt, Alan came over and sat down with a few of us at the bar. He had a lot of great stuff to say about what we were drinking, and the future of the bar, as well as the other things he's been working on at HotD. Future offerings at the tasting room that are already aging in oak include another batch of Cherry Fred, Fred Flanders, Bourbon Fred, Adam from the Wood, and a new batch of Matt. As he was telling us about the various beers that he'd been working on, he ordered a bottle of Michael for us all to share in the breweries unique taster sized tulips. It had been since last year since my last taste of Michael, and I was very interested in seeing how it had matured in that time. To my surprise, it has picked up a considerable amount of tartness, detectable from the first sniff all the way to the back of the tongue. Gone is the overbearing oak and tannins that dominated the flavor profile of this beer when it was fresh. Also present was a perfect level of carbonation, a feature the fresh bottles came without. I asked Alan how a beer that had already aged for over 2 years could have changed so significantly in the year following bottling, and he mentioned that he blended fresh beer back into the aged batch at bottling, which provided fresh fermentables for the beasties to work on over the following months. While I have to say that I was a bit let down by Michael when I first tried it fresh, the concensus at the bar was that this one really grew up in the bottle, and it's currently a hit. I'm glad I still have a magnum to enjoy in the future, and I look forward to seeing how it continues to mature.

2009 Matt and 2008 Fred from the Wood.

With the opening of this new tasting room, I really feel like Alan kicked the Portland beer scene up a notch. With his unique and truly delicious beers, and extensive collection of vintage offerings, this place is something special. I can't wait to try some of the projects he's been working on, and I look forward to tasting the fruits of the creative freedom the new location will afford him for experimentation in the future.

Now they just need to get the food going, and get their wine list sorted out, so I'll be able to drag my wife over there.

billy the mountain - on top of a mountain.

2010-08-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

photo courtesy of pat.

As I previously mentioned, I spent a few days this past week hiking and camping here in Oregon. My friend and I started driving east Thursday afternoon after he got off from work. We decided to camp right off the old Barlow Road in the eastern part of the Mt. Hood Wilderness. The Barlow Road was created in 1846 as a passage over the cascades, and is part of the 2000 mile oregon trail. The idea was to get a head start on Friday to get down to the Bend area for an early climb to the top of South Sister. I usually like to bring growlers to campsites, and I had one full of walking man 09 stumblefoot that I picked up a month or so ago, so I thought it would be a good time to get into that. For such a big beer, it went down dangerously easy. It's a good thing we were limited to 64 ounces; otherwise things could have gotten sloppy.

That was some tasty beer.

The next morning, we were up with the sun. After cleaning up camp, we were on the road south to Bend for a few supplies (beer), and then out to the Devil's Lake trailhead to start our climb to the summit of South Sister.

Unbeknownst to my hiking partner, I loaded my pack w/ something special for the summit. I wanted to bring a celebratory beer from my stash to enjoy on the third highest place in the state, and after digging and digging for something that I thought would be appropriate, I discovered a bottle of Upright Brewing's Billy the Mountain in the back of the cabinet, which I thought would be just about perfect.

After the grueling 5000 vertical foot ascent to the summit, we caught our breath and I produced my precious cargo. The beer was a hit; and extra delicious at 10,400 feet.

PedXer knows how to party.

After the leg quivering and scrape inducing scramble/controlled fall/tired trudge back to the car, we drove back into Bend to get a motel room for the night. A proper shower and few pints from Bend Brewing completed the day.

The next day we drove through the John Day area and checked out the river, the fossil beds, and a few neat little high desert towns before heading west again, back towards Mt. Hood. One final night in the woods near our last campsite went down with a 6-pack of Torpedo we found in a cooler in Maupin, as well as some left over session blacks from the night before. We were early to rise with full bladders and headaches, and got back to Portland by the time most of our friends were waking up.

It was a good weekend.

my first hop

2010-08-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I went hiking and camping from Thursday until Sunday. The trip involved beer, so I'll post about that later. The big news upon my return was that three of my hop bines developed a bunch of burrs while I was away, and today I noticed that my first hop cone had formed from one of them. From all of the reading that I did when I bought the young plants a few months ago, I wasn't really expecting to see much flowering, if any, this year, but it looks like at least one of the plants is going to flower pretty heavily. I guess all the pruning and watering and fertilizing really paid off.

Here's a shot of the full backyards bines, along with the rhubarb I've been harvesting all summer for a big batch of rhubarb braggot.

This is a shot of the top vine, which so far is looking like it's going to be the most heavily flowering of my hops.

Here's a close-up of some of the burrs that have formed.

Here's the first cone that has formed from one of the burrs. This cone is on one of the plants in the front yard.

lots of new signs!

2010-07-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of days, I picked up a lot of great new signs for the beer cave - sixteen total. Yesterday, I thought I hit the jackpot in the thrift stores around town, rescuing ten nice signs and mirrors out of piles of junk for cheap, but I think this morning's haul ended up being the highlight. I found an old timer through craigslist who built his own home bar about 30 years ago, and was finally ready to let his collection go. The best part was that he was letting everything go from $5 - $8 per item. $5 for regular signs, and $8 for the light-up ones. The big score was the long rainier sign on the right. I was in a big hurry to get to work on time, so I didn't get to look it over for a manufacturing date, but it's really heavy steel, with painted glass front and wood trim; like they haven't made beer signs in a long time. I can't wait to date it. The newest sign must have been a late addition to his bar - a 1980's spuds mckenie back-lit sign. I'm a sucker for brewery mascots. I also got a 1960's coors light-up sign, and three probably late 1970's signs: two rainier's from the same series, one with a sheep and one with a skier, and a neat schlitz sign that says "gusto hour" and has a spinning hour glass timer mounted on the front. Pretty cool!

*EDIT: It's a shaggy looking cow, not a sheep. The bottom says "CATTLE ...A LEADING NORTHWEST INDUSTRY." The Skier one is another from the "leading northwest industry" series, but it represents recreation. I'm not sure how many others there are, but with a little googling, I found that at the very least, there is a forestry one out there to collect.

burnside brewing

2010-07-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Since I'm a neighbor of the future Burnside Brewing Company, I got a letter in the mail from the city today regarding the application for the liquor license over there. It offered a few details about what the business is going to look like, and although it revealed absolutely nothing shocking or unexpected, it further fueled my excitement over the new brewery that's opening a stone's throw from where I spend most of my days. Here are a few stats:

Type of menu: Full Dinner
Size of Service Area: 1,600 sq. ft.
Restaurant Seating Capacity: about 70
Lounge Seating Capacity: 12
Will you have outside/patio seating: Yes
Outside seating capacity: about 12
How late will you have outside seating: 12:00 am
Type: Picnic Tables
How many off-street parking spaces: 18
Hours of Operation: 3:00-12:00 - 7 days a week
Type of entertainment: live music
Games: Darts/Shuffleboard
Pool tables: none
Video Poker: none

I noticed a few food carts have moved into the building's parking lot right now, and I've heard of at least one more that's planning on opening over there later this summer. I'm not sure if they'll be staying in the lot after the brewery opens, or if it's just a temporary thing while the space is being built out, but it would be pretty neat if they ended up working out an arrangement like Prost has on Mississippi - anchoring a food cart pod. One of the carts looks really good, but I have yet to try it. It's called Slow and Low, and it serves a variety of pork based meals. I'm not sure what the second cart is yet, but the third that's planning to open soon is an ice cream truck.

hop growth progress

2010-07-05T20:53:00.001-07:00

I took this photo of the growing tip of some of my hops today

I pruned all the offshoots off the main bines of the hops, so the plants could focus on root production and lengthening the remaining growth. They've been growing really fast over the past few days. It looks close to an new foot each day or so. The new growth has been very full of foliage and as the plants grow they've become increasingly more attractive.

black butte XXII review

2010-06-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

My weekend was pretty beer soaked.

This hop plant is growing a lot faster than the rest. It's been in the ground for 2 weeks, and 2/3's of it is new growth since then. I don't know the first thing about sexing plants, and I assumed I bought all females, but I don't really know. What I DO know is that I've read that males grow faster than females. Maybe one of you can tell by the picture? Otherwise, they're all fresh starts from 1 gallon pots, so I wouldn't be surprised if it just took some plants a little longer to get established. They're all growing pretty fast at least. On another note, my rhubarb is growing really nice again. I'm hoping with a little fertilizer and all the extra sunlight it's getting, the next batch of rhubarb wine I make will be a little more sweet and citrusy than the last batch. I drank a gallon of my spring batch over the course of the last week, and it was very nice, but I'd like a more pure batch next time around that doesn't need as much honey to get it where it needs to be with fermentable sugars.

Saturday, I rode my bike over to the horse brass an hour and a half early to try to get some good seats for what turned out to be the last US game at the world cup. When I arrived to find no available seating, we rode over to Apex bar, and waited around out front for a bit for them to open, so we could watch the game there. Despite the outcome, I had a real good time with a hopworks crosstown pale, a firestone velvet merkin, a bottle of russian river consecration, and a bottle of Cascade Kriek (the last two were shared). After my world cup hopes were crushed, I (reluctantly) rode with the pack over to Green Dragon, and had a Rogue John's Dark and Scary BSDA. After one drink, we headed south again to Hopworks, were I tried the barrel aged 300 before continuing east to Safeway for some deshutes inversion and meat for the grill. After a good BBQ, I went to bed early to prepare for a 7:00 am WC match between England and Germany, were once again, "my" team was crushed.

The north wall of the cave with the new display of glassware.

After soccer, I spent the afternoon making a few improvements to the cave. It had been getting messy, and I decided to rotate the "exhibit" on the north wall to showcase my glassware collection, which I think looks a lot nicer than my bottle collection did there. While I still don't plan to part with the bottles, it was looking really sloppy, and in this case, one man's treasure was just another's recycling.

A quick shot of all the goodies I have in my light-proof cabinet, waiting to be consumed. It's not ideal for aging, but it's dark, and it's an underground garage that stays real cool, and I've had pretty good success with it over the last few years, so I'm not too motivated to upgrade.

After getting everything in order in the cave, I decided to take advantage of another nice day, and rode bikes with a friend over the river to Deschutes for their 22nd anniversary celebration. I wasn't too interested in the music, but the BBQ outside sure smelled good. Still, I skipped the block party and went inside for pours of Black Butte XXII. After the controversy about this years bottling, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The description sounded fantastic, although a bit difficult to pull off in my opinion. Served in the deschutes reserve tulips, this beer looked about as I thought it should. Less head maybe than previous batches, and certainly less than the abyss, but this was a forced carbed beer, and I found the carbonation to be sufficient. While cold, the only thing I could easily detect out of the long list of special ingredients was CHOCOLATE. Lot's of it. It was as if they tasted Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti last year, and said "we should attempt something like this." While it wasn't Southern Tier "Choklat" chocolaty, it was definitely a much more prominent usage than past vintages. As the beer warmed, I could faintly detect a bit up peppery prickliness on the back of my tongue, but I feel like the pepper flavor was very nuanced compared to other examples of hot pepper stouts/porters. Harder to pick out still was the flavor the oranges imparted, but I thought for a second I detected them in the last few warm sips at the bottom of my glass.

Overall, the description had me thinking this was perhaps an overly ambitious project that could have either worked incredibly, or epically failed. Despite the issues they had with the bottled version, I say what I tasted was very good, and certainly not a failure, but a bit underwhelming after what I've been anticipating for months since originally hearing about the changes to the recipe.

I had a second glass, making sure I got my fill since these wont be seen in bottles in 2010, and then I rode my bike back home to relax and recoup for work tomorrow.

This past week in the beer cave.

2010-06-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

I've been slow to update this journal of my life in beer, but enough has been happening over the past week or so that it's time for another post.

Last week we had a friend in from southern California who came to the cave to do a little beer tasting. His contributions were a double IPA home brew of his that just won best beer at the orange county fair, and some Lost Abbey Framboise de Amorosa. I contributed my liter bottle of Roots Flanders Red and a bottle of Fred from the Wood. The other guests brought a bottle of Upright Four Play and Cherry Adam from the wood. My thoughts:

The home brew IIPA was very tasty, and worthy of commercial success, but I've fallen so out of love with the style over the past year or so that it was still tough for me to get excited about it.

The Lost Abbey Framboise de Amorosa was a first try for me. After getting it nice and chilly in the top of my beer fridge (in attempt to control the gushing), we carefully opened the bottle over a pitcher to catch the infamous amorosa geyser of foam. The bottle nearly poured itself completely out as carbonated froth, but we caught it all and allowed it to settle in the pitcher before splitting it into glasses. This beer is thick and chunky with the pulp of berries. More of a meal in appearance than a drink. Upon my first taste, I was in love with the unique fruity tartness that was unlike any lambic or fruit beer I've ever tasted before. When I went back in for another taste, my experience diminished, and continued to do so for the remainder of my glass. The best way I can describe the experience was taking a sip of chunky beer that tasted of rotting vegetables. As this flavor faded, the tartness and essence of the berries came through, which was really delightful; yet hard to enjoy while the memory of decaying greens was so fresh in my mind. I've never experienced such a drastic swing of flavors from one beer in my life. I wanted to love this one, and there were certain parts of it that were fantastic for me, but between the carbonation issues, the chunky consistency, and the opening flavors of decaying salad, it was ultimately a let down. If someone could harness the better parts of this beer and correct it's flaws, it would be among my favorite sour beers out there. The parts of this beer that were on were amazing, but it didn't stand up as a total package.

I was really excited to open my Roots Flanders Red, as I've been sitting on it for a couple of years, and have always looked forward to opening it. When I first tried this beer, I had just gotten into sour styles and I remember really enjoying it. The last time I tried some was roughly a year ago at Belmont Station, at puckerfest if I recall correctly. I thought it was as good or better than I remembered it being fresh, which was a relief to me because I had been sitting on the bottle, and had heard murmurs that it was most likely past its prime. Now, a year after that last tasting, I still enjoyed it very much. Admittedly, my pallet has matured since I started drinking my first sour styles, and I've certainly had plenty of sour beers in the mean time that I've enjoyed more, and I know the general consensus for this one was that is was "average, but good for their first attempt at a flanders red", but I'll go ahead and say it: I think this one was a really good beer. Good enough to buy several more of if I were to ever see them again. Our out of town guest suggested that despite its age, it tasted like a young flanders red, and I could see where he's coming from. There was room for more flavor development, regardless of whether it could be realistically expected at this point, but over all, it tasted as I think it should have. Better than some of the current actual belgian offerings, not as good as others. I think it held it's own against a lot of it's american counterparts, and was significantly more true to style than at least a few recent local attempts at the style (I'm looking at you michael).

The upright was another treat. I've had a few of these since the bottle release at the upright anniversary party. Fresh, it was good, but the extra months in the bottle have really made a difference. It definitely seems to have gotten a little more tart and funky, and that what I really wanted to taste happen on this one.

