My own pursuit of hoppiness and great beers lead me to Ebenezer’s Pub in Lovell, Maine for their 6th Belgian Beer Festival.  This trip has been managed by the Bieropholie website.  I could gather with friends and get a private driver for the whole weekend.  Isn’t that beautiful?

We left Montréal on Friday to reach Le Siboire, another great brewpub that opened within the last three years in our province.  Located in Sherbrooke, it came to the world in an old train station.  Brick walls, wood, nice view of the brewery, smiling staff, and with music not too loud that offers an inviting ambiance to a quite young crowd.  A tasting panel revealed a high quality of beers, without defaults.  The Belgian White Capricieuse and the Abbey Tripel Trip d’automne III where among my favourites.  The brewer Jonathan Gaudrault, poured us some of his new Citra Pilsner directly from the fermentor.  These new hops (for me) provided a bold citrus taste and made this sampling experience very interesting.  I like it when brewers go out of normal bounds to make the effort to try new recipes instead of just keeping the classical blonde, brown, red and black.

On Saturday, we pick up some US bottles to bring back to Canada at Glen Beverage, in the cosmopolitan city of Glen.  Lots of classics (Stone, Rogue, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada), so we didn’t purchase anything special there.  Few hours after, we reached Lovell, Maine.  I was expecting for a crowded site, without any place to put our tents and it stressed us a little, but when we showed up, there were plenty of places, so much that we could have a table for twelve.  Except the glasses and the t-shirts printed for the event, nothing gave us the feeling that a beer event would take part here.  Instead of a legion of beer geeks, families with kids and grand parents were in the place.  It was miles away of my first thoughts.  Nevertheless avoiding long queues, and being served promptly always a pleasure.  The tap menu was a real Belgian Beervana. A majority of beers I’ve never tasted before and some I’ve never even heard of. This sort of experience pleased our group. I give big thumbs up to De Struise Black Albert, an imperial stout brewed specifically for the pub, a great mix of vanilla, coffee and black chocolate flooded through 13 % of alcohol.  Simply excellent.  Another great extreme brew was the Mocha Bomb, also from De Struise.  Another explosion of coffee, chocolate and bourbon barrel.  Again, I discovered a brewery that creates products that brings your tastebuds to another level.  Thanks De Struise.

I had the opportunity to have my first Cantillon (Cuvée des Champions) on tap.  Acidic (of course), sour and a bit funky.  Great Cuvée that you want another pint of.   I had, like everybody in bar, a glass from a Methuselah of Val-Dieu Triple.  I think this bottle has been offered by Chris, the owner.  If not, thanks to the guy who order a too big bottle and to his decision to share it with the rest of us.

For the evening, an event has been planned by the pub, and Alan Sprints from Hair of the Dog was invited.  I thought there could be a booth, a promotion on HOTD beers, some special kegs, but the event was a presentation from Alan in the Ebenezer cellar including a tasting of Doggie Claws, Matt and Dave.  Yes what you red is definitely true, a taste of Dave.  Of course, some selected bottles from the pub’s cellar did complete this presentation/tasting.  Would you like to see the pictures?  Well, don’t ask me.  I wasn’t there.  Only 20 peoples were admitted in the cellar and the entrance was sold at 50 USD $$$.

Everything has a cost in life, and it is valid for beer, too.  I choose to not pay this amount for 2 ounce tastings.  Try to appreciate a beer when you share it with 20 people…  Even if it is a rare bottle, it is quite ridiculous. Sometimes, you have no obligation to join the family.  That’s why I continued to have beers with my folks at the table.  At the closure, we received a bill of 966 $ USD for the whole table.  Ouch!  But it was so good.

This huge dinner has been continued at the tent village beside the pub with folks randomly met.  We brought some of our great brewery products of Québec like Microbrasserie Charlevoix and Unibroue.  Some other folks from brought growlers of Hill Farmstead brewery.  This brewery will be considered for another trip to Vermont.

