The Oregon Brewers Festival brings the beer world to Portland: beer events for the week of July 28-August 3

Attendees also loved this year’s International Beer Garden, which features two dozen additional beers from brewers from Japan, China, Germany and the Netherlands during the weekend. The half dozen Wednesday beers included such treats as an amazingly refreshing Imperial IPA brewed for the 10th anniversary of Japan’s Shiga Kogen brewery. (Whose brewer will be at the Hair of the Dog special tasting on Saturday at the HOTD brewery…) Called simply No. 10, it incorporates Miyama Nishiki sake rice in the grain bill and proved that styles may not translate exactly, but that the concept of good, interesting beer is a universal one…

29th Oregon Brewers Festival
Continues Noon-9 p.m. Thursday July 28- Saturday July 30 & noon – 7 p.m. Sunday July 31, Tom McCall Waterfront Park: no admission charge, $7 for 2016 glass, beer tokens $1 each. Photo ID required, minors OK all hours when accompanied by a parent.
One of the country’s longest-running and best loved beer fests is a craft beer destination for 80,000 who annually make the pilgrimage to Beervana to drink in one of the world’s best settings for a beer festival. The 29th annual will serve 88 beers ranging from Belgians to braggots, cream to coffee ales, goses to gluten free, pales to Pilsners and saisons to stouts from craft breweries across the nation.

The International Beer Garden will feature six breweries from Japan – Baird, North Island, Shiga Kogen, Shonan, Y Market and the winner of a national beer competition in Japan hosted by the Japan Beer Journalists Association; seven breweries from The Netherlands – De Molen, Frontaal, Maximus, Oedipus, Oersoep, Oproer and Van Moll; plus two breweries from Germany – Brauerei Nothhaft and Lang Bräu. The International Beer Garden began three years ago as part of a cultural exchange of ideas, knowledge and the worldwide celebration of craft beer and has been growing every year. As always, the event also features five days of live music, food booths, craft vendors and homebrew demonstrations.

And, as always, the OBF organizers remind us that parking is at a premium/nonexistent: take MAX instead, which has a station just one block away from the main entrance. Or ride you bike and take advantage of the Hopworks Urban Brewery secure bike corral.

Meet the Japanese Brewers
6 p.m. Thursday July 28, Belmont Station, 4500 S.E. Stark St.
Here’s your chance to meet some of the brewers responsible for those fine beers on tap at the OBF International Beer Garden. The brewers will be in the house and their beers will be on tap at tonight’s event.

Imperial’s Third Anniversary
5 p.m. Thursday July 28, Imperial Bottleshop, 3090 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.;
Imperial celebrates its first three years with the help of the Baerlic boys, who collaborated with the Imperial crew to brew the anniversary beer, Helles for Heroes: a nontraditional Helles lager brewed with a touch of lime and oats. “The height of summer and key lime pie were our inspirations,” says owner Alex K, “so expect this brew to be refreshing with a touch of decadence. We’ll be pouring it for a killer deal at $4 for 20 oz, along with a bunch of other special $4 pours.”

They’ve put together a special taplist highlighting favorite beers, a secret love affair with bourbon (you can’t always drink beer), some selections from the cellar, and some anniversary brews from favorite breweries. The tap list will include:

Available at $4 for 20 oz:
Baerlic Helles for Heroes
Sunriver Brewing Rippin’ NW Ale
Barley Brown’s Brew Pub Pallet Jack IPA
Montavilla Brew Works Round 1 Anniversary Imperial IPA
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Unfiltered DBA
and more…

Drake’s OBF Tap Takeover
5 p.m. Friday July 29, the BeerMongers, 1125 S.E. Division St.;
The OBF isn’t just about the big party on the waterfront; it’s also about the hundreds of brewers who make the pilgrimage to Portland and the special beers they often bring. This tap takeover from the Bay Area’s Drake’s Brewing is one of the many special events happening all over town this week and it features some very special beers on tap, including Barrel Aged Cocoa Caliente, Lusu’s Love Child, Rye Robustito Barrel Aged Session Porter, Kick Back IPA, 1500 Pale and maybe more..