There's not much to say about the Fred from the Wood and the Cherry Adam, they were fantastic as usual.

This morning, I was awake early and found myself searching the word "beer" on craigslist. A listing came up for the final days of an estate sale that I had seen advertised on the site before. It started at 8:00 am today, and I spotted some things on the shelves I though I might be interested in on the listing, so I got in my car and made the drive out into east portland. The guy running the sale said he needed to have the house empty by the first of the month, so he was really motivated to move everything. I poked around and haggled a bit, and came out with the following stuff for a fraction of the price that it would have cost in a thrift store (if I could find any of it there).

I got three functioning light-up signs: Stroh's on tap, It's Miller Time, and a neat old coors globe. I also snagged a little square framed coors mirrored sign, a few old tap handles, a little stack of vintage henry weinhard stickers, an old lucky lager stubby, and my favorite purchase of the day, an AB/budweiser wooden beer crate, in perfect condition from 1976 - the 100th anniversary of the founding of the company.

I got back to the house with my trunk full of goodies before my wife even got out of bed. It was a successful mission.

There were several other signs and beer related goodies that I had my eye on, and I've decided to go back on Sunday, the last day of the sale, to see what's left (and how much he's come down on price in the mean time).

I didn't pay more than $5 for any of the items I got today, but he had other stuff I got the impression had more sentimental value to him, as they were priced closer to what you'd expect to pay for them on ebay. We'll see how much he's willing to budge when his only alternative is to pack the items up, and move them into storage.

my first year hops!

2010-06-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

As I indicated in my last post, I noticed some hops for sale at Fred Meyer the other day when I was grocery shopping, and I decided that since so little effort was involved to acquire them, that this would be the year I'd finally start growing my own. I picked up four plants total, and planted two in my front yard to cascade over the entrance of the beer cave (garage, for the uninitiated), and two in the backyard, to make a big bushy wall of hops along my south facing fence line. Since Sunday (when I planted them), each has grown about a foot in length. I pruned off all but one shoot on each to help the plants concentrate on healthy root growth, but I'm still optimistic about what's going on above ground. Even if I don't get much (any?) flowering, it will be nice to see everything grow.

I'm posting some pictures of the freshly planted hops now for myself to look back on later in the year.

These two are in the front. The one on the left will grow over my bedroom window, and the one on the right will grow over the entrance to the garage. Both are planted along a south facing wall, but these miss out on early morning sun due to the house blocking the eastern light.

These are the ones in the back. The plan is to grow the one on the left to the top of the fence, and then train it sideways on some twine. The one on the right will go sideways from the top of it's post (which I made from some signs northwest natural never picked up after they ran gas to my house from the street), to run along under the other one. Hopefully, this will make a nice bushy wall of hops.

I posted this one in particular for King C, who I don't know and who probably has never read my blog, but who has served me many beers, and I've read is a fan of not only beer, but also growing hops, and furry cats.

Fred Meyer - HOPS

2010-06-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was at Fred Meyer the other day, and when I was walking by the garden section on my way into the store, a group of potted plants caught my eye... hops! In the past, when I've considered growing my own hops at the house, it seemed like the only places I had seen the plants for sale were from specialty stores on the internet (which were often out of stock), or a few listings on craigslist. If they were slightly more available (meaning I could still be incredibly lazy and get some), I probably would have some growing by now.

I was with family, and in a rush, so I didn't look to see what varieties they were carrying, or how much they were charging, but the pots contained 3 or 4 foot long, nice leafy bines, ready to go.

As much of an Oregon homer as I am, I'm inclined to think that finding hop plants for sale in a grocery store must be a pretty northwest-only type thing, but maybe I'm wrong. In any case, it's fitting in beervana.

Roscoe's Belgian Beer Summit

2010-05-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little slow on the deer drinking front in this household lately. My parents, my wife's parents, and her brother's family are all coming in from out of town tomorrow, so I've been spending more time behind things like landscaping and house cleaning equipment than I've spent behind a pint.

Tonight however, I plan on drinking some beer.

I was checking out the southeast portland neighborhood guide that's in the Mercury right now, and an ad that said "Belgian Beer Summit" caught my eye. The event is being held at a place called Roscoe's, and the address puts it a block off of SE 82nd ave, in Montavilla. I've never been to Roscoe's, so I looked it up on yelp. Sounds like a recent remodel, and a new focus on higher end craft beers has really changed people's opinions of the place. Looking over some of the reviews, I noticed people had mentioned having beers like the Abyss, Jubel 2010, and Supplication there in the past few months. Impressive!

I looked on Oregonbeer.org to try to dig up a bit more info, and this is what I found:

Belgian Beer Summit
05/28/10
Roscoe’s
8105 SE Stark
inPDX
503-255-0049
Indica Belgae from Fort George, Diablato from HUB, a belgian style ale from Cascade Brewing + some from Belgium, Chambly, Ft. Collins and Santa Rosa.

So it sounds like some Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers leftovers, probably something sour from Cascade, a few actual belgian beers, something from unibroue maybe, some New Belgium stuff, and Santa Rosa has to be Russian River, I'd think. Maybe another american wild ale? I know it's not really belgian styled, but what else would they use?

Sure, it clearly isn't the most authentic "Belgian Beer Summit" line-up that I can think of, but it certainly sounds good enough to get me off my ass to try a new place.

Trading and Pedouins in Astoria!

2010-05-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I drove out to Astoria to meet some friends that had come up the coast on a cruise. They had been planning the trip for a few months, and we had decided since they were going to be up here anyway, that it might be a great time for a beer trade!

I met them at their ship around 11:00am, where I received my precious cargo:

Struise Pannepot Wild 2008

Lost Abbey Angel's Share Grand Cru

Lost Abbey Angel's Share Brandy 2009

Lost Abbey Red Poppy

Valley Brewing Old Inventory

My friends were only in Astoria for a couple of hours, so from there we immediately made our way into town and checked out Astoria Brewing, where I had a Bitter Bitch, and the friends had a few sampler trays. Then we went over to Fort George, where I had a procrastinator dopplebock, a working girl porter, and a supplication, which was on one of the guest taps (the other guest tap was Life and Limb). As time dwindled for everyone to get back to the boat, we returned to the port and I saw everyone off.

As luck would have it, I had another friend that was in town on business, and just finishing up, so back to Fort George I went. The first thing I saw upon my return was a bicycle built for five out front; the Pedouins! I had read about these guys in the news, and even checked out their blog a few times to check on their status on the road. What a fantastic trip! The family of five set out from Kentucky and has been riding around the country on their way up to Alaska for the winter. I talked to Bill, the father, a bit about the trip, and learned that they had already gone over 5300 miles. We talked bikes a bit, and Bill shared some interesting observations from the road. He asked what I did for a living, and I told him; to which he replied: "oh thank god, you work for living. I have to be careful how I say this... but it seems the further west we've come, the less people actually... well there's a lot of people working for the government or non-profits...". My friend conducted an interview with the youngest daughter about her thoughts on the trip. She informed him that sometimes she gets tired of riding a bike, and her favorite part of the trip so far has been the chipmunks.

Before they headed off towards Washington, Bill said that out of all the states they had been, Oregon had the most interesting, diverse, and welcoming people that they had encountered. Sure Bill, you probably tell that to all the states!

After wishing everyone a great trip, we went back inside, where I had a Cavatica Stout, and a Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale, before heading back home.

Neat day!

Fred Fest 2010

2010-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended my second Fred Fest and checked out the new Hair of the Dog brewery and tasting room for the first time. The fest was a lot of fun, and being able to check out the new space was an extra bonus.

I got down to the brewery a bit early to secure a good spot in line, and was glad that I did. The line got pretty long by the time the doors opened, and I was already on my second glass of beer when my friend finally made it in from further back in the line.

After I got my glass and raffle tickets, I made my way over to the bar for a pour of Cherry Fred from the Wood. A delicious beer! While this fresh, the cherries were very dominant, but I could see the fruit mellowing out a bit with additional aging to really let the Fred come back through. Still, even with the overbearing cherry presence, this was delicious, and it had me thinking about the last time I enjoyed a Cherry Adam (one of my favorites!). I'm really not sure which I prefer, but I felt like the Fred was a bit more drinkable. I could easy finish a 12 oz pour on my own, where I feel the Cherry Adam is best split with a friend or two. From the Cherry Fred, I joined the line in the back of the brewery for a pour of the Wild Duck Old Gnarley Head 2003 barley wine. I think this was a very nice beer, which mellowed out and softened up well with the age. It was a bit oxidized and had some metallic qualities, but it was very enjoyable none-the-less. Two more barley wines followed. First, barrel aged son of old yeller, and then a 1998 full sail old boardhead. The son of old yeller was as delicious and caramelly as I remembered from the barley wine and big beer festival, but for me the 1998 old boardhead really stole the show out of the first four barley wines I sampled. I'd also go as far as saying it was one of my favorites all night. Over the course of the rest of the evening, I tried several more beers:

barley brown's - cherry wood-smoked rye whiskey. This one I really liked. I heard a lot of people complain that it was a bit TOO smokey, but I'd drink bacon if I could, so it was right up my alley.
Bend Brewing's - Rocksy Stein Lager. Not as smokey and sweet as I would have expected from the description, but maybe that's just because I let this one follow the Barley Brown's.
Bridgeport - Fallen Friar 2008. Meh.
Cascade - The Vine 2010. Delicious. I actually had this one twice over the course of the night to help cut through the sticky malt coating that had developed in my mouth from all the barley wines. This was also one of my favorites of the night. Really nicely soured, and the white wine grape juice added a really nice refreshing clean and lightly sweet finish that kept me wanting to go back for more. I had to restrain myself to make sure everyone else had a chance or two to get a taste.
Deschutes - Wood aged double black. I thought this one was overly sweet, lost a lot of the flavor I love black butte for, and was my least favorite of the imperial black butte varieties I've had the chance to try.
Firestone Walker - Parabola. I followed my wood aged double black with this one and thought it was clearly superior. The nice roasty bitter finish really stood out and made this a more enjoyable brew. I thought even this fresh, that the alcohol was masked reasonably well, but I think this is one that would be a lot better with more time on it. I look forward to the bottle release later this month.
Oregon Trail - SoboChePo. This one was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. The first thing I could think of when I tried it was the bells/de proef van twee - in that this is what I had hoped that one would have tasted like. I still have some van twee, which I haven't tried since last PIB, I'm optimistic that the flavors will have developed a bit since then.
Rogue - John John Juniper. Meh.
Roots - Epic Ale 2006. This is the third variety of Epic I've had over the last couple of months. I started with an 08 around the holidays, then at the barley wine and big beer fest I had the three year blend dubbed Epic Surprise, and now I had the unblended 06. This was another great one. It left me wondering though where some of the flavors I detected in the Epic Surprise came from. The 2006 tasted a lot like a mellowed 08 to me, and I didn't pick up any of the stouty/chocolaty flavors I noticed in the blend. Must have been a different year.

While all the great brews were the highlight of the day for me, there was a lot more going on that I really enjoyed. Getting to check out the new brewery was great. I think this place has the potential to be the best new brew pub in the city. The first thing I noticed was that the "tasting room" is huge compared to my expectations for it. This place isn't going to just be a couple of stools surrounded by stacks of barrels; it's the size of a large bar or restaurant. Although the late afternoon sun was blinding through the west facing windows, the tasting room had a surprisingly good view of downtown. As the sun set, the city lights brightened in the darkened sky. This will be a great view to enjoy with some dinner and beer. With so much work left to be done, it's still hard to really figure out what the finished plans for the space will include, and I don't want to speculate too much, but the space is beautiful and has a lot of potential, and if they can craft the space as well as they can craft a beer, it's sure to be a hit.

I finished the night off by winning a prize in the auction. I handed over my ticket and ended up with a Kwak glass and stand from Belgium, which will make a great addition to my collection of breweriana. Ironically, my winning ticket was the free one that was included with admission. The handful I paid extra for ended up being duds!

Anyway, I can't imagine a more enjoyable way to give to charity. Fred Fest is always one of my favorite days all year.

Getting excited for another Fred Fest.

2010-05-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

After attending my first Fred Fest last year, I've been getting really amped up about attending my second round on Monday night. I've been checking the beer list regularly to see what I should expect, and it looks like the list has settled to the final line-up. While there were a lot of beers that I immediately recognized, there were also many that I was unfamiliar with, so I did a little digging to prepare myself for the fest. Below is a list of beers, accompanied by descriptions (when I could find them) that I yanked from all over.

* Toby Day's 2003 Wild Duck Brewing Auld Gnarley Head Barley Wine

In 2003 this beer won GOLD for Barleywine style Ale at GABF. This is the same Gold Medal winning batch, aged for 7 years.

* Barley Browns Brew Pub -Cherry wood Smoked Rye whiskey

* Bend Brewing Company - Rocksy Stein Lager

A collaboration between lost abbey and bend brewing. In order to achieve the candy sweetness and smoky aftertaste this brew exhibits, the brewers used an old school brewing method of super heating 300 pounds of basalt rocks and adding it to the barrels.

* BridgePort Brewing Company - Firkin 2008 Fallen Friar

A two year wood aged version of bridgeport's 08 belgian style tripel.

* Cascade Brewing Company - The Vine 2010

This Northwest Style Sour Ale is a blend of soured Triple, Blonde Quad and Golden ales that have been refermented with the fresh pressed juice of white wine grapes. The beer spent more than six months of lactic fermentation and aging in small oak barrels. 9.2% ABV

* Deschutes Brewery - Wood Aged Double Black

We took our original flagship beer and did it two times over. We created a beer that has all the Black Butte Porter characteristics but also has some new flavor nuances intermingled with the standard. As an added bonus we aged this beer in Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. This Imperial Porter is sure to excite the senses. IBUs: 56 ; ABS: 10.3%

* Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom - Cask Empire Strikes Back

This is a cask conditioned english style india pale ale that comes in at 6.2% abv

* Firestone Walker Brewing Company - Parabola

Parabola is a bold imperial stout. "Parabola has been a major component of past anniversary blends and is one of our most aggressive offerings. This beer features bold bourbon and tobacco aromas and a rich dark chocolate, charred oak flavor. Parabola is best enjoyed in moderation and is a perfect beer to pair with those chocolate dessert favs." 13% abv.

* Full Sail Brewing Company - Barrel aged Old Boardhead 1998 - then - 1999

11 and 12 year aged versions of full sail's barley wine, described as: "A deliciously rich barleywine that has spectacular depth and delicacy of flavor that is deep and robust. Its strong, sweet body is balanced with Centennial and Crystal hops for a pleasant hoppiness and finish. ABV 9% IBU 91"

* Hair of the Dog Brewing Company - Cherry Fred from the wood

As far as I can tell, this is the first time this beer has ever been available. The description tells the story.

* Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) - Organic Rad keller

* Laurelwood Brewing Company - Altenberg Smoked Pilsner

Drinking a pint of Altenburg Lager translocates oneself to the northern Bavarian town of Bamberg, the origin of smoked beer. Shy of a passport, plane ticket and layover in Amsterdam, this beer is as close as a Portlander can get to Bamberg style lagers. Using pilsener, munich and beechwood smoked malts produced in the town of Bamberg, and brewed by a Bamberg trained brewer, one sip of this carefully crafted lager will teleport you and your taste buds to the bier gardens of one of the oldest beer traditions in Germany. No doubt Beethoven, while composing his glorious ninth symphony, was drinking smoked bier.

* Lucky Labrador Brewing Company - Barrel aged Son of Old Yeller

Can't remember the full story behind this one, other than the original recipe was an accident, and that the resulting product was awesome. I had this at the lucky lab barley wine and big beer fest, and considered it one on my favorites. Very caramely and delicious.

* McMenamins -( Fulton St. ) - The Monkey Puzzle Triple

* Midnight Sun Brewing Company - 3767

Belgian-style IPA
with Brettanomyces
8.0 % Alcohol By Volume
70 International Bittering Units (IBUs)

The extensive distance between two breweries on the West Coast – 3767 miles – is bridged by this collaboration beer. Brewers Gabe Fletcher of Midnight Sun Brewing Company [Anchorage, AK] and Colby Chandler of Ballast Point Brewing Company [San Diego, CA] designed and brewed an exciting representation of their passions: hops, Belgian yeast, oak aging and Brettanomyces.

Just prior to the Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Fest in JAN 2009, Gabe and Colby brewed a West Coast-worthy IPA at Midnight Sun Brewing Company. This hop-centric beer became the jumping-off point for other intense flavors. During its course to completion, 3767 was affected by three different yeast strains--including Brettanomyces, aged for several months in French oak Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, and then bottle- and keg-conditioned."

* New Belgium Brewing Company The Trip # V

Trip V, conceived by New Belgium brewer Andy Sturm, is a mahogany colored brown ale with vanilla, cherries and cocoa. 8.5 abv%, full-bodied with a hint of sweetness and a lingering cherry/cocoa finish.

* New Old Lompoc Brewery - Flamingo

"our Condor Pale Ale fermented with 35 lbs of sour cherries in a wine barrel and aged for three months"

* Ninkasi Brewing Company - PK - N'ICE

malt liquor

* Oregon Trail Brewing - Smoke Signal

Another rendition of traditional german rauchbier. This one is 7.3%

* Rock Bottom Brewery - Maude Flanders

Rock Bottom Portland's take on a flanders red. I remember this one being intense, sweet, weird, acetone from puckerfest last year.

* Rogue Ales - John John Juniper

Rogue Juniper Pale Ale aged in Rogue Gin barrels.

* Roots Organic Brewing - 2006 Epic Ale

This vintage was the second year that roots made the epic ale. "Epic starts not with the brew kettle, but earlier, when the Roots men smoke 55 pounds of Munich malt in a smoker of their own creation ("a special stainless perforated contraption"). The fuel for the fire is cherry wood that has been soaked in 18-year-old Glenlivet, cognac, rum, as well as cherries. They spend a week smoking the malt, hand turning 3-pound batches every 15 minutes for four hours. They use a massive amount of malt to brew the beer, resulting in a 14%, 80 IBU monster ale."

* Stone Brewing - Imperial Russian Stout / Old Guardian

Beers that need no introduction. I'm assuming this is two different beers, and not a blend of the two.

* Widmer Brothers Brewing Company - 8409 25th anniversary Double Alt 2008

"84/09 is basically a double-strength version of their famous and pub-only Altbier, the first beer they brewed and what was notorious, in the early days, for being the “only true Alt” brewed outside of Dusseldorf, Germany (at least, according to some aficionados). It’s 9.8% alcohol by volume."

Apex Bar, Portland

2010-04-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I rode my bike down to Apex for my first chance to check out the newly opened bar.

It's still a little unfinished and rough around the edges at this point, but I see a lot of potential in this place.

The bar is split up into four distinct areas:

Front Patio/Beer Garden - Behind the super long bike rack that separates the patio from Division, there's a large open area with a few long rows of wooden picnic tables as outdoor seating. The view from out front is of the busy 12th/division intersection, and makes for good people watching. I imagine when the mercury inches up a few more degrees, and the clouds start retreating for the season, both the bike rack and the patio will be in high demand.

Front Bar - The first section of the building that you enter into is open and airy with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. There are two large overhead doors that open to the patio, which do a nice job of bringing the outside in. There's a large flat screen behind the bar for entertainment (clips of bike crashes yesterday), and another one on the back wall that displays the current tap list. This is one of the little details that Apex has focused on that starts to separate them from the Portland beer bar pack. The nicely organized tap list is easy to read and promises to always be up to date. No messy chalkboards or confusing printed lists with scribble all over them. The monitor lists the beer, brewery, glass size (apex serves in many sizes beyond pint/glass) and price. On top of this, the list is live on their website. No more outdated lists and question about which kegs might have blown, or which of the "soon to pour" or "on deck" beers might have taken their place. In a place that will be turning over beers frequently, a website tap list that's updated once a week or less is insufficient, and sorting through tweets to find revisions is annoying. The system that Apex has in place is really nice, and it appears exactly as it does at the bar on your computer screen. Other than the two monitors, a few tables, and a row of stools at the bar, the only other stand out feature of the front bar are the shelves that have been installed along the back wall and in between the front overhead doors which are provided as a place for customers to store their bike helmets upon entering. Otherwise, the space is pretty bare bones and industrial in feel, with painted cinder block walls, exposed conduit, and sparse decor.

Pinball Room - Along side the front bar is a dark side room containing pinball machines, as well as the bar's ATM and change vending machines. Apex is cash only, and the on site ATM charges $3 per transaction, but the bar will refund $2 off your first drink if you show them your receipt. Neat features of the pinball room include mirrors suspended over the machines so can watch the action on the machines other people are playing, as well as lit tables between the machines to hold your beer.

Back Bar - The long bar that starts in the front room of Apex continues past the tap list monitor and into a narrow back area, which contains another large flat screen panel, a wall of taps, and a few coolers which will eventually fill up with bottles. At the moment, the selection is relatively high end, but limited, which I'm sure will change over the next couple of weeks or so. On the long wall opposite the bar, there is a full length shelf, wide enough to put your beer on, that's held up with rows of hook shaped supports for hanging bags. The back wall is adorned with a mural of a forest scene which helps to warm up the space and make it less claustrophobic.

This is a small bar that becomes large when it's opened to the patio out front. The patio is going to be money for sun worshipers this summer; the back bar is a nice cozy space to retreat to from the sun or the rain; and the front bar is a nice hybrid space that does a good job of transitioning one space into the other. I wont get any use out of the pinball room, but I know there will be a lot of people in this town that will.

The tap list was limited to about 30 beers to start, but I've heard claims that the list will be bumped up to 50 soon. I enjoyed a new belgium Eric's Ale, and a Hopworks Galactic Imperial Red. The rest of the list was pretty solid, and can be viewed here.

Apex does not have a kitchen, which opens up your food options to anything you can bring in or have delivered, and it will allow Apex to devote all their attention to the beer. Los Gorditos is right next door and delicious, so I'm sure it will become a popular option. It would be nice if they could work out an arrangement like Bailey's has with the mexican place across the street from them, which would include delivery service to the bar. We'll see.

Overall, I'm happy about the addition of Apex to the neighborhood. It feels a bit unfinished and rough around the edges right now, but that's to be expected so early in the game. It's a nice space, in a good location, with plenty of potential. Once they work out the kinks, finish a few projects here and there, and maybe add a bit more decor to warm up the place, I could see Apex going from good to great.

expensive mistake - partridge in a pear tree.

2010-04-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to sort through all of my bottles and make a list of what I had. While I was opening cabinets and clearing shelves, I organized everything by style and made a list. Everything was going well, and I felt good about the order I was putting to this part of my life.

Until I felt myself bump into something, and then I heard that something go "ting, TING" on the concrete floor. I looked at the floor and a 750ml bottle was spinning and bouncing around, glass intact, but cap leaking frothy beer foam all over.

I went into a panic as I thought about all the possible bottles it could be. I reached down and grasped the gusher, turned the label to the front, and realized the worst had happened: my only partridge in a pear tree had busted loose.

Now there are plenty of other beers in my collection that I was more excited about drinking, but after what I've witnessed with the ever growing hype over the Bruery's christmas series, this was a bottle I had hoped to make a couple of bucks on, either as a complete series, or as the single bottle that someone needed to complete theirs. I've babied it since it's acquisition, and this certainly wasn't how I pictured us parting ways.

For a brief moment, I thought about melting candles down to make a wax seal to preserve what was left, but too much had escaped, and I knew I had to face the facts. This bottle was done for.

So I did the only thing I could do. I grabbed a glass, pulled the cap the rest of the way off, and poured off the remainder of it's contents to quaff.

While I can still say that I thoroughly regret this bottle's early demise at the will of my clumsy hands - from a financial standpoint - as a drinker of craft beer, I was somewhat relieved at my first sip. Even after a year and half, this thing was thick, syrupy, sweet, and boozy in the most cloying way possible. Picture a hot, thick, poorly attenuated hard cider with an overwhelming dose of cinnamon and ground raisin, and you've got the general idea of what I'm talking about. Drinkability? Forget it. Now, I never thought this was a beer that was made for one person to have a 750 of, but I had a hard time finishing my first gulp, and there's really no amount of time I can see that would correct the errors in this brew.

It was only the second beer I felt compelled to review on Beer Advocate, and after going through their rating system, I still ended up at a "B"; but the prices this beer has already gone for, and the prices I'm sure it will eventually go for, will never be justified by it's contents.

Anyway, it was a bummer on multiple accounts. My chances of accumulating the vertical at normal retail price have evaporated, and beyond that, it just wasn't that good.

the weekend/pannepot wild

2010-04-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I noticed that Struise added Pannepot Wild to their web store. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to grab a bottle, (of course I WANTED to, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the cash to have it shipped from Belgium), but I mentioned the listing to a friend, who ended up buying two, one of which he says he's putting aside for me, so I guess it really worked out. The friend is from California, where they haven't had Cantillon distribution in over a year, so I decided to try to get a good bottle or two up here for trade. Here's the commercial description from the Struise website:

"Back in 2008, Urbain had the idea to age some Pannepot on wild yeast strains. As this was yet another of his crazy experiments, the risk was calculated and minimalized to an amount of 450 litres of Pannepot that was used on 2 barrels only. French red wine oak barrels were used were from Chateau Tour Baladoz, a superb Saint Emilion Grand Cru. Urbain used these barrels before to age Earthmonk and he has huge faith in the owner of the vineyard. After 2 years of peaceful aging, Alex from Brasserie 4:20 in Rome came by, and he did not want to leave without buying at least one barrel of beer at the brewery. Urbain cried when he had to prepare one of his barrels for shipment. Then he decided to bottle the other barrel, so he could start all over again."

After work, I swung by the Beer Mongers. I was on the hunt for some Cantillon, but they were out until Thursday, so I decided to see what I could pick up at new seasons. On my way over, I noticed a group of guys standing in front of the open overhead door at the newly built Apex bar, so I coasted over to check on the status of the place. Jesse said that beers weren't pouring quite yet, but was hopeful that they'd get going by the middle or end of next week. From the street, this looks like it's going to be a really great place to hang out this summer, and I can't wait to get inside. Out front is probably Portland's largest bike rack. It will be neat to see it fill up this summer.

At New Seasons, I picked up a couple Cantillon Gueuze, and an Alesmith Speedway stout, and then made by way back to the house, where I had one gueuze, and then moved onto a Pelican Wee Heavy, before calling it a night.

The next day was a sunny Sunday, and I had off from work, so I worked on a couple of projects around the house, mowed the lawn, got some sun, and sipped some brews. At the house, I had a Caldera IPA and a bottle of Hopworks Ace of Spades, before heading out to meet a friend for a little east side patio crawl.

At Rontoms, I kept up on my Upright consumption, and enjoyed the last bits of sun out back with a four, and another bottle of Flora Rustica. Then it was off the Migration Brewing, where I grabbed a Ft. George Oatmeal Pale, and then finally the East Burn, where I finished the night off with the day's only non-oregon beer, a great divide yeti that just sounded too good to go with my Gorgonzola bacon burger (another one of the east side's finest).

It was a great weekend.

My name is Jeff, and I have a problem.

2010-04-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

According to Alcoholscreening.org, my drinking habits may be negatively affecting my general health, and I should talk to a doctor or counselor about them.

"Your answers suggest that your current drinking is likely harmful to your health based on the amount you said you drink each week.

The USDA recommends that males drink no more than 14 drinks per week. This questionnaire cannot tell you for certain if alcohol use is harming your health. We recommend that you talk to your doctor or counselor about how alcohol may be affecting you.

Many of us think our drinking is like everyone else’s. In fact, less than 8% of the general adult American population and 12% of males drink more drinks each week than you told us you drink."

88% of males need to get involved.

hopworks ACE OF SPADES

2010-04-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

I swung by Hopworks today for lunch and grabbed a couple of bottles of Ace of Spades while I was there. It's a great beer, but what really stood out for me when I got the bottles was the great packaging. Hopworks always has great looking products, but this bottle is special. Mainly, when you look inside the bottle at the right angle, while holding it up to the light, there's a skull with an ace on it's forehead that's only visible on the inside... an "easter egg" if you will.

I tried to take some pictures of it, but my bottles are full right now. It's easier to see in an empty.

enjoying the fruits of beer advocacy.

2010-04-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

I'm pulling a double at the store today. I came in at 11:00, worked a normal (busy) Saturday, and then closed a bit after 7:00 to get some dinner and a beer or two before coming back to take care of a couple of projects that I've been neglecting for a while.

I walked next door to Rontom's and grabbed a burger (one of the best in town, by the way), and took a look over the beer list. Immediately, I noticed two improvements; Upright Four on tap, and Flora Rustica in bottles. I grabbed a couple pints of Four with dinner, and took a Flora Rustica back to the store with me when I was done.

As nice as it was to just have each available next door, finding the two on the beer list was extra rewarding because I knew how they ended up there.

A month or two ago, I had Ron (Toms) over for dinner, and as usually happens when I have guests over, I pulled a couple of bottles out of the garage for a little tasting. I asked Ron what kind of beers he was feeling like, and he mentioned saisons (he carries saison dupont in the bar). I pulled out a boulevard saison brett, and an upright flora rustica. He was really impressed with the flora rustica, and I encouraged him to check out the brewery, do some tastings, and pick up a couple beers for the bar. A few weeks later, I talked to him, and he said he had been to the brewery and met with Alex, and had decided to start carrying some of the Upright beers for the summer.

