Flying Dog Week - Part 3

Today's beer is Double Dog Double Pale Ale. This is the doubled version of the Doggie Style Pale, with a website-reported 'insane amount' of dry-hopping. Crystal malt, several types of hops (with Cascades getting the lion's share), 85 on the IBU range and . . . woof, 11.5% on the abv. On paper, this is not timid. I'm expecting good things here.

Much like the others, not a great deal of head. Flying Dog does not appear to have fondness for carbonation. It's a pretty beer. Cloudy, reddish/golden hues - I liked the look. By comparison to the other beers this week, this is big on the nose. Hops. Wait, let me try that again: HOPS. There, that's better. It's the sweet-smelling, flowery version that you tend to find with red ales and it's not shy about letting you know it's in the room.

The smell is legitimate advertising for the taste - hoppy, fruit-like front end that starts a roll toward the bitter finish. Ah, but hang on, we've got a delayed blitz. The bitterness is de-freakin'-railed by a blast of alcohol. The 11.5% is definitely saying hello. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing (you're drinking a double-digit beer - alcohol is kind of the expectation), but just know what you're getting into.

If you gave this to me blind, I'd say it was something from Lagunitas. Their roster is heavily loaded with shotgun blasts of alcohol and hops and Double Dog would fit in without a problem. If that combination matches your desired tastes, this will float your boat.

Flying Dog Week - Part 2

Today's beer: Flying Dog's Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale. 5.5% abv and 30 IBUs, says the bottle. Wait, thirty? That seems a bit low for a Pale Ale, but we'll see. I know that you can't always take the IBU rate as gospel, but it IS a metric that tends to be correct more often than not.

The head . . . well, there is no head. Zero. Nada. None after pouring and only the faintest island of white hanging around the top of the liquid during drinking. Are you a person that enjoys a hat on your beer and lacing down the glass? This might not be the best call for you.

Sweet malt and citrus in the nose, neither of which is painting the other into a corner. It's not a overpowering smell, even after letting things warm up - although the citrus note does start raising its hand first as the beer heads to room temperature. Front end of the taste is a bit on the blank end before a beat of sweet, near-peach flavor that gives immediate-way to hoppy back-end. Crisp, definitely crisp. Kind of surprised by the sharpness of the bitter finish - those 30 IBUs are some false advertising.

It's a decent little Pale Ale - this would be a suitable beer to have stocked in a cooler for a cookout with friends. Just make sure said friends enjoy an unexpected bite.

Flying Dog Week - Part 1

The first craft beer I had was a Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA.

My step-father had hosted an event during the previous weekend and a friend of the family left some beer in the fridge. He asked me to bring him a couple at the grill and I had my first taste of legit IPA. To say it knocked my palate on its ass is an understatement. Bitter . . . but with a flavor component that I dove into. Ahhhh, memories. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to take a roll back through a few beers on the Flying Dog roster to see how they compare with my current tastes.

So this week, I'm taking one Flying Dog beer a day. First up in the rotation, the return to the originial: Snake Dog IPA.

Golden orange, light head, and the nose is definitely on the 'earthy/mulch' side of a hop smell vs. crazy citrus or floral. Taste is a medium-shot of hop flavor, kind of creamy in the body, and with an expected bitter grapefruit finish. I have to say, this is better than run-of-the-mill, but this is nowhere near the monster I remember. Ten years is a piece of time to move through, so it's not surprising that opinions and taste patterns have changed with experience. Red wine was like that for me - the first time I tried it, my taste buds couldn't take it. A few years down the road, and it's not a problem.

I hold a spot in my memory for this beer. I simply never had an idea that beer could be like this. In hindsight, it's not such a bad thing to have waited that long - the odds of me being able to handle this stuff back then? I'm thinking, "very, very low."

Anyone else remember the first craft beer they tried?

Bridgeport Hop Harvest Ale

Bridgeport was the second brewpub I visited in Portland during our Trial Weekend (Alameda Brewhouse gets the 'We Were First!' award since it was closest to the airport and we got in past 9pm). Their Ropewalk Amber was the first sixer I bought the week we officially moved here. I like them, but I'd admit that they tend to fall by the wayside when I'm out browsing around. I tend to be a fan of their Big Brews series vs. their regular lineup, but don't get me wrong: everything in the year-round stack ranges from Perfectly Acceptable to Pretty Good.

The Big Brews lineup, however, has three killers on the roster that I dig. Stumptown Tart, a beer I've mentioned before, has been wonderful the last three years with the fruit rotating from marionberries to cherries to raspberries. Highland Ambush is another good one and I'll be jumping on the next version that drops for a review. And then there's the newest edition of Hop Harvest Ale - advertised as a metric ton of Centennial hops only off the vine for an hour before being used. I had a chance to try this last night after picking up a bomber from John's over the weekend.

Great look to the beer - orange/gold, slightly hazy, about a finger of head that stayed for awhile. Hops aplenty in the nose and the intensity increased as it warmed up. Smooth blast of near-sweet hoppy flavor on the front end, bitter white-grapefruit finish that I'm starting to associate with Centennials. This is a "My DB9 Is Only In Third" sort of hoppy. Yes, it's smooth and moderate and strolling along, but you can feel that there is some backbone here that would blow you off the road if it felt like doing so. Frankly, I like the relaxed nature of this offering and enjoyed it being well-flavored without trying to strangle my tongue. Definitely a recommended pickup if it's in your vicinity.