Baerlic Bottle release Party
6 p.m. Friday July 29, Baerlic Brewing Taproom,; 2235 S.E. 11th Ave.;
Meet brewers Rik Hall, Ben Parsons and Sean Rubbo and celebrate (and buy) Baerlic’s first release of 22oz bottles – Cavalier Classic Cream Ale, Invincible IPA and Nice & Easy Gose – before they hit shelves at select retailers across the Portland metro area the following week.

Hair of the Dog Special Tasting
11:30 a.m. Saturday July 30, Hair of the Dog Brewery and Tasting Room, 61 S.E. Yamhill St.;
Alan Sprints and Hair of the Dog hosts beers and brewers from Brouwerij de Molen and Shiga Kogen in the Tasting Room. They’ll have three beers on tap from each brewer and are also doing a special collaborative brew Saturday blending cultures from each brewery in this un-ticketed event.

B-Sides Launch Party & Cellar Tasting
6 – 8:30 p.m. Saturday July 30, Breakside Brewery Milwaukie Tasting Room & Brewery, 5821 SE International Way, Milwaukie; $15 includes eight tix.
Check out Breakside’s new line of B-Sides, barrel-aged sour beers and wild ales – blends from vintage or unreleased beers. The initial offering is of eight new 750ml bottled beers that are part of a new series the brewery has been working on for more than two years.

“All of these are blended beers,” says Breakside’s Ben Edmunds. “we approached this series in the winemaking tradition of pairing and blending barrels that worked together to create harmonious and balanced different beers. Most of these beers did not start as ideas in and of themselves — the ideas came to us through the blending process.”

For Saturday’s release party, Breakside offers 750ml bottles for $14 and a one-time chance to try all eight on tap, along with a selection of rare beers from the library on sale in bottles and on tap. Any remaining bottles of B-Sides will be sold exclusively at Breakside’s two locations for $15 a bottle from then on and this will be the only chance to try them all on tap.

Here is the full draft and bottle lineup for the evening, taken directly from Ezra’s excellent press release:

Draft List

B-Sides:
Portmanteau
Carte Blanche
Homunculus
Annus Mirabilis
The Man Who Made Dessert
Next Thursday
Dos Pinches
Persona Non Grata

From The Library:
Apollo & Dionysus (Gin Barrel-Aged Saison with Chrysanthemum and Jasmine)
Beaujolais avec Brett 2014 (Sour Wheat with Gamay Noir Grapes and Brett)
Bellwether 2014 (Sour Double Wit Aged in Gin Barrels with Thai Lime Leaves)
Bon Vivant 2015 (Dry Hopped Belgian Ale Aged in Pinot Noir Barrels)
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Salted Caramel Stout 2015
Braggadocio 2014 (Bourbon Barrel-Aged London Porter/Stone Collaboration)
Bricolage (Brett Belgian Pale Ale)
Cerveza Carajillo (Rum Barrel Aged Mexican Coffee Stout)
Elder Statesman (Dry Hopped Bourbon Barrel-Aged IRA)
French Quarter (Rye Wine Aged in Brandy Barrels)
Flor de Besançon (Maderized Sour Rye Aged in Bourbon Barrels)

Palate Cleansers:
Passionfruit Sour Ale
Post Time Kolsch
Definitely Not (India Wheat Ale/Wayfinder Collabo)
Pomegranate Gose
Breakside IPA