So tonight, I'm on hour ten (of who knows how many) at the shop, organizing inventory; but the extra hours are going down pretty easy due to a little beer tasting I hosted a month ago, and the fact that it resulted in some upright flowing next door.

pendants

2010-04-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

I found a vintage table top dice game that fits perfectly on the coffee (beer?) table in the garage. This was the final bit of motivation I needed to make the beer bottle pendant lights that I've been saving bottles for all this time. These two were cheap prototypes, with thrift store lights that I threw together to see how they'd look, but I really like the way they turned out. I might start making nicer ones with standardized hardware, and put them in the store.

blazers beer

2010-04-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

(look at the handsome guy in the gray hat in this oregonlive.com photo)

The other day I was blessed with a free ticket to the Blazers/Knicks game at the rose garden. I say "blessed" because it turned out to be a court-side VIP ticket right behind Kevin Pritchard, which I didn't realize until right before the game started.

The neat thing about the good seats is the beer service. No more missing key moments of the game due to long lines at the concession stands. While it was tempting to feel a bit disappointed by the beer selection, i sucked it up and spent the night drinking long hammer IPA's, and recalling the beer selections (and prices) at other major league stadiums I've been too.

I'd take tap water with that seat, so the long hammer was a welcome addition over the rest of the macro swill.

hopworks

2010-04-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

I stopped by hopworks today because I had read that the new Gigabit IPA would be available to check out, and because the ancho chicken sandwich listed in their latest newsletter sounded really good.

I stopped by after work and it was PACKED. I had to stand in the bar for a good 20 minutes or more and aggressively swoop in on a freshly vacated stool to secure my place at the bar. Once I did, I ordered the sandwich and eventually made my way through a gigabit, an ace of spades, and a galactic imperial red.

The ace of spades was pretty great as always, and the galactic red exceeded my expectations, and probably took my top prize for the night. I thought the Gigabit was delicious, although not dissimilar from my recollection of their crosstown pale. I wish I had taken a sample of the pale to compare it too. The hops were delicious and prominent, but the malty backbone that everything else was built on really defined this beer.

The chicken sandwich was among the best meals I've ever ordered at hopworks, and I hope it becomes a regular option.

Before I left, I picked up a neat collectible for the beer cave. I think I have every bottle Hopworks has put out at this point, including the bike beer and the secession with the flag of cascadia still intact. I look forward to many more!

farewell to lowenbrau

2010-03-27T08:15:00.001-07:00

I remember reading a few months ago that AB-Inbev had decided to discontinue distributing a couple of their beers to the US, including Lowenbrau, Leffe Brown, and Tennent's. I had forgotten about the change until talking to a friend with a bar last night. He mentioned that his distributor told him it was time to make his final order of Lowenbrau. Admittedly, the last time I can remember drinking any of those beers was when I had a couple from the Lowenbrau brewery when I was in Munich (nearly a year ago now), so it's not like it's going to change my drinking habits much. Still, it's kind of sad to see such an iconic brand disappear from our shelves.

Time to pick up a sixer for old time's sake!

(sadly, the only photo I managed to take inside the lowenbrau brewery, and it's primarily of a glass of water...)

the beer cave... in print?

2010-03-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today I received an email from a guy that saw pictures that I posted a year or so ago online of my garage. He's writing a book on "man caves" and wanted to do an interview, and possibly use some pictures of my beer cave. I agreed, and he's going to get in touch with me tomorrow with a couple of questions. The pictures he had seen were very out of date, and I haven't posted anything on here in a long time that wasn't shot with a camera phone, so I took these this evening and forwarded them over. I'll know more about the book and everything tomorrow I guess.

what a tourist!

2010-03-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Me in the English Gardens in Munich:

I'm looking through my notes to pull together a review of my time in Munich. The memories are foggy.

If Portland spends $600 million on the bike plan,

2010-03-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

I hope we get one of these!

My home computer crashed, which has caused me to make sure I have everything important backed up before I reformat it. Going through old photos has been fun. This one is from my walk from Poperinge to In De Vrede.

St Patty's day!

2010-03-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

This time with more details and less drunkness!

Yesterday, I started my day by heading over to New Seasons, where I picked up some corned beef brisket and other ingredients to throw together a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's day. Along with the meat and produce, I swung down the beer isle to find that they were carrying cascade apricot at $16 a bottle, so I grabbed another one of those, along with a hopworks secession, and an oakshire o' dark:30. While prepping the meal and killing time before I headed over to Belmont Station for their Stout Patrick's day anniversary event, I enjoyed the oakshire bomber. To be honest, like any good wanna-be irishmen, I had far too many beers yesterday to accurately recall exactly what this one was like, but I seem to remember it being a bit sweeter, and with more roasted porter-like flavor than my my go-to CDA, the secession.

Once the beef was in like the slow cooker, I rode my bike over to Belmont Station and ordered my first glass. To start, I went with the Barley Brown's Ooga Nooga chocolate stout. It was my first time trying this one out, and I recall really enjoying it, and appreciating that the chocolate flavors were more restrained than the description suggested. Although I really like the Southern Tier Choklat for what it is, I usually still want my beer to taste like a beer, and this one did. After the Ooga nooga, I went for the mikeller beer geek breakfast. Again, this was a first for me, having only previously sampled the beer geek brunch weasel at PIB last year. This was probably my favorite of the day, but to be fair, all following beers suffered in my memory due to their place in line. After Beer Geek, I moved on to bear republic barrel aged baba yaga. I remember really enjoying this one at the Holiday Ale Fest, but not recognizing it as a stout at the time. In fact, I thought it tasted more like it was in the old ale realm. Anyway, this time was no different. Although I enjoyed this one again, I couldn't help but think it tasted a bit like acetone. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me, and that I perceived the heat from the booze, combined with some of the wood flavors and other layers of the beer to create this flavor, or if was due to a fault. I previously asked this question, and samurai artist gave me some good insight to flaws that could lead to what I perceived. Part of me wants to try it again, as the first beer of my day, to see if I can really pick it apart, but there were better beers on the tap list, that I'd probably prefer to revisit. From the baba yaga, I went with laurelwood moose and squirrel. I thought this one was really good, but I was getting fatigued at this point, so there's not much more to recall. Finally, I had a glass of the Oakshire barrel aged belgian golden, the collaborative evil'r. I thought this tasted a bit funky, but to be honest, who knows.

After returning to the house, I checked on the corned beef, which was looking and smelling delicious, and I added red potatoes and chopped carrots to the pot. When they were soft, I finally added the cabbage for the last 15 minutes to warm it up and soften it a bit before serving.

The food was delicious, and exactly what I needed after all those beers at belmont. Rallying, I split two more bottles to finish off the day. First, I went with a lost abbey cuvee de tomme; yet another first for me. I really enjoyed this one. I've read how it has kind of morphed from a belgian strong dark ale into a wild ale over time (at least in style designation on beeradvocate.com). Presumably from having this one so late in it's maturation, it was very difficult to believe it was ever classified as the former. This was sour, a bit bitter, tannic, and probably the closest a beer has ever tasted to red wine to me. It was very enjoyable, and I'm glad I have another bottle to enjoy again sometime in the future, but every time I try another hyped up sour beer from another brewery for the first time, it always makes me appreciate Cascade that much more.

To finish off the night, I enjoyed a glass of la folie, which was a nice contrast to the cuvee de tomme, and great note to end things on.

I was in bed shortly after.

belgium!

2010-03-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

When I got back from Europe, I wrote a lot about the trip in my other blog - with the intention of saving the best beer stuff for this one. After writing the first account, life got the best of me, and I never got around to reporting on one of the best beer vacations of my life. I'm going to try to make up for that now.

Without any further ado: West Flanders Belgium!

Last year, my wife and I traveled to Paris France to attend a wedding for one of her cousins and his new wife. She has a lot of family in Paris, and it was a great way to see the city for the first time - with friendly and welcoming locals! While Paris was a great first leg of the trip, and meeting so many great people from all over the world (france, england, germany, iran, columbia, other US states, etc...) was amazing, there wasn't much to report on the beer front when it comes to the French leg of my trip.

What I can say is that when thirsty in Paris, Academie de la biere and Horse's Tavern are two excellent choices for drinking Belgian beer. Anywhere else in town, and you'll be stuck drinking kronenburg. Oh, and pronounce it like bee-air, or the French will pretend they have no idea what you're talking about.

From our hotel in Paris, we took the bus to the train station. Luckily, I wrote down some train directions I had read on beeradvocate.com, because as it turns out, no one outside of the region (other than a beer geek) knows where Poperinge west flanders is. Putting my fate (and marriage?) blindly in the hands of the beer hunters that came before me, I ordered our tickets for Lille France. In Lille, they also didn't know anything about Poperinge, but they were familiar with the next station I was told to travel to: Kortrijk Belgium. Once in Kortrijk, Poperinge was finally a familiar destination, and we were able to hop our last train, which ran almost entirely through fields of hops in all directions, to the last stop on the line, Poperinge!

Poperinge is a great little town, and the hospitality here really astounded us. Our hotel was a few blocks from the train station, so we carried our bags up the street and checked in. We stayed at Hotel Recour, because when I tried to book a room online a few months before, it was the only place with a website that wasn't already booked. It also turned out to be the most expensive hotel in town, which was more than I wanted to spend, but the room was fantastic, and seeing it in person really seemed to justify the expense. When we entered the lobby, we were immediately greeted by a friendly host who (before we said anything) said "you must be the Kish's from America! Welcome!". She showed us to our room, and never asked for a credit card, ID, or anything else, before setting us free into town. That level of trust and hospitality really struck me at the time. Once in the room, we quickly changed and got ready for our first adventure in Belgium: the Westvleteren brewery and Cafe In De Vrede. From our hotel, we chose to walk to the abbey. The weather was the best we had encountered in Europe, and the scenery along the way made the walk even more enjoyable. Once out of town, the majority of the walk was through agricultural land. Again, mostly hops as well as some barley. This was a real beer destination for sure.

(on the way to the abbey)

The brewery is one of only seven trappist breweries in the world, and one of six in Belgium. Located in the Abbey de St. Sixtus, the brewery is off-limits to tourists, but Cafe In De Vrede (translated "in peace") lies just across the street, and serves the trappist products to locals and tourists alike. On this day, the cafe was full with what appeared to be mostly locals who had made the 4 mile drive into the countryside from town. We sat outside where we could enjoy the sun, and I immediately ordered a Westvleteren 12; a beer that needs no introduction. My wife ordered a Westvleteren Blond, and we shared a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The beers were served in branded chalice's, perfectly poured with thick and creamy heads reaching just over the tops of our glasses, yet they were so thick and tight, that they did not overflow. This was the stuff that dreams were made of. I could go on to review the beers, but nothing I could say could give a reader a better idea of what these beers are like fresh from the source. To describe this belgian quad would sound like the description of any quad coming from me, but I do believe this one stands above the rest in a way I'm not articulate enough to explain. After we finished these beers, we moved inside where I bought a few things from the gift shop and then joined my wife again at a table for a few more beers and a delicious local dessert: a hommelpaptart - which was a creamy desert made with hops and other locally grown ingredients. It was delicious! I had another 12, and finished with the Westvleteren 8, before we returned to town, both full and jolly.

(westvleteren 12 and hommelpaptart)

Back in town, we checked out a few of the local bars, all of which served an amazing number of Belgian beers, before turning in early to rest up for the following day.

One of the neat things about the town of Poperinge is how universal the town's pride is in it's beers and hop production. I like to think that Portland is a great town for the percentage of it's residents that appreciate a well made beer, but it's nothing compared to a town like Poperinge. The sidewalks are marked with brass plaques in the shape of a ripe hop cone. There are flags hanging over the streets with hops on them. In the town square, there is a hop museum. Going to a bar or restaurant in town with an extensive list of local beers isn't special, it's what's expected.

The next morning, when we got up, we looked outside to discover that there was a farmers market going on outside in the square. We walked around the market for a bit, buying some locally made belgian chocolates to bring back, before stopping in one of the local cafes for breakfast. The first thing that struck me about the cafe was that all the locals were drinking beer already! "When in Rome!" I thought, and started my morning with another quad. The sun was shining and I had a full itinerary planned, so I felt this was a good start to another great day.

(on the way to helleketel)

From the square, we walked west out of town towards our first stop of the day, Cafe Helleketel. One of the neat things about seeing the sights outside of Poperinge, is that once you reach each destination, it's generally one of the only buildings you can see in any direction, except for the steeples of each of the three churches in town, which serve as beacons over the hop fields and trees, guiding you back to town. Helleketel (the witches cauldron) is no exception. When we approached the cafe, we weren't sure if it was open. A small building that looked to be more than 100 years old, the cafe was nestled amongst fields of barley, next to a large swath of very dark and eerie forest that my wife was uncomfortable walking past. Indeed, the whole experience reminded me much of the scene in An American Werewolf in London, where the tourists are kicked out of the pub to walk through the mores alone, at night, where the beast lurked, looking for prey!

(cafe de helleketel)

The fact that the place was named after an instrument of witchcraft further fueled the fire, and we were almost relieved when it appeared to be closed. Then the top half of the heavy wooden door swung open, and we were beckoned inside but an older woman who would have looked comfortable stirring a cauldron herself. We entered the building, and the woman closed (and locked!) the door behind us. The entire inside of the pub was full of antique paintings, carvings, and other witch related ornaments. Besides the witch, there were some local farmers at one table, and another couple, who looked more urban, who were enjoying a couple of glasses of beer along with their two dogs, a giant doberman, and his mini-me, a min-pin.

Cafe De Helleketel has three house beers that are brewed for them by the Van Eecke brewery, each with a great label that alludes to it's contents. My favorite was a beer that was brewed with honey, that shows a drunk bee keeper passed out by his apiary with a jug in his hand. During our stay at this pub, our apprehensions were relieved both by the beer, but also by the extension of the same type of friendly and hospitable service we came to expect closer to town. The proprietor was hardly a witch, and we realized she played the part with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek. We also got to talking with the younger couple who turned out to be owners of a beer bar in Brugge, where they enthusiastically invited us to visit if we made our way east to their city. I explained that I had never seen a doberman with a long tail and floppy ears, and they explained that it's illegal to alter animals in Belgium, where they see the practice as a very cruel one. I must say, with the ears and tail, this huge doberman was hardly menacing, and I really appreciated their stance on cropping and docking; although it made me feel like I came from a pretty barbaric place.

From Helleketel, we walked to the St. Bernardus brewery. The brewery was closed, but we took some time to wander the grounds of the attached bed and breakfast, which was really fantastic. We were hoping we could see the inside of the building, and when we walked to the front door, we found that is was locked, but the key was in it. We let ourselves in and immediately entered into the St. Bernardus gift shop. There was a note on the counter explaining that no one was there, but if we needed anything, to call the attached phone number, and someone could be there in 20 minutes. Again, we were really amazed by the level of trust that people had in one another in this part of the world. We used the restroom and continued on our way, this time to the south, to a bottle shop I was dying to see.