The Weekend +1

Hit Hopworks on Saturday (needed to start up a new punch card) and had a pint of the Gayle's Pale, their fresh hop beer. It's another good showing, the flavors are very much in line with the style. I did find that the hops feel . . . muted? Which is slightly unfortunate since the fun of fresh-hop beer is that the bite is sweeter than normal. Still - worth a try. Brought a growler of the Seven-Grain Survival Stout home. It's such a great little stout - only 5.3% - and packs a lot of flavor with the additional espresso kick. This weekend just felt like 'dark' weather, and so the stout and I enjoyed some college football and the sampling from friends.

Sunday evening, I cracked open Great Divide's Smoked Baltic Porter. Alaskan is still king with me on that front, but this is a more-than-acceptable stand-in. Smoooooooke everywhere in this beer and baltics are just perfect for this kind of treatment. Solidly black, tan head that held for a bit, good lacing - odd, since it's not a 'thick' beer. Warming it up brought some peat-like smells to the front of the line. Believe me, people who enjoy scotch would likely love this stuff. Definitely worth locating, but only if they're out of the Alaskan.

I was feeling a little under the weather today, so I called in sick and got some rest. It did wonders. Felt good enough to finish my evening with Oakshire's Harvest Ale. This is the finale to the Seasonal selection they began to lay out with Ill Tempered Gnome last year (O'Dark:30 and Line Dry Rye being the other two). Personally, I've enjoyed all three releases so far and went into the Ale with some expectations.

They were met.

It's fairly unique for my experience, but I'm sure more knowledgeable drinkers could rattle off 20 that taste just like it. Slightly cloudy, orange and gold, light head and not a lot of lacing. Nose is faint, some dough, more in the way of hops. Warming it up a bit pulled some yeast to the front of the line, giving it more bread than the hoppy scent. The taste is where the needle scratched on the record. Opens with some sweet malt, a tiny hop note, and a spicy bite from the yeast strain. This lingers. You're halfway through the experience and are thinking, "Okay, well, not bad," when your eyes widen . . . when did all these ninja hops get here? Seriously, that transition is remarkably awesome. Bitter hop finish, very well done. It took me a couple of tastes to get the pattern down - my first few attempts involved me staring into space with an expression of, " . . . que?"

Excellent weekend. Another fresh-hop ale and one of the better barrel-aged imperial stouts you can get are both in the on-deck circle.

Miles Probably Would Have Enjoyed It

This was delayed since I had another go at the remainder of the bottle last night. My thoughts:

Bitches Brew (Dogfish Head) - right out of the blocks, you cannot find fault with the bottle design. This is one I'll be keeping around and I'm sure DFH paid some fees to get the album art licensed.

It poured smoothly into the snifter glass, no over-carbonation here. Visually, we're talking a dark brown/black body with a pretty thin head. A few times during my sessions, it took on the appearance of cola - dark middle, brown edge, a few bubbles. On Monday evening, I was even asked why I was drinking coke "like it was port or something". Clearly, I was not the only one thinking this.

There's a lot to like with the nose. The molasses/licorice/tobacco scent that usually comes with imperial stout is in there, but there's also a bit of plum or prune along for the ride. I'm leaning more toward 'prune' - there were more than a few times where "I'm getting Dr. Pepper here" would have been an apt statement to make. Warming it up forced the imperial stout smell to the forefront.

From what I've read, this is 3 or 4 parts imperial stout to one part honey ale. All I can say is that the honey ale must be crammed to the gills with flavor since it handles it's share of the load despite being 20-25 percent of the product. The sweetness of this beer - and I want to clarify I don't mean sugary-overload like, say, Southern Tier's Creme Brulee - was unexpected, but not unpleasant. There is little in the way of alcohol burn (you feel the 9%, but you don't really taste it) and you get all the good flavors from a stout. Tobacco, a little coffee, a little licorice, a little smoke, and so on, but there is usually a bitter bite to some degree on the back end - not the case with the BB. It's well blended (which I would credit the anti-bitter finish to), thinner on the mouthfeel than you'd probably guess, and worth a taste at the very least.

My one drawback on this is I will admit uncertainty on where this beer is going next. With most of the aged beer I've had, the major difference between point A and point B is a reduction of alcohol burn and a smoothness of flavor. I feel like this is already there . . . sort of. Just not entirely sure what a year or two will do to this. However, I do look forward to seeing how it goes.

It's a firm B+ for me.

Lupulin!

My first taste of true, fresh-hopped ale was three years ago. I'd arrived back into Portland after finishing a business trip and, with the rest of the day off, hit the Full Sail tasting room. The Lupulin Ale (humulus lupulus is, of course, the scientific classification for hops) that I had that day was eye-opening. I'd never tasted anything quite like it - the hop flavor was exploding out of the glass.

Since then, I've made it a point to get back there during the first few weeks of September when the new batches are released. Really enjoyed tasting the different variants with the varieties of hops involved. While I would not be able to tell you in a blind-test which one is which, I can definitely taste the difference in Centennial versus, say, Cascade.