Sixth Annual BenFest
2-6 p.m. Sunday July 31, Roscoe’s, 8105 S.E. Stark St.
Celebrate Portland’s rich bounty of brewers named Ben and sample their great beers at the sixth annual Ben Fest Sunday. BenFest serves as the official closing ceremony of Oregon Craft Beer Month and features five new or special-release beers from eight Oregon brewers named Ben: Ben Dobler of Mt Tabor Brewing, Ben Edmunds of Breakside Brewing, Ben Engler of Occidental Brewing, Ben Kehs of Deschutes Brewery, Ben Love, Ben Flerschinger and Ben L’Etoile of Gigantic and Ben Parsons of Baerlic Brewing. The beers are:
Ben Dobler – Mt Tabor
Benny-rita
A lime peel and raspberry lager.
4 percent
15 ibu
Ben Edmunds – Breakside
Definitely, Ben
Collaboration with Wayfinder: an extremely hoppy wheat beer that looks
like an Oregon-brewed hefeweizen and tastes and smells like a new world
IPA. We’re not sure exactly how to classify this beer, but we know for
sure that it is Definitely Not an IPA.
6.1 percent
45 ibu
Ben Engler – Occidental
Team Ben
The hoppy wheat beer you always wanted from Occidental, but were too shy
to ask for.
4.8 percent
50 ibu
Ben Kehs – Deschutes
Ben’s Swan Song
A refreshing blend of Bavarian hefeweizen and lemonade.
4.1 percent
9 ibu
Ben Love, Ben Flerschinger, Ben L’Etoile – Gigantic
TripelBenitration
The trio of Ben’s from Gigantic took a keg of VIVID New Zealand hopped
Imperial IPA and tripel supercharged it with passion fruit, habanero and
a secret third ingredient.
8.5 percent
100+3 ibu
Ben Parsons – Baerlic
Twos Company Ben-ish Pale Ale
Brewed in celebration of our 2 Year Anniversary!! Punchy aromas of
melon, tropical citrus and spice courtesy of experimental Idaho 7 hops
and a brettanomyces-like yeast with a dry yet chewy finish.
5.7 percent
35 ibu

Interurban/pFriem 4th Annual Crawfish Boil
3-9 p.m. Sunday July 31, Interurban, 4057 N. Mississippi Ave.;
Newspapers ARE still good for something in this age of digital disruption: Sunday they’ll be a crucial foundation for Interurban’s southern-inspired summer crawfish boil, where they’ll also be pouring six summer brews from Hood River’s pFriem Brewing: Blabaer, Frambozen, Summer Pale, Mango Berliner, Mexican Lager and pFriem Pilsner, one of the best around. Baskets of crawfish will be available by the pound with corn and andouille, and served alongside other Southern staples from Chef Johnny Henry including:

Soft shell crab po’ boy
Cheddar biscuits, collards, Tasso, pickled jalapeño
Heirloom tomato salad
Frites, aioli
Oysters, moonshine and charred pineapple mignonette
Cold cut slider, ham, salami, mortadella, tapenade
Popcorn shrimp, comeback sauce
Little gem comeback salad, smoked egg
Cajun spicy marinated bean salad
Beignets, house jam
Breaded boar chop, grits and red eye gravy

Pints for Team Brewpublic
11 a.m. – close Wednesday August 3, Ecliptic brewing Co., 825 N. Cook St.;
Everybody knows Angelo, Brewpublic founder and one of Portland’s favorite beer people. You likely also know that he is currently living with a rare type of supposedly incurable brain tumor and is doing his very best to beat it – he just started daily chemo and almost daily radiation this week. Ecliptic will help by donating a buck from every pint purchased in the pub Wednesday to Team Brewpublic. If you are unable to stop by the pub but would like to support Team Brewpublic and the National Brain Tumor Society, click here: 

Buoy in the Pearl
Continues through Sunday 31, River Pig Saloon, 529 NW 13th Ave.;
Yes, there’ll be no end of fine beers on the waterfront at the OBF, but the Buoy crew will also take over the taps at the River Pig Saloon during the fest, turning it into the Buoy Beer Saloon. Meet the Buoy Beer staff Wednesday night, including founders, brewers and the rest of the crew and enjoy a taplist of standards and one-time brews, including:

Dragon Weisse (the beer crafted for 2016 Oregon Brewers Festival)
Buoy IPA
Buoy Czech Pils
Buoy NW Red Ale
Buoy Helles
Buoy Dunkel
Buoy Pale Ale
Brewer’s Retreat Kolsch
Benedict Cumberbatch
Simcoe Single Hop
Session Pale Ale
Rice Rice Baby
Hellesbock
River Barrel-Aged Hellesbock