To get to Noel Cuvelier, we walked south from St. Bernardus, across the border into France, and then east, back into Belgium, to the small border town of Abele. The store is located in one of the buildings of an active farm and farm supply store. Walking onto the property, we were surrounded by ducks and geese and chickens, and I was unsure if we had come to the right place. Once we entered the barn-like building though, I was sure of it - and there was no where else I would have rather been. The store carries several hundred Belgian beers, neatly displayed on old wooden shelves, and generally costing on 1-2 euro per bottle. I was a bit overwhelmed, and unsure about what to buy, but managed to collect a very heavy pack full of things to bring back to the states. After we checked out, I loaded the beer into my pack, and realized I had about 5 miles and two countries to walk through, with at least 40 or 50 pounds of beer, before I would be back to our hotel. It was a dreadful thought, but not one I was unwilling to face to secure my prize. Luckily, there was one more stop along the way, which turned out to be the best in all of my experiences in Europe.

(the sign, and foul at noel cuvilier)

Situated about 2 miles away, and another 3 miles from town, is Wally's Farm. We walked down the long driveway to find a 15' tall replica of the statue of liberty; surreal to say the least. Behind lady liberty where rows and rows of hops, which obscured view of the old farmhouse itself. We walked down the hop rows to the building, and let ourselves in the front door. We were earlier than their posted hours, but we were welcomed in and shown a table regardless. What a great place! The entire inside of the converted farmhouse was filled with 50's american rock music memorabilia, as well as hop vines wrapped around everything, and a good share of antique farming equipment. Near the door was a large brick fireplace and stacks of cut and seasoned logs. We were given menus, and I immediate looked over the beers. About 6 taps, and 60-80 bottles. The house beer was Wally's beer, brewed for him by the de bie brewery nearby. I ordered us drinks, and asked the server (who turned out to be Wally's wife, Patty) to help me translate the menu. It turned out to be pretty simple: pork, pork sausage, or the pork and pork sausage combo plate. We got the combo plate, and took in the sights and sounds of this really special place. Soon, several logs were on the fire, and Patty was raking the hot coals under an iron grate, where our pork chops and sausages were cooked in front of us over the smoke and wood fueled flames. Around this time, a lot of locals began slowly filling the rest of the building and ordering food and drink. When the room was full, a large movie screen dropped down from the ceiling and a reel of footage of Wally performing Elvis songs all over the world, on TV, and in movies began to warm up the crowd. Wally emerged shortly after, with rosy cheeks and a glass of red wine in his hand. He worked the room, talking to everyone at each table, making sure everyone was happy and enjoying themselves. When he got to our table, he was thrilled we were American, and was very excited to learn more about us.

We were tired, but I really wanted to see Wally perform, so we agreed to stay long enough to see a few songs. He took the stage, and we all cheered, and he began singing Elvis, and Carl Perkins, and Willy Nelson, and several other American rock acts. It was a lot of fun, but I had all that beer I was carrying, it was getting dark, and we still had a long way to go, so eventually, we decided it was time to leave.... but Wally had different plans for us!

(Wally on stage)

When we stood to leave, Wally stopped singing and said "You can't leave, we didn't drink together yet!" I tried to explain to him about the beer, and the walk and everything, but he wouldn't have it. "You stay, we drink together, I'll show you a private tour of my hop museum, and then I'll drive you back to your hotel!" How could we refuse! We sat once more and Wally shouted to the bar "two more beers and some wine!"

We spent the rest of the next hour or two drinking free beer that Wally kept buying us while he sang and drank his wine. He chatted our ears off, gave us a proper introduction to his wife Patty, and when he was done entertaining the crowd, took us to see his hop museum as promised. Wally explained that he was the latest in a long line of men in his family that grew hops for a living. His museum was actually a collection of all the hop farming equipment that was passed down through the years, as well as a collection of hop plants that were being grown by different methods, each demonstrating how his family would have grown them during a different period in time, explaining: "this is how we grew the hops in the eighteen hundred and fifties, this is how we grew the hops in the nineteen hundreds, this is how we grew the hops in the nineteen hundred and fifties", etc...) He showed us how to make hop growing anchors on a jig out front (and gave me one as a souvenir), he showed us how the hops were sprayed and how they were harvested. He showed us the building they used to dry the hops, and how it was done (with a coal fire that had to be watched for 48 hours straight). He showed us the cot him and his father slept on when he was a boy during the harvest/drying season. I could go on and on. To be shown something this special, by such an amazing (and drunk!) man, in the middle of the night, on a farm, in a town that no one in neighboring France could even find on a map... WOW.

(antique hop sprayer. they sprayed tobacco juice on the hops to keep the bugs off!)

Afterward, Wally kept his word, and we piled into his truck, and he drove us into town. We slept good that night, and the next morning, we packed up all of our things and hopped the train to Munich!

Cave updates

2010-03-11T10:50:00.001-08:00

I've been selling off a bunch of stuff on craigslist over the past couple of days, including the couch that had been taking up valuable space in garage over the last couple of months. Also on the list, the air hockey table; which made me realize how out-dated the photos of the cave on this page are. I've since dismantled the table, and it's been laying up again the wall, taking up (less) space ever since. Since it got used exactly once, I eventually decided to replace it with a seating area, which has already proven far more useful.

Also, the breweriana section has been suffering from a lack of updates as well. I've actually reached the threshold now where no amount of reorganizing can create space to display anything else, so I've just been boxing things up as I get them for the future, when I have an appropriately sized space to display everything. Besides those big panels I recently blogged about, I got this neat stein lamp recently, which is signed and dated 1973, neat!

On to other alcohol. This week I bottled the mead and cider I made last year. I tasted both and found the cider to be a bit drier than I wanted, so I added more honey in hopes that it would continue to ferment and leave some additional sugars behind. The mead was really nice, but could still use more time. I tried a blend of the two though, and it was delicious, so I mixed a gallon of the blend and put it aside to continue maturing.

A few good beers

2010-03-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

After work last night, I walked over to Bailey's taproom to have a couple of beers and some dinner. I had seen the taplist online earlier in the day, and couldn't resist. First, I started with Caldera Old Growth imperial stout. I've read about this beer a few times, but this was my first time spotting it in town. This beer was really really good. After the Caldera, I went with a black butte xxi - one of my favorite beers - and I think the Caldera finished at the top of the podium. After the old growth and the black butte xxi, I went with an imperial pint of 2007 Alaskan Smoked Porter. Every time I have this one I regret how long its been since I've had my last one. This is both one of my favorite smokey beers, as well as one of my favorite porters. I think with how common Alaskan beers are, I often overlook them when I shouldn't. The smoked porter is great, as well as their Baltic Porter, which I was also recently reintroduced to. I'd like to grab a few more of these in bottles soon to put away for a year or two in the basement.

With my thirst quenched, I grabbed the menu for the mexican food place across the street, and called in an order for a Pastor burrito, santeria style (smothered in salsa verde, melted cheese, and sour cream). About ten minutes later, I had a massive burrito in front of me. MASSIVE. It was both delicious and filling, and really made me appreciate the outside food policy at Bailey's; this was the first time I took advantage of the service.

Looking to the future, I'm even more excited about the opening of Apex now; just thinking about a los gorditos garbage burrito with my beer makes life seem worth living.

After that smoked porter and big burrito, I finished the trip off with an 07 Old Boardhead, which was delicious and a nice change from the heavy dark beers I had been drinking.

After Bailey's, we made out way down to green dragon, (with a few stops in between) where I finished out the night with a Jubel 2010 before riding my bike back to house and calling it a day.

2010 Lucky Lab Barley Wine and Big Beer Fest

2010-03-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I rode my bike out to the NW Quimby Lucky Lab, to check out the barley wine and big beer fest.

The fest was set-up like prior fests in this location (last I attended there was Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers), with volunteers serving beers from about 30 taps in the room in the south east corner of the building.

I got there early and beat the crowds, which was nice, except a lot of the beers I wanted to try were on deck for later - it looked like they were saving some pretty solid beers for day two. I stayed for 7 straight hours though, and got to taste a lot of great stuff in that time. To battle liver fatigue, I took two breaks, once for cheese pizza at the bar, and another later for a pulled pork sandwich, which provided me my final rally before leaving for the night. Over the course of the day, I tried the following beers:

2006 Anchor Old Foghorn
2008 Beer Valley Highway to Ale
2007 Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Knucklehead
2009 Dogfish Head Olde School Barley Wine
2007 Great Divide Old Ruffian
2009 Bourbon Barrel aged Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws
2008 Hopworks Barrel Aged Noggin Floggin
2009 Lucky Lab Son of old yeller - bourbon barrel aged (x3!)
2008 New Old Lompoc Old Tavern Rat
2009 North Coast Old Stock
2008 Speakeasy Old Godfather
2008 Alameda Papa Noels -bourbon barrel aged
2008 Bend Brewing Outback X
2007 Cascade Defroster Winter IPA
2009 Double Mountain Chaos Stout
2008 Ninkasi Sasquatch
Roots Epic Surprise (blend of 05, 06, 07 Roots Epic Ale) (x2!)

As evidenced by the number of tastes I had of each, the major standouts for me were the Roots Epic Surprise, and the Lucky Lab Son of Old Yeller. After those, I thought the 2006 Anchor Old Foghorn was excellent as well.

I was convinced at first that the Epic Surprise most have been a blend of the Epic Ale with another style - like a russian imperial stout with coffee. This was something I heard from some others as well. Trying it as a blend, and seeing how much different it was from newer single vintages, really makes me wish I had attended the Epic release this year, and gotten the opportunity to do a vertical tasting of some of the older vintages alone. In any case, this was a top quality beer, and one that I feel really lucky to have tried.

The Son of Old Yeller was delicious. I thought it tasted like chewing on fresh made caramel. Of all the other barley wines at the fest, I thought this one was the most unique, and fortunately for it; it was unique in a fantastic way.

The 2006 Old Foghorn was a model for how well some beers age. All the flavors of the beer were perfectly melded and softened, and it definitely drank better than a beer that clocks in with that ABV should.

Some disappointments for me:

2009 Bourbon Barrel Aged Doggie Claws. I love Doggie Claws, and I love bourbon barrel aged beers, but something was just... off about this one. Noticeably different than regular doggie claws, but the flavors that came from this barrel weren't what I would have hoped for from the process.

2007 Cascade Defroster. I shouldn't have been disappointed with this beer. I new going into it that it was a 3 year old IPA. Truthfully, it was actually kind of nice to break up my tastings with an IPA, and it wasn't that bad, even with the age on it. The reason I was disappointed is that I would have hoped for and expected a lot more from Cascade for a big beer fest. How about some Sang Noir? That's about 10%, barrel aged, etc... a perfect match for a big beer fest. Their offering of a vintage 7.2% IPA was a bit of a let down.

Over the course of the day, the crowd started to build, but it wasn't until after 6 or 7 or so that the place really started to get packed.

All in all, I thought this was a great event. There were some awesome beers, no lines, friendly people, and everything went off without a hitch. Bonus points for the screen printed collectors glass. I hate plastic festival mugs. My only regret is that I have to work all day today, and there are some beers coming on that I didn't get to try.

Migration Pale Ale.

2010-03-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

I swung by Migration Brewing on my bike ride home from work last night to check out the debut of their first house beer, Migration Pale Ale.

There were several other bikes on the racks, and when I entered the bar I could see why; the place was packed. All the table seating was full, so I took a seat on one of the couches and watched a bit of the Blazers game while I tried out the MPA.

This is a pretty solid beer. As the breweries first offering, brewed on unfamiliar equipment, off-sight, I think it speaks of good things to come, especially when they get their system up and running and fall into the groove of things. My first thought when I tried the MPA was that it tasted a bit like a lighter Hopworks Crosstown Pale - a beer that I really enjoy. I'm not sure what they'll be brewing next, but I'll definitely be at the next release.

Treasure!

2010-03-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

Score!

I found these panels at the end of a treasure hunt today. They're huge. Both feature about 18 sq. ft. of beer and snacks!

The one on the left has pabst, lowenbrau, strohs, budweiser, high life, michelob, and schlitz beer, in front of an oak barrel and joined by a bowl of peanuts.

The one on the right is a bunch of different beers in varying glassware with a full range of snacks; pretzels, chips, popcorn, etc...

Despite the beers portrayed, I can't look at a picture of cold beer and bar snacks without feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with these. The images are mounted on 1/2" fiberboard, and they're quite heavy. Labeling on the back indicates that these were produced by a bar furnishing company in 1984. They would make decent wall hangings as is, but the laminate is starting to peel at the edges a little bit here and there, and the images are a bit faded. My thoughts are to coat both pieces with a UV protectant finish, and then possibly a nice layer of epoxy resin to really lock everything in. With a little wood trin around the edges, these could also be turned into nice table tops if enough resin was poured over the surface. We'll see.

I'll hang them for now, and decide their ultimate fate later.

In addition to this retro panels, I picked up a nice antique flat top Heidelberg beer can, a lone star ashtray, and few nice pieces of glassware, including a delerium tremens tulip. All in all, a nice haul.

Migration, Upright Oyster Stout, Prost!

2010-03-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Migration Brewing for the first time to watch the olympic men's gold medal hockey game. The weather was nice, so despite it being February, the overhead door out front was open, letting a little fresh air and sunlight in, as well as creating a welcoming entrance to the bar off of Glisan.

Having just opened, and not having their brewing facility all up and running, all their taps are currently dedicated to other breweries beers, mostly from Oregon, but with a few others mixed in as well.

While watching the game, I had a Lucky Lab super dog, 2 Lompoc crazy dave imperial stouts on nitro, and an Amnesia slow train porter.

I also ordered a sandwich from their menu. It was called "the general" and was a toasted sandwich with some sliced meat and cheese, served with chips. The General was good, but after I saw some of the other sandwiches coming out of the kitchen (the pulled pork in particular), I decided that I could have made a better food selection. Mainly, I thought the General was a bit light on the good stuff, while the pulled pork was overflowing with meat.

While we drank and watched the game, we were given a free sample of one of their appetizers, which was much appreciated and earned Migration big bonus points in my book. The sample included two small sausage links covered in house BBQ sauce, served with french bread slices, and two types of mustard for dipping. I later ordered another full plate, which came with SIX sausages, more bread, and plenty of the dipping mustards for just $4. I don't know if this was a special price for the day, or if this will be a permanent fixture on the menu, but it was a great value, and I'd certainly order it again.

The game was on a single flat screen TV on the east wall of the space. During the game, the radio was turned down, and the TV up. Unfortunately, the TV sound wasn't run through the house receiver, so it was difficult to hear what was going on. This would be a simple fix and would really improve the feel of the place on nights where the TV is the main entertainment. Since they show Blazers games, this could be often.

The rest of the interior is set up nice enough, but could use a little polishing to really create a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere.

Given that the guys have been open for about a week, I think they're doing just fine.

I really look forward to seeing how they grow the interior space, in both design, and possibly size. After talking with one of the owners, I learned that they hoped to possibly expand into some of the vacant portions adjacent to them in the building, possibly adding pool tables out front.

