zwickelmania!

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.

black tuesday

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!

Cascade Mouton Rouge

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.

cascade barrel house

I started a post on beeradvocate.com trying to find out some more info on the new Cascade brewing location that's supposed to be coming together over by green dragon. I was very excited this morning to read this reply:

"We are opening a second location on 935 SE Belmont. It will be called "Cascade Barrel House." At this facility, we will be aging over 300 oak barrels of beer, blending, bottling and conditioning all our specialty products. This is a real commitment to our barrel-aged sour beer process. We will have a pub that will serve our specialty and sour beers as well as a few picked guest beers. We will also serve our barrel-aged beers straight through the cooler wall with traditional old brass taps... barrel strength Kriek, Bourbonic Plague from a Heaven Hills Bourbon barrel and Blond Quad to name a few. We want to tap a new beer every week. We are targeting mid to late winter for the opening."

Extremely exciting news!

bottle craft, new beers

Yesterday I spent the day teaching myself how to cut open glass bottles. I'm starting to get the hang of it. I have all sorts of projects I'd like to construct now that I possess this new skill, but for now, I've started simple with one of my practice bottles and just cut the top off, polished the edges, and called it a planter. The best bottles to work with are going to be the ones with screen printed labels because they'll hold up to the elements (and dish washers) for a long time. That leaves me with bottles like rogue, stone, alesmith, hub, st. bernardus, red stripe, corona, etc... I can't wait to see some of these projects through.

Last night I went over to Belmont Station, and had a Cascade Old Yeller and an Upright Seven. Both were fantastic. I was particularly fond of the cascade beer. They keep cranking out fantastic sours.