This year, as far as I have been able to tell and as I indicated in my last post, the newest batch was made with First Gold and it's got a much more pronounced bitterness to the front end than some of the other varieties I can recall. The next few seconds are all hops and citrus flavor and it finishes clean. But yes, more of your bitter citrus (white grapefruit comes to mind) instead of your sweeter types - I will be very interested to try the Centennial in a week or two and make a comparison.

Events of the weekend blocked other trips to other locales, but I should be hitting them in the next week. Also: tonight I'll be getting into Bitches Brew and seeing if the fuss is worth the . . . um, fuss. Write-up on that tomorrow.

Hop Harvest Time

Oregon is in the homestretch of harvesting the hop crops for this year and brewers from all walks are rolling into farms across the Willamette to get orders in. Websites are rife with tales of harvesting, hauling the bags of hops back to the ranch as fast as possible, and dates and times of the newest creations dropping all over town. If you've never had true, honest-to-god, fresh-hopped beer before, you are missing out on something unique. The nose and 'brightness' of a "these-hops-were-off-the-vine-for-60-minutes-before-going-into-the-brew" IPA is eye-openingly awesome. Consider yourself a Hophead? You should be finding this stuff with all available speed.

I intend to hit a few of these this weekend. Full Sail's Lupulin Ale (a version with First Gold and a version with Centennial) has been my kick-off for the last three years and has already arrived in the Pilsner Room on the waterfront. Rock Bottom has their version out and initial reports are "GOOD!" And I may even hit Deschutes to complete the Southwest loop. They are not bringing out Hop Trip (their fresh hop style) until closer to the end of the month, but I still haven't been there in more than a few weeks and I'm starting to keep an eye out for the '10 version of The Dissident. AS SHOULD YOU.

Finding Beer

My weekend began with the sound of a gauntlet hitting the ground. Several friends from the East Coast had made a trip to their local bottle shop and picked up a few items. These items were then photographed and put on Facebook, with a tag for me in the photo to ensure that I saw the haul. The crown jewel of their trip was obvious: Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew.

I had seen the bottle in my last trip to John's, but had not obtained any since I didn't know the limited backstory and had not yet seen reviews. New School dropped their knowledge last Thursday and the beer immediately moved to the front of the line in my purchasing plans. Sadly, the Friday trip to John's had me starting at an empty shelf and the impending mockery from the East Coast crew was looming large.

But this is Portland. Five minutes of on-line work and bottles were located at Belmont Station - which made for a perfect next-day plan. I swung into Southeast on Saturday before the Michigan-Connecticut tilt started and pulled up with excellent timing: they were just finishing up the taps on their Imperial IPA-fest for the weekend! Score! After picking up a few bottles at the store, I had just enough time on the clock to enjoy a glass of Laurelwood's Organic Green Elephant IPA. Wonderful blast of sweet citrus on the nose and a very flavorful bite to a great IPA. Just the sort of Saturday-afternoon beer you'd want to be sipping on.

Belmont is a legend in PDX. So quintessentially "Portland" - you have a bottle shop on one half of the building and a small bar on the other. Knowledgeable staff, friendly consumers, and a quiet location (Saturday at noon, anyway) make for a lovely trip. While not as extensive into the foreign market as John's is, the lineup at Belmont should satisfy damn near anyone that walks in the door. I downed the last of my beer, hefted my purchases, and rolled homeward - snapping off a picture of my own to send back East.

And that's a great thing about Portland - it's always here. Always. Unless there is some distribution blockade (Bell's would make a killing in this area), you're going to find what you're looking for at a dedicated bottle shop, alehouse, taproom, or supermarket. That last option is normally an eye-roller . . . until you're minding your own business at a New Seasons and realize - yes - that IS the 2008 version of The Abyss sitting on the shelf. These are the kinds of things that happen out here and just a part of what makes it so utterly unique.

I have yet to crack open the BB - would expect to do so at some point in the next week or two. In summary - Portland is awesome. Just thought people should know.

What I Drank Last Weekend - Late August Edition

A trip to John's Marketplace last Friday (we'll discuss John's at another time) produced two new beers to my list:

• Sanctuary (Full Sail) - a Belgian dubbel, this is one of the seasonal rotations from Full Sail and, to be honest, they usually run the gambit from Not Bad to WOOOOOOOOOO. This one fell more toward the former side of that spectrum. Bready, biscuit smell, just what you'd expect from the style. But if you had asked me what the abv on this beer was after the first taste, I would've guessed 9 or 10. Seven? Getthehelloutofhere.
  
  It needs time. There's a good beer in there with some excellent flavor and a dry sweetness, but a year on the shelf is not the worst idea in the world. I'd be very interested in re-visiting this, but cannot recommend it as-is after my experience.
  
  
• 30th Anniversary - Jack & Ken's Ale (Sierra Nevada) - this is the third of the four-bottle series that Sierra Nevada is doing for their birthday. The first one, a stout, was amazing. The second, a Helles bock, was good, but not something I would sprint back to the store to obtain. This is a 'black barleywine' and another beer that needs some time to mellow the hell out. Dark fruit like plums and dates are present in both nose and taste with a pretty aggressive hop-bite. But as with Sanctuary, it's hard to get by the burn of the alcohol cutting through the flavors. Barleywine, in my opinion, is phenomenal if you leave it alone for a year or so and I believe this will be pretty damned good, say, this time next year. Just not something I'm reaching for in this status.

