Oregon Trail Brewery and Old World Deli in Corvallis, OR

Last weekend on our action packed travel to Corvallis, we learned that the college town was about more than just Oregon State Beavers and their prosperous Division 1 sports programs. The seat of Benton County, Corvallis is home to over 50,000 people as well as a thriving craft beer community.

Orange and black lights up the streets where the Beaver faithful seem to never waiver from cheering on their favorite school. In fact Oregon State University offers a Fermentation Science option that is approved by the Institute of Food Technologists program. In recent news, Indie Hops, an Oregon  supplier of aroma hops, donated $807,000 toward a new program for aroma hop research at the university in the College of Agricultural Sciences. In total, the hops merchant has provided over $1 million toward hops breeding and chemistry research. This is not only good news for OSU and Oregon, but it’s great news for much of the North American craft beer community.

The past week has been teeming with mouthwatering, hoppy dark brews, starting back mid-last week when we attended a Cascadian Dark Ale blind tasting with friends. Here we were lucky to sample ten different CDAs and get a feel of the various nuances from a unique unbiased perspective. Now, as can be expected with any blind tasting, some were obviously more favorable than others. Style champion and all around beer geek Abram Goldman-Armstrong got us excited for the CDA Week at Belmont Station and the CDA Symposium he would be hosting on Saturday morning. All and all, we’ve probably never had as many of one style of beer as we did over the last week.

Thanks to Ezra for hosting and sharing and everyone who participated in the Cascadian Dark Ale blind tasting this past week. Here’s some notes on these ten beer offerings.

Bill Schneller

Bill Scheller, a well respected member of the Oregon Brew Crew, and award winning homebrewer, was at Portland’s Green Dragon Pub and Bistro last Wednesday for the release of a special recipe beer he created.

Schneller, who was named OBC’s 2009 Homebrewer of the Year, and the instructor at the Brew Crew’s BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program), used a 19th Century recipe to produce a wonderfully floral, bitter, and roasty brew akin to one that was once brewed in England and somewhat similar to today’s Cascadian Dark Ales.

By Ezra “Samurai Artist” Johnson-Greenough and Jimmy Blum

Alaskan Smoked Porter

Alaskan Smoked Porter is the prototype for US craft smoked beers. Many still consider this smoked ale the best of its kind, and the numerous medals it has won at the Great American Beer Festival certainly justify this belief. Geoff and Marcy Larson, owners of Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau, Alaska, created the beer in 1988. Marcy’s research into traditional smoky beers brewed during the Alaskan gold rush at the turn of 20th century provided a launch point for the project.

By Ezra Johnson-Greenough and Jimmy Blum

Photo by Ritch Marvin

By Ezra “Samurai Artist” Johnson-Greenough and Jimmy Blum

Photos by Ritch Marvin

Smoke and beer are old companions. Yet, most beer drinkers are more likely to find smoke flavor in the grilled foods and smoked cheeses accompanying their pints, rather than in the beers themselves. Fortunately, a number of breweries and maltsters have endeavored to provide the public with smoke-tinged pints despite the relative scarcity of dedicated smoked beer connoisseurs. In order to truly appreciate the efforts of the men and women who have striven to keep smoke in the glass, as well as the unique craftsmanship that characterizes a well-made smoked beer, it is helpful to reflect upon the robust history of smoke and beer.

In recent months you may have noticed a small Pacific Northwest resurgence in Gose brews among other obscure beer styles. The Gose is a style of beer that has a checkered past and during periods in its evolution has all but disappeared from the planet.

The Gose style dates back to the early 18th Century in the town of Goslar, Germany, in the Lower Saxony in the northwest slopes of the Harz Mountains. Brewed with at least 50% malted wheat in the grain bill, Gose beer fell outside of the Reinheitsgebot due to the use of salt and coriander spice. However, the beer was allowed special exception due to it being considered a regional specialty. Goses became so popular in Leipzig, a city now consisting of more than half a million people, that several regional breweries started brewing Goses themselves. By the end of the 19th Century, it was considered to be the local style of Leipzig and there were countless Gosenschänke in the city.

Walla Walla, Washington has been  a world class destination for wine connoisseurs since the 1970s. Producing some complex and flavorful varietals has garnered international acclaim for the Merlots, Cabernets, and most recently Syrahs of the area. In fact more than 100 wineries in the the Walla Walla Valley generate more than $100 million annually and make the area a hotspot for tourism. Walla Walla Community College offers an associate’s degree program in winemaking through its recently established school of Enology and Viticulture, which also operates its own commercial winery.

However, long before the emergence of the valley’s identity as a wine producer, beer was the lamen’s drink. Thanks to my friend Yvette Uber, I was able to learn a history of Walla Walla’s brewing culture from an issue of American Breweriana Journal which had an article by Herman Wiley Ronnenberg. In this magazine Yvette let me borrow, I learned that in 1855 pioneer brewer Emil Meyer established the first brewery in the future state of Washington. At the time this was Oregon Territory. When gold was discovered along the nearby Salmon River in 1860, Walla Walla became a major depot for supplies and by the following year, Meyer advertised his City Brewery and Bakery on Main Street in the local publication, the Walla Walla Statesman. Meyer’s focus was lager beer, bread, a variety of crackers, fruits and vegetables, wines and liquors.In 1862 Vancouver Brewery Ale from America’s Vancouver became available in Walla Walla to compete with the local brews. Making the long journey up the Columbia before being hauled over land, Vancouver’s ale offered a fruitier tasting alternative to Meyer’s lager. By 1864 Meyer was also in the ale producing business and had the beer brewed at his Second Street brewery on the east end of town. A real entrepeneur it has been documented that Meyer also briefly ran a brewery in Idaho City in the Boise Basin during times of gold rush. In 1865 Meyer was back at the Walla Walla City Brewery manufacturing bock beer. A report says that the brewer gave a dozen bottles to the newspaper and says that some “beer sops who happened to drop in hornswaggled it down and left smacking their lips with smiles of satisfaction beaming upon their countenances.”