Beginning March 20, 2010, Oregon Beer Odyssey (OBO) will offer classes, tastings, and events designed to promote beer appreciation and education. Classes will be held at sites around Portland, including notable bottle shops such as The Hop and Vine, the Wine and Spirit Archive, Saraveza, Bailey’s Taproom and The Beer Mongers.

In March and April, class topics will include Oregon Beer Odyssey’s signature, introductory class Tasting and Talking About Beer, and one entitled Great Beers of the Northwest.  Future classes will include style-specific workshops and overview courses on the great beers of Belgium, Germany, England, Scandinavia, and Italy. Oregon Beer Odyssey’s full class schedule is available on its website (www.oregonbeerodyssey.com) and on Facebook.

Brewpublic’s Marc Demeule and his homebrewing friends had a one of a kind brewing session, in extreme conditions of the Quebec winter.

We decided to brew an extreme IPA with all the leftover hops we had.  For a 50 liter batch, we included 20,8 oz of whole and pellet hops.  We also threw in all of our leftover home grown hops (maybe a half pound of Mt Hood).  With an anticipated 140,9 IBU, according to ProMash, we only expected something that could be drinkable, but extreme too.  If you want the complete recipe, just e-mail me.

Those creative beer-lovin’ wordsmiths at BS Brewing aka the Champagne of Blogs have devised a handy new contraption just in time for the holidays. Say hello to 33 Bottles of Beer, the outfit’s first official product.

This handy “beer sketchbook” aids in a beer geeks note taking with its own unique web-like “flavor wheel” and spaces for the notes. Covering much of the same criteria that many beer judging websites like Ratebeer.com and Beeradvocate.com, this personalized, crafty and handsome little book fits easily into your pocket if you squeezed into a beerfest or simply on the go.

If you are as last minute as we are about your holiday shopping, make sure to scoop at least three of these for that special craft beer lover in your life. Plus, you’ll be supporting one kick ass Portland beer blog!

Rock Socks

We just received an email from beer enthusiast Erica Easley, the founder of  Rock Socks, a company dedicated to creating stylish and comfortable foot socks. She’s developed a new flashy, comfortable sock that expresses one’s love for the heavenly malted beverage. Says Easley:

I thought you and your readers would get a kick out of my retro, 70’s-inspired Beer socks. They are super stretchy (designed to be unisex, they fit women’s size 7 – men’s size 13.5 and to the knee on anyone 5′2″ – 6′2″), super comfy (made of a high-quality cotton-poly-spandex blend with a cushion foot and just enough spandex to stay up without squeezing your leg) and 100% Made in the U.S.A.

On a late spring day a beer fridge was converted into a keggerator. I cellared many of the stronger brews that were in the beer fridge, put the rest in the kitchen’s food fridge, and employed the help of my buddy Dave to get the new home appliance pouring.

Two holes were drilled into the fridge-one in the front door for the pour spout and one on the side for the CO2 connection. We also drilled a hole into an adjacent storage closet in the garage for the gas line to run through.

Oregon’s Brewpub guide, Brew-Ha! is back again with the 2009 edition.  This year’s Brew-Ha! is bigger than ever and features an events and festivals calendar for the entire forthcoming year.  There’s also 146 listing of brewpubs, productions breweries, and taprooms statewide.  Also, a foldout map with Portland metro insert give users an idea of where the various hot spots are located across the state.  There’s even some interesting facts relating to the Oregon Brewers Guild, the benefits of the craft brewing industry in the state, and a history of Oregon craft brewing time line dating back to 1852.

We are quite pleased to have such a helpful guide that features upstarts such as One Horse Brewing in Gaston and Pale Horse Brewing in Salem.  Despite more than four pages of McMenamins listings and no mention of Bailey’s Taproom, the guide serves Oregon natives and tourists alike with helpful information and colorful adds of some of the best brew locations in our great state! Pick one up today at places like the HorseBrass Pub, BridgePort, and Lucky Lab.

Lorren "Lolo" Lancaster, Green Dragon founder (Morrison)

Brewpublic just spoke with Lorren “Lolo” Lancaster regarding the potential Rogue take over of the Green Dragon Pub and Bistro.  Lancaster, a 1/3 owner of the popular Southeast Portland beer geek hangout is well known and liked by the community of regulars who frequent the Green Dragon.

When I asked Lancaster about the recent news of a potential selling of his beloved bar, he says, “I am great.  I feed off the energy.”  Lancaster says  “I only found out about Ed (Schwartz) and Rogue (planning a deal) ten days ago.  I wondered why (Schwartz) didn’t come to me first.”  Lancaster has retained lawyers to help him keep the Green Dragon’s independent character.  “I got a copy of the agreement Rogue hit Ed with” says Lancaster. “Ed’s going to receive a paper that I intend to purchase within 30 days.”  Currently Lancaster maintains that he is meeting with business investors.  “I expected Ed would have come to me first, but he didn’t” says Lancaster “He said he wanted $225,000 to get out.  That’s way too cheap.   The Dragon made almost half of that in September.  September was our one-year anniversary. No businesses make money in the first year.” Lancaster also claims that the Green Dragon is about two weeks out on permits for the brewhouse to be legally operational. “This is (Schwartz)’s first rodeo. I’ve been in this business for thirteen years” says Lancaster, 39, whose last job was as a brewer with Deschutes in Bend for four years.  Before that, Lancaster spent four-and-a-half years as the lead brewer for Anderson Valley in Boonville, California.  He also brewed briefly with Star Brewing of Portland.  Lancaster served for more than three years as draft technician with F.H. Steinbarts. “I’ve never burned a bridge” says Lancaster, who remains in contact with most of his former employers.

Idunware Beer is a software that allows users to store information on beer, much in the same way as sites such as Ratebeer.com or BeerAdvocate.com.  As an off-line tool, Idunware, developed by Henrik Morell of Copenhagen, Denmark, allows users to access their own customizable beer notes without the use of the Internet.  This allows for private, non-commercial, and sortable beer data to be stored for use at anytime without fear of viruses or criticism.  Morell’s goal is to provide customers with the best products and service available and to make things easy and logical in the current technological era.  I spoke with the man behind Idunware to find out more and to garner an understanding of his appreciation for craft beer.

What is your interest in beer/craft brewing?