Two breweries from the far reaches of Eastern Oregon to showcase some of the state’s best beer for the BrewPubliCrawl.

Oregon’s easternmost brewery and purveyor of monstrously hoppy brews, Beer Valley Brewing will be on hand for Brewpublic’s March 20th BrewPubliCrawl. Not only will founder-brewer Pete Ricks be on hand for the event at The BeerMongers, he will also be pouring two brand new Beer Valley exclusives: the Rosebud IPA and a special one-of-a-kind never seen before blend. The Rosebud is Ricks’ first anointed India Pale Ale despite his beers’ affinity for muscular hop bittering and titanic malt character (see: Black Flag Imperial Stout, Leafer Madness Imperial Pale Ale, Highway to Ale Barleywine). For a hint as to what the special blend might be we looked to Beer Valley’s website. However, nothing is confirmed except this new blend will be there and will be electric. These beers will be making their way from Ontario, Oregon, nearly 400 miles, and six hours drive to Portland.

Walkabout Brewing located in Central Point, Oregon, just north of Medford and Ashland is a beer that rarely makes its way to Portland. In fact, it was some years back that kegs would occasionally be available in the Northwestern corner of the state at places like the Horse Brass Pub. More recently, we at Brewpublic brought a few kegs north for our 1st Brewniversary/KillerBeerFest last October. The heartily hopped Red Back IPA quickly emptied at Saraveza while the Jabberwocky Strong Ale was a hit at Bailey’s Taproom.

This elusive microbrewery run by Australian native Ross Litton, a friendly man with a big passion for bold beer recipes, recently put its Worker’s Pale Ale in 22 ounce bottles. Assisted by Green Bottling, a Portland-based contract mobile bottling company based in Portland, 240 cases of the Pale are now in bottles. However, it is not likely that Portlanders will have the beer brought north since the small brewery is focusing on their local beer market nearly 300 miles to the south. The good news is, travelers and passersby will have access to smaller quantities of this dialed brewery’s beers without having to commit to a whole keg. We think we’ll have to make another road trip to Southern Oregon soon.

(l to r): Caldera founder Jim Mills, Walkabout founder Ross Litton, and Caldera brewmaster Trevor Kemp.

Reviewing our tasting notes of Walkabout’s Worker’s Pale, we found the amber bodied brew to possess a thick white head and a lot of citrus hops character indicative of the Pacific Northwest and with enough caramel malt presence to balance. If you get a chance, don’t miss out.

After three days of bottling, Cascade Brewing at the Raccoon Lodge have completed filling 675 cases of their Kriek. This sour cherry ale offers a rich, lush, fruity nose and lactic tart mildly creamy refreshing flavor to match. Brewmaster Ron Gansberg says of this oak barrel-aged and carefully blended brew “Much like the Apricot (Ale), the Kriek offers a lot more of the fruit essence than the previous year’s. I think we really did it with this one.” And he’s right. There isn’t anything to critique about this particular brew. Gansberg adds “It will be interesting to see how this beer develops with age.”

As you probably know from reading here, Saturday March 20 is the BrewPubliCrawl, a showcase of great beer bars and craft top Pacific Northwest brewers. At the SE Division Street debut, one of the most anticipated breweries will be local favorites, Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB). HUB assistant brewmaster Ben Love just informed us that his brewery will be debuting a special new lager at BrewPubliCrawl. For those about to bock, we salute you!

More from HUB:

Walking Man was rated #1 brewpub in the Northwest, 15th in the world by Ratebeer.com

It’s hard to dispute that Walking Man Brewing and Public House in Stevenson, Washington is a pretty incredible spot for craft beer enjoyment.  Nestled right on the north bank of the Columbia River Gorge where in the summertime, hops grow up the outdoor trellis at a relaxed pace relative to the life here. Forget the scenic backdrop of “a quaint town with a windsurfing problem.” Forget the articulate little inside pub with beautiful welded iron decor and a stoically etched floors. What makes this place so great is the beer. One of the best breweries on the planet, thanks to the dream of founder Bob Craig and the talents of brewers Jacob Leonard and Dan Munch. Add in all of the great intangibles of this small town in one of the most scenic parts of North America, and you’ve got what a world class destination for beer geeks, beer lovers, and even casual beer fans. riverside drinking

Beer website Ratebeer.com’s reader’s recent recognition of the brewpub as the best in the Northwest and the #15 best in the world is a huge honor for such a small brewery. We still think it should have been ranked higher!

Since their inception in 1996, Seattle, Washington’s Elysian Brewing Company has continuously put forth some noteworthy brews. Beginning at their Capitol Hill location, three founders Dave Buhler, Joe Bisacca, and Dick Cantwell grew from simply a small brewpub to a kegging and bottling force throughout the Northwest and beyond.

Today, with three Seattle locations including a Tangletown pub in Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood and the spacious Elysian Fields brewpub adjacent to the Qwest Field and Safeco Field, Elysian is reaching the palates and sparking the interest of beer lovers from all around the world.  Their line-up of beers includes six year-round favorites and eight seasonals. So far Elysian has brewed more than 60 different beers. This appears to be growing exponentially of late, as the brewery tries their hand in more and more off-the-wall brews. In 2008, Elysian made national brewing news when they agreed to team up with New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colorado. This was not a merger, but an amicable and symbiotic relationship that has thus far inspired more innovation from both parties. A statement from New Belgium’s blog puts it best:

“Both of our brewing teams will use each other’s brewhouses while remaining independent enterprises. We’ll be brewing small-batch creative and experimental beers in Seattle like the Lips of Faith series while getting closer to our customers in the fertile Pacific Northwest brewing scene. Elysian in turn will brew larger batches in Fort Collins and be able to handle growing distribution needs as their beers become available in new U.S. markets, like New York, which opened July 1st of (2008).”

In this effort, the brewers have “collabeerated” to put out three distinctly adventuresome brews known as “The Trip.”

Continuing in this same pioneering spirit, Elysian once again has put its best foot forward in a collaborative effort. This time is was in conjunction with Green Flash Brewing of Vista, California. Brewpublic spoke with Elysian’s co-founder and sales guy Dave Buhler at a special event at the Horse Brass Pub showcasing four of their exclusive beers, including this consanguinity of  Northwest and SoCal brewers known as Red Queen Saison.

“Chuck Silva (Green Flash brewmaster) and I were sharing a taxi from an event in New York at the Blind Tiger with Dick Cantwell (Elysian brewmaster)” said Buhler.  “Chuck’s beer was just into the Seattle market and we thought it would be cool if we collaborated.”

Green Flash brewmaster Chuck Silva

Both Elysian and Green Flash are well known for their line-up of floral hop-laden IPAs, but the Red Queen is nonesuch a brew. A hazy light orange-copper bodied specimen with a soft wispy whitish head, the nose of this saison is bursting with peppery, appley notes this beer is definitely not a hop head’s go-to beer. The spiciness and ciderous presence is not only imparted by the Westmalle Trappist yeast, but also the utilization of two types od Washington apples, Pink Lady and Braeburn varietals. Further, pink peppercorns and rose hips were added together to unleash magnificent aroma fit for spring. The flavor and especially the mouthfeel was quite dissimilar to most saisons. Lacking the carbonic effervescence of many Belgian-style saisons, the Queen was a balance of sweet fruitiness and toasty breadiness. Not cloying as might be expected, and certainly not tingling the tongue as sharply either. The alcohol is light and barely detectable and rose hips give a flowery bitterness very discernible from hops bitterness.

Buhler, who was also Rogue’s first sales person says the Red Queen was “on the get ‘er done timeline with the beers we’ve got now” and added “We were trying to develop a session beer.” He says that some of the offering Elysian has at the Fields location serve to capture the interest of light beer drinkers and to educate them. “We made an East Kent Golding for the Founder’s Soccer Fan” he said. “We also made a beer called the Men’s Room Ale for a local (Seattle) radio station.” The beer was brewed fro the Men’s Room Show, a popular schlock jock show on KISW. The beer’s proceeds were donated to charity. “If a Pils could be an ale, it would be this beer” Buhler said. “We used an ale yeast with Czech Saaz hops.” The beer finished at about 4% ABV.

Elysian Brewing co-founder Dave Buhler at the Horse Brass Pub

Other Elysian beers pouring at the Horse Brass included a chewy, malt-forward yet healthfully hopped Ambrosia Maibock, the floral seasonal hit, Avatar Jasmine IPA, and a boldy hopped Cascadian-style Prometheus India Pale Ale. Publican and Horse Brass founder Don Younger was on hand and a good time was had by all. We’ve yet to encounter a bad beer from Elysian. Thanks again, Horse Brass and Elysian! Cheers!

What: The release of Double Mountain’s new beer “The Empire Strikes Back”

When: Tonight, Thursday, March 4, 2010,  5-9pm

The brewers at Astoria, Oregon’s Fort George Brewery and Public House are getting ready for their expansion. This week, head brewer Jack Harris headed to Houston, Texas to acquire a 30-barrel brew system from Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Texas’ oldest craft brewery who are amidst some incredible expanding of their own. Right now five trucks loaded with the barrels and three 1,800-gallon fermentation tanks are on their way to Astoria. The aim is to have the new system up and running by September. This will quadruple the capacity of the current  brewhouse that will soon take over an entire city block by where they are currently located. In other exciting Fort George news, the brewery has announced that with the beefed up production, they anticipate having 16-ounce cans of their Vortex IPA available sometime during the summer of next year.

Migration brewer Mike Branes (left) with Lucky Lab brewer Ben Flerchinger

Thirsty eager beer geeks rejoice! Migration Brewing , the brewpub that opened last week, is releasing their first ever beer. According to head brewer Mike Branes, about five barrels of the beer known as MPA (Migration Pale Ale) is an IPA style brew that was produced at New Old Lompoc’s brewery while the company’s 7-barrel brewhouse is being put together. Another batch is anticipated to be brewed soon at Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters, Oregon. Enjoy the inaugural pour of MPA today at 3 p.m.

Migration Brewing is located at 2828 NE Glisan St., Portland, Oregon.