Back home on Sunday, we stopped at the Moat Smoke House & Brewing Co.  It’s been a while I had beer for breakfast.  Gee, I discovered that passion has limits.  The worst is that I wasn’t impressed by what I tasted, and it was not caused by the early hour.  Do you know only one great beer is brewed with blueberries?  Can it be only used for jam and pies please?  That was my feeling of the Violet’s B’s Blueberry.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, the German Hefeweizen was quite refreshing.  I can’t really recommend that place, but if it’s on your way, you might give them a try, but try to have a breakfast before.

marc@brewpublic.com

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

It is so true that simple ideas are often the best.  The Trou du Diable team simply wanted to create a “get together” with other brewers they appreciate but just don’t have the chance to visit often enough.  A total of 15 breweries shared the Willow Street for a one evening and the only competition was to serve the crowd that attending the  first (and I can surely announce it will now be annual) event simply called “La Soirée des Brasseurs” (the brewer’s night).

The setup has been reduced to the minimum:  A tent for two breweries, a table and great beers in small quantity.  All the rentals were supported by Le Trou du Diable, so no sponsors were on the site.  Two live bands, Jah Cutta and Afrodizz , gave a live show and a musical atmosphere to the evening.

What where the great beers of the event?  Here are my preferred, in a completely random order. Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

By Frank James

Last night was the opening of the Buckman Village Brewery – though I’m sure it will always be referred to as the Green Dragon Brewery – and it was a grand old time for the Green Dragon Pub. The opening brought out a full house, lots of local beer geeks and a local television reporter who could best be described as an artificial creature impersonating a human being. (The make-up they plaster on male television reporters is frightening stuff, really and truly something that should be reserved for Halloween. or the confines of a TV studio.)

Three new beers were available tonight, and the pub gladly offered tasters of all three beers to all pub patrons. This was a very nice, un-Rogue-like touch, and it allowed the curious to sample all three before deciding on a particular pint.

First up was the Buckman IPA which will probably become the brewery’s signature beer. It is a solid, quaffable beer with the clean citrus hop flavor that finds a lot of favor here in the Northwest.

I always compare any new IPA to my local favorite, Laurelwood’s Workhorse IPA. This beer is similar in some ways, though it lacks the sharp hop edge that makes the Workhorse such a tasty beer. It’s probably more similar to Read More…

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

I recently attempt to the 11th edition of le X de 1000, the biggest homebrewer event in Québec. The managers and volunteers did a great job to plan, set up and execute the event. Attendees even received serigraphy glasses. The annual brewing theme was chosen at the end of the previous year. A sweet chaotic and ethylic brainstorming result that our Senators (René Brasseurs Illimités, Jean Brasseurs & Frères and Nicolas Bedondaine et bedons ronds) decided that every style brewed in a previous edition (porter, tripel Belge, IPA, Scotch ale, barley wine, stout, saison, brown and mild ale, trappiste & 10%+) would be considered as an imposed style style imposé for the 11th edition.

Every other beer could be presented as freestyle (style libre) for this very friendly competition. The winner has the privilege to tell everybody that he wins this edition and is allowed to hoist the trophy  for a year. It is also appreciated if he pays to engrave his nameplate on the trophy… Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, places to drink beer

I know what you might be thinking. How can there be only five? Well, believe me, there’s a lot more. But for the sake of brevity in a state of seemingly endless craft beer options, five seems like a nice round number. Besides, I am really confident that you will be pleased with these five. Of course, there will always be the people who say “I don’t like hops” or “I don’t like sours.” Well, than, this list might not be for you and your more narrowed palate. However, if you’re like me and love all craft beer, these five, I am confident, you will find are nothing short of spectacular.

The Reinheitsgebot, for those unfamiliar, is a Bavarian purity order dating back to 1516 that decrees that only three ingredients be allowed in beer: water, malt, and hops (back then they were unaware that yeast, a microorganism, was in fact present). You will notice that most beers still being produced in Germany and throughout modern day Bavaria follow this regiment. I can obviously see some upside to such a movement, however, in the spirit of fun and innovation, I tend to side with the Belgians, who love to get jiggy with a beer. Fruit, spice, and other adjunct ingredients can really liven up a brew, and on top of this, as a food item, why should beer be singled out and forever simplified? Don’t get me wrong, a clean Marzen or Pils with the straight ahead recipes of yore can be just a much rewarding as a zany spice/fruit beer. But loosening the laws of Reinheitsgebot, to me, just simply allows for more exploration and innovation, which, I suppose I often find myself having an inclination towards.