H.U.B. is the Life For Me.

I will cop to the fact that I've only been in Portland for three years. I will readily admit that I have no official beer credentials and come at my opinions simply from a "drinking buddy who likes beer" point of view. I am a simple voice among the many, many beer blogs that roll across the world. The following statement should be qualified with the above sentences.

All things considered - Hopworks is the best brewpub in Portland.

Again, I'm not a guy that gets samples from breweries. So when I say I love these guys, you know it's from a purely unsolicited point of view.

I've had pints pulled for me by the owner and brewer-in-charge of Hopworks, Christian Ettinger. I've had pints pulled for me by the newest hire at the brewpub. In both occasions, attention to detail and a desire to pour you the perfect pint was paramount. You are never short-poured at this place - period. I would even say that 90% of my growler fills are over the 2L line. They are also incredibly friendly with samples, so ask to try anything they have. The food ranges from average to very good and when you catch a good round of pizza that matches the beer, it's a thing of beauty. You're also drinking in a place that is about as eco-friendly as you can get, if that floats your boat.

The beer . . . I mean, what can you say? It's some of the best stuff produced in town. The one signature that I can count on is that all of their Imperials or Doubles have a measure of sweetness that I just can't get over - you expect a blast of booze with doubles and somehow they avoid it while making things tastier. The growler in the above photo is Velvet Underground, a beer that I've mentioned before. A doubled version of the Velvet ESB, this is just a boozy, malty monster that is well worth your cash.

In addition, I had some of the newly-tapped Galactic Imperial Red - a doubled, hoppier version of one of my personal favorites, Rise Up Red. While I hesitate to use the term "mulch heap" to describe a particular nose (negative imagery and all), this had an earthy, dankness to the smell that I really enjoyed. Not overpoweringly bitter, but with 100+ IBUs, this isn't a beer you would expect smoothness from - and yet, smooth it is.

Hopworks is running their BikeToBeerFest this weekend on Saturday - if you are in the area and rolling on two wheels, I highly recommend that you attend.

Fat Tire?? Yes, Fat Tire.

Having returned from the Long Beach / Orange, CA area, I was a little surprised about the options at various drinking holes. Oregon is definitely a one-of-a-kind place - the mean of places up here contain, at worst, three or four beers that are 'micros'. I took my wife to a birthday dinner at Ken's Artisan Pizza yesterday and had Hopworks ESB, Caldera Pils, and Upright Four as three of the four draft selections. But the ol' OC wasn't quite like that.

In fact, right after your basic openers of Bud, Bud Light, and Coors, the absolute #1, dead-certain, ask-for-it-and-it's-there option was always New Belgium's Fat Tire. I can't be sure of the market share, but just the places we went to, the options at supermarkets, and what was in my friend's beer fridge, I'd say 1000% is close to the mark.

Fat Tire is a PA beer (perfectly acceptable) - it's not going to knock your socks off, but as far as ambers go, you're not drinking dishwater swill by any means. It actually seems to be a decent lead-in for people who want something more than Bud/Coors but have not yet dipped their toes in the waters of microbrews. No mockery from this end - I just was a little shocked by the lack of ubiquitous good-beer in this area. Cali is supposed to be one of the five "This State Brews Better Than You Can Imagine" places in the US and I had thought I'd get the same experience in restaurants as I do in Portland: not a wide selection, yet what's there is killer. But to find any off-the-beaten-path brew in the LBC, you had to hit a Gastropub or something that screamed 'BEER!' from the rooftops. Standard bars or restaurants and you had no shot at ordering anything with more flavor than Fat Tire.

Moral of the story and continued personal reminder: give thanks to Beer that you live in Portland - you honestly don't know how good you've got it until you leave.

In the city they call Long Beach

On vacation in California with a few old friends of mine. Got picked up at the airport and, withing 15 minutes, we were sitting beachside at the Belmont Brewing Company. We ordered several pitchers of the Top Sail Amber - which I found pretty good, but definitely with more bitterness to the back end than you get out of a traditional Amber. Less on the malt sweetness, more on the hops.

I'm hoping to get us directed toward an establishment with some rotating taps for a few more CA-based brews while I'm in town through Tuesday.

Upright Tasting Room

Barrels. Barrels everywhere.

Expectations can sometimes trip me up. In life, I tend to be a creature of status-quo with certain bedrock principles in place but, with regard to beer, I'm making major efforts this year to change that. I'm plunging headlong into styles and beers that I would've never glanced at 18 months ago and finding stuff I like and stuff I don't like. And I am discovering enjoyment in (insert noun here) being not at all what I expect and yet awesome at the same time. This is probably why Upright is fast becoming a favorite of mine - and I mean that in two different ways.

Let's start with the premises. I had never been on-site, so finding my way into the building and then locating the tasting room was a bit of an adventure. Fortunately, once inside, it was easy to follow the brewery smell and locate their lair. I was expecting tasting rooms that I had been in before. Not this place. Upright felt like a speakeasy crossed with a brewery operation in a basement - and I mean that in the best possible sense. Glasses of beer vs. pints, small bowls of snacks on the table, Monk on vinyl playing softly over the speakers, and beer quietly aging in barrels pretty much everywhere you look.

Sadly, you can't get growlers of the Late Harvest. Damn right, I asked.