More importantly, I look forward to trying the migration house brews. They will be debuting their first beer this wednesday, which was brewed off-site, and they will slowly continue to replace the guest beers with their house brewed ones after that.

After Migration, I drove over to Upright Brewing, where I sampled a glass of their newest release, an oyster stout. In my experience, it can sometimes be a strain to pick out the traits of an oyster stout that were actually imparted by the oysters themselves. In the past, I've been able to make out the difference in mouth feel that is often attributed to the addition of oysters, but with this beer, I really struggled to see how the addition effected the finished brew. I think this a good stout, but my first impression is that maybe the oyster addition improved the marketability of this beer more than it actually improved the beer itself. Oysters or no, this was an enjoyable beer, and a decent value to boot.

My last interesting stop of the day was my first to Prost!, the new(ish) German food and beer place anchoring the new food cart pod on NE Mississippi. Later on a Sunday evening, this place had a good crowd inside. The beers covered a decent range of brands and styles, but could use a bit more diversity (branching away from Germany's most accessible styles) to really please a beer geek. The food options all sounded very tasty, and I had a hard time choosing. As with Migration, I think I might have made a poor choice when I landed on the pretzel sandwich. The bun was delicious, but the fillings of meat and cheese were skimpy, and not adequate enough to justify the $9.50 price tag. Accompanying the sandwich was a small bowl of potato salad, which I thought was excellent, as well as a pickle spear. One area I think Prost! really excelled at was the interior design of the place. While the building itself is clearly modern construction, the addition of extensive stained wood paneling, rich dark colors, german breweriana, and thoughtful design did a good job of stirring up memories from my trip to Munich. While I thought the overall experience at Prost! was satisfactory, what I'm most excited about is seeing how this place takes off in the summer, when the surrounding food carts are open and the energy in the courtyard is fed with large mugs of smooth German bier.

sang noir

2010-02-27T20:50:00.000-08:00

I read on the Belmont Station website today that Cascade Sang Noir was on tap. I had to work until 7:00, but immediately biked over afterwords to grab a glass. This is such a solid sour beer. I wrote about it before so I wont elaborate, except to say it was worth thinking about all day, and it probably inspired one of my fastest bike rides home from work ever.

Along with the Sang Noir, I grabbed a bowl of chili. The chili was OK, but was a little too salty and less spicy than I would have expected. I was given the choice of bread or chips, and I went with the bread, but found that it was really dry and unpalatable. Probably the last bowl of chili I'll ever order at Belmont Station; and I love chili.

After dinner, I grabbed two tasty CDA's. First, I started with Barley Brown's Turmoil. This was a great CDA. Smelled like a heavenly IPA, and tasted the same with a bit of chocolate added. I'd put this one up there with hopworks secession as one of my favorite CDA's of all time. After the Barley Brown's, I finished with a southern tier iniquity. While I thought the Southern Tier was delicious, I think it missed the mark on it's advertised style of "black IPA". It was more like a super hoppy porter to me. That's the line a brewer needs to be careful not to cross when exploring CDA territory. You want a dark and enhanced IPA, but you don't want to cross into the hoppy porter realm.

stout month, astoria, and pacific city

2010-02-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

(Astoria brewing could use a better graphic designer, but as a dad to a bulldog, I felt a photo was warranted. Sadly, this was the last photo I took before my phone battery drained too much for the camera function!)

This past week I stopped over at green dragon on my way home from work to grab some dinner and a drink, and found that it was the Fort George meet the brewer event. I was already planning on going to Astoria for stout month for the weekend, so the event made a good preview for what was to come.

I had a coffee girl, murky pearl oyster stout, and barrel aged cavatica. The murky pearl was probably my favorite. As has been my experience with oyster stouts, the flavor of oyster was completely absent, and it tasted more like a dry export style stout than anything else. I'd be curious to try this one brewed without the oysters to see just how much the addition actually effected the final product. Regardless, it was delicious and I'd gladly have another down the road. I love stouts with coffee in them, but the coffee girl tastes more like coffee with stout in it. I first drank this one about a year ago, and thought the coffee was even more dominant this time, possibly due to it's freshness. Still, lack of depth and complexity aside, this is a tasty beer if you're in the mood for it. The barrel aged cavatica was nice, but not as heavy as I usually like from my barrel aged beers (or stouts in general).

Along with the beers, I picked up a lot of great swag. Two Fort George screen printed pint glasses, a Fort George hat, and a Stout Month 2010 t-shirt.

On friday, I swung by belmont station and grabbed my first bottles of supplication. I drank one immediately and although I thought it was very good, I wasn't expecting the bitter finish, and it was a bit of a put-off for me. I bought several more bottles, so I'll be able to to give this one a couple more chances, but right now, I put it on the bottom rank of the three readily available wild ales from russian river, with consecration and temptation battling it out for the #1 spot.

Saturday I left for Astoria with a couple of friends. When we got into town we stopped for a quick pint at rogue before getting more centrally located, and parking the car for the day. At rogue, I had a John John dead guy, which I was pretty disappointed with. The very limited amount of time this beer spends in the barrel was evident, and it was all dead guy, and no barrel.

From Rogue, we drove into town and parked by bowpicker fish n' chips, where we had some delicious albacore fish and chips. I found this place on yelp, and I'm glad that I did. This is a highly recommended stop when in Astoria. From Bowpicker, we walked over to Astoria brewing. I had their stone cold strong ale, pat had their kick ass stout, and bryan had their bitter bitch. I though my strong ale was nice, but not very memorable. While the kick ass stout fell a bit short of actually kicking ass, it was very good, and I ordered one of my own later. The bitter bitch is possible one of the most piney dipa's I've ever tasted. It was a well crafted drink, and although I usually prefer citrus and floral qualities from my hops, the mega-pine flavor really worked for me. We noticed that mirror mirror was on the guest tap, and so each ordered one. To our surprise, it was served in full pints!

After Astoria Brewing, it was time to make our way over to Fort George to catch us some stout month. First up was badda bing, which was described as a "flanders style sour cherry stout". I had really high hopes for this one, but I have to admit, I think it was a failed experiment. I'm not sure what I would have expected from a sour cherry stout, but this one tasted more like an accidental infection than a purposely crafted beer. VERY similar to the infamous infected Pike Entire stout. When I drank my entire stout this year, I expected a disaster, and thought to myself "hey, this isn't that bad!", but going into this one, I had high hopes, and was unfortunately pretty let down. After the badda ding, I moved onto another coffee girl, and then we finished the visit off by splitting a bottle of North 3.

At this point, my recollections get a little fuzzy, and there's not much else to report here about beer.

The next morning, we packed up the car and I convinced (coerced?) the guys to make the drive down the coast to Pacific City to get lunch at Pelican.

Pelican is an amazing brew pub. Situated directly on the beach, we picked the perfect (65 and sunny) late February day for our visit. The pub was a popular destination this weekend, and there was a 45 minute wait for a table, but we easily occupied the time with imperial pints, which they let you take out of the bar and out onto the sand. The first beer of the day was Riptide Red. Feeling a little "tender" from the night before, I eased into this glass; but it was just what the doctor ordered. Revived in time for lunch, I ordered a cup of tsunami stout chili, a bacon cheese burger, and a kiwanda cream ale. The chili was great. So great, that I overlooked their use of beans. Deliciously spiced and exactly what I had been craving on the entire drive down. The burger arrived (very) late. I had order medium and it was rare, the fries where cooling down, and they forgot the bacon. I could tell that this was probably a great burger when properly served, but the kitchen's inability to handle the big crowd showed, and I was left a bit disappointed on the food end. The beer was great, the atmosphere was fantastic, and the stop was the perfect ending to our beer coast adventure. On the way out, I grabbed a bottle of stormwatchers winterfest barley wine. From Pelican, we piled back into the car, and head back across the forest to Portland to wrap up our trip.

On this trip, Pelican definitely stole the show. Best beer (of the weekend), best location (possibly ever), and even though there were some hang-ups in the kitchen, I have faith that when the kitchen is properly staffed for the kind of traffic they probably never expected to see on a sunday in late February, probably the best food too.

I look forward to returning to Pacific City as soon as the opportunity arises.

More new beers.

2010-02-15T15:49:00.001-08:00

On my last post, I forgot to mention that I started off super bowl sunday at the horse brass in the morning for breakfast. I got the english breakfast, which was a pretty fantastic pile of food for $7.50. You get sausage, irish back bacon, ham, potatoes, stewed tomatoes, eggs, baked beans, fry bread, and toast and jam.

I remembered this because of a new bottle of beer that I picked up last night at belmont station. The beer was Caldera's Hopportunity Knocks. I had it on tap for the first time that super bowl sunday morning (along with a firestone velvet merkin), and I got it in a 22 ounce bottle for the first time last night.

Among the first beers that Caldera has bottled (along with sessionable lager), this is a great northwest IPA in great packaging. It's a seasonal "kettle series" beer; of which another four have been scheduled for release in the coming months. I'm really excited to see this happening from Caldera. They always seem to have some great beers out there that never make it to the canning line. Hopefully the bottling proves to be a success, as I'd love the chance to get some of their seasonal stuff to drink at home.

Besides the Hopportunity Knocks, I grabbed two attractively packaged Upright beers; a flora rustica, and a billy the mountain. I have some beer trading going on it a couple months, and I've been trying to stock up on some good Oregon beers that don't get much out of state distribution, and I thought these really fit the bill.

zwickelmania!

2010-02-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the second annual zwickelmania event here in Oregon. This year I made it out to three breweries to check out their brewing facilities, ask questions about their beers, and of course, try a couple of samples.

Top on my list was checking out what was going on over at Cascade Brewing. For being so far out in SW Portland, away from all the other breweries participating in the event at the same time, the cascade event was well attended. We began our tastings with samples of their latest bottlings, Sang Rouge and 09 Apricot. I had tried the sang rouge previously on Super Bowl sunday, and it was as nice as I had remembered it. The apricot was a new experience for me and it was both delicious and as sour as one could hope for. From the bottle tastings, we moved into the barrel aging portion of the brewery, and tried a couple of samples of various beers directly from the souring barrels. In this portion of the tasting, we sampled a special barrel aged version of their summer gose, a sour tripel, and a sour red. The triple was my favorite from the bunch, and definitely the most sour as well. While we we drinking these samples, we talked a bit about the status of the cascade barrel house, and how the new facility will take the brewery to the next level when it comes to capacity and versatility. One of the interesting things to me about the barrel house is that they have three independently temperature controlled rooms that will allow aging to occur at precise temperatures; something the current facility doesn't allow them to do.

From the tasting barrels, we made our way past barrels and barrels of aging beer, some individual stocks, and some blends, including the infamous vlad the imp aler, and then down onto the brewery floor itself. Here we tried another gose right from the bright tank, as well as a fantastic sour made with the meat of roasted apricot pits and berries. This beer was definitely one of the highlights of the day. The last beer we got to sample at Cascade was their sour cherry pie, which is one of the beers used to produce their delicious kriek. I was shocked, when it tasted exactly as the name would imply... like sour cherry pie. Cherries were expected, but the malts and remaining sugars added a taste not unlike the crust of a fresh made pie. Awesome!

Before leaving, we hit the bar and ordered a glass of the Apricot each. What a great way to end a great tasting!

From Cascade, we drove into northeast portland to check out what was going on over at Upright Brewing. At Upright, I tried a sample of the holy herb, got a glass of the auld reekie, and sampled Billy the Mountain. The crowd here was of a really good size, and it was neat to see it overflow the tasting room and into the brewing area. This was also the first time I got to check out the open tank fermenters through a big window of course). It's a pretty neat set-up.

From Upright, it was over the bridge to Deschutes for the last tour we'd see of the day. The tour itself wasn't too exciting, and only included one beer sample, but the guide was very knowledgeable, and we learned some pretty good stuff. While at the pub, we each got a glass of Jubel 2010. I was expecting this to be the same as the super jubel of years past, but the barrel aging and whatever else they did differently for this version really made it stand out. I've read reviews online of descriptions that include HotD "adam"-like, and I think that's really spot on. A different beer to be sure, but definitely in the same vein. I'll be grabbing several of these to enjoy later.

Other than zwickelmania, I've had some other beery stuff going on since my last post. Pat and I went over to Full Sail for their Top sail imperial porter horizontal tasting. We got to try both the blended top sail, and the original unblended stock beers used to make it. Makers Mark top sail, Stranahans top sail, and Four Roses top sail. The Stranahans barrels made the nicest beer in my opinion, but the blend was a close second. In the past I've been pretty critical of the barrel aged Full Sail beers, but this one really grew on me this year. I don't know if it's better this time around, or if my tastes have just changed, but I think this beer is a real winner, and I've already stocked up on bottles.

At the superbowl, we tasted several great beers. Cascade Sang Royal, Cascade Sang Rouge, Russian River Consecration, Nogne O dark horizon batch 2, brooklyn local 2, hopworks secession, and widmer deadlift IPA. Trying all the sour beers side by side was great. The Sang Royal was great. The Sang Rouge was similar, but with a bit more stinky cheese. The consecration was great as always, but the Cascade beers definitely held their own against it. It would be hard to pick a favorite out of the three. The dark horizon was probably the beer I've held onto the longest before cracking into it. I've had this one for a year or two now, so I figured it was time. Turns out it wasn't! At 17.5%, one would expect this beer to come off a bit boozy, but after a couple of years aging, I would have expected it to mellow a bit. Feeling the heat coming off this thing really puts into perspective just how well crafted Black Tuesday was - with a well hidden, yet higher ABV... fresh.

hey stranger

2009-12-22T15:30:00.000-08:00

It's been entirely too long since I've updated this blog. Since my last post, there was Holiday Ale Fest, several beers buys, and new tries, and several trips to pubs.

I'll start with Holiday Ale Fest. I went on a weeknight with Pat and Bryan. I tried a lot of beers for the first time and revisited a couple others.

Hair of the Dog Jim 2009 wasn't what I was expecting. It was tasty, but I felt the blue-dot really over-powered the blend. The other beers didn't stand a chance to all those hops.

From Cascade, I tried an aged baltic porter that was pretty good, and MULTIPLE Drie Zwarte Pieten Sang Noir's. The Sang Noir was by far, my favorite beer of the festival. The blending for this beer couldn't be any more perfect. Plenty of sour, hints of bourbon, tart fruits, oak, etc... and an amazingly well masked 10% abv. If this ever makes it to bottles, I'll buy everything I can afford.

I was somewhat dissappointed by Widmer's Babuska's Secret. The idea of a black berry russian imperial stout was tantilizing, but there was just too much berry, and not much else. Tasty for sure, but really one dimensional.

I loved Bear Republic's Barrel Aged Baba Yaga. This was probably my second favorite pick.

I revisited a "lost barrels" version of Mirror Mirror. The lost barrels mirror mirror is a 100% barrel aged version of mirror mirror, as opposed to the blended version that makes it bottles. The extra oak is great in this beer, and the aging really mellowed and soften this beer up nicely. Beyond the traditional barley wine flavors present, the barrels brought in hints of green apple and vanilla.