This list does not consist of all Oregon beers, either. It is simply a list of five beers that have been or are available in the Oregon market that you should be enjoying. If you are a brewer or brewery employee reading this and realize that your brewery doesn’t have a beer on this list, please relax. You surely make good beer, and, after all, there are literally thousands of delicious beers out there. I am simply offering up a microcosm of malty yumminess that I feel you must try. It is now your goal to taste the following beers:

Read More…

Posted under beer reviews

For a moment we considered doing a month in review. We still might, but there’s just so much to reflect upon for the past Oregon Craft Beer Month (OCBM), we aren’t sure where we would. With several awesome festivals and unique events, OCBM 2010 was undoubtedly a huge hit filled with wonderful beers, memories, and the great people who make craft beer in Oregon the best month of beer appreciation anywhere in the world.

As previously mentioned here in the paper-free pages of Brewpublic, almost every day during the month of July featured multiple events and made for tough decisions about which event(s) to attend. Of course, there are worse problems in the world to deal with than an overabundance of spectacular beer.

This past weekend marked the final hurrah of OCBM, and as you might expect, there were at least a handful of noteworthy craft beer events worth involving oneself in. Bailey’s Taproom’s AnniBrew3 Barrel-aged Beer Fest was a go-to goings-on for the uber geeks that didn’t want to pass on once in a lifetime vintages of brews organized by proprietor Geoff Phillips and his faithful. Rogue’s Bones and Brew was a hot ticket item for those around Portland’s Pearl District looking to soak in some perfect summer weather, live music, and partake of the luring scents emitting from the grill. Concordia Ale House’s now well-known Concordia Cup was another chance for hop heads and S.N.O.B.s (Supporters of Native Oregon Beer) to blind taste a dozen different imperial IPAs (all brewed here in the fine state of Oregon) and help to decide which brewer will represent us in February’s Beer Brawl versus California and Washington.

For us, we were locked on our six hour meet the brewers pub crawl, aka BrewPubliCrawl. Featuring twenty breweries and some of their representing brewers. The crawl kicked off at Red Fox, a pub we haven’t spent much time at in the past. Not necessarily a beer geek pub, Red Fox serves up some of the best bloody Marys in town. However, they regularly carry Double Mountain and Laurelwood beers on tap. A third tap is devoted to Trumer Pils. Double Mountain and Laurelwood brewmasters Matt Swihart and Chad Kennedy, respectively, arrived at the noon kickoff time to meet and greet a healthy early crowd ready to get a day of craft beer under its belt. Laurelwood’s Deranger Red and Double Mountain’s Hop Lava seemed like a perfect beginning to this big day.

After a while enjoying the relaxed vibe at Red Fox, the crowd pushed on to nearby Saraveza pub, one of Portland’s finest destinations for beer geeks. Always replete with great service and excellent beer selections, Sarveza revealed Hopworks Velvet Underground Imperial Black ESB, Seven Brides Emily’s Ember Amber Ale, Fort George Vortex IPA, Heater Allen Bobtoberfest, Ninkasi Radiant Summer Ale, and more.

The next stop on the crawl was at Lucky Lab’s Overlook location where Deschutes Sage Brush Pils, Migration Pale Ale, Lompoc’s C-Note, Alameda’s Yellow Wolf IIPA, and a special Lucky Lab Pilsner, brewed for Pacific Rivers Council, were pouring in the eastern room at the venue. A great day made outdoor seating optimal in front of the establishment on N. Killingsworth. This fabulous weather would make the next stop perhaps the best of the day.