On Saturday, I had rolled past the PSU Farmers Market and hit the Upright booth. I spoke to a guy behind the counter who I had assumed was just a normal worker at the Market (on a previous trip, the staff there were hires, not brewers) and he and I discussed Late Harvest and the next day's tasting. Then I saw him again yesterday and managed to speak for another 10 minutes and realized he was a brewer for Upright. And then, today, I hit the website and find out that the guy I was talking to the entire time was Alex Ganum, owner and head brewer. I now feel pretty stupid - but the conversation was enjoyable and one I'll touch on at a later time.

Now then - the beer. A reminder on Late Harvest:

Late Harvest is a Pinot Noir barrel-aged farmhouse-brown ale brewed with pomegranate seeds, grains of paradise and Tasmanian peppercorns, all of which produced a tart, complex and balanced beer. The aroma and flavor are both reminiscent of some Italian-style bitters with an herbal and spicy character while it maintains a rich grain profile by heavy use of caramel malts and rolled barley. Late Harvest was brewed August 11th 2009 and barrel-aged for over 8 months before yielding only 75 cases being cellared at the brewery until it’s release. 7% abv

Brown with reddish-hue to it, this is both pleasing to the eye and the tongue. I love brown ale and this had all the hallmarks of what I enjoy plus some added tart/sour notes from the Pinot barreling. I didn't quite pick up the pepper, but that bit of spice that I've had in Sam Adams Summer Ale (which also uses grains of paradise) is definitely around. Wholly awesome on-tap, but I'm told the bottle version is a bit different and am interested to see what the variables are.

My second glass was the Six-And-A-Quarter: 75% of Six blended with a 25% version of Seven aged in what Alex described as a very small bourbon barrel the size of a keg. There was so much going on in that beer that I had a hard time pinning anything down. It's got ridiculously good flavor from the rye ale and you can occasionally pick out a caramel wave, but my palate is not skilled in the separation needed to truly nail this down.

There was a table right behind me selling Four aged w/ Bing Cherries.

Rolled out after a bit with two bottles of the Harvest - one for sometime soon and one that is going into the Secret Beer Storage Area. I'll revisit it this time next year to see how it's aged.

Weekend Options: 8/6 - 8/8

Couple of events and happenings in the area that I'm possibly doing this weekend:

• The 2nd Annual Nano Beer Fest: Fanno Creek Brew Pub in Tigard is doing another of their "small brewery" festivals. Think of it is a very reduced version of the OBF, but for smaller breweries (or closely approximating a small brewery). There are some nice things on the list of beers and, since it's basically six minutes from my front door and I met a guy at Bailey's last weekend who was telling me to go, this may be in the cards for a Saturday trip.

• Bite of Oregon: While primarily food based, there is a beer garden in place at the Bite and the beer, while nothing hard to find or out of season, is still a good list of local, big-name brewers putting a decent foot forward. Two or three on the list are ones I have not tried, so if we're in the area and attend, I'll definitely head that direction.

• Upright Releases 'Late Harvest': On Sunday, Upright drops their newest creation during their usual 1-6pm Tasting Room hours. The description (a pinot-barrel-aged farmhouse brown ale brewed with pomegranate seeds, grains of paradise, and Tasmanian peppercorns) is more than enough to pique my interest and since I've never been to the location, it might be a fun Sunday afternoon event.

Honest Pints

Everyone and their mother has been short-poured before. But what happens when you actually pay for an advertised pint of beer and end up with substantially less?

Jeff Alworth, Beervana blogger and creator of the Honest Pint Project, created a method to assure you of your pour: get photographic proof that what's being advertised is what's being served. The HPP, while created locally in Portland, is not just an Oregon thing. You, too, can authenticate your favorite public house or bar, regardless of location.

This may sound tick-tacky, but there are places (we're talking locations with reputations as great spots to drink) which will advertise "pint" and then head-fake you with a cheater-pint/mixing glass. These suckers are 14oz. with a thicker bottom and - once you get a half-inch of head on there, you might be getting a 12 or 13 ounce pour. Now, if they just put "beer" or don't mention the pint part, the establishment is in the clear. Technically, they can charge whatever they consider a 'beer' to be.

But pints? Standard weight and measure, son. You just paid for 16oz. - they better be serving you that amount. Hell, if you paid for a 16oz. strip steak and they brought you a 12, you'd likely complain to the waiter, the manager, and anyone else about getting cheated. Beer shouldn't be any different. There are some places (Deschutes comes to immediate mind) that have switched up to glasses with .5L markings on the side so you can see what you're getting. But until the happy, albeit unlikely, day that the US copies the UK and makes it illegal to sell beer in unmarked or non-authenticated glasses, a customer must be alert on their situation when ordering.

I'm pondering doing some assistance on this project by certifying locations that I frequent. There are a couple of places on the HPP list that have yet to have photos taken - this might become a person project over the next few months.

Barrel-Aged Birthdays are the Way To Go

Yes.

As I noted last week, Bailey's Taproom had a barrel-aged anniversary party on Saturday and, as expected, it did not disappoint. I scheduled a hearty breakfast in the morning - a buffer was surely going to be needed for the rest of my day. The posted list contained some absolute monsters and, even allotting 3 hours, I was prepared to take my time with my selections and not rush from beer to beer. I also wanted to get the 'word of mouth' from the crowd and only went in with my opening pick in mind.

