an artist's intentions

(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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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+