The pub crawl commenced at The Hop & Vine just a block away from the Overlook Lucky Lab. Here, jockeyboxes where set up in the spacious backyard where folks could relax and gather. On tap: a new Boneyard Beer RPM IPA, a new MacTarnahan’s Ink Blot Baltic Porter, Cascade Nightfall Blackberry Sour Ale, Widmer Gose, Natian Organic Golden Ale, Upright Auld Reekie Smoked Brown Ale, Vertigo Apricot Cream Ale, and Oakshire La Ferme Belgian-style Farmhouse Ale. All of these beers were excellent and it was great to have the brewers all on hand. At 6:00PM, Ninkasi founding brewer Jamie Floyd addressed the crowd and got everyone pumped up about the bounty of Oregon beer that makes our state so badass.

Thanks a lot to everyone involved in making the OCBM closing ceremonies so much fun. Thanks to Mother Nature for a tremendous day, all of the brewers for their time and top notch brews, and to staff at Red Fox, Saraveza, Lucky Lab, and The Hop & Vine for making this event a success!

Time for a liver cleanse now…

Check out more photos from BrewPubliCrawl and OCBM and more at http://brewpublic.com/photos

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, beer events, beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

I like to come to Québec to visit my family, friends and their kids and also for the summer festival.  We had a real good edition with plenty of concerts from artists like Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Rush, Social Distortion, GBH, Jello Biafra and so on.  But what about the beer?  Unfortunately, the festival was sponsored by Molson and the only products available on the site were Molson Dry, Molson M and Aquafina, which is the only bottled water that has an ugly taste because it is bottled from tap water  (thanks Pepsi).  Well, I can understand that only macro breweries have the money to sponsor such a big event, but it is always boring to attend a rock concert without anything good to drink.

Nevertheless, I took the weekend to pubcrawl Québec’s breweries, too.  Here’s where I went:

La Korrigane
The name of La Korrigane comes from an Icelandic codfisher transformed into an exploration ship.  Their expedition in 1934-1936 brings back a collection of 2000 ethnic objects of Polynesia, Indonesia and Egypt.

I have been very lucky and a bit insolent to attempt to the newest brewery in town, La Korrigane.  In fact, the place wasn’t really opened.  It was just a practice for the real opening night and only family and friends were invited to this event where the new staff was experiencing a new location, with new equipment and the first batch of recipes that hasn’t been tested with the water of the city.  So, okay, I promised to the owner to be objective in my comments and I wrote one page for the suggestion box.  The renovations of this huge building present a location easy to access (Corner of St-Joseph and Dorchester) with a terrace and eventually a kitchen (please offer more than burgers).  It will certainly help for the revitalization of St-Roch neighbourhood.

Beers tasted there revealed much potential.  I will surely return to measure the evolution when the installations will be fine tuned.  The only thing I could notice was that the beers had a mouth felt too thin.  I experienced a witbier (Mary Morgan) with good aroma of banana, citrus and a bit of yeast. The blueberry beer (Emiliy Carter) didn’t impress me because I found it too acidic.  The red and the oatmeal stout (Cornik) presented a some acidic taste, too, but where quite interesting.  The blonde (Vila) was my preference with a light touch of flowers and honey.

L’Inox
As I remember, this brewpub is the oldest (1987) that is still opened in Québec.  They recently move to a new location, so the occasion was perfect for a visit.  Only three beers were on tap because the affluence of the summer festival.  Simply called Blanche, Blonde and Rousse (white, blonde and red), I had glasses (no tasters available) of beers that respected the standards.  The white presented touches of citrus and the red some caramel malts.  The best was the blonde, American pale ale that presented a hoppy taste from five different hops.  It was simply great on a sunny terrace.  I shall visit this place when seasonal beers will be available, but on such a touristic street (la Grande Allée), I think this brewpub will now have the happy problem to fill up the mass of tourists instead of the local beer geeks.  Good for the volume, but please don’t forget to brew funky things.