There were plenty of other beers tried, but these were the ones that stood out for me.

Since the alefest, I drove out to Cascade/Raccoon lodge for my first time on my birthday. I was dissappointed to find that although nightfall was on their chalk board, it was no longer available by the time I arrived. Infact, no sour's were on tap, but I was able to grab a 750 bottle of their kriek to enjoy with my lunch. The kriek was definitely more american wild ale than kriek, which was good, because I prefer AWA to kriek any day. For lunch, I got a spicy big bite burger special, which was pretty epic. 1/2 pound burger topped with spicy sausage and bbq'd pulled pork. It was worth the trip. The raccoon lodge left a lot to be desired over-all. Despite their growing reputation as a brewer of some really amazing styles of beer, the restaurant clearly caters to the beaverton suburb family set. The atmosphere is more restaurant than pub, and the taplist and menu are toned down for the average patron - which leaves the beer geek feeling like this place is cascade-light. I'm very excited about the opening of the cascade barrel house. It sounds like this is going to be beer-geek heaven. It doesn't hurt that it's a few blocks from my business, and much closer than the raccoon lodge location.

Somewhere in the past couple of weeks, I picked up a boulevard saison brett, which was fantastic. I also opened my 08 bottle of roots epic ale, which was just that. I had this along side a midnight sun berserker, so it was a good night, to say the least.

Last night, I had a lot of great, and one exceptionally exciting beers on tap. Starting at the green dragon, I had a ten fidy, a ft. george North III, and a rogue charlie.

Then we swung over to the horsebrass, where I spotted an amazing find: Hair of the Dog ADAM FROM THE WOOD. The description indicated that this batch had spent over 7 YEARS in bourbon barrels. My first Adam from the Wood, and an epic vintage to boot! After having the adam from the wood, I grabbed a consecration before heading out for the night. Talk about a great night!

The Ten Fidy was as good as ever, the Ft. George North III was very good, although maybe not what I was expecting. The description indicates that North III is brewed with maple syrup and sugar plums, and that the base recipe is a belgian tripel. Although distinctly different from any tripel I've had to date, the additional flavors I was expecting were rather subdued. In retrospect, this was probably for the best. Maple syrup can over-power a beer in the wrong quantity. The Charlie was a Charlie. In true rogue style, it hinted at what it should be, but the pacman yeast and over-hopping (for the style) made this taste more like an imperial ipa than a true american strong ale.

Now, the Adam from the Wood. The seven years REALLY mellows an Adam. So soft and smooth. Wonderful mouthfeel. I wanted to love this beer, and I did, although some of the traits I like best about fresh Adam had really fallen off this vintage. Still, I count the chance to have had this beer as a stand-out moment in beer history for me.

Finishing off with a consecration was a great way to end the tastings for the night.

Interesting side story: Today I posted on beeradvocate about the adam from the wood, and Alan (the brewer at hair of the dog) responded saying that it was a keg of regular adam, not adam from the wood, and that it wasn't an aged version!

I know it tasted a lot different from bottle conditioned adams I've had in the past, so I asked him for more info on the mix-up. I guess he'd know best, but I still have a hard time believing this wasn't an aged or "from the wood" version. We'll see what he has to say.

black tuesday

2009-11-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

I met up with Ian and Bryan, one last time before Ian left to go back to California. First, the guys came back to the house to check out the beer cave. Fortunately for everyone involved, they came bearing a black tuesday. We quickly got to work on it, Ian having cracked off the excessive wax and pouring it's contents into 3 glasses. It was very much the same as I remembered from the dock sale, except I had enough to truly savor and pick apart this time. Splitting one of these bottles 3 ways is perfect. It's just too big a brew to fully enjoy in quantities larger than this I think.

What can I say that hasn't been said before? Nothing. This is a huge beer, and although the alcohol is masked exceptionally well, there's still no denying it; it's a monster. You smell and taste the bourbon without experiencing the heat on your palate. It's chocolatey, there are the hints of vanilla from the oak, it's thick and viscous. Those are descriptions you could give most barrel aged RIS's, but this one is different. Thick, velvety, smooth. You can feel the alcohol surge into your veins like a shot of hard booze. Although there's no burn on the palette, this one quickly warms you from with in. I found myself murdering the pronunciations of longer words; what's the ABV on this thing again? Oh, 19.5%, that explains it.

After sipping on our black tuesdays, we decided to open one more bottle to cut the thick malty coatings in our mouths before going to taste saisons. Ian chose my cascade cuvee du jongleur. I've had this sitting for quite some time, so I'm not sure how it compared to a fresh batch, but it was the perfect follow-up to the black tuesday. The sour acidic bite flushed the sweet boozy black tuesday coating from our mouths. This beer had all the sour I had hoped for. It delivered more of an apple like flavor than I've experienced in previous sours; similar to the flavor that Fred picks up when it's from the wood. Delicious, and a crisp clean way to end a mini session.

Next we were on our way to the Upright Brewing tasting room. None of us had ever been there, but I had read many good things about this place, and thought it would be a good way to send Ian off. We made our way out to north broadway, and although we had a bit of trouble finding the place, were still inside in pretty good time. If anything, the difficulty we had finding this brewery only stood to add to it's charm. In the basement of the relatively new (and vacant) leftbank project, in an unfinished subterranean concrete cave with make shift seating (and standing) areas, and surrounded by industrial brewing equipment and aging barrels, this place felt more like a secret speakeasy than a public brewery. We decided to start with a sample tray to share. The tray consisted of the four, five, six, pure wit, fatali four, and flora rustica. I'd had the four, five, and flora rustica before, but never side by side. It was enjoyable tasting them this way, especially since we first tasted them "blind" and then found out what we were drinking. I had a hard time picking a favorite, but to me, it came down to 4, 6, fatali 4, and flora rustica. The easiest to pick from the bunch was the fatali, which is probably one of the best done chili pepper beers I've tried to date. In the past, with things like rogue chipoltle, the peppers were present, but underrepresented I think. There was no doubt that this beer was full of hot peppery warmth. The differences between the standard 4, 6, and flora rustica were more subtle. If anything, I think that's an endorsement for the six, which had significantly more alcohol than the four, but hid it just as well.

Another great day in Portland!

new beers!

2009-11-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

This has been a good week for new beers. In addition to the things I tried at the hair of the dog dock sale, I was fortunate enough to have a friend bring me back some treats from the east coast, as well as have a trade come up from California.

From back east, I picked up a founders breakfast stout, a B.O.R.I.S the crusher, a dragon's milk stout, and a Flying Fish Exit series oyster stout. I'm saving the oyster stout for a bit, but the other three were delicious, with the founders really standing out as the cream of the crop. The same friend is returning to the east coast later this year, and I'm hoping he'll return with the barrel aged B.O.R.I.S., some kentucky breakfast stout, and maybe some Ithaca Brute. We'll see!

From down south, a guy I met on beeradvocate brought me a bottle of Cuvee de Tomme in exchange for some bottles I picked up at the dock sale.

We met up at Deschute's, and ended up going out again the next day; where we started at the Horsebrass, (and had dogfish head life and limb, along with life and limb glazed ham, life and limb sweet potato puree, life and limb braised vegetables, and life and limb pecan pie). I also had a caldera oktober festbier, and the guys had Ninkasi Tricerahops on cask. Then we went to the green dragon, where we tried the new green dragon beer, dark dragon, as well as the watery flanders red from new belgium and elysian, the trip III. From there, it was over to Lucky Lab, for a pitcher of Super Dog, before heading home.

Another great week!

hair of the dog dock sale!

2009-11-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 2:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep because I was too excited for the event. I killed some time around the house, went to jack in the box for breakfast, and ended up at hair of the dog at 5:15. Second person there. After a few more people showed up, and a group descended on the tasting tables, I joined the bunch and shared my bottles. I was rewarded with an amazing selction of beers that I sampled over the next 4 hours. I kept a list of those I tried for the purpose of this blog. Here they are:

voodoo brewing - big black voodoo daddy
midnight sun - cosmic
left hand brewing company - snowbound winter ale
midnight sun - berserker
midnight sun - treat
bottleworks 10th new belgium - wild ale
07 laurelwood - old reliable
lost abbey - lost and found
ballast point - sea monster
ballast point - barrel aged sea monster
brooklyn - local 1
midnight sun - uranus with brett
firestone - 12
midnight sun - anchor with brett
sweetwater - dank tank barley wine
big sky - ivan the terrible
cascade - sang royal
hair of the dog - michael
hair of the dog - cherry adam
north coast - old rasputin xii
deschutes - dissident
sweetwater dank tank big ol' belgian blue balls
pelican - perfect storm 09
port - old viscosity
midnight sun - big slick
brooklyn - local 2
cascade - kriek
southern tier - choklat
boulevard - smokestack series imperial stout
ithaca - brute
cascade - the vine
surly - darkness
goose island - juliet
the bruery - BLACK TUESDAY
2006 duck rabbit - barley wine
abita - abbey ale
deschutes - abyss 08
deschutes - abyss 09
terrapin - depth charge
new belgium - la folie
hoppin frog - boris the crusher
southern tier - pumpking
midnight sun - fallen angel

When the sale started, I was the second to purchase beer, and the first to order any magnums, so technically, I bought the first magnum of Michael ever sold, and the first magnums of 2009 fred from the wood and cherry adam ever sold.

I also picked up a mixed 6 pack of the above beers.

All in all, an awesome event, but I was so tired by the time I got my beers, that I came straight home. 5 hours in that kind of cold, drinking, is enough!

abyss day!

2009-11-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

Today I walked over the bridge to the deschutes brewery for the official 2009 Abyss release party. The party was to start at 2:00pm, but I got there about half an hour early. Instead of waiting in line for bottles, I made my way to the bar, waited for a seat to open up, and when it did, grabbed front row seats for the toast. Since I was early, and the abyss hadn't been served yet, I ordered a burger a blackweiss. Both were pretty tasty, but they served the purpose of killing time more than anything. Just before two, the bartenders started filling taster glasses with 09 Abyss, which can be seen on the trays in the first picture.

Once the trays were filled, everyone in the bar, and all the people that had been waiting in line (around the building at this point) were given a taster glass, and asked not to drink it until the toast at 2:00pm. At that point, the head brewer for the Portland location got on the mic, gave a brief description of the beer, and nervously stuttered his way through an Irish toast. Once through it, everyone drank their abyss, and Abyss was officially on the menu.

There were two ordering options for Abyss on tap. A 10 ounce pour of 09, or two 5 ounce pours, one of 08 and the other of 09. I went with the vertical. They tasted as one would expect. The 09 is still a bit hot, but otherwise perfect. The 08 was divine. Very much the same, maybe a bit thicker, and the booze had mellowed nicely. They each had about the same mouthfeel to me, but the appearance was different when served. The 09 had great head retention, whereas the head on the 08 quickly subsided.

As I was drinking my vertical, I asked the server if I would be able to purchase bottles from the bar, avoiding the now very long line. She said she would get them for me, but not to make a big deal of it, since she didn't want to start creating chaos at the bar. I also inquired about the gift sets I had seen behind the bar, and she said she couldn't get to those, and that if I wanted one, I would have to get in the line. I guess she felt bad, because after I asked for my check so I could get in line, she talked to a manager, and came over and said she'd get me the box set too. She just asked that I tell her when I'm leaving, so I could nonchalantly pick it up on the way out the door; again, to avoid creating a chaotic situation at the bar. I did as I was told, and shortly afterward, I was on my way, with 5 09 bottles in my messenger bag, and a gift box in hand... with an 08 bottle inside!

On the way back toward the east side, I spotted (hard to miss actually) this cool Henry's ad. Not a big fan of the beer itself, but that's Portland history right there. I liked the graphics, as well as Mt. Hood in the background, so I took a picture.

A little further up, I was stopped on the burnside bridge, which was up to let a barge through. To the naked eye, Mt. Hood was visible in the background to the right of the bridge. Didn't pick up in the shot though. After patiently waiting (I had to pee!) for the bridge to come back down, I finally made it back to the east side, then home.

Back at the house, I shot this picture of my epic haul:

new beers

2009-11-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

This week, I had the good fortune of having a friend from southern California up to visit for the past few days. He brought up a couple of beers that aren't available in Oregon, that I'm eager to try. First, although he wasn't able to come up with any of the port/lost abbey special release beers, he did bring me a Hop 15 imperial IPA, as well as a Santa's little Helper imperial stout. I'm eagerly looking forward to getting into these. The Hop 15 sooner, rather than later, and the Santa's little helper probably closer to the holidays. He also brought up a Torrey Pines IPA from left coast brewing in San Clemente. I had never heard of this one, but it's another I'll probably be getting into soon. As for acquisitions I made on my own, I picked up this years St. Bernardus christmas beer, pike entire wood aged stout (hopefully without the funk this time around), and the De Proef/Bell's collaboration beer, Van Twee. I'm pretty excited about grabbing the last beer. It was the first beer that I had tried at the portland international beer festival this year, because I had read up on it before hand, and was really intrigued by the description. A blend of belgian porter and dubbel styles, made with cherries and cane sugar grown in Michigan, and fermented with brettanomyces.

While I thought this beer was really tasty at the festival, I also thought the brett hadn't been given quite enough time to present itself, so I look forward to holding onto one of these bottles for a few months to see if, given time, it can assert itself more fully.

I also found a couple of old LIFE magazines from the 60's in a closet here in the house. I was really hopeful to find some good old beer ads inside, but only found one; a nice full page schlitz ad showing a smiling man holding up an emptied chalice, full of beautiful lacing. It promises a light flavor with "just a kiss of the hops". "real gusto in a great light beer"

I also found an ad for a malt beverage I hadn't heard of before called Champale; which asks "What looks like champagne, pours like champagne, tastes like champagne, yet costs just pennies more than beer?" Champale Malt Liquor.

In addition to these two, I also found two great old crow ads. One for a slim designed fifth for "the man that's going places", and the other describing an encounter with Mark Twain, who apparently liked Old Crow so much, he visited the distillery in person to pick up bottles for his own private stock. The bottom of the ad offers a $250 reward for any proof of a connection between famous 19th century people and Old Crow.

I'd like to find some old weathered frames that look appropriate for ads as old as these, and frame them for the cave.

I'll see what I can dig up at the thrift store.

he's a drunk and a thief.

2009-11-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

I've been noticing that some of my beers have been going missing here and there, but I couldn't really put the pieces together. Now I have proof. It was Reggie.

internet withdrawls.