I arrived several hours into the event, paid the $15, got my glass and tokens, and side-stepped my way inside. Only one option had been killed - the Cascade Quadratic Formula. Ended up not feeling too bad about that since it gathered mixed reviews from the people I spoke to. The area was crowded, but not oppressively so. You certainly weren't getting a table or a spot at the bar anytime soon, but there was always a place to stand and there was a roped-off spot just outside the front door where it was comfortable to be outside and drink great beer.

Welcome to Portland. Here is your complimentary glass of liquid gold.

I managed to swing through seven beers on the list before I tapped out. It helped to have had a few of them before (Rogue, Full Sail, Oakshire) and, thus, keep my head focused on new things. Some definitely were better than others. Three of them in particular were more than memorable winners:

1A: Parabola (Firestone Walker) - I have heard some highly positive tales of this beer and, let me assure you, they are all true. Molasses and raisin and bourbon (part of the molasses, yes, but that boozy caramel touch) and smooth, smooth, smooth. It's a liver-kicking 13%, but you'd never guess it was quite that high. This is a beer to be savored and chewed through and spoken of with emphatic nods and gestures. The keg kicked while I was there - evidence that I was not the only one with this opinion.

1B: '09 Dragon's Milk (New Holland) - Pleasantly thinner than the nose and eye would lead you to believe with a cream feel to it. I caught a distinct, peat-like aspect to it that I really enjoyed. This was great a few years ago and my return sample is just as good as remembered. I liked the smell of this more than the Parabola, but the taste tipped slightly the other direction. Basically a two-way tie.

3: Lambicus Six (Upright) - I just had the Six last weekend and seeing it with a Lambicus strain and then put into Pinot . . . what a combo. I enjoy a decent sour beer and this had a tartness and bite that I loved. Wine notes everywhere, mainly with some dark cherry. If you're not into sours, this would be borderline, but as a switch-up to some of the dark stuff on the menu? It was an excellent selection.

I really only had one that missed quite badly:

1: #181 (Block 15) - I can kind of see the intended plan, but the acidity level was murder. I had difficulty getting past that and into any kind of flavors. White grape maybe, but who can tell?

Others:

For Those About To Bock (Hopworks) - Very odd, grain/damp-wheat nose to it. First time I'd had an aged-bock beer, and it was okay, but nothing really jumped out.

Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale (Moylan's) - There was so much going on in this that it was hard to find any focal points. Tasty, yes, and the Port barreling gave it some unique flavors - but very hard to peg. Points for being different, deductions for confusion.

Cherry Adam (Hair of the Dog) - Picked up on recommendation. Cherry, yes, but almost cloyingly so. Extremely thick, not crazy carbonated, it was borderlining on negative reaction, but warming it up a bit helped out. Thinned up a little, it was more manageable. Still, it was difficult to see where the love was coming from.

This was a great event and I can't recommend it enough. Friendly crowd, short lines, efficient staff, great day. Mortal lock for a return trip next year.

This is a roomful of very happy people.

Bailey's Anniversary

There's a general, post-OBF malaise going on with me right now. I haven't had any huge urges to hit John's Marketplace or get a growler filled in more than a few days and my beer fridge in the garage stands empty.

Ah, but then I caught this: Bailey's Taproom 3rd Anniversary Party is this Saturday. Wall-to-wall barrel-aged brew at one of the better locations for draft beer in town. Check out this lineup:

Block 15 #181 - Two barrel blend of one year old lambic with wild yeast/bacteria from Belgium aged in Oak barrels. 5%

Rogue John John Juniper - Juniper Pale Ale aged in Juniper Gin barrels. 5.2%

Full Sail ’09 Black Gold - Imperial Stout aged a year in Bourbon barrels. 10.5%

Oakshire Very Ill Tempered Gnome - Strong Ale aged in a Pinot barrel for 5 months. 10.5%

Fort George ’09 Illuminator - Doppelbock aged in Heaven Hills Bourbon barrel. 9%

Upright Lambicus Six - Dark Rye with brettanomyces lambicus aged in Pinot barrels. 7%

Deschutes Pinot Twilight - Pale Ale aged in Pinot barrels. 5%

Caldera Mogli - Imperial Porter aged in Bourbon barrels.

Hopworks For Those About to Bock - Bock aged in Buffalo Trace barrels since Jan. 7.1%

Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza - Belgian Golden with wild yeast aged in Oak barrel. 8%

Firestone Parabola - Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels. 13%

Moylan's Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale - Kilt Lifter aged in both Apple Brandy and Port barrels.

Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam - Old Ale aged with cherries in Bourbon and Sherry barrels.

New Holland ’09 Dragon's Milk - Strong Ale aged in Oak barrels. 10%

Allagash ’08 Curieux - Allagash Tripel aged in Jim Beam barrels. 11%

Russian River Consecration - Belgian Ale with lots of funk aged in Cab. barrels. 10%

Lompoc ’08 Bourbon LSD - Strong Ale aged in Bourbon barrels 8.5%

Three Skulls Wreckage - Barleywine aged in Bourbon barrels.

Cascade - A special Bailey’s blend.