Microbrasserie Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is located in Lévis, just next to the ferry boat of the St-Lawrence River.  So the best way to access it is to take this ferry which gives an exceptional view of Québec and his Frontenac Castle.  The brewer, Martin Vaillancourt, made some of his classes at the aforementioned L’Inox as well as in England, so this brewing style is strongly and well represented here since 2008.  Here is what I’ve tried:

Tanaka blanche, wheat ale with ginger,  Seeräuber Pilsner,  Galère pale ale,  Bristol ESB, Maya blanche au miel, Corsaire Alt, Davy Jones Stout, Session bitter and Session bitter on cask.  Unfortunately, no IPA was on the board, but I had something very hoppy with the Session Bitter on cask.  What a great beer!  80 IBU and only 3,5 % of alcohol.  I would have took pints and pints of it but had to leave to take the last ferry back to the north shore.

I’ve been lucky (and lonely) because I was the only passenger for this travel on a ferry that can carry close to 40 cars and a bunch of pedestrians.  David Suzuki would have certainly not agreed with this, but there were no other options.   A good thing is that this session bitter will probably be Le Corsaire’s next beer to be canned (no bottles, but cans for this brewery).  At least, this travel didn’t produce five tons of CO2 for nothing…  Sorry Mr. Suzuki and Mrs. Earth.

To conclude, well I have to admit that the Québec City beer scene is away from what we can have in Montréal.  Of course, the quality is improving, but with the exception of the cask bitter, I haven’t tasted a lot of really exceptional beers.  On the other side, all the tasted beers were correctly brewed and did not present any technical defaults.

If you’ve  already come to Québec, you’ve probably taken note that I’ve forget to visit a brewery.  No, I haven’t forgotten.  I visited it but won’t talk much of it.  When you have a tasting tray and three of the beers are totally acidic, it is not normal.  The worst is when you mention it to the staff, they agree but still continue to pour it, because the place is full and people just don’t make the difference.  I don’t like that.  Instead of giving my money for default batches, I would prefer to make a donation for cancer research.

Brewpublican Marc Demeule lives and quaffs craft beer near Montreal, Québec and is an honorary citizen of Beervana. Marc@Brewpublic.com

Posted under beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Ben Kilduff

When is it ever appropriate to pay $9 for a pint of everyday craft beer? When it is part of a bigger experience – like my first Red Sox game.

Despite the Red Sox loss on Saturday (1-5), the overall game-day festivities were amazing! Seattle traffic is infamous in the Pacific Northwest so the best thing to do is ask a local. And the best local is a bartender at Duck Island Ale House. My girlfriend Katherine and I stopped in at Duck Island for a pre game brew. Adam was our heavily tattooed bartender and he couldn’t have been nicer. The beer list was great! I choose a Pike Double IPA and Katherine choose a Lucifer. I asked about the Lucifer tap tower, as I have never seen one before. Adam said that it is one of only three still around, but after Brouwerij Het Anker bought the name, recipe, and rights to Lucifer from Brouwerij Riva S. A. in 2008, nobody knows were two of the three are. Lucifer is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. It is surprisingly creamy and a wonderful beer. You would not know that it is 8.5% ABV.

The other thing that I enjoyed about Duck Island was all of the extra tap handles hanging from the ceiling. Very cool place! After getting directions to the ballpark from Adam, we headed out.

We found great parking and started looking for beers in the ballpark. There were the normal selections of Budweiser, and such, but we were looking for craft. We found the likes of Bridgeport, Redhook, Pyramid, and Dick’s. Nine dollars for these was a little steep. Then I thought how many times have I paid for over-priced candy and soda at the movies? A lot. We don’t get to go to a baseball game very often so this was a treat, and despite the high prices we were going to treat ourselves.

After the game we hit Uber Tavern located right down the street for Duck Island. We found this to be a adequate beer bar with bottles to-go. We could not end the night without saying thanks to Adam and had just one more beer.

There were other beer-centric places in Seattle that I would like to visit, but they will have to wait til next time. This trip was definitely worth the $9 beers, and the Mariners deserved to win the game.

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, press releases

It’s somewhat hard to believe that Oregon Craft Beer Month is about 60% complete. In one sense, the month, and summer has flown past us here in Oregon. With a late start to summer that, save for three 90 degree days, has been rather cool and reserved. However, in some ways, it’s amazing how many events have occurred so far here in Oregon, and with the biggest festival, the Oregon Brewers Festival, still to come.

