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.