2009-10-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

beeradvocate.com has been down all day. I've never felt so incomplete. I managed to put away a pair of Full Sail Wassail's for the weekend today. I also "needed" to email a buddy a picture of the beer cave, so I slapped together a crummy panorama to display it in it's current glory.

a couple more beers, a couple more collectables

2009-10-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

In a true test of self restraint, I've been saving each and every good beer I've been buying over the past week for this weekend, when I'll have some guests in from out of town. On my last purchase, I picked up another 4 pack of Ten Fidy, another 4 pack of dogfish head punkin', a bottle of 2009 bourbon county stout (in an attractive bomber this year!), and two fresh pliny the elders. It's been about a week since I've had any craft beer. It's been pretty tough, but I've been getting by on ultra-cheap malt liquor in the mean time.

Not only do I need to put away some good beer for the weekend, but next tuesday is Abyss day. Then two weeks after that, it's the 2009 hair of the dog dock sale.

That's a lot of money to spend.

I'm definitely going to pick up a god share of abyss this year. I never buy enough. Somehow, I've managed to hold onto one from last year. Not because there weren't times I really wanted one, but because it was too pretty to have on the shelf. Not this year.

The Hair of the Dog sale should be great this year. All the usual suspects will be there, but in addition to Fred from the wood, Cherry Adam, doggie claws, blue dot, etc... there's going to be a new beer. Michael. A flanders red, brewed two years ago, and aged in sherry barrels ever since. Should be fantastic, and I hope to get as much of each as I have the money to spend.

In other news, yesterday, on my walk home from the store, I stopped in an antique store, where I found a very old lucky lager sign that I had to have. Then today, on a buying run for the store, I picked up an awesome old strohs sign. I still have to replace the bulbs, and repair the cord, but it looks like when it's functional, the mirror finish that it has now goes opaque to reveal a 3-d prism effect from behind the glass. Should be neat all together. I also got a large lowenbrau clay mas krug, a set of three lindemans lambic flutes, an old michelobe glass, and a big erdinger hefeweiss glass. All in all, a great day.

new oly neon

2009-10-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

I picked this one up at a goodwill for $5. The transformer still works, and when you plug it in, the outside ring flickers. The inside has a broken tube. I've read that breaks like the one on this sign can be fixed. I figured I'd get a quote and then figure out what to do with it then. If it's not worth fixing, I was thinking I might inlay the sign into a table top. Either way, for $5, I felt like it was a pretty nice find. Right now I have it sitting on some shelving surrounded with other olympia stuff I've collected.

New beer haul, plus craft beer craft!

2009-10-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

This week, I had the flu, and it cut my beer drinking down a bit. Other than the remaining beers from last weekend's haul, I only drank common beers I've had many times before. That changed yesterday however, with my latest haul from Belmont Station.

I had checked their blog to see if they had any big bottle releases, and it turns out they had just made a tweet about receiving an order of Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. I've heard a lot of great things about this one, and to the best of my knowledge, it's never been available here in Oregon before, so I was really excited to go pick some up. They had a pretty good supply in, so I only picked up one 4-pack for now. After having had two of the cans yesterday afternoon, I know I'll be buying more. This is a fantastic imperial stout, thick and solid black like used motor oil, with a low velvety chocolate brown head. Aroma of chocolate milk with a hit of boozy warmth. The taste was delicious, and unlike the nose, the alcohol was dangerously well masked. The mouthfeel of this beer is fantastic. Smooth, creamy, with the perfect viscosity. Overall, a very drinkable beer, even with it's high ABV, and at $12 for 48 ounces, a great deal too. If availability permits, this will be a regular beer in my fridge from now on.

I also picked up a Southern Tier Creme Brulee. It looks like Belmont Station is starting to carry a much wider selection of Southern Tier beers, and I'm eager to try them all. This will be my third, after having tried the Jahva, and the Oak Aged Unearthly.

Finally, it was brought to my attention that a very special (and limited) batch of Nogne 0/mikkeller came in, and that it probably wouldn't ever be available again after that day. The Tyttebær is a beer brewed with mountain cranberries, fermented with wild strains of yeast and bacteria, aged in vats for 9 months, and bottled and bottle conditioned for an additional 6 months before release. It looked as if they had received one case, and the clerk said that all the employees were taking home a bottle and that would be it for the availability. I'm grateful for the tip, and the chance to try this great sounding beer.

In addition to finding and drinking some great brews this week. I spent several days working on a project in the beer cave that involved my bucket of old beer caps. I had decided that I wanted to make a coffee table for down there, and that I was going to give the old glazed over beer cap thing a try. After several attempts, I found a coffee table that I thought would work well for the project. I took it home, cut out two rectangular sections from the top, attached plywood underneath to create a bottom for the portion I wanted to inlay the caps in, sanded it down, refinished it, glued the caps down, and glazed away. I learned a couple things this time around, and next time it should go a lot more smoothly. First off, I should have glued the plywood to the bottom of the table. I just tacked it on with finishing nails. I was under the impression that the glaze would pour real thick, and that the plywood would be tight enough to contain it. Turns out the glaze is very viscous when you first pour it (makes sense now, thinking about it. It would do a crummy job of settling into everything otherwise), and it slowly ran out along the seam on the bottom until it hardened. Luckily, I didn't lose too much, and what did run out was easy to peel/chip up off the concrete floor once it hardened. I figured it was probably pretty well sealed with epoxy resin from where it had leaked the first time, but I thought I'd be extra safe before the second coat, to I flipped the table and caulked the whole bottom edge. Once that dried, I applied a second layer of the glaze and let that dry, which is the stage I'm in now. It looks really good, and the top is fairly smooth, but I think I'm going to go with one more coat, just to get it a little deeper, and to make sure the surface doesn't have any bumps over caps that might not have been perfectly flat. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the result, and I look forward to putting together more projects like this as space allows. Pictures are below. It's very difficult to see the effect of the glaze in these pictures because it's very clear. In person, it looks like the caps are sitting under water in the table. It's hard to believe the finish isn't still wet, but it's bone dry and solid as a rock. Pretty neat.

new breweriana

2009-10-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon hunting for beer stuff. I found three things.

First, I picked up a cool vintage Watney's wall mount/table top sign. This is the first piece of Watney's I've managed to collect, and I had the perfect place on the wall to mount it.

At my next stop, I scored a new belgium brewery two sided hanging sign. One side say's New Belgium Brewery, and has the simple chalice logo in the center. The other side advertises fat tire. The interesting thing about this sign is that the two sides are printed on big circles, which are then held together by an actual bike tire around the outside edge. I hung this one on the wall with the simple chalice logo (which I prefer) facing out. Another great addition, and it was nice to be able to collect something more craft and less macro for the wall.

I also picked up another one of those pottery type beer steins from the 70's with american landmarks on them. This time, I picked up the grand canyon.

In addition to the beer stuff, I picked up a small wood grain book case, a couple of books, and a couple of the original Hobbit on VHS, all for the beer cave.

Pretty fun haul.

sunday beer haul

2009-10-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

I picked up another couple of beers sunday night, as well as tried a new one on tap. After work, I rode my bike over to Belmont Station again. This time I stopped over at the bier cafe side, and got a pint of the New Belgium/Elysian collaboration, the Trip III.

I wanted to like this beer really bad. I love sours, and I love New Belgium sours like la folie and la terrior. Unfortunately, I'm at odds with the two reviewers that rated this beer on beeradvocate. For me, this one fell flat. On the mouthfeel, it came in a bit too thin and watery. The flavor was too bland for the style; it was sour, but it lacked bite, acidity, and boldness. A friend of mine described it as tasting like a cross between la folie and this year's bridgeport stumptown tart, a cherry wheat. For me, it was too much stumptown tart, not enough la folie. After reading the other reviews, I wouldn't mind re-visiting this one and giving it another chance, but on Sunday, I wanted more than this delivered.

After finishing my Trip III, I hit the bottle side and picked up another widmer cherry oak dopplebock to cellar.

I also picked up a silver moon brewery 2009 fresh hop beer they dubbed Hop popatamus, on the recommendation of the clerk. I had asked what was new and good that I might be missing, and he said that the Hop popatamus was one of his favorite fresh hop beers of the year. I cracked into this one last night, and I have to agree that is was very well done. Fresh cut grass on a summer day, very floral, with just a hit of citrus. Bitter, but not overly so, and just sweet enough to give this great balance. The mouthfeel was luxurious. Perfect viscousity, with a smooth creamy velvety carbonation. Delicious, and from a brewery I wouldn't have previously expected something like this from.

The final bottle I picked up on a whim; Mikkeller It's Alright! I've been very pleased with the previous mikkeller offerings I've tried, and this was labeled as a Wild Ale, so I had high hopes. I haven't cracked it open yet, but I've read the reviews on beeradvocate, and they aren't good. In fact, they're pretty bad. I'm torn on what to do with this one. Will it imrpove at all with a little age on, or ust get worse? I think I'm going to hold on to it for a little while. At this point, I've been assured by the reviews, it wont be very good. In the future, it could be sub par, but it might also develop a bit, giving me my best shot at deriving some sort of pleasure out of this bottle. We'll see.

Saturday beer haul

2009-10-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good day at work yesterday, and I decided to celebrate with a trip over to Belmont Station. I picked up nothing but new-to-me beers that I had been wanting to try. Here's the list:

The new first edition reserve series from the widmer brothers: Cherry Oak Dopplebock. This one I'm really intrigued by on a couple of levels. First, the style just sounds like something that's going to be right up my alley. I like dopplebocks, I like oaked anything, and cherries are my favorite fruit to add to a beer. Second, the rarity of the release. These are very limited release beers, in 22 ounce bottles, which are then individually packaged in their own box. The boxes and bottles are both very attractive, and 50 lucky buyers will discover that the bottle inside the box they've purchased has been autographed by the brewer. Pretty neat. (I checked, I didn't get one of the "golden tickets"). Being that this is the first in the series is really cool too. Third, there's a reason these guys made it so big in the business, and I don't think it really shows in their safer, more common offerings. This new reserve series promises to be something different. The limited size allows them to experiment a lot more, and really do something special. Added to that, each one is brewed by one of the brothers, alternating so that each one is trying to out-do the previous brothers release. Having their individual name on each of the beers should be good motivation to work on quality product and not be outted as the sub-par brother brewer. The initial reviews are really good. I might pick up another bottle of two and hold on to all of mine for a while. At 9%, I think this one will hold up (or improve) for a good while.

Next, I picked up the new Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest Ale. This one is pretty neat. It replaced their chico harvest fresh hop ale from last year. The previous year's release was a wet hop beer Sierra Nevada put together with hop's they had grown themselves in Chico. This year, they took it one step further, and grew all of their own barley as well, making this a 100% Sierra Nevada product from seed (and rhizome) all the way to the bottle. I think this is a great idea, and also a trend I would really like to see develop for other breweries as well. The idea of terrior isn't usually extended to beer, but I think it should. Also, from a sustainability stand point, as well as a quality control stand point, I think it's a great move. I can't wait to give this one a whirl. Again, reviews have been great.

My third bottle was a 22 of Southern Tier Oak Aged Unearthly. This is the second of the Southern Tier brews to make it to Oregon as far as I know. The first was the Jahva, which I picked up a few months ago. The unearthly is an IPA, and this is the Oaked version of that. In the past, I've been a little on the fence about oak aged IPA's. I tend to fall into the category of people who think IPA's are best had fresh. So buying an aged one seems a little odd. Also, as previously stated, I love oak aged beer, but I think that oak goes a lot better with strong ales, scotch ales, porters, stouts, barley wines, etc... than lighter more floral styles like the IPA. Still, I buy every one I can at least once, so I couldn't resist the temptation.

For number four, I picked up the 2009 fresh hop edition of Beer Valley's Leafer Madness (note that the link goes to the non-fresh hop version, a link doesn't yet exist for the 2009 wet hop version). I love the standard version, and I've had the fresh hop one at the 2008 Portland fresh hop festival at Hopworks, alongside the fresh hop release of black flag imperial stout. While I find some of their beers to be mediocre, when it comes to these two, they never disappoint.

Number 5 was a 2009 Rogue Mogul Madness (again, the link is to an older version, the new listing hasn't been created yet). What can I say, it was rated well in the past, has only come out three times since they've been open, and I'm a sucker for new rogue bottles. They call this one an american strong ale, we'll see how I feel about it once I crack into it.

Other than the above 22's, I also picked up a 4-pack of Dogfish Head Punkin. Oh, Pumpkin beers. It's one of those styles that's never really great, but you have to buy every year because it's something different, a seasonal that seems more suited to it's season than any other, and because it just feels right. I've had at least one pumpkin beer every year since I really got into beer. They all have varying levels of pumpkin flavor. Some don't have any real pumpkin in them at all. Some are really spicy; some are bland. This is the first time I've been able to try the DFH Punkin' Ale, and I have to say, it's a solid offering. Brewed with real pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This is a bold beer that I would love to enjoy cold along side a slice of hot apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Wow, that would be good. At 7% percent, it will warm you from with in, and certainly put you in a festive spirit. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys the style. Just be warned, it IS delicious, but the boldness of the flavors and the aggressive spicing limit the drinkability on this one a bit. Crack open a pack with desert at your next fall or winter holiday feast, but don't expect to enjoy polishing it off yourself!

Cascade Mouton Rouge

2009-10-10T09:18:00.001-07:00

I'm back tracking a bit here. Last Sunday, after returning home from the fresh hop festival disaster, I road my bike to the store, where I met my wife for the return ride home. On the way back, we decided to check out green dragon for dinner. When we got there, I was excited to see Cascade Mouton Rouge on tap; a beer I don't think I've had since the portland international beer fest this summer. First beer of the night, mouton rouge. It's everything I remembered it to be, a fantastic world class sour. Tart, acidic, tastes of dark cherries, light funk and oak, with a mouth puckering finish, all while remarkable balanced and highly drinkable.

In my excitement to order the mouton, I forgot to ask about the mystery tap; but I thought better the second time around. Turns out they had a keg of Russian River Temptation on. I thought it was a great opportunity to be able to try a russian river sour up against the cascade, so Temptation it was.

I'm no stranger to Temptation, but having it against the Mouton Rouge really allowed me to detect the subtleties of this beer that I might not have been able to pick out so easily having it on it's own. Of course, all the standard flavors where there. What I noticed immediately from having these two sours back to back, is how differently the "wild" yeasts can effect a base beer. I know these were different beers to start out with, and a better comparison might have been a mouton vs. a consecration, or an old yeller vs. a temptation, but base flavors aside, it was neat to see how each of these beers went in different directions once the nasties starting working on them. The Mouton Rouge developed more acidity, for more of a sour bite. The funk was there, but definitely took a back seat to the sour. In the past, when I've had the Temptation, I've noticed the sour first also, but by being able to compare it directly to the Mouton Rouge, the first thing I was able to pick out was how distinct the funk was. There's the "wet horse blanket" and "musty barnyard" you hear so much about when reading reviews of beers fermented with brettonamyces. Once compared with the Mouton, I'd say the temptation is Funk with a side of sour.

After having these two side by side, I'm excited to do some more sour tastings in the future. I have a pretty good collection aging in the cave right now. It will happen sooner or later.

biergarten

2009-10-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

get it?