Ye cats, that is drool-worthy. Fifteen bucks snags you a glass (real! no plastic!) and five tastes. Additional tastes are a buck each. I'm tentatively planning to attend early - hopefully getting there at noon when the doors are opening up.

OBF 2010

Short version: light crowd, perfect weather, fun parade, some great beers, Buzz tent = unbridled joy.

Long version: The Oregon Brewers Festival gets occasional flack because it's the biggest event of the Craft Brewing Month (and, to be honest, the entire year) for 'beer' in Portland. Crowd size, beer selection, "it's always the same" - these are comments you tend to hear from jaded individuals who have been going for the last ten, fifteen, even twenty years. Frankly, those people are insane.

Located on the Waterfront Park and running Thursday-Sunday in the last full weekend of July, the OBF is 70,000 people trying 80 'official' beers with a special selection 'Buzz' tent, food stalls, swag, live music, and what tends to be some great weather. Free to get in, tasting mugs are five bucks and wooden tokens are a buck each. You can also use tokens at any OBF, so if you bought 20 of them and only made it through half, keep the other ten and bring them back next year. This is how I started the day with 9 in my pocket before I even went anywhere. 2010 was my third Festival and the first where I attended pre-Festival activities and tried to make a concentrated effort to note what I was drinking and when. While I didn't completely succeed (some sips from my friends' samples never got written down), I still had more than enough info to declare a few winners and . . . if not losers, then definite missteps.

Thursday is THE day to go if you like beer. If you like crowds and lines, by all means - head down on Saturday afternoon/evening and enjoy your wait for Full Sail LTD 03, but hitting the show when the gates open and it's just you and a lot of beerheads and brewers is the correct call. I started my day with the 4th Annual Brewers Brunch and Parade - held this year at the Deschutes Public House in Portland. My wife had hooked me up with a ticket as a birthday present and I arrived at the 10am start time. There was a 20 min line to get registered (t-shirt, mug, tokens, program) and then a 10 min line to get wristbanded and into the food area. Two guys in front of me started joking about how they would be annoyed if the food was gone or things weren't available by the time we hit the table . . . and then four chefs from the back carried a haunch of prime beef the size of a truck tire right by us. " . . . today is going to be a great day," was the immediate response.

My first beer of the day was a free Deschutes Black Butte Porter which, for breakfast, was pretty interesting. I've never paired up porters with breakfast food, but it was an excellent match for some of the things on my plate (Hop Biscuits with the Pork Apple Sausage Gravy comes to mind) and I was glad to have a buffer in my stomach for what was to come. At 11am, people congregated to the closed off section of Davis street, the mayor rolled up to lead the parade, and we were off. 500-600 people with signs, shirts, stickers, and a 8-piece marching band playing funk heading to the park where we'd be in the gates before everyone else. Definitely doing that again next year.

Mayor Adams managed to tap the opening keg successfully (he enthusiastically broke the hammer last year) and as long as the spigot was flowing, you got a free fill of your mug. As the openers of the festival, Deschutes had oak-aged Jubelale 2010 in their opening keg. Cask-ale to open is the way to go and this once-a-decade-double-version of Jubelale is fabulous. Smoky with a touch of caramel from the aging - really good stuff.

And now to the list in order:

Beer 3 (first 'official' of the festival): The Vaporizer (Double Mountain) - a 6% abv pale ale, highly recommended from various publications and people I respect. Very crisp, very lemony-floral, bitter finish. My problem is that the lemon aspect tasted like dish-soap and I couldn't get around that immediate identification. Will have to try this on-tap someplace else to compare, but for now, not a big winner.

Beer 4: 7-Grain Saison (The Bruery) - these guys do nothing but craft-Belgians and some of their creations are bizarre (but tasty). This was a straight-forward (for them) 5% abv Saison with your standard banana/clove nose but the sweet taste and dry finish were a surprise and well done.

Beer 5: 21 (Rogue) - brewed in honor of their 21st pass through the OBF, this was an 8% abv Old Ale that was incredibly well made. Boozy, malty, and the added molasses provided a sweet note that brought it all together. I would actually say this was better than the Jubelale 2010 as the two were somewhat similar, but this felt more complex and complete at the same time.

Beer 6: Son of C-Note (Lompac) - As they said it in the program, "if there's a hop who's name begins with C, it's probably in here." A pale ale running just under 6% with enough hop taste to clear your palate of anything that came before it. Heavy grapefruit orientation but, for me, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Very smooth on the finish - less bitter than you would expect.

Beer 7: Hoss (Great Divide) - I think something might have happened to the keg. This was off from the moment I smelled it and the first taste did not improve matters. I actually like rye ales and I was hoping for more good things from GD, but this was not one of them.

Beer 8: Bitter Brewer (Surly Brewing) - I can't recall having craft beer from Minnesota before, but I stood in line at the Brunch behind a guy who works for them and he and his girlfriend made me swear to try it. Good that they did - this was a winner. There is some eye-opening flavor here for a beer at 4% - this is basically a dry-hopped ESB, but the hops involved and the method really made this good.

Buzz tent interlude: At this point, we'd cleared one side of the festival and had made it to the central section where the Buzz area was at. Roughly 40-50 of the breweries at the OBF also brought experimentals, cellared awesomeness, and things that you just aren't going to get anywhere else. Two tokens a sample and no full pours at all. These show up randomly among the 8 pouring stations and, when gone, they get another one up there. This happens for the entire run of the festival, so the hope is that you're there when the best stuff possible is pouring.

Beer 9 (Buzz Tent): Ale Aged in Pinot Barrels (Oakshire) - the bastard part about this is no one knows WHAT beer they put in the barrels. Amber? Something different? No one can say and the pourers are volunteers so they wouldn't know either. But this was staggeringly good. Rich, thick, dark, and the flavors were so unlike anything I've had before. Universal acclaim from the people I was with at the time.

(7/31 - ETA: Ill-Tempered Gnome was the beer - recommended stuff under normal circumstances, but the aging makes it sing)

Beer 10: Reggae Junkie Gruit (Upright) - still stunned about this one. No hops in the beer. None. Instead, two different malts, spelt berries, orange peel, peppercorn, and lemongrass went into the brewing process. Floored by the flavor - was amazed they managed to get something this tasty without hops. Probably the most 'revelatory' beer for me at the festival.

Beer 11: German Tradition Double Dry Hopped Pale Ale (Boundary Bay) - first of all, they need to shorten up the name. Second, they need this in bottles ASAP because they have a winner here. A very well made pale ale, just a shade under 6%, and full of flavor. Extremely smooth drinking with a moderate hoppiness that worked well with the beer. Very pleased with this one.

Beer 12: CoCoNut Porter (Maui Brewing) - I was expecting something sickeningly sweet, maybe feeling like they'd just added in fake flavoring on top of a usual stout. I was more than happy to discover that the sweetened flavor from actual toasted coconut was a great addition and didn't overwhelm the actual porter. Everyone I was with had a taste and everyone came away saying, "More please!"

Beer 13: Sunstone Pilsner (Collaborator) - the Oregon Brew Crew (home brewers) and Widmer run a little competition where the winning home brew will be mass-produced (on a small scale) and then served up on-tap all over town. This pilsner was very good, very flavorful, and felt like a cross between a pils and a hefe.

Beer 14 (Buzz Tent): Mo'TCHO Risin' (21st Amendment) - this is the greatest chocolate stout I've ever tried in my life. Not hyperbole or the amount of beer at the time talking - this was amazing. Not too sweet, not too bitter, every flavor note was completely on point. I convinced the two people behind me in line to try in and was thanked by both of them. An incredible beer and the one I finished up my OBF with.

My top three: Mo'TCHO Risin', Pinot Aged Ale, 21

My bottom two: The Vaporizer, Hoss

I had a great time and will definitely be back next year.

She's from Sumeria, you know

I was asked by a friend of mine to do a bit of commentary on Ninkasi. Admittedly, they are a good topic for discussion: in two years, this Eugene brewery has done just about everything short of riding into your local supermarket (regardless of where in the US you are), planting a flag, and forcing their beer into your hands. Open for business and develop the flagship brewery in their hometown? Check. Double the production capacity? Check. Add-on a tasting room? Check. Create an IPA that turns into the #1 22 oz. seller of ANY kind in Oregon and a top-10 bomber in the nation? Check, check, and check.

I've had 8 of the 10 beers produced by Ninkasi and they range from 'not my favorite' * to 'good' ** to 'just bring the keg over here and save time' ***. They have an absolute passion and positivity that is a requirement for brewing in Oregon, let alone achieving the kind of successes they've made right out of the gate. Their labels and tap heads have interestingly cool designs, they are a fixture at every beer festival I can think of, and Oregon freakin' loves them. Ninkasi has created some ridiculously loyal followers.

Floyd and Ridge, in my opinion, do their best work with seasonal releases. From my vantage point, the opening salvo of hop bomb after hop bomb after hop bomb was like firing off an air horn - the intent is to get people looking in your direction and then bait & switch them. "Oh, hi! Sorry about the noise . . . say, while you're here, check out this cream ale we've got . . . " There are other brewers who are better at limited releases versus year-rounds, but with Ninkasi, if seems like the distinction between the two is much, much greater. I may return to some of the standard offerings at some point, but the my first passes through did not go well.

So, Ninkasi - good, just dodge the year-rounds. With that in mind - I'm looking forward to trying Maiden The Shade (hey, a seasonal!) at the OBF in a few days.

* Tricerahops Double IPA - I can appreciate a beer giving your taste buds a bit of a hop blast, but this is obscene and not in a good way. I've tried it twice - once out of a bomber and once on tap - and in both cases, I couldn't get past the hops to enjoy the beer. Much like Dogfish Head's 120-min IPA, it's basically worth drinking once just to say you've tried it, but good luck having more than one. I should admit that the on-tap version did smooth out the flavoring a bit, but we're talking five, maybe ten percent max.

** Spring Reign - Very 'clean' beer - in appearance, mouthfeel, and flavor, there is a crispness to it that almost makes you think of a pilsner. But it's actually like a light version of a Kölsch with more hop taste. It's an apt name and a good brew.

*** Oatis - Now we're talking. It's pretty good in the bottle, but Oatis takes on a brilliant, creamy mouthfeel when you can find it on-tap and, for me, that is a perfect attribute to have in an oatmeal stout. Dark, pleasantly thick (but not to motor oil levels), very smooth, and with just a touch of sweetness to it - this is the beer you want to be packing on a raw, Fall day.