For craft beer enthusiasts here in Beervana, the biggest “problem” is having too many options; multiple events each day and with only limited time and liver capacity to soak it all in. So, it is important to rely on careful planning and preparation in order to maximize the potential of each fortuitous July day. It is also key to accept the fact, that you will miss out on some events you’d really hoped to make it to, and do the best that you can. In some ways, it’s akin to a craft beer-minded tourist visiting Portland for a weekend, having never been before, and trying to sort out what places to venture. It’s a laborious task that requires both stamina and flexibility (yeah yeah, we know).

This past weekend was another big adventure in beer that really hasn’t seen a hiatus for us since… Not really sure. Between the Portland International Beer Fest (PIB) and Saraveza’s Imperial IPA Fest (IIPA Fest), we’re left anxiously looking ahead to the remainder of this wonderful month.

Portland International Beer Fest

Friday afternoon, we arrived at the fest upon the gates opening to the masses. As many have previously noted, and we have as well, arriving early on the opening day of a beer fest offers a relaxes, low stress atmosphere where you wind up running into a lot of beer geeks and industry folk who also know this virtue. So, on Friday, we scoped out the pleasant grounds of the North Park Blocks, a setting where kindly looming trees offer plenty of shade, but there is also ample sunshine to soak in if desired. This festival is well run with little notable belligerence if any.There’s a distinct culture, or perhaps aura, amongst festival goers here in Portland that focuses on community and appreciation for artisan brews. We’ve been to festivals in other regions of the country that played more like a drunk fest. In Idaho Falls, Idaho at the Mountain Brewers Beer Fest, we can recall several inebriated folks dipping their mugs in the dump bucket near the end of the festival. This is something, thankfully, you don’t see here. PIB is a relaxed atmosphere with lots of well behaved people and well behaved canines.

As far as the beer, this year’s fest was a little thinner on the mindblowing selections we’ve witnessed in years past, but this only proves the high bar to which the organizers have set for themselves. With some imported bottle beers costing multiple tickets, this year we opted to go for the taps, mostly in the one-ticket realm. Here’s what we viewed as some highlights:

Flyers Kentucky Uberfest: From Oak Harbor, Washington’s Flyers Restaurant & Brewery on Whidbey Island, this was the steal of the show for us. A traditional English-style barleywine brewed with bourbon-soaked oak chips, brewer Tony Savoy concocted with beer with inspiration from PIB organizer Rick Carpenter where it gets its name. Carpenter also runs Uber Tavern in Seattle, and this dark chestnut beer with a lavish creamy head and bold boozy oaken notes was designed initially for the bar. For just one ticket, this was one of the few beers we went back for multiple samples of.

Ninkasi Maiden the Shade: It’s easy to see why Ninkasi Brewing has a cult following here in Oregon. Not only do they have some of the nicest and hardest working folks in the business working for them but their uncanny skill at bringing generously hopped ales into the mainstream. One of the longest continual lines for PIB was the one leading to Maiden the Shade, a 7-hopped quencher with an adequate malt spine and a bounding floral nose. At 6.8%, 72 IBUs, this beer was a hit right off the bat, when it debuted last summer at the Oregon Country Fair. Also for just one token was a lesser known Ninkasi Strong Ale.

Great Divide Oak Double IPA: This beer for one ticket was well worth it, just as was Great Divide’s Chocolate Yeti Imperial Stout. Big, chewy malt character over run with a mighty hops girth and the pleasantry of creamy oakiness made this beer a stand out. Not necessarily a hard to find beer, but every brew can’t always be about rarity. This Double IPA is one you could be contented just sniffing at for a while. We’re planning a trip to Colorado in November and one of our most anticipated stops is Great Divide Brewing in Denver.

Laurelwood Workhorse IPA: Four ounces of one of the best IPAs in Portland for one ticket? Sold. Perfectly balanced combo of amplified hops and underpinning malts, this IPA rolls without too much of the catty, onion-garlic high alpha aroma hops you see trending these days. We feel this beer strikes the perfect balance and we absolutely love it. Laurelwood was also pouring their Green Elephant IPA, which is also amazing. Hop heads rejoice, for this is one hell of an India Pale Ale.

Hopworks Mystery Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer: This HUB beer could have easily been the best beer at PIB. A light, bodied, golden-orange hue with an out of this world nose of orange, tangerine, soft pine, and a flower bouquet. This beer was the last beer of the fest for us, and sent us on our way with a smile on our face. The bourbon character was quite subdued buy just hinted at in the background. Garnering both attributes of drinkability and complexity, this beer… oh, this beer…Just one ticket. Think we’ll ever see this brew this cheap again?

Unibrou Maudite: Unibrou’s Maudite is a beer we love to sip on during the autumn months. From Chambly, Quebec, Canada, this strong dark chestnut hued beer possesses a prominent malt character in both nose and flavor. Hints of orange zest,  fragrances of coriander and cloves, and adequate floral hop notes prelude a “robust maltiness and spiciness that is counterbalanced by an assertive crisp hop finish.” 8% ABV. This beer also reminds us of our pal Marc from Quebec, who we wish was here to enjoy the fest with us. Cheers, Marc!

Lompoc Bastille Day

Funny how life is filled with random adventures. This is no different in the world of craft beer. On Saturday while walking around North Portland passing out a few fliers for our upcoming BrewPubliCrawl, we noticed a van pass us by driven by New Old Lompoc owner and Bald Guy Brigade frontman Jerry Fechter. “Follow me to beer!” he yelled to us, then trumpeted to us with a vuvuzela. We obliged and found ourselves amidst the festivities of Lompoc and Pix Patisseries Bastille Day Block Party. A live band was playing to an audience of wildly adorned party-goers. It was a hopping scene with the sun shining down on a perfect July day. Our first inclination was to prospect the beer garden by the brewery where we enjoyed a newly released summer Lompeizer and Son of C-Note. We were happy to see brewers Dave Fleming, Sam Orlansky, Bryan Keilty, and Zach Beckwith all in attendance as well as Oregon Brewers Festival organizer Chris Crabb. The highlight of the party for us was poking our faces through a wooden cutout of Fechter while the rest of us watch in amusement.

Saraveza IIPA Fest

Five days of Imperial IPAs is a true test of will…and a whole hell of a lot of fun. Saraveza’s bonanza of boisterously bittered beasts was just that. Thanks to the hard work and planning of the bar staff, lead by Jonathan Carmean, Northwest Brewing News’ 2009 bartender of the year, IIPA Fest offered a wide range of such beers from what some might inaccurately perceive as a one dimensional style. Beers like Mikkeller’s I Beat YoU of Norway, brewed at BrewDog in Scotland, exhibited a big malty, chewiness, much like Southern Tier‘s ginormous Unearthly and Oaked Unearthly. Others such as Double Mountain’s Molten Lava and Alameda’s Yellow Wolf were far lighter bodied, though the hop character of these beers was equally as bodacious. In total, more than 30 IIPAs exhibited the diversity that this style can offer, while bringing forth a range of interpretations within the art form of brewing. IIPA Fest was a big success thanks to everyone who participated.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

By Jean De Ieso

Nestled in the beautiful green mountains of Vermont we found a real treasure at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. Established in 1950, this piece of heaven on earth became the home and refuge of the Von Trapp family after escaping from Nazi Austria (you did see the Sound of Music, right?) during WWII. Still owned and operated by members of the Von Trapp family, a new addition appeared in 2010, a brewery. This was the fulfillment of a long held dream of Johannes Von Trapp.

Arriving for lunch on a steamy overcast summer day, what a treat to discover that along with our German lunch of bratwurst, sauerkraut and warm potato salad, a fine selection of local brews was available. The newly opened brewery offered Trapp Hills Lager, a light fare, Trapp Summer Ale, Trapp Vienna Lager, a delicious amber, and the richly dark Dunkel Lager. A small sample of each brought rave reviews.

The outdoor dining, service, food, and especially the brews all rate five stars. The perfect way to end our Vermont get-away!

Read more about the Trapp family lodge in a previous post by Marc Demeule here.

Posted under beer reviews